A Scottish farm couple near Saskatoon share a wee nip of the finest - like a fury worm wrapping around your heart - while planning a roast pork dinner for their daughter's sweetheart. An owl calls from the barn, sounding obviously human.
"Don't touch me there, Robbie," says Mary.
"Why not?"
"I like it too much."
In Thank You My Love, Goodbye currently on at the Victoria Fringe, it's the beginning of World War II, and Robbie is off with his Canadian brothers to fight the Huns one more time. Over the course of the next...
In Spin, Ben, the governor of Maryland, finds himself in political hot water for "copping a feel." His spin doctor, Billie, who "manipulates events in the service of truth," convinces the gov to recruit Ted, US Marine, astronaut and state hero, to join the ticket and assure re-election.But they also have to woo Ted's wife, Sally. After two years of being an Earth-widow, she just wants her man to herself for a while. Further complicating matters, she's infertile.
"I wish they had kids," says Billie. "American are the sappiest people on the planet."
Smalltown: A Pickup Musical is an original musical by Amiel Gladstone and Lucas Myers, directed by Matthew Payne, and with musical direction and arrangements by Brad L'Cuyer. A SKAM production currently on as part of the Victoria Fringe Festival it is staged from the back of a pickup truck in an urban park where wind and sun serve as mics and lighting, and a nearby shipping container is backstage and green room. 20-meter Garry oaks frame the action - perfect props for the opening song lyrics "...after the last tree falls."
The performances in Bard on the Beach's Henry V are excellent. The script, on the other hand is tired, dated, and old. Is it arrogant to critique a master like William Shakespeare? Perhaps. But the fact is that in a canon of nearly fourty plays only a handful are worth doing. The rest could really benefit from innovative make overs and reinterpretations. And unfortunately there isn't enough innovation in this production to save it.
The play begins with Henry primed to engage in a war to take over France. In a humorous passage, a clergyman justifies...
From the first words uttered onstage, I was elated. The rhythm and timbre of the dialogue suggested a lost Michel Tremblay play, with gorgeous repetitions, layered character conversations. However, things quickly become absurd, and then macabre, and then they fell apart.
With Aftershock (on as part of this year's SummerWorks), playwright Evan Tsitsias offers meditations on beauty, possession, belonging and home. Anna has just returned home from an Extreme Makeover show. Her physical beauty is utterly shocking and in some cases overbearing to her trailer park family and boyfriend. But no sooner does she return home, then she becomes...
This multimedia spectacle from writer/director Jordan Tannahill and presented by Suburban Beast (part of the SummerWorks festival) is an engagingly cinematic take on suburban angst - a topic which has been thoroughly exhausted by popular film and television but is refreshed in Tannahill's capable hands.
Vivid story telling, tangible characters, and dual synchronized video projectors add many a layer to a subtle and gently delivered story about a broken marriage, a platonic teenage romance, and a dead dog with a restless soul.
Tannahill’s script is sparse but never lacking and pitch perfect performances by Sascha Cole and David...
The joy of festivals is the sense of discovery. The sense of the unknown. And mostly the sense of possibility. With especially troublesome scheduling this year, not everything can be seen by everyone. We pick some shows, and some we leave up to fate. In this case, when I got caught up in a phone conversation en route to one show and ended up missing it, the fates guided me toward what I can truly say is my highlight of this year's SummerWorks: Kayak.
With stellar, insightful writing by Jordan Hall, Kayak, produced by The Original Norwegian, successfully...
Vancouver’s MachineFair make their Toronto debut with Biographies of the Dead and Dying, a story that’s as much about writing and creativity as it is about death and mortality. Andrew Templeton’s script tiptoes coyly along the gothic genre line to explore the beauty and agony of the creative process, while Amiel Gladstone’s direction coaxes the perfect atmospheric tone from the would-be ghost story.
Aviva Armour-Ostroff plays Alice, a one-hit chick lit author who’s rented an allegedly haunted house on the coast of Vancouver Island in the hopes of finding inspiration for her next novel. Alice is tormented by her...
I’ve made a decision. I’m tying the course of my life to the fate of a musical. If Ride The Cyclone achieves the massive success it deserves, I will continue to work hard, seek wisdom and make sound choices. If it peters out and leaves its contributors on E.I., I will make all significant decisions on the basis of where darts hit the board. I’ll play Russian roulette. I’ll buy lottery tickets. Because if this show does not become a phenomenon causing obsession, there is no rhyme or reason in the world.
Ryan M. Sero’s dystopic comedy A Modicum of Freedom (produced by make.art.theatre as part of SummerWorks) is set in an Orwellian future where the totalitarian government exerts complete control over the citizens. While the setting is far from original, the twist is new; the entire population is given day-to-day instructions on how to live their personal lives, as dictated by ministry-appointed writers and overseen by omnipresent security officers. Unfortunately this potential-heavy premise never quite manages to get off the ground, leaving the audience more preoccupied with imagining Sero’s world for themselves than attending the details put forth on stage....
