In the end, because one of the players bombastically kissed the audience, I realized Hot Pepper may have been more interesting than I suspected. This conclusion came only in retrospect. Why… did I have to work so hard and …stew so long to get it? …to get that it may not be more complicated than this; around the world, folks connect over corporate office culture. Good or Bad, discuss:
The exploration of “acquisition and attrition” which was my experience of Craig’s List Cantata, played itself out under lights suspended from the ceiling. A pulley system lifted the lighting-rig as the show began and the scavenged, salvaged, pre-loved, gently-used, antique lamps with their fringed shades hanging soft, laced and beaded, illuminated the stage.
"The Idiot," a new adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel written by James Fagan Tait and produced by Neworld Theatre and Vancouver Moving Theatre, opened on January 20, 2012 as part of the PuSh Festival, at UBCs Frederic Wood Theatre. Cleverly scripted and tightly-paced, the three-and-a-half-hour performance casts a vivid spell, so much so that its lengthy narrative journey feels both necessary and natural.
The Nutcracker is an old Christmas favourite. A story about a little girl Clara and a dream she has about her toy nutcracker (a Christmas gift from a sometimes-sinister godfather/uncle/watchmaker figure... portrayals of this character vary) in which he battles the rat king and takes her to a land of confectionery. There's a lot more to the story if you want to go digging into E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King or Alexandre Dumas' The Tale of the Nutcracker but the ballet, to those of us who didn't do the research, is very much the broad...
When you can’t rely on the "1%" to solve the world’s problems, to whom do you turn? Why of course…
The 0.00001% - The Superhero Boy Band….The MOST powerful, the MOST flamboyant, the MOST provocative, the MOST spandex, the SUPERHERO BOY BAND!
This show is outrageous, blasphemous and very very funny!!!
Young superheroes - Magnum, Cptn Slip'nSlide, and Exacto struggle to save the world from the faceless perils of terror! Our heroes tumble head over heels, into the world , bashing apart the binaries of good and evil in their grueling quest to save the world!!!
Kirstie: La Cage Aux Folles the musical premiered on Broadway in 1983. It is based on the even earlier (1973) play of the same name. Watching it on the eve of 2012, I think it’s fair to say that while the theme of love trumping prejudice is timeless, the musical’s treatment of gender-roles, queer families, and homophobia feels so dated that it’s practically geriatric. This is not to say that the story isn't entertaining or meaningful, but that enough has changed since 1983 that I think that the sharp dichotomy bewteen the queers and the conservatives felt clunky and unsubtle...
So, a confession: I am not simply a sucker for a story, I'm positively OCD for story.I have two English degrees, combined with critical theory and creative writing. This means that, warrented or not, I will hunt for metanarrative in just about any fragment, and will analyse a mash-up of ideas within an inch of its essence. I'm a pro. It's what I do.
Therefore, choreographer beware: if you tell me your performance is about seafaring myths of femininity, I will take you at your word. I will turn the diamond of your...
The anticipation of seeing my very first Ruby Slippers Theatre production was only fuelled more when I saw the set. Consisting of an elaborate network of doors and levels - already I could feel the exceptional production values of this production. With almost a full house surrounding me, I had a very good feeling about what I was about to see. I first thought this was going to be a serious play, but to my delight Drew McCreadie delivers a wiz bang of farcical humour, a sprinkle of slapstick and a healthy dollop of laugh out loud humour!
'Twas...
John Murphy & Jennifer Mawhinney in Hotel Bethlehem (photo credit: Tim Matheson)
