Rodney DeCroo is starting to make a name for himself as poet (a book published) and singer-songwriter (six CDs). The Cultch Lab stage is bare; often a double bass player supports both DeCroo's guitar and his speech. His show includes some half-dozen songs, spoken word and poems (one verse is rhymed, while the others sound like literary prose).
DeCroo circles the stage (Jane Heyman, directing, must have told him to keep moving) with an apparently artless sequence of recollections about people and places. Pittsburgh, Fort Nelson, Cranbrook, the Cobalt Hotel and New Westminster Secondary...
Growing Up Moni is an entertaining coming-of-age comedy centering on the themes of family and race. Starring and written by Monica Mustelier, this one-woman show is told through a collection of semi-autobiographical stories charting Moni’s experiences from the age of eight through to her mid-thirties. We watch Moni, an only child and first generation Canadian born to Spanish and Cuban parents, as she navigates through life, a child of mixed race where English is not her parent’s first language. The play examines stereotypes and questions what is truly funny and socially acceptable in our multicultural society. Are we really...
Bastard Daughter is the seemingly autobiographical recounting of Kathryn Kirkpatrick’s childhood in Montreal as the daughter of the secretary of the Engelbert Humperdinck Fan Club – Montreal Chapter. This one-woman show tells the story of a period in time, when Enge is coming to Montreal, through a variety of characters within the family and the fan club.
I enjoyed learning a bit more about Enge, who until this play had always just been the name my childhood companions and I snickered at (do you know he changed his name to Humperdinck?!?). I also enjoyed the bevy of characters Kirkpatrick offered...
Alison Wearing knocks this outta the park! This was not a play...this was a heart-felt, inspiring avalanche that Alison engages with her audience at The Cultch. A historically anchored auto-biographical recount about growing up with her gay father. Starting in the 1970s, Wearing confides in us with her "confession" on what it felt like growing up confused, frustrated, ashamed, and proud.
From Toronto's bath-houses, to police brutality, to French cafes... We are all taken on a socially-enriched journey filled with snapshots of where her family, and our cultural was, and where it has landed with not so "normal" family dynamics....
The Havana hosts local playwright and actor RC Weslowski for his poignant and poetically intelligent one-man intrigue. Weslowski doesn't make it easy on himself with the subject matter. On its face, this play is about a man's severe obsession, and let's face it - deviant - relationship with paper products. After numerous attempts at curbing his desires, he find himself living with "The Watchtower" publication, struggling to have a "normal" sex life, while his "ex"...the Yellow Pages shows up at his door for a booty call.
You say, "What?"...I say, "I know hey? WTF!" But when you dive into the dialogue...
Remember when you started out in highschool. Some of us remember it well, some of us not so much and some of us probably don’t want to remember. The teenage years for most people seem awkward and emotionally taxing. We all had our own story growing up. In Braced we find a story of a young girl just about to start that crazy ride, but also having scoliosis to deal with as well.
This is a great show for those who have someone in their lives that maybe are going through the same thing. I recommend young women...
The synopsis for this play is "A story of a Chilean growing up in Canada and a Canadian growing up in Chile". The person doing the growing up is Andy Canete in Canada or Andreas Cañete in Chile. As Canete begins his journey he tells us about moving to Canada and the anglicization of his last name. The next 45 minutes are spent recounting his childhood and youth with specific events.
Some of the stories work, some don't. The story of the porn in the title is by far the funniest of them all. Recounting how his parents hit him...
Kuwaiti Moonshine is a solid one-man show written by and starring Ottawa native, Tim Murphy. It tells the story of Andy, a well-meaning Canadian young adult, who after spending too many years in post-secondary education, having one too many failed relationships, and suffering one to many drinking binges accepts a job in a foreign country. He tells his parents he has decided on Kuwait because drinking is forbidden. He refers to it is a kind of self-proclaimed rehab.
This theory however, we discover, is untrue and through the course of the play the politics of bootlegged alcohol and home brew rum...
Watching Tonya Jone Miller in Threads is an emotional experience. Spanning a time period from 1962 - 1979, Miller's play tells the true story of her American mother, Donna Miller. As a girl who grew up in rural Indiana, Donna Miller's life journey took her to Vietnam in 1968 as a teacher at the Buddhist University in Saigon. How she got there, what happened to her and the consequences of that time are the subject of this riveting theatrical tale.
As an adult, the playwright began to learn more about her mother's life and her own Vietnamese heritage (from her father). Inspired by solo shows...
Promise and Promiscuity is simply a wonderful production. This one-woman musical is full of laughs, clever remixes of musical hits through the ages and double entendres, especially involving the word balls. Not being a fan of Victorian era writing, I was expecting to be bored.
How wrong I was.
This exceedingly clever satire shines its comedic light on the many differences and similarities between our time and the Victorian era. No area is left out: capitalism, feminism, classism, romance, music, art, and marriage. Each made into song and poked fun at. Vancouvershire is woven into...
