In “Bi, Hung Fit … and Married”, Mark Bentley Cohen tells the story of how he pried opened the closet door even though he thought marriage and kids had sealed it shut. It’s a simple one-man show with a sparse set, but Mark’s openness, humility and humour are intricate and pull the audience in. Teamed with producer and wife Lianna Walden, the story unfolds far beyond the constructs of Mark’s closet and portrays a changing marriage and a husband and wife’s changing love.
The script is taut, well-paced and above all honest, which makes it such a sexy show....
Professor Stephen Heatley and accompanist Richard Link give a musical and personal lecture on a variety of topics: getting older, getting wiser, Thomas Mann novellas and the acceptance of shame through dance. It’s not the typical university lecture with fluorescent lights and squeaky desks but a calmer, more living room type lecture. That is, more of a scholastic cabaret.
Written and directed by Theresa Hamilton, The Missing Piece is the story of two high school friends who ditch the grad party in Chilliwack for a twosome night of camping and beer or root beer disguised as beer. Daniel Bergeron and Jeff den Hartog play the two young friends who shotgun beers and talk through their girlfriend problems. The play quickly drops the girlfriend façade and pulls at the main drama, the boys’ long standing attraction to each other.
Staged at the Picnic Pavilion, the outdoor setting adds nicely to the camping theme. Even the flannelled Australians at the...
The Abyss Burrow is a one-woman show that takes you through the walls of a well into the memories a young woman’s life. Through music, interpretive dance and monologue, writer and performer, Vanessa Quesnelle weaves together a great piece of theatre.
“Zero Tolerance” is a highly autobiographical piece performed and written by Bárbara Selfridge looking at caregiving, disability and family. Selfridge’s narrative weaves between various points in the past and various characters in her family. She speaks directly to the audience and leaves the house lights up thereby breaking down the fourth wall. There is no escaping what she wants to tell us.
Selfridge wants to tell us that having a family is hard and it sucks and sometimes people don’t or can’t do what they want to or should do. The narrative is well constructed and at times touching...
Comedy, Drama, Monologue, New Work - http://www.barbaraselfridge.com/
“Romance” is a David Mamet play presented by the Queer Arts Society. The play is about justice, world peace, people and everything else. It reminded me of this saying we had when I worked in campus radio “we offend everyone equally.” This work pushed every political button I have and I laughed the whole way through it. At times I reflected about what it meant to laugh at the justice system, drug abuse, racist slurs, misogynist comments, child abuse, homophobia, etc., but I was too busy laughing at the next moment to finish my thought.
Awkward Stages Productions presents a spirited musical set in highschool where homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuals are outcasts. The school matchmaker keeps everyone coupled up with his magic wand.
Comedy, Musical Theatre, Satire, All Ages - http://awkwardstageproductions.com/
What a perfect way to begin the festival! I enjoyed Wonderheads’ Grim and Fischer last year, and LOON outshone my expectations as an absolute delight. The Wonderheads have chosen a poetic medium to tell their stories and they really make full use of strong images in their work. Somewhere between puppetry and physical theatre, their stylized approach allows their simple and whimsical stories to come alive.
Comedy, Drama, Physical Theatre, All Ages - http://www.wonderheads.com/
Epic music starts off this epic adventure. I LOVED Peter ‘n Chris Explore Their Bodies. I am a product of my generation; I love self-conscious comedy complete with references to all my favourite movie genres.
Comedy, Physical Theatre, New Work - http://www.peternchris.com/
I looked this play up, because I know Lanford Wilson is famous and successful and I was certain that I was missing a really important piece of contextual information that would make the reason for performing this piece evident and everything would fall into place. From Wikipedia all I got was a lot of “it is implied that…” which, yes, I gathered from watching the play. Other reviews were less than helpful. I just feel like this story lacks context. It was one of his earlier plays, perhaps this is why it felt so... something. Emo? It felt like a...
