For a generation that believes that M Night Shyamalan invented the trick ending, the Vancouver Playhouse has resurrected a modernist narrative experiment that proves that story-telling trickery has been with us for a long time.
Halfway through Jake Ehrenreich’s autobiographical one-man show A Jew Grows in Brooklyn we find that his career began as a lounge MC in the Catskill Mountains, entertaining rooms full of vacationing families with corny jokes. Suddenly the preceding hour is put into context, as no sign of stylistic evolution from these early days can be found in Ehrenreich’s performance.
Amongst the sacred cows of theatre, Shakespeare undoubtedly sits atop them all. His work has been some of the most frequently adapted, borrowed, and updated by contemporary storytellers across all media and failing to do justice to them is guaranteed to bring forth the ire of audiences and critics alike. In many respects, Bear Production’s adaptation of A Midsummer’s Night Dream, simply titled The Dream, walks on thin ice but ultimately delivers an entertaining and noteworthy show. For that reason, one cannot help but feel they pass the threshold of success - if tenuously.
Ryan Ward as Oberon and Alana Bridgewater as Titania; photo credit: Andy McCraw
Whetstone Productions doesn’t produce a work of theatre often . . . once every few years, at best. Wingéd, the one-man show in three acts, written and performed by David Tomlinson, is worth the wait. Its quality is uneven –petering off in the end, but the first two acts are strong enough to make the audience forgive the short third act. Inside the DeLeon White Gallery, the space only seats about 50. The intimate setting allows Tomlinson to address audience members as friends or colleagues. Surrounding paintings and sculptures on display, video screens overhead and a strobe light mark...
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.
