Haunted by Daniel Karasik is the winning script from the 2011 Canadian Jewish Playwriting competition. I loved the writing. The dialogue is witty and natural, and the characters are fleshed out and interesting. The subject matter felt a little stretched, not in the believability of the circumstances, but that they invoked such conflict. The play revolves around the way grief affects a mother and a daughter, their relationship and their relationships with others....
Kerry Sandomirsky, Patrick Sabongui, Photographer: Tim Matheson
“Why are you laughing?” Inside the framework of an educational character study, Tim Crouch's I, Malvolio presents a heart-rending portrait of the nature of bullying. Gently confrontational, Crouch asks his audience to look at the relationship between laughter and cruelty and, I hope, sympathy.
Malvolio is the perfect character to tell this story and a perfect opportunity to open up a dialogue not only about Twelfth Night but about contemporary schoolyard issues. Crouch does not preach or presume to force any opinions on his audience, but he does ask a lot of questions, which is exactly what theatre should do....
I'd really like come comments on this one because I liked it so much that I wonder if it's just me. I loved everything about this piece, from the stand-up type intro to the general silliness and occasional gross-ness that ensued, to the touchingly beautiful body-images. I found Pieter Ampe and Guilherme Garrido's performance refreshing, open and engaging.
Still Standing You is a strange mix of contemporary dance, comedic physical theatre and a brotherly wrestling match. This exploration of masculine relationships has an innocence and curiosity to it that makes it more like watching children on a playground than a...
“If King Lear had understood differential equations, he would have proceeded differently.” Not to give you the impression that Testament is a light analysis of King Lear that doesn't take itself seriously. The actors in She She Pop and their fathers open up a frank discussion about familial obligation, the nature of love and the fear of growing old. It gets really personal. It gets really uncomfortable. And it gets really beautiful.
I really don't want to go too much into the content of the piece, it's better if you discover it for yourself and everything...
taken from website http://www.sheshepop.de/produktionen/testament.html
Encore at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre is a collection of reprised popular works from the previous two seasons at Ballet BC. This ”best of” performance consists of three acts separated by two intermissions. While each piece has a unique mood and message, they share a strength of choreography and provocative imagery. The troupe of dancers that participate in the evening are exceptional. Not only are they talented and possessing of amazing physical prowess and grace, but they are so full, so present on stage that even the smallest movement is overflowing with life and meaning.
Coming soon to a theatre near you - a new Canadian musical about six teenagers killed in a roller coaster tragedy in small-town Saskatchewan! Atomic Vaudeville brings a revamped version of Ride The Cyclone to the Arts Club Granville Island Stage under the auspices of the PuSh Festival. It's the second stop on a major Western Canadian tour from Calgary to Vancouver to Edmonton to Winnipeg to Saskatoon to Nanaimo. Not too shabby for a recent group of mostly UVIC grads led by Jacob Richmond (writer/director/music/lyrics), Britt Small (director), Brooke Maxwell (music/lyrics/music director) and Treena Stubel (choreography/staging).
Photog: An Imaginary Look at the Uncompromising Life of Thomas Smith is an ambitious, experimental work combining video, verbatim text and physical theatre to tell the story of a life in conflict photography. The script is developed from a number of verbatim interviews with award-winning war photographers and journalists, and incorporates images from their work.
Before the performance began, Ana Sokolovic came up on stage to say a few words. Some of those words included “please don't follow along in your program”. Not that she needed to worry. The program is in English, the opera is in Serbian, I would never know which words were which.
The Arts Club is bringing to the stage a holiday one-man show. Starring Ryan Beil as Crumpet, The Santaland Diaries offers one elf's experiences in the New York world of Macy's Santaland. And if you like your Christmas entertainment on the sarcastic side, this may just be for you.
Written by David Sedaris, The Santaland Diaries began as a radio essay read by the author on National Public Radio in 1992. An overnight sensation, it was the author's first big break and led to him continuing to share his diary entries with radio listeners monthly. The onstage version was...
Ryan Beil as the Macy's elf named Crumpet (photo by Tim Matheson)
Dickens’ Women is a one woman show (plus pianist) that explores the relationship between the women Charles Dickens knew in his life and the female characters he portrays in his novels. This potentially dry subject is brought to rambunctious life by Myriam Margolyes. Based on extensive research and including quotes from Dickens’ books and letters, Dickens’ Women also appears in book form, which you can purchase in the lobby after the show.
From the moment her mischievous face peeps around the curtain, Miriam Margolyes is captivating. She introduces the audience to a wide variety of real and fictional characters that...
