Theatre Terrific's Dirty White is a poetic parable that draws inspiration from Ovid's Metamorphosis. Director and playwright Susanna Uchatius shows a deft hand when it comes to metaphoric language: the play is rich with imagery and absurdist aphorisms whose meanings are cryptically slanted but still honed to an edge. Dirty White avoids the common pitfall of deliberately poetic writing by steering clear of extended, repetitious passages: though it is unabashedly lyrical writing, the phrasing is tight and the imagery varied.
In this Preposterous Fable, young Abigail, “the girl with the greatest teeth in the world” embarks upon a journey. This is no ordinary sojourn mind you. This one is fraught with emotional sea monsters, melodiously evil pirates, a truly wet ocean tempest and conniving boat thieves just to name a few of the perils she must face. Of course life for Abigail used to be much easier. Her smile lit up the world, she sang with the birds, danced with the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. People would do anything for the young darling as long as...
The directors behind Ballet BC meant it when they chose the title Re/Naissance. No soft-core metaphor here.
In the opening moments of the second performance, "Things I Told Nobody," we see a body spot-lit under one low-hanging light; slowly, we sense the dancer, fetus-like on the floor and dressed in neutral swaddling, is not alone on stage. Other lights begin to shine. They’re dim but create the illusion of one body reflected in a prism or the image of countless bodies coming to life in a honeycomb.
What a weird play. My Granny the Goldfish by Anosh Irani is at turns laugh out loud funny, casually racist, treats alcoholism with as much respect as a Foster Brooks’ routine and descends into a predictable movie-of –the-week plot featuring unearned moments of character transcendence/revelation.
Veena Sood and David Adams in My Granny the Goldfish. Photo by David Cooper
Ali & Ali 7: Hey Brother, Can You Spare Some Hope and Change? begins with a slide show that is both amusing and quizzical. Set to a loud thumping beat, the audience is shown a quick succession of images of Muammar Gaddafi looking eccentric, Stephen Harper sporting his blue sweater and stock sympathetic smirk, and Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson from the film A Few Good Men. We are left to ponder which of the two leaders looks the most ridiculous: a Salvador Dali-esque Gaddafi wearing tinted shades and long robes, or an awkward Stephen Harper wearing a suit...
Camyar Chai and Marcus Youssef in Ali & Ali 7, photo by Tim Matheson
This isn't easy material. Refuge of Lies explores a story that hits close to home and it's clear that writer/director Ron Reed feels passionately about the show's subject. Inspired by actual events that took place in Vancouver, Refuge of Lies, currently on at Pacific Theatre, tells the story of a Nazi soldier on the run from his past. But the past catches up with him, as pasts are wont to do, in the form of a reporter on a quest for justice.
There was no bride, no vows, and no glass broken underfoot. There was no marriage, but Les Yeux Noirs may as well have been entertaining a Jewish wedding party. And it was one hell of a party.
The Chop Theatre's KISMET one to one hundred (currently on as part of the Tremors Festival) embodies the essence of collective creation. Four artists (Anita Rochon, Emelia Symington Fedy, Daryl King, and Hazel Venzon) set out on a journey across Canada. Their goal was to interview one hundred people from the ages of one through one hundred on the subject of fate and destiny. Predictably, although their list of questions is fairly simple and straight forward, the responses they gathered were as varied and idiosyncratic as the people they interviewed. They recorded their separate journeys (Fedy and...
Hidden away on Franklin, a desolate street north of Hastings, is a small gallery space which has been turned into a theatre space for Craning Neck Theatre’s premiere of TRUNK written and directed by Jeremy Waller.
Billy Bishop is back and this time it’s personal. The Arts Club Granville Island Stage presents a youthful, enthusiastic production of the classic Canadian musical, Billy Bishop Goes to War, more than 30 years after it was first performed by its co-creators, John Gray and Eric Peterson.
