The Abyss Burrow is a one-woman show that takes you through the walls of a well into the memories a young woman’s life. Through music, interpretive dance and monologue, writer and performer, Vanessa Quesnelle weaves together a great piece of theatre.
Epic music starts off this epic adventure. I LOVED Peter ‘n Chris Explore Their Bodies. I am a product of my generation; I love self-conscious comedy complete with references to all my favourite movie genres.
Comedy, Physical Theatre, New Work - http://www.peternchris.com/
I looked this play up, because I know Lanford Wilson is famous and successful and I was certain that I was missing a really important piece of contextual information that would make the reason for performing this piece evident and everything would fall into place. From Wikipedia all I got was a lot of “it is implied that…” which, yes, I gathered from watching the play. Other reviews were less than helpful. I just feel like this story lacks context. It was one of his earlier plays, perhaps this is why it felt so... something. Emo? It felt like a...
As a comment on the vacuous nature of the rock and roll lifestyle in the 60s and 70s and how dumb people look when they’ve done too many drugs, this show does a great job. Unfortunately that concept was eloquently communicated in the preshow slideshow. The content of the live performance consisted of about three jokes (usually involving lots and lots of sex and lots of lots of drugs) repeated over and over and over again for the next hour. The music was pretty good. The content was two-dimensional. I like my satire with a bit more wit.
Awkward Stages Productions presents a spirited musical set in highschool where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuals are outcasts. The school matchmaker keeps everyone coupled up with his magic wand.
Comedy, Musical Theatre, Satire, All Ages - http://awkwardstageproductions.com/
What a perfect way to begin the festival! I enjoyed Wonderheads’ Grim and Fischer last year, and LOON outshone my expectations as an absolute delight. The Wonderheads have chosen a poetic medium to tell their stories and they really make full use of strong images in their work. Somewhere between puppetry and physical theatre, their stylized approach allows their simple and whimsical stories to come alive.
Comedy, Drama, Physical Theatre, All Ages - http://www.wonderheads.com/
Bad Day to be a Juggler will not teach you to juggle – but it will shed a light on why someone would want to become a juggler even though as he says “when you Google juggler – it autocorrects to unemployed”.
Comedy, Cabaret, Stand-Up, Improv, All Ages http://www.theajishow.com/badday/
There is a wall separating our heroine from the rest of the world, an invisible wall that she comes up against with a loud bang if ever she tries to connect with others. She is different. “The loner, the lone wolf, The Oddity.” At the start of Tiffany Anderson’s original play Oddity, we are introduced to a girl of five with lots of energy and a wonderful imagination. She talks to herself. She talks to us. She talks to Aliens. She’s got a camera in her head and she’s gonna show the aliens what the world looks like.
I freakin’ loved this show! Loved, loved loved! As a singer with an eclectic background in music, Kevin Armstrong’s Opera for Heathens spoke to my soul. But, you defiantly do not need any musical training to fall on love with this show.
