Is musical theatre known for its subtleties? I guess not. And this is why Beyond Eden — despite its tender treatment of challenging themes — wears its many rich metaphors on its sleeve. Everything is on the surface: beautiful but obvious.
I arrive just before 7 pm - for a show that started at 12 noon and will wrap up about 8 pm. The sound begins to envelope you as you enter the space. I then notice about 30 people lying on the floor listening. Some are motionless. Others are chanting or pounding the floor with various limbs. I sit down in the front row of chairs - I think there are more people onstage in the action than with me in the stands.
After several minutes of sounds and audience members wandering in and out, a small band starts to...
The setting for The Passion of Joan of Arc, staged at Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard street, lent a aura of rarefied theatricality to this event. The church's vaulted ceilings, echoing with the buzz of the audience, the polished wood floors and intricate lighting fixtures, the dramatic architecture of the nave itself, with its adjacent alcoves like wings to a stage – these conspired to create a sense of immanent revelation. Where a black box theatre lets distractions disappear form view, the finely-crafted environment of a church makes the setting itself a player in the drama.
The Passion of Joan...
Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928
Wow – it's supercool to enter the Roundhouse by the train exhibit and use that area as the lobby. I love it! However, another audience member said it was a problem since there were no public bathrooms... (A small price to pay, I think.)
Awkward dance sequences - void of sound and fury signifying nothing
Witnessing has its costs, its collateral damage. Artists run the risk of vicarious traumatization, but being forced to look is a far different act than forcing a look. This distinction is made between a present-day Métis journalist, Angeline, and the 19th Century photographer, Edward Curtis.
In a published conversation included in the program for Theatre at UBC’s production of Romeo and Juliet, director Catriona Leger uses the word “fun” four times.
Is that Sister Lawrence in the back? Megs Chenosky and Jameson Parker with Barbara Kozicki doing some fire dance behind them. Photo Tim Matheson
