Despite the title, there are no ghosts in The Haunted Hillbilly (currently on at SummerWorks); however, there are plenty of hillbillies, along with a three-piece band, dazzling outfits, bits of stage magic, a rhinestone-studded prosthetic leg, and at least one paraplegic vampire. Montreal’s Sidemart Theatrical Grocery may have gone a bit over the top in their adaptation of Derek McCormack’s novel, but boy howdy, they had themselves a rootin’ tootin’ good time doing it.
Theatre festivals in the last few years have been somewhat glutted on plays tacking the nouveau topic of the quarter-life crisis, approaching it through every means from musical to monologue. This thematic suffusion, along with the tendency to get mired in self-referential irony, have resulted in this reviewer becoming pretty ambivalent on new projects about the dubious difficulties of twentysomething life.
Whimsical. It’s the word that kept pervading every thought I had while playing with the impressive cast of Countries Shaped Like Stars (which is on as part of SummerWorks). I say play because each audience member serves purposes well beyond spectator in this gem of a piece, we all become part of this intimate and quirky love story – we’re even given roles (mine was Ursa Major).
This quasi-thriller (produced by Public Radio and Camera Assembly and part of this year's SummerWorks) about Isabelle, a film studies professor whose progressive and open minded nature inadvertently invites an anonymous student to psychologically harass her digitally sounds good in summary but unfortunately falls flat on stage. This is despite capable performances, clear and elegant direction by Joanne Williams, and an above average set and production design; most of the blame falls on playwright Norman Yeung who appears to be reaching for a ‘big idea’ play without actually making many compelling arguments.
There is something charming and heartwarming about the fact that the quirky tight-knit family of artists and performers of modern lore still do exist. In the case of Molotov Circus (currently on as part of SummerWorks), Winnipeggers Arne Macpherson and Debbie Patterson are joined by their offspring, budding teenager Gislina, and youngster Solmund in the telling of a tale about a travelling family of Russian circus performers who struggle to keep a modicum of normalcy about their lives despite their unusual lifestyle. This proves to be most challenging for rebellious Albina (Gislina) who yearns to plant roots and seems...
Let me say preface this review by saying that I saw Legoland three times, and still believe that it’s one of the best pieces of whimsical theatre we’ve seen nationally in recent years. The pressure for Atomic Vaudeville’s latest Ride the Cyclone to at least live up to its predecessor was huge.
In word! sound! powah!, the third installment in monodramatist d’bi.young.anitafrika’s incredible matrilineal saga that started with the Dora award-winning blood.claat, anitafrika offers a distinctly different perspective.
The gods of the chick flick, or whatever its stage equivalent may be, have smiled on Nora Ephron once again. She teamed up with fellow writer of many mediums, Delia Ephron, to create a five-woman stage show that has audiences laughing to their hearts’ content. The actors sit behind music stands, literally reading the stories of their lives. The stories represent all women’s lives, so an audience full of women on the night I attended welcomed them with open arms.
Mary Walsh, left, Louise Pitre, Andrea Martin, Paula Brancati and Sharron Matthews in Love, Loss, and What I Wore
"Tiny Replicas” succeeds in taking gender issues out of the politically correct minefield they usually inhabit and gives them room to live and breathe in a fresh, funny romp that doesn't sacrifice substance for style.
This is theatre at its best, full of urgent physicality, humour and heart. You'll laugh. You may not cry, but you'll certainly feel stirrings in your chest cavity.
Simon and Ethan Want a baby. Simon is 30 and ready for the responsibility. His slightly younger partner Ethan says he is too. Combining Simon's lesbian friend's aspirated egg, his sperm and Ethan's hetero friend's womb, they...
The contemporary dance duet enables unparalleled expression of intimacy between two people, while the solo often represents a quest within the self. Edge 4, consisting of a duet and two solos, delivers on the promise of these forms, and more: we learn that individuality persists in the most interconnected of couples, while the imperative to relate—to oneself, to externally-imposed ideals, or to the social and physical world—exerts itself over even the most self-contained of individuals
