Wagabondi Ho! taps into the multi-facetted mystique of the camper van, from childhood vacations fondly remembered to the intoxicated shennanigans of shag-wagon slackers.
Vancouver: Clever and fast-paced, Today is All Your Birthdays, created and performed by Uncalled For is a satisfying absurdest mash-up of ideas, some gleaned from pop-culture and others freshly minted in obscure crevices of the creator's minds.
Brainy, Zany and Funny better than Moe, Larry and Curly
What makes a show like *live** work is the fact that it not only plays with our perceptions of reality and illusion, but that it plays with the very idea of performance itself, stretching the concept of performativity to the far end of the spectrum and asking questions about who is audience and who is performer, and what constitutes spectacle in the first place. The great thing about this show, however, is that it asks all these questions without slacking off into the mentality that if one is asking questions, then anything goes in the way of aesthetics. All of...
Tom Stoppard is the master of intellectual acrobatics, and this play was his first attempt to show his emotional side, to describe love; how to find and keep the Real Thing. Although the play *The Real Thing* focuses on love, relationships and fidelity, Stoppard is most passionate when describing his love of writing and his fidelity to words.
Getting real are Jennifer Lines and Vincent Gale; photo by David Cooper
A funny thing happened on my way to New York City…at the "Gateway Theatre":https://www.gatewaytheatre.com/ in Richmond. On my list of must-see Broadway shows for a brief visit to NYC was "South Pacific":http://www.lct.org/showMain.htm?id=174; a revival that has garnered enough awards to make you go cross-eyed.
Take that New York! The cast of Guys and Dolls in Richmond
One of the coolest things about Leaky Heaven is their connection to East Vancouver, specifically to the Strathcona and Grandview neighbourhoods. This connection was in full evidence at the third edition of Blink at a packed Russian Hall on December 13th.
*Andrew Templeton* who thinks life is wonderful and is a sucker for movies with angels in them *Marta Baranowska*, the non-movie watching wonder, who likes to claim: "If it's a good movie, chances are I haven't seen it, but I will review the play!"
Marta and Andrew making up after their fight? No, Todd Talbot and Jennifer Lines in It's a Wonderful Life; photo: David Cooper
For _Brief Encounters 11_, Vancouver’s "The Tomorrow Collective":http://tomorrowcollective.com/ has again paired artists from vastly differing backgrounds, given them two weeks to create and rehearse a work of their own, and set the stage for the resulting creations at the eastside’s Anza Club.
Your quick thinking Plank Panel: *Ashleigh Dalton*: writer and community development worker who can teach you to tango in twelve minutes. *Rachel Scott*: writer and theatre gal who can make and drink a martini in twelve minutes.
Your Plank Panel rambling around a cramped castle:
*Andrew Templeton* who has never wrestled a pack of wolves but can be occasionally beastly, although generally he’s rather polite *Cathy Sostad* who is a beautiful Nordic princess who from time to time leaves her castle disguised as a peasant in order to slay dragons, return library books and get a manicure.
What does she see in this man? Steve Maddock and Amy Willis in Disney's (not anyone else's) Beauty and the Beast; photo David Cooper
