In 1898 Henry James penned the Ghost Story Novella – “The Turn of the Screw”. The story of a fresh faced young woman who is seduced into the position of Governess to two children who had been left orphaned. She arrives at her new position to find the old housekeeper, and a mute young girl at the manor “Bly”. The boy Miles was off at boarding school. She quickly learns from the housekeeper that the governess who preceded her had a violent sexual affair with the male Valet and they are now both dead.
This production, a two-hander, with Chris W Cook, the playwright as one of the two characters, comes from Edmonton. We are presented with a journalist recently returned from Afghanistan. Time: the present, so the issues are real and important. The representative of an unnamed "agency" abducts the writer (who is conveniently Canadian-American) to the United States, where he has no chance of government protection.
Obliquely at first, the questioner wants to know who he met in Kabul, and whether they might be active terrorists. Soon the unfortunate journalist is tied to a chair...
Genre definition = Intense · In Your Face · Intellectual
Based on a story by Robert J Sawyer and originally scripted by Jae Dunphy, director Alberto White’s dystopian near future may not be so far away from our present. As he says in his program notes: “Humans are bad at change, like the frog in the pot of water brought to a boil, we don’t notice anything changing until it’s too late.”
Terrance Hayman plays detective Andrew Walker with energy and nuanced assuredness. His emotional range is as broad as it is deep as he’s called to respond to and deal with professional, family and external challenges in...
In what very well may be the most interesting BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) performance of this year's Fringe Festival, performer Phoebe Vlassis draws the audience/visitors/acquaintances? into her room. Then, through storytelling, she draws us into her life and decisions about her future.
It’s a lot to cram into 30 minutes but the pacing isn’t at all rushed and the small room expands to Greece and London and Spain and New Orleans and a room overlooking Pender Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Phoebe brings to life in a charming and sympathetic way the people she meets along the way and the...
My question is, why isn't everyone clamouring to see this show? Last week I knew nothing about Theatre Terrific. Today I want to make sure I see everything they ever produce.
Performed at the Vancouver Japanese United Church, Portraits is a beautiful ensemble piece that examines what makes us all unique and in doing so exposes how similar we all really all. In almost any other context, the format (members of the ensemble coming forward, introducing themselves, explaining their self-drawn portrait and sharing a snippet of their history) might get tiresome. However, this group of individuals approach the...
"It's hard to move on when you're all alone in the belly of a whale." says Ishmael ("you can call me Jonah") who has found himself trapped inside the belly of a whale brandishing a couple of bestsellers with nothing to eat but some soggy saltines. Apparently the last thing Jonah remembers he was madly in love and then suddenly he was swallowed by a whale.
Innocent When You Dream asks the question, if the one you love isn't loving you back, does that mean your love was never real?: "I can't believe that wasn't real. I won't believe it...
"Ever have one of those days?..." "Ever have one of THOSE days?..." "Ever HAVE one of those days?..." "Ever WONDER...why?"
Ron lies for a living. He's "the talent". He sits in a quiet, dark, cozy room and voices commercials with a smile in his voice "like I'm talking to a friend."
Ron used to be an actor and do plays and such but then "it's not your voice you have to lie with, it's your whole body and if you get really good at it, they call it the truth."
Death of a Playwright is a Play within a Play on Multiple Planes of Existence with ghosts and maybe even God? Quimera Theatre presents the premiere of Death of a Playwright the new play by Matthew Willis.
Now I will be honest with you – when I see a write up that offers the promise of a play within a play about a theatre production, filled with inside jokes about theatre, I usually run for the hills…and I am a theatre person. Thus when I walked into Studio 16 my expectations were quite low and I...
As she walks on stage you think to yourself….could it be?…is it?….wow! it is….it’s Spoiled Child. What, you don’t remember Spoiled Child? Come on she was that singer in the 80’s…you know she had that song…then she moved on to her Spoken Word Period…and then she had that Reality Show well for a year…remember?
Well, she’s back - rebuilding her career (as she says looking out at the afternoon audience) - “15 people at a time”. - You would think she would be totally back on top, instead of the “c-list celebrity” now that she has saved...
Preacher Man changes the role of the audience from theatre goer to execution witness. This once common practice has now fallen out of favour, but for 22 minutes you could imagine what that would be like. From the minute we ended the room Marcus is waiting for us, waiting to ask us questions, poignant questions. He is waiting to tell us the story of his fulfilled life. His certainty cuts to the bone and he feels sorry for us.
Jesse LaVercombe is excellent as Marcus. LaVercombe is chilling and expert in his delivery of this character. There are...
