Deranged Dating is a half-hour autobiographical tale padded with unrelated skits into an hour-long comedy show. Half of the show is related to the stated theme of the hazards and pitfalls of thirtysomething dating; the other half -- the first 20 minutes or so of the show especially -- seem to have been gleaned from other comedy routines.
Shirley Kirchmann uses minor costume changes and simple props to portray her thirtysomething self and a handful of peripheral characters including her meddling Aunt Hattie and a superficial-minded matchmaker. Her stage voice is clear and strong, but at times her words are...
Don’t let Theatre Plexus’ simple setup fool you. Saudade will leave you twitching in your seat, wanting to chug cheap liquor and hang out the window of a fast car, hollering the lyrics to some catchy anthemic song.
At first glance, the small space at Granville Island’s Arts Umbrella seems improvised, hastily thrown together -- two glaringly-bright overhead projectors, a small ghetto blaster, blank sheets hung from the walls. Cramped school desks and low benches form the audience seating. The audience’s knees bend like heron legs as they shuffle their feet and try to find a comfortable position to sit...
A bare stage: a folding chair, a small table, one prop: a whisky bottle. Bill Pats - green T-shirt, torn jeans - shambles on. I note this because this is all we have to look at for 70 minutes. Pats tells how two policemen came to his door to arrest him. Some body language and changed voice reveal the manner of the police. A few minutes backstory: he was guilty of embezzlement.
And then his narrative, in an even-paced way, goes on - and on. Sometimes absorbing, sometimes harrowing, sometimes tedious, significant life experiences from his twenties to his 40th birthday. "Based on a...
Candice Fiorentino plays a new immigrant from Bosnia in the late 90's. It's a simple premise - she has done well enough in Mrs. Wilson's ESL class to be able to make a 55-minute long presentation in English. She tries hard to follow the instruction to keep it positive even though questions from classmates probe into areas that are much darker. She is so happy to be in Edmonton, Canada and working at the SuperStore even though she can't afford a fridge and she still doesn't have her sons with her.
“The Masks of Oscar Wilde” by Shaul Ezer with C.E. Gatchalian, is now playing at the Arts Club Revue Theatre, presented by Matchmaker Productions in association with the frank theatre company. The finely printed programme in the lobby quotes the playwright: “Heavy on lecture and light on theatricals."
It opens with a slide show on a 32” tv screen & paper bird finger-puppets. The Happy Prince is telling a story about a little swallow, and proceeds through the six masks that he wore: poet, aesthete, martyr, etc. I wish I could’ve taken a little swallow everytime I heard that, but the bar was closed....
"My Beautiful Monster" is a painfully personal one-woman show. Although I gather that much of it may be based on the actor's own life, it is a separate fictional work. Annie's sexuality is awakened at puberty, and she faces a lot of guilt and shame. She wants to connect with the opposite sex, and she wants to be loved, but her fear and apprehension hold her back. She can't respond to good candidates, and bad candidates do stuff that terrifies her. She is from a traditional Christian home (Dutch Reformed, is my guess), and her mother constantly admonishes her...
I went to see the preview of Caws and Effect at Havana. I'm very glad I did. It was a packed house and I suspect that the word will get around and ensure every show is full. The actors/artists/overhead projector whizzes (Chloé Ziner and Jessica Gabriel) make this a magical event from the beautiful soundtrack and the startling way these actors capture the physicality of crows, through the artistry of overhead projection and artwork that depicts the movement of fish, birds, worms and much more. Even the simulation of a crow crying over the death of a loved...
So when is a 30-minute production with three highly emotive, physically expressive clowns – with red noses even – not an “all ages” performance? Welcome to the Fringe where things are not always what they appear. The subtitle says it all: A Comedy of Mourners.
A new ensemble called Box of Clowns has brought their production Mom? to Vancouver’s Fringe. Here we watch as siblings Victoria, Frank and Mango act on their realization that, “It’s time.” Time to scatter Mom’s ashes. They rollick, and weep and wail and giggle through the thirty minutes. I you’ve ever been the person given custody of the ashes,...
If asked what to expect at this show, I'd say it’s the kind of thing you’d expect if Laurel and Hardy took on this “jewel in the light operatic musical theatre oeuvre”. Except this time we have a couple of talented Aussie women doing the mis-matched buddy schtick.
Following a bit of an awkward start, the gears and gags accelerate and it’s clear that these women can sing and harmonize very well indeed while moving us through the Penzance libretto at a good clip.
Using minimal props (they did come all the way from down under) and rapid...
Based on the pitch – a story about OCD – this is a show I would not have elected to watch; it’s simply not a topic of interest to me. I saw opening night of (so far as I gathered from the program) the first-ever public presentation of this new work. I hope my criticisms come down to it being opening night jitters and/or a piece early in its stage career.
This is a promising new work which offers its audience an authentic insight into the world of the (unnamed) main character (played by Christine Robinson), a woman who suffers...
