One of the 14 onsite shows at Granville Island, Pirates? features a lively cast of seven performers from Quimera Collective. Their program includes helpful instructions on how to fold the paper into a sailor hat... which should tell you a great deal about the tenor of this performance which takes place at the Kids Tugboat near the Kids Market.
Poor little Otto. Poor little Astrid. When Mr. and Mrs. Rot got crushed by a train or eaten by an escaped lion (Otto and Astrid disagree on this point), the siblings were shuttled off to relatives who were mean to them and made them do, “folk dancing dressed like squirrels.” So they ran away and set up life in a Berlin squat.
A particularly dramatic moment, is it not, Comrade?
This dark and unsettling tale of revenge from writer/director Jason Maghanoy is not easy to watch, but impossible to look away from. Like Hannah Moscovitch's 2011 Summerworks entry, Little One, Ally and Kev's central characters are a sibling duo with some serious issues - with sister Ally harbouring the bulk of them.
From writer Nicolas Billon and directed by Ravi Jain, Iceland is set largely in a swank downtown Toronto condo and is structured as a series of three narrative monologues each delivered from a spot-lit chair.
Terre Haute marks a stark departure for director Alistair Newton and his company, Ecce Homo. Their trademark style of ironic white-faced cabaret that has served them well in previous Summerworks productions The Pastor Phelps Project and The Ecstasy Of Mother Teresa, is notably absent, replaced by simple and profound naturalism – a choice dictated in part by Edmund White’s dialogue heavy script.
The Mikhailovsky Ballet's production of Swan Lake offers a treat for classical ballet affectionados. The St. Petersburg based company brings this undeniably Russian 'love conquers all' story to Vancouver for a brief run at the Queen Elizabeth theatre.
Some things are just done better the old fashioned way, and hearing the orchestra tune up upon entering the theatre, I already knew it would be a good evening. Listening to Tchaikovsky's score, conducted by Valery Ovsyanikov, live as opposed to the canned version was rare a luxury in itself.
The set and costumes by designer Simon Virsaladze were so detailed and...
Coat Cooke’s “Music Is the Invisible Art” and Stefan Smulovitz’s “The Right Amount”: A Night of Structured Improvisation
Often, we are reminded how much our friends love us when they support us during difficult times. This devotion can transcend the temporal world and their spirit can inspire us to create. On April 13th, the Orkestra Futura treated the audience at the Roundhouse to an emotionally laden night of dynamic music. The evening started with Coat Cooke’s “Music Is the Invisible Art” and closed with Stefan Smulovitz’s “The Right Amount.” Both...
The Taming of the Shrew is an exceptionally tricky play to produce in this century if you don’t want it to come off as ridiculous and misogynistic. And I think the stylistic choice that Meg Roe made with this production at Bard on the Beach was both wise and effective given the subject matter.
Unfortunately for me, Pantomime (with some heavy lashings of Commedia Dell'arte) is a style I can barely tolerate. So while I can appreciate the skill and sound judgement used to effect this production, I did not particularly enjoy it.
