Don’t let Theatre Plexus’ simple setup fool you. Saudade will leave you twitching in your seat, wanting to chug cheap liquor and hang out the window of a fast car, hollering the lyrics to some catchy anthemic song.
At first glance, the small space at Granville Island’s Arts Umbrella seems improvised, hastily thrown together -- two glaringly-bright overhead projectors, a small ghetto blaster, blank sheets hung from the walls. Cramped school desks and low benches form the audience seating. The audience’s knees bend like heron legs as they shuffle their feet and try to find a comfortable position to sit...
A bare stage: a folding chair, a small table, one prop: a whisky bottle. Bill Pats - green T-shirt, torn jeans - shambles on. I note this because this is all we have to look at for 70 minutes. Pats tells how two policemen came to his door to arrest him. Some body language and changed voice reveal the manner of the police. A few minutes backstory: he was guilty of embezzlement.
And then his narrative, in an even-paced way, goes on - and on. Sometimes absorbing, sometimes harrowing, sometimes tedious, significant life experiences from his twenties to his 40th birthday. "Based on a...
Candice Fiorentino plays a new immigrant from Bosnia in the late 90's. It's a simple premise - she has done well enough in Mrs. Wilson's ESL class to be able to make a 55-minute long presentation in English. She tries hard to follow the instruction to keep it positive even though questions from classmates probe into areas that are much darker. She is so happy to be in Edmonton, Canada and working at the SuperStore even though she can't afford a fridge and she still doesn't have her sons with her.
“The Masks of Oscar Wilde” by Shaul Ezer with C.E. Gatchalian, is now playing at the Arts Club Revue Theatre, presented by Matchmaker Productions in association with the frank theatre company. The finely printed programme in the lobby quotes the playwright: “Heavy on lecture and light on theatricals."
It opens with a slide show on a 32” tv screen & paper bird finger-puppets. The Happy Prince is telling a story about a little swallow, and proceeds through the six masks that he wore: poet, aesthete, martyr, etc. I wish I could’ve taken a little swallow everytime I heard that, but the bar was closed....
"My Beautiful Monster" is a painfully personal one-woman show. Although I gather that much of it may be based on the actor's own life, it is a separate fictional work. Annie's sexuality is awakened at puberty, and she faces a lot of guilt and shame. She wants to connect with the opposite sex, and she wants to be loved, but her fear and apprehension hold her back. She can't respond to good candidates, and bad candidates do stuff that terrifies her. She is from a traditional Christian home (Dutch Reformed, is my guess), and her mother constantly admonishes her...
I went to see the preview of Caws and Effect at Havana. I'm very glad I did. It was a packed house and I suspect that the word will get around and ensure every show is full. The actors/artists/overhead projector whizzes (Chloé Ziner and Jessica Gabriel) make this a magical event from the beautiful soundtrack and the startling way these actors capture the physicality of crows, through the artistry of overhead projection and artwork that depicts the movement of fish, birds, worms and much more. Even the simulation of a crow crying over the death of a loved...
So when is a 30-minute production with three highly emotive, physically expressive clowns – with red noses even – not an “all ages” performance? Welcome to the Fringe where things are not always what they appear. The subtitle says it all: A Comedy of Mourners.
A new ensemble called Box of Clowns has brought their production Mom? to Vancouver’s Fringe. Here we watch as siblings Victoria, Frank and Mango act on their realization that, “It’s time.” Time to scatter Mom’s ashes. They rollick, and weep and wail and giggle through the thirty minutes. I you’ve ever been the person given custody of the ashes,...
If asked what to expect at this show, I'd say it’s the kind of thing you’d expect if Laurel and Hardy took on this “jewel in the light operatic musical theatre oeuvre”. Except this time we have a couple of talented Aussie women doing the mis-matched buddy schtick.
Following a bit of an awkward start, the gears and gags accelerate and it’s clear that these women can sing and harmonize very well indeed while moving us through the Penzance libretto at a good clip.
Using minimal props (they did come all the way from down under) and rapid...
Based on the pitch – a story about OCD – this is a show I would not have elected to watch; it’s simply not a topic of interest to me. I saw opening night of (so far as I gathered from the program) the first-ever public presentation of this new work. I hope my criticisms come down to it being opening night jitters and/or a piece early in its stage career.
This is a promising new work which offers its audience an authentic insight into the world of the (unnamed) main character (played by Christine Robinson), a woman who suffers...
So a Fringe show called “Junk”. Hmmnn. Well, actually it turned out to be a family-friendly musical with musical instruments made from, yes, junk and a storyline about recycling and community. Always something to surprise you at the Fringe.
Paul Snider, the creator, plays Dan the Junk Man and also conducts his orchestra of 11 who play instruments such as the recycolin, tincello and (wheel) barrow bass I loved it that they occasionally took time to tune up.
I sat in the front row because I wanted to see the instruments played close up. Don’t do that. There’s a...
Tasha Diamant has been standing in front of people nude talking about whatever comes to mind for nine years now. Starting in Lethbridge which she doesn’t recommend as a starting point if you have a performance piece involving nudity as the place to launch.
I know women like Tasha. People who are good at feeling pain and living and pointing out paradox. I’ve had 60-minute conversations with them about many of the topics Tasha explored: feminism, global industrial complex and extinction of species including the human species. She invited us, the audience, to talk with her, or not. I’ve had...
For Body and Light combines spoken word, dance, and music. Set on a dimly lit stage, the performance enacts a sea voyage along (I think) the Atlantic Coast of the southern Maritimes and the United States.
A light above represents the moon. Ian Ferrier sits stage right illuminated in shadow, playing his guitar, and half-singing, half-reciting. Three women dancers move across the stage. They represent tides and movement.
The effect is hypnotic and trance-inducing. Ferrier's voice is so gentle, so reassuring. You feel the very gentle rocking movement of the boat as it makes its way down. Even when we get...
Fringe Description: Family Friendly · Poetic · Intimate
The Body of a Woman as a Battlefield in the Bosnian War -- it has a harrowing yet poetic sound just in the title. And this Vancouver Fringe production, held in the Cultch Lab, is at once poetic, harrowing, compelling, and horrifying. Yet, its ending is more positive and hopeful than you might expect. Although I also love many of the one-person, self-authored shows you see at the Fringe, I really appreciated the chance to see a serious production of this 1997 play by the acclaimed Romanian author Matei Visniec. I am keen to explore the rest of his oeuvre now.
I saw the preview of Orange is the New Blank at the end of August. Nicole Passmore, Briana Rayner, Diana Bang, Ese Atawo, Julianne Hoyak, Jamie Chrest and Brad Rossington make up the full cast. Not having seen the TV series Orange is the New Black didn't stop me from enjoying this event so no previous experience is required for this show.
There were only four female inmates in the penitentiary for the preview but they were all funny, quick and entertaining. Their characters were all unique and believable. I can only imagine that adding two additional prisoners would...
There's a new inmate at the penitentiary who's just learning the ropes. Anything could happen.
My experience with improv theatre is limited to a few Fringe shows that had me laughing all the way through, but now I couldn't tell you what I had been laughing about. It is very much an in-the-moment performance style. The ensemble behind Orange is the New Blank does an excellent job of having that momentary humour as well as creating a story that is worth remembering, which is no small feat. And that story will be different every night.
