Vancouver

Don McGlashan: Plank Reviewer Scores

*Don McGlashan* will likely never know of the merry dance he had behind the scenes here at Plank. No fewer than four different reviewers were assigned to this gig but all – for various reasons – had to pull out; the last for the most understandable reason that she’d been nominated for an award and the ceremony was the same night!

Plank Reviwer lucks out in seeing Don McGlashan

January 26th, 2009 · By Andrew Templeton

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while going to a condition + Accumulated Layout: transcending the material

When I first studied WB Yeats’ poem _Among School Children_, I puzzled at the final line: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” I read this line, and the entire poem, over and over before I let it go, not convinced that I had been able to decipher the mystery of Yeats’ question. But watching "Hiroaki Umeda":http://www.hiroakiumeda.com/ perform his two solos *while going to a condition* and *Accumulated Layout*, something fell into place and I felt as though I finally had a glimmer of understanding of what Yeats might have experienced that led him to his famous...

Hioraki Umeda, the dancer and the dance

January 25th, 2009 · By Jill Goldberg

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while going to a condition + Accumulated Layout: a consummate feast

A sudden barrage, a wall of noise presents itself, omniscient in the theatre, like a big, fat, invisible sitting Buddha opening its mouth to let the world out. The sound is sustained… and sustained, testing the audience’s patience, allowing us to luxuriously soak in the saturated images. And at centre stage, as if by circumstance, a figure in black, perhaps bearing weight or witness stands, perhaps transmuting this ancient god gradually into a giant circuitry; now a deified current, it cuts a cold aspect shot across the wall upstage in blunt, bold projected archi-textures.

Hioraki Umeda, connecting to the core; Photo: Julieta Cervantes

January 25th, 2009 · By Jeremy Waller

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Dances for a Small Stage (Program A): from subtle to sassy

I'll admit it. I sometimes dance in my kitchen. At times my arms hit the countertops, I stub my toe on the oven and in the process I curse the housing market for keeping me out of places with actual space to move around in. Then I saw *Dances for a Small Stage* and while I still may have Vancouver housing woes, watching these eight dance pieces performed on a stage no larger than my kitchen made it clear that size does not always matter.

The dangers of reviewing for Plank or Dances for a Small Stage

January 24th, 2009 · By Ashleigh Dalton

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Skydive: Rises Up above the Parachute Club (the only obligatory can-con reference in this review)

Over the years I’ve added various positions to my artistic name: writer/actor/musician/director. So each time that I leave a movie, concert or play I usually know if I’ve really liked it or not by a few simple reactions. If I’ve loved it, I wish that I'd been part of the production and immediately go home to use the inspiration on my own project.

Taking a break from Skydiving, Bob Fraser and James Sauders; photo by Tim Matheson

January 24th, 2009 · By Michael John Unger

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Skydive: Legends of the Freefall

I'm not going reveal much here in the way of scene details or plot points of *Skydive*, currently enjoying a remount at the "PuSh Festival":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php this year after coming home from a cross-Canada tour. To do so would be a dire injustice to the experience that this carnival fun-house ride of a play has waiting for you at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage. I can, however, talk about the device that the play is structured around, as the company themselves make no secret about it (check out http://thenextstage.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/new-on-the-v-list-skydive/). And I can also tell you that this is...

Skydiving back into PuSh are James Sanders and Bob Frazer, photo: Tim Matheson.

January 24th, 2009 · By Simon Ogden

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Siren: a cathedral of sound and light

Despite all the unkind things I’ve said about him, I’m in awe of Alex Ferguson.

He fired off a comprehensive "review":http://plankmagazine.com/review/performance-art/siren-waiting-spaceship-... of *Siren* the very night he saw it! Dear god, Alex, how did you do it? Here it is nearly 48 hours since I experienced this sound installation by Ray Lee from the UK (part of the "PuSh Festival":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php?mpage=home) and I’m still having trouble formulating my thoughts. Alex does such a good job of describing the actual event that I suggest you check out his review for yourself if you haven’t already (besides, he needs the...

Siren: filling in the darkness, photo: Ray Lee

January 23rd, 2009 · By Andrew Templeton

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Five Days in March: even sex is boring to generation y

[img_assist|nid=655|title=Childish gestures, Five Days in March, photo: Thomas Bremond|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=384|height=256]Recently in theatre there has been a disturbing tendency of what I can only describe as “action-narration”, where characters describe the actions they’re doing while doing them. For example, if Fred has to walk into a room, open a cupboard and shove a cupcake in his ear he will narrate the action thusly: “I walk into the room, open a cupboard and shove a cupcake in my ear”. I have no idea why playwrights have been adopting this technique unless they’re trying to assert some sort of control over actors and directors....

January 23rd, 2009 ·

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The Plank Panel wonders why billy doesn't twinkle

*Maryse Zeidler:* who is no man's puppet
*Andrew Templeton:* who fears he is a puppet
*Allyson McGrane:* who likes puppets because they don't talk back

The production: _Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy_, part of this year's "PuSh Festival":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php

*Maryse:* Maybe the problem was that my expectations were too high. Having seen Ronnie Burkett's work before, a long time ago in Calgary, and knowing the years of accolades that he has garnered throughout his career, I figured this was a slam dunk.

Alas, no such luck.

_Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy_, captures the life of a middle-aged puppeteer earning his living performing kitschy marionette acts on a cruise ship. The aging performer decides to take his own life after being fired for shushing a corpulent, buffet-binging audience member. As he is about to take the plunge, his childhood mentor, Sid Diamond, shows up as a bunny ear-wearing sock puppet. The rest of the show consists of Sid rekindling Billy's love and passion for puppetry by re-enacting Billy's career with a marionette show he will never forget.

Does this story sound familiar? Lemme take a moment to say that I’ve never even seen It’s a Wonderful Life, but know the story as well as the rest of the free world. This is not a particularly original idea, and Burkett did not take it anywhere particularly new.

Part middle-age crisis piece, part homage to the history of marionettes, there are some wonderful moments throughout.

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Siren: waiting for the spaceship to land

If you thought you had Vancouver’s "PuSh Festival":http://pushfestival.ca/index.php figured out, think again. With *Siren* as this year’s opener, Executive Director Norman Armour cleans the slate and starts anew. More than anything, this sound installation by "Ray Lee":http://www.invisible-forces.com/ (Oxford, UK) is about expecting the unexpected.