tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30347771297006672472023-11-16T04:38:10.629-08:00Sprockets and GreasepaintI obsess about theatre, and sometimes, I go to the movies.Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-20838738494016321842018-04-26T06:33:00.002-07:002018-04-26T18:24:26.990-07:00Belinda Cornish talks about the creation of CATEGORY E with S&GBy the time we start talking, Belinda Cornish has had quite a day: 2 ½ hours in traffic due to the chaos at Yonge and Finch in the aftermath of a horrific vehicular homicide. We finally meet via Facetime. As we settle in to chat, her dad brings her a gin and tonic. He waves at me. Belinda's parents have come to Toronto all the way from the UK to see the Eastern Canadian debut of their daughter’s show.<br />
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She apologizes for the drink. I show her my rather large glass of post-dinner wine. So we have a drink together, on line.<br />
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The talented Ms. Cornish is one of Edmonton’s hottest playwrights. Recently, a few western Canadian playwrights have found themselves in the spotlight here in Toronto (Vern Thiessen anyone?), and they’ve fared rather well. Cornish’s dystopian three-hander, CATEGORY 3 opened to rave reviews last week at Coalmine Theatre.<br />
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I ask Cornish what inspired her. “Animal rights and animal testing. I know it’s a complex issue. I can’t tell people how to feel. However, are any lives implicitly more valuable? Whose life matters?”<br />
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Cornish is passionate, articulate and very, very smart. She researched the play and the issue of vivisection, in part, through conversations with Dr. Michelle Jendral of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, an animal behavioural scientist and the CCAC, The Canadian Council on Animal Care. The title of the play is derived from the CCAC’s definition of the most invasive category of animal testing, category E which induces “active pain to or beyond the pain threshold bearable at consciousness, unalleviated pain or stress, the end point being death.”<br />
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I point out that we inflict this kind of pain of pain on humans quite routinely in the 21st century: in Syria, Congo, Yeman. Cornish agrees. “Yes: class, race, religion, gender, age, species; globally we are being forced to examine two questions: what is the value of life and whose life do we value?”<br />
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The human lab rats in Category E are selected on the basis of intelligence and professional success. Human misfits and ‘failures” are unsexed (characters refer to each other as ‘it”) then relegated to life in a cage, subjected to a series of increasingly vile experiments in the service of the beauty industry.<br />
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I tell Cornish about the ads that appear in Metro every morning, enticing human lab rats to participate in “harmless” drug trials for money. I tell her about people I know who’ve done them, sometimes for years on end, to make ends meet.<br />
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The final image of Category E is seared on my brain. I ask Cornish if it was her idea or the actor’s. “Mine: It’s a stage direction. But he’s brilliant. The cast is a gift.”<br />
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It’s an excellent production of an insightful and disturbing play. <br />
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Cornish has two new shows currently in development. She was part of The Lab, the playwright’s unit at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, where she wrote an adaptation of Tom Babiak’s novel, <b>The Garneau Block</b>. Currently she’s co-creating a circus adaptation of <b>Dante’s Inferno</b> with Jocelyn Ahlf of Firefly Theatre. The piece will receive a workshop in Edmonton next January. <br />
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I hope it comes to Toronto. Meanwhile, you have another week to catch her current work.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ODoLcFsFPISZtY73pzJYvh-lG2JBXi1r-ClvV0Q6PbqnjTfRXAC2VVSw8geZqNvKBJ8XOCgHX4NAylcJmA3XtPajJ6K9_CpeHaVsGLxvcuITkXcLD4amqFsMGk50y74Hx2kgLRMfqqJk/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3ODoLcFsFPISZtY73pzJYvh-lG2JBXi1r-ClvV0Q6PbqnjTfRXAC2VVSw8geZqNvKBJ8XOCgHX4NAylcJmA3XtPajJ6K9_CpeHaVsGLxvcuITkXcLD4amqFsMGk50y74Hx2kgLRMfqqJk/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cast of Category E: Diana Bentley, Vivien Endicott-Douglas & Robert Persichini</td></tr>
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CATEGORY E runs until April 29th at the Coalmine Theatre in Toronto. For location, dates, times and tickets go to: <a href="http://www.coalminetheatre.com/" target="_blank">http://www.coalminetheatre.com</a></div>
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-25079291074519921642017-10-04T08:58:00.001-07:002017-10-04T09:00:59.786-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">“I’m afraid I took “break a leg” a bit too seriously”, quips Robert Fothergill when we first speak. The playwright is
hobbling around after breaking his femur.
It’s healing nicely and the injury didn’t delay the opening of his
latest play, LET’S GO…at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace last Wednesday.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Fothergill has a long history with a couple
of guys named Gogo and Didi. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">He first encountered them in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city> back in 1957 (or
was it1955) and they’ve hung out intermittently ever since.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">WAITING FOR GODOT may be getting a revival
at SoulPepper right now, but at the same time, Fothergill and colleagues are
presenting a funny and fanciful prequel about an earlier period in
the lives of 20<sup>th</sup> century English language theatre’s most famous
comedy duos.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It’s a charming, bittersweet look at a
young Gogo and Didi, who Fothergill ahs imagined as pair of young
vaudevillians, riding around from gig to gig on a tandem bicycle. “Bicycles
were a trope for Beckett. The tandem is
a metaphor: Gogo and Didi are dependent on each other.” When we meet the
pair in LET’S GO…the two are at a
crossroads: as a team, and, in their lives. They are also discovering they may
be at cross-purposes in life. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Like the source of its inspiration, LET’S
GO… explores what’s worth waiting around for and what’s worth going after.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Fothergill
seems to have taken his early time studying Beckett’s two most famous
creations as fair warning. Certainly he
hasn’t wasted his own life. He wrote an M.A. on Beckett’s novels while still in
the U.K, where he grew up and was educated.
He wrote his first play in 1965, which appeared in a festival of new
work at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Toronto</st1:placename></st1:place>. The following year he began teaching at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">York</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
where he taught 1<sup>st</sup> year theatre history until 2006. Two of his
pupils from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">York</st1:place></st1:city>
appear in t he current production.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">He made a famous pseudo-documentary,
COUNTDOWN <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">CANADA</st1:place></st1:country-region>
in 1970, which may have been one of the first broadcasts of satirical “fake
news” in this country. His play DETAINING MR.TROTSKY about the famous early 20<sup>th</sup>
century’s Communist’s month-long detention in a prison in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Amherst</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Nova Scotia</st1:state></st1:place>
in 1917 was produced by Bill Glassco at the old Toronto Free Theatre,
forerunner to Canadian Stage.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Fothergill has retired from teaching but
remains a very active playwright, with shows at Summerworks in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Toronto</st1:place></st1:city> in 2003, 2004 and 2007. After all
this time Beckett still interests him.
‘I wanted to take a second look at Godot. Beckett was an incredible pessimist, in spite
of having had a very nice life. Gogo and Didi didn’t need to end up like that,”
says Fothergill. “Life is better – and worse than waiting around.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">At the end of our chat Fothergill very
kindly asks me about myself and my own career and writing practice. This never
happens when I interview someone and I’m very touched that he made the effort.
“My wife says, Ask a question.” She needn’t have worried. Like all good scholars – and writers, in life
and in art, Fothergill asks at least as many questions as he answers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">LET’S GO…continues this week from Wednesday to Sunday at the Theatre
Passe Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson Avenue, Toronto. Tickets: Regular tickets are $25 Student and Artsworker tickets are $15. Tickets may be purchased online at<a href="http://www.artsboxoffice.ca/" target="_blank"> ArtsBoxOffice.ca</a> or by calling (416) 504 7529</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: medium;"></span></span></span></div>
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Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-33080110373887657942017-09-28T15:54:00.001-07:002017-09-28T16:03:39.532-07:00THE ALIENS and TITLE and DEED get the Toronto Theatre season off to a fine startThe unseasonably balmy weather last Wednesday was perfect for opening night of THE ALIENS, Annie Baker's gorgeous gift of a play about male friendship.<br />
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Set in the warm and heady time between high school and thirty when everything still seems possible, THE ALIENS is a poetic ode to everyone "on the road to nowhere".<br />
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A couple of drifting dreamers, both pushing 30 spend their shapeless days hanging out: Jasper(Will Greenblatt) is an edgy, Bukowski devotee and aspiring novelist and KJ (Noah Reid), a music-loving college drop-out with mental health issues. Jasper just got dumped. KJ still lives at home with his granola mom. <br />
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KJ and Jasper have a band, they've had innumerable bands, and there's a very funny sequence where Jasper rattles off the various considered and discarded names for their outfit. KJ loves mushrooms and is always trying new ways to ingest his drug of choice. <br />
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Their place in the world is a picnic table in an alley that dead-ends behind a local coffee shop in small-town Vermont. They aren't supposed to be there. The restaurant's new dishwasher, Evan (Max Crumpler-Haynes making an astonishing debut), a seventeen year old boy with a mop of red curls and a face like a flower is tasked with kicking them out. He's studying music, so that doesn't happen. Instead, Evan starts sneaking out to join them.<br />
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The narrow confines of the Coal Mine Theatre are put to excellent use by designer Anahita Dehbonehie in Baker's subtle marvel of a play. KJ and Jasper are at a dead-end in their lives. They're almost unemployable: hovering in the small space between artistic ambition and a desolate future behind a chain-link fence somewhere worse: the bottom echelons of a mall, a factory, a hospital or a prison. They fantasize about hitting the road, but their only actual trips are the result of substance ingestion. Sometimes talent and imagination are enough to propel someone out of a life of limited options, but more often than not,they aren't. <br />
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"Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens" said the Talking Heads. Something does happen in THE ALIENS: randomly and devastatingly, and when it does,the finite limits of time and possibility hit both characters and audience like a tsunami.<br />
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Director Mitchell Cushman and his talented actors do a marvelous job of bringing Baker's near-perfect script to life. This is a play with a lot of pauses and small bits of business. Not one moment went on too long or seemed extraneous or affected. THE ALIENS is close to theatre Heaven.<br />
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Over at the Tarragon Workspace, Christopher Stanton reprises Will Eno's lyrical TITLE and DEED. The tiny space is made more even intimate by the use of lamplight. Stanton and his director Stewart Arnott gracefully depict a man so sensitive and so uncomfortable in the world, he seems ready to crawl out of his own skin. Stanton's character may be homeless in life, but Stanton, the actor inhabits the text and the character completely. The delicate poetic play is also well worth a visit.<br />
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Two great shows in a week: the Toronto fall season is off to a flying start. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGcY-8rYwH38G2GxAyLfdoyk4UBb4WrFXU343aaub-zd6x-J3ie4YEDlAXl1F5QAzBUhCAMucQEpqiGhEblAi92bny3rwVzBm9IxNd6tLQ6EoU3gleC8kTmR3ZBHmeZLND3AUX_KUEoQjG/s1600/RM6LKJT46FA6JM33EKAVFZMFLY.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGcY-8rYwH38G2GxAyLfdoyk4UBb4WrFXU343aaub-zd6x-J3ie4YEDlAXl1F5QAzBUhCAMucQEpqiGhEblAi92bny3rwVzBm9IxNd6tLQ6EoU3gleC8kTmR3ZBHmeZLND3AUX_KUEoQjG/s320/RM6LKJT46FA6JM33EKAVFZMFLY.JPG" width="320" /></a>The Canadian Premiere of<br />
<b>THE ALIENS</b><br />
Written by Annie Baker<br />
Directed by Mitchell Cushman<br />
Starring Max Crumpler-Haynes, Will Greenblatt, Noah Reid<br />
Set and Costume Design by Anahita Dehbonehie<br />
Lighting Design by Nick Blais • Sound Design by Sam Sholdice<br />
<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_396445316" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">September 17 – October 8, 2017</span></span><br />
Tuesday-Saturday @ <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_396445317" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">7:30</span></span> • Sunday Matinee @ <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_396445318" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">2pm</span></span><br />
(Sunday preview @ <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_396445319" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">7:30pm</span></span>)<br />
All Tickets $42.50 + hst (previews $25 +hst) • SEASON PASS $140 + hst<b><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://twitter.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u%3D012656377a893ce00048518ab%26id%3Da977f47dfa%26e%3D468dc32378&source=gmail&ust=1506719935798000&usg=AFQjCNFpGG60JocK7R364wefXshfcrFf8Q" href="http://twitter.us12.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=012656377a893ce00048518ab&id=a977f47dfa&e=468dc32378" style="color: #2baadf; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">http://www.brownpapertickets.<wbr></wbr>com/TheCoalMine</a></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkb32hikzt30NVtjKLgmbrgyexGGGtu0j8JpEkjPkro1Je6u-U1KB3RKQ-yOCn8g7ibNxjvN2QtXqfM9dhLHUaxEpL-9lo8T1PGxO-gNE-mWfaMB295XjKbw2d7ARkuPX9qkvWBPVgzKOK/s1600/IMG_20170920_1936410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkb32hikzt30NVtjKLgmbrgyexGGGtu0j8JpEkjPkro1Je6u-U1KB3RKQ-yOCn8g7ibNxjvN2QtXqfM9dhLHUaxEpL-9lo8T1PGxO-gNE-mWfaMB295XjKbw2d7ARkuPX9qkvWBPVgzKOK/s320/IMG_20170920_1936410.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><br />Nightfall Theatrics presents<br /><br /> TITLE AND DEED<br /> Written by Will Eno<br />
Directed by Stewart Arnott<br />
Performed by Christopher Stanton<br />Tarragon Workspace,<br />
30 Bridgman Avenue<br /><br /> September 19 – October 8, 2017<br /> Tuesday – Saturday @ 8pm<br />
Saturday and Sunday @ 2:30pm<br />
All tickets $22 + service charges<br />
A portion of the house will be held as Pay-What-You-Can on Saturday matinees<br />To purchase tickets please visit <a href="http://www.tarragontheatre.com/show/title-and-deed/">tarragontheatre.com/show/title-and-deed/<br /> </a>(*please note there is no performance on Friday, September 29)<br /><br /><br /> </div>
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-3202199436377497272017-07-12T14:29:00.000-07:002017-07-12T14:31:46.020-07:00Review: 2017 Toronto Fringe - so far... The Toronto Fringe is sliding into the back half and it's time to take a look at this year's proceedings, just past the mid-point.<br />
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The site moved to Dundas and Bathurst Street to the hockey rink pad beside the skateboard park at Scadding Court. The festival staff and volunteers have made a concerted effort to tart the place up: there's fairy lights around the bar, a big, raised stage with a good sound system at one end, green umbrellas and colorful table cloths dot the floor. The stage has been inventively programmed. The DJs on Saturday night gave the place a great vibe and lots of people were up dancing. There's a tented area on one side to provide shade:all good.<br />
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Posters are mounted at the front of the site and in the Jon Kaplan Tent
at the path leading into the tent, beside the community centre. Jimmy's
has a coffee stall out there. The ticket booth is also outside, at the
front. Don't get me started on the ticketing system which the staff is struggling heroically to deal with.<br />
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The downside: the concrete pad is unbearably hot (and therefore pretty empty) during the day. When I arrived at 6:00 PM on Tuesday night to grab dinner before a 7:15PM show, the one lonely food vendor on the inside was just setting up. He had a few cold bowls available, but his grill was going to take 45 minutes to heat up. Cold tofu wasn't going to cut it. I wandered over to Dundas Street West and had a great, cheap Asian dinner at Chop Chop.<br />
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There are a lot of nice bars and restaurants in that stretch of Dundas, just west of Bathurst, but I would rather have given my money to the festival and its vendors.<br />
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After my 7:15 show I went back for a drink with friends: the bar filled up as the sun went down, the food stall inside was operationalby then and it was a fun night. I have to say however, that I approached my stroll out of the bar at 10:00 PM with some trepidation.<br />
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The park and the community centre at the corner of Queen and Sherbourne is possibly the only sketchier public space than Scadding Court on a major intersection in the downtown core. There are signs in the planters leading into the community centre asking patrons not to leave syringes in the flower beds.<br />
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The festival has placed a strong and very visible security presence at the entrance to the beer tent (as usual) and also has a security person at the entrance to the site. I've locked my bike out there<br />
(a few more racks at the front would be fantastic) because then I can unlock and know my bike and I are safe under his watchful gaze.<br />
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An exit from the rink that doesn't involve a stroll down an alley behind the rink would
go a long way to making the site feel safer for this woman after dark. <br />
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Meanwhile Honest Ed's is tagged and abandoned. As I biked past it on the way home from the Tarragon the other night, I couldn't help but wonder why the festival couldn't have been allowed to use the site until construction actually started. An entire, once vibrant block of the city is now a dead zone of chain-link fence and vacant properties. There's another block of tagged hoarding and chain-link fence on the walk from the Factory to the site, along Bathurst Street between Adelaide and Queen, where some scammy developer has only managed to acquire half the houses he's hoping to raze for yet another condo project.<br />
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The festival has made the best of a bad business - a site move in downtown Toronto: a city with exploding land values and massive intensification in the core. It's too bad the festival can't just take over half the CNE for 2 weeks - or relocate there permanently and have a permanent location like Edmonton has with theatres on-site. The Queen Elizabeth is certainly under-utilized.<br />
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The art: the festival is huge this year: 160 shows. I'm about half-way through my viewing. I've missed the Robert Gill as a venue. I also stupidly missed <i>Delirium</i> the other night because I under-calculated the length of time it would take me to bike to the Tarragon. Sorry, Martin.<br />
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There's been a great pool of acting talent on display this year. A few stand-out performances:Jakob Ehman in <i>10 Creative Ways to Dispose of Your Cremains</i>, Adam Bailey in <i>The Life of Henri</i> and Penny Ashton in <i>Olive Copperbottom</i> who sings, dances and acts her way through a panoply of Dickensian characters with great verve and wit.She also wins hands-down for best costume of the festival. Vanessa Quesnelle in <i>Moonlight After Midnight</i> gives a star turn in beautiful and very affecting performance. She co-stars with her husband Martin Dockery who penned the script: there's real magic in their chemistry onstage.<br />
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In other dynamic duos: Pete N' Chris killed it on Monday night before a packed throng of adoring fans in their utterly ridiculous romp through a series of holiday classics,<span class="st"> <i>A Peter n' Christ-mas Carol</i></span>. Similarly, Jessica Gabriel and Chloe Ziner (Mind of a Snail) created a saucy, feminist, mad and unique look at love sex and relationships in Multiple Organism. They got a big standing O from the crowd who howled with laughter (and recognition) throughout the show.<br />
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Finally, I saw two solo shows that featured that rare combination of a great story and a terrific performance: Sam Mullins in <i>Weaksauce </i>and Joanne O'Sullivan in <i>She Grew Funny</i>.<br />
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All the shows above are well worth a visit.<br />
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This weekend, I'm going to see quite a few shows created by women: more on that later. See you in the line-ups and at the beer tent.<br />
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The Toronto Fringe continues at various sites across the West end of Toronto. For schedules and tickets go to <a href="http://www.fringetoronto.com/" target="_blank">www.fringetoronto.com </a><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-26122681012541141102017-07-05T15:55:00.003-07:002017-07-05T15:55:55.447-07:00Preview: TORONTO FRINGE 2017 - because I LIKE to watch...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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How do you know your Fringe billet is soon to arrive?<br />
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The rubber vomit in the mail should have been my first clue: SHOULD is the operative word in this sentence.<br />
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Two weeks ago, a plain brown envelope arrived at my office containing a back-page -of the comics slab of rubber vomit. Who the hell would gift me with a 10 year old boy's idea of a joke? No sender except for Amazon and some random gag supplier in Las Vegas. A weekend of paranoid speculation ensued as well as a number of long, deep conversations about strategies for dealing with harassment.<br />
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A week later, I'm on Messenger with Penny Ashton. She's my billet/Fringe guest this year. Her promo materials arrived ahead of her - at my office as we arranged. "Did you get my small package?" she asked. Oh no. I expected the posters, fliers and magnets but had totally forgotten about the parcel. "Was it rubber vomit?" I asked? "Yes!" I needed fake gruel and I thought - vomit - perfect!" I sheepishly confessed to having returned it to sender with no note. "Did they not put my name on it?" No, because if they had, I would have known it was a prop.<br />
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I should have known: as those of us who have been hanging around these festivals for a few years can tell you: anything can happen at the Fringe. <br />
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Ms. Ashton and her petticoats are now ensconced in my domicile. Kidding Awound in Yorkville had replacement ersatz gruel. I'm feeling a bit less stupid now. Penny's new show opens tomorrow: and the 29th annual Toronto Fringe Festival opens tonight.<br />
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What to see at a festival that now offers 160 shows over eleven days?<br />
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Here's a few thoughts, organized in order of venue.<br />
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<b>Venue #1 Tarragon Theatre Mainspace</b><br />
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A PETE N' CHRIS-TMAS CAROL<br />
The beloved Fringe faves are back with a Dickens send-up. I'm interested to see what the lads do with the literary great's most popular tale.<br />
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DELIRIUM<br />
The lanky American storyteller returns with a tale he says is "search for meaning." He five-stars and sells out a cross the country. A number of people have told me they think this is one of his best shows. He also co-stars with his wife Vanessa Quesnelle in a thriller MOONLIGHT AFTER MIDNIGHT, which is billed as both a mystery and a romance.<br />
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<b>Venue #3 TARRAGON THEATRE SOLO ROOM</b><br />
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MAGICAL MYSTERY DETOUR<br />
Gemma Wilcox is a physical performer of astonishing dexterity and precision, well worth watching.<br />
She regularly sells out in Winnipeg and Edmonton.<br />
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<b>Venue #4 Al GREEN THEATRE</b><br />
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OLIVE COPPERBOTTOM: A NEW MUSICAL by Charles Dickens and Penny Ashton<br />
Ms. Ashton is not only my room-mate for the duration of the festival, she that rare combo platter of talented writer and skilled performer. I can't wait to see her sing, dance and act her way through this parody of Dickens.<br />
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JAMES &JAMESEY IN THE DARK<br />
The admired British comedy duo are back with more high-stepping ridiculousness. I find them very charming.<br />
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<b>Venue #5 THE RANDOLPH THEATRE</b><br />
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ROUGH MAGIC<br />
My friends, apt 613 reviewers Barb Popel and Brian Carroll told me this was a favourite show at the Ottawa Fringe this year. I quite enjoyed WEIRD this company's take on the Scottish play and I look forward to seeing what they do with a fanciful tale about the relationship between Ariel and Caliban.<br />
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6 QUICK DICK TRICKS: A DIRK DARROW INVESTIGATION<br />
Magic meets comedy meets noir: how much Fringier can you get?<br />
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<b>VENUE #6 ANNEX THEATRE</b><br />
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BAD BABY PRESENTS: RULES CONTROL THE FUN<br />
I always enjoy Janelle Hanna and she's working with Briana Brown who is a fine director. I look forward to seeing her clown turn.<br />
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IN SEARCH OF CRUISE CONTROL<br />
James Gangl teams up with Chris Gibbs. Gangl is an excellent comedian and a terrific writer. this will be well-worth seeing.<br />
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<b>VENUE #7 ST VLADIMIR'S</b><br />
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WEIRDER THOU ART<br />
Stephen Flett is in this: it's hardly the Toronto Fringe until you've seen a show with Stephen Flett in it.<br />
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<b>Venue #8 HELEN GARDINER PHELAN PLAYHOUSE</b><br />
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WEAKSAUCE <br />
Storyteller extraordinaire Sam Mullins returns with a show I hope I finally get to see this festival.<br />
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<b>Venue #9 THEATRE PASSE MURAILLE MAINSPACE</b><br />
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THE SEAT NEXT TO THE KING<br />
I always check out the winner of the Best New Play competition.<br />
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TEN CREATIVE WAYS TO DISPOSE OF YOUR CREMAINS<br />
Playwright Rose Napoli is a good enough reason for me to be there.<br />
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GRAHAM CLARK'S NOT HERE<br />
Graham Clarke made a show out of a phone book. This time he's apparently not even showing up.<br />
I guess we'll have to go and see. <br />
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<b>VENUE #10 FACTORY THEATRE MAINSPACE</b><br />
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MULTIPLE ORGANISM<br />
Mind of Snail Puppet Company is beyond fabulous. If you've never seen them, here's your chance. If you have, well, you've probably already got a ticket.<br />
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PINEAPPLE CLUB<br />
So last year, I took a flier and went, on my sister's recommendation to see DANCE ANIMAL.<br />
It was fabulous and I stayed awake through the whole thing after 11:00 PM on a school night. At my age, that means it's a great bloody show.<br />
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<b>VENUE #12 FACTORY STUDIO THEATRE</b><br />
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SHE GREW FUNNY<br />
Chris Earle (Radio 30) directs Joanne O'Sullivan in a story that intrigued me.<br />
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As the survivor of a broken engagement myself, I'm thinking about DISENGAGED, also at this venue. I'll see.<br />
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<b>SITE SPECIFIC SHOWS</b><br />
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VENUE #15 THE LIFE HENRI<br />
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Adam Bailey (ADAM BAILEY IS ON FIRE!) and Laura Anne Harris ( PITCH BLONDE, THE HOME-MAKER) team up to tell the story of French painter, Henri Rousseau. I'm an art history buff and - full confession - Harris directed me the last time I toured - so I'll be seeing this.<br />
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<b>VENUE #21 SCADDING COURT</b><br />
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SNAP!<br />
A bunch of terrific Toronto actors team up to do a dark comedy. Hey, it's next to the beer tent, so you don't tell me you can't find the venue.<br />
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<b>VENUE #24 MONARCH TAVERN</b><br />
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MADDIE'S KARAOKE BIRTHDAY PARTY<br />
Byron Laviolette (Morro and Jasp) directs this 1/4 life crisis musical.<br />
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<b>VENUE #32 FALLING ANGEL</b><br />
Bruce Hunter is in this and that's a good enough reason for me to recommend that you check it out. Carolyn Azar directs this show which takes place al fresco - in Shaw Park - CAMH.<br />
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<b>VENUE #33 LYSISTRATA</b><br />
The ladies of Greece put the booty thang on lock-down until the men-folk stop being at war.<br />
My Fringe experience is never complete without seeing some bunch of young things take on Greeks.<br />
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OK, I need to order tickets and work out my schedule. I'll see you in the beer tent - which is now at the south-east corner of Dundas and Bathurst, behind the Scadding Court Community Centre.<br />
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<span id="goog_685265984"></span><span id="goog_685265985"></span>For show schedules and tickets go to:<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"> www.fringetoronto.com </a><br />
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Happy Fringing everybody!<br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-53006694531712185022017-06-21T14:54:00.000-07:002017-09-18T14:10:44.907-07:00REVIEW: MORRO and JASP are out of this world in the smart and hilarious STUPEFACTION<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Two clowns, Morro and Jasp, dressed in their finest
(by Robin Fisher) enter a theatre as the lights go down. It’s a rainy
night, they’re struggling with their umbrellas, and they’re late for the
start of a play. Morro wants to take Jasp to do something special, to
cheer her up after she’s weathered a bad break-up.<br /><br />A rather
officious usher (the very funny Elliot Loran) chivvies them into – one
seat. The show they’ve come to see is delayed by technical
difficulties. A theatre tech appears (an excellent Sefton Jackson)from
back stage and tries source the problem in a pit below the stage. Then
things start to get a little weird.<br /><br />Fed Ex (Anand Ramjaram as a charming sad sack) arrives with a mysterious package. Is this a sign?<br /><br />How
do we explain the inexplicable to ourselves and to others? Are there
mysterious forces above and beyond us? Is someone – anyone - in charge,
ever? What do we believe in? How do those beliefs bring us together and
how do they drive us apart?<br /><br />These are big questions, and
Stupefaction tackles them boldly, with a sense of wonder, ineffable
charm, audience participation, and Cheezies. Annis, Lee and company make a
night of theatrical magic.<br /><br />This is the most ambitious Morro and
Jasp show to date with a five-member cast and complex tech. In contrast
to the big production values, the script has a kind of loosey-goosy
vibe: this disparity creates a perfect container for the cosmic subject
matter.<br /><br />Make no mistake: there’s plenty of skill underpinning the gleeful chaos that unfolds before us. <br /><br />The
sound design by Lyon Smith, Deanna Choi, lighting by David DeGrow and
projections by Montgomery Martin adds a compelling otherworldly aura
to the proceedings. The technicians on this show more than deserved
their applause.<br /><br />The entire cast delivers great ensemble work
marrying physical comedy and hilarious, well-timed delivery. Byron Laviolette’s smart direction makes creative use of
the entire space. He and his cast do a great job of escalating and
slackening the pace in all the right moments. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Stupefaction takes the
audience on a wild and magical ride ending in a joyous conclusion. Any room with Morro and Jasp in it is always a happy place. They’ve extended their run. I suggest you rush to get a ticket.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzj0DtbKr6r4YAN5G8mg36W2LeXYnQ7bCsV5Ka21OruVm4v8DaBagb5w3-nUrKlqYfjr3FO3o0HArNYxFinCN9FA_wbPAEZIWyfvHFZ-UZoIyUfQph3PIbRevwFEZN3RLsEAUPlYCUPVW/s1600/1+Morro+%2526+Jasp+In+Stupefaction+-+Amy+Lee+and+Heather+Marie+Annis+-+Photo+Credit+by+Alex+Nirta+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzj0DtbKr6r4YAN5G8mg36W2LeXYnQ7bCsV5Ka21OruVm4v8DaBagb5w3-nUrKlqYfjr3FO3o0HArNYxFinCN9FA_wbPAEZIWyfvHFZ-UZoIyUfQph3PIbRevwFEZN3RLsEAUPlYCUPVW/s400/1+Morro+%2526+Jasp+In+Stupefaction+-+Amy+Lee+and+Heather+Marie+Annis+-+Photo+Credit+by+Alex+Nirta+.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Morro and Jasp</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Kabin and U.N.I.T.<span style="font-size: small;"><u> </u></span>Productions present </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Morro and Jasp in STUPEFACTION</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Crowsnest Streetcar</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">345 Carlaw, Toronto </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For tickets and information go to:<a href="http://www.crowstheatre.com/" target="_blank"> www.crowstheatre.com</a></span>Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-77179024289039662432017-05-12T16:45:00.001-07:002017-06-28T11:17:20.106-07:00REVIEW: It's All Tru: Sky GIlbert doesn't let facts get in the way of politicsThere's much to admire about the prolific and always provocative Sky Gilbert's latest play, IT'S ALL TRU.<br />
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It's a sharply observed examination of age, class, sex, and politics among gay white men, centered around a love triangle: Kurt (a well-cast Tim Post), a buttoned-down, Brooks Brothers professor with a good job, a nice condo and a thing for younger men, his fiance, Travis ( an excellent David Coomber) a young theatre director who's nowhere nearly as dumb as he acts, and Gideon ( a heart-breaking Caleb Olivieri), a trick Travis picks up on some"dating" app one night when Kurt is out of town.<br />
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Kurt and Travis are a modern couple: their relationship is an open one, with parameters and rules governing sex outside the relationship. Gideon and his ilk: hot, under-employed, emotionally confused young gay guys are to be used for sex and discarded like take-out containers. <br />
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Gideon however actually likes Travis and felt an emotional as well as a sexual connection during their one night stand. He flat-out pursues Travis with an endearingly awkward ardor and he does manage to gain some ground with the object of his affections. Gideon is spottily employed, he's been in trouble with the law, he lives in Hamilton and, well - he has no money.<br />
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Travis initially rebuffs Gideon, but as Kurt becomes increasingly controlling and proprietary, Travis has a decision to make.<br />
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Oh yeah: Travis and Gideon had unprotected sex (something Travis tells us he and Kurt NEVER do) and Gideon is HIV-positive. Travis is taking "after" pills (he forgot his "before" pills). No one is going to die from this: not like 25 years ago.<br />
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Consent is an issue: did the party drugs they both took nullify Travis's consent to bareback? Kurt says it does. Gideon is sure Travis consented to bare-backing: in fact, he claims Travis asked for it. Travis isn't sure-or is he?<br />
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This is where things got complicated for me. Replace HIV with "pregnant" and you've pretty much got a straight couple dealing with the fact that sex without protection sometimes has unexpected and undesirable consequences not easily remedied by a course of antibiotics. Geez, really, you think?<br />
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My sister was the lead defense counsel on R. v. Mabior, the 2012 case that redefined the law around HIV and disclosure. The rule of law is simple and the decision of the court was unanimous: you don't have disclose your status if you wear a condom, if you want to bareback (or your partner does) you do. Mr. Mabior, for the record, was straight. My sister felt the law should be "caveat emptor". So, apparently does Gilbert. The court did not agree.<br />
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By the way, Kurt could not call someone at the private bar (lawyers you hire to defend you) and get Gideon charged with aggravated sexual assault, convicted, and then incarcerated. Travis would have to have gone to the police and charged Gideon. The police and the Crown would have to have determined if there was sufficient evidence to lay charges.Travis would have to have testified at a sexual assault trial. Any half-decent defense lawyer would have made mince-meat out of his testimony. Professor Gilbert really ought to know better.<br />
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Gilbert also has Kurt troll Gideon ( he's in a hoodie: we and he can't see his face) at a urinal in a men's room. Oh how I wish Gideon had whipped out his camera and photographed the incident. A far more interesting discussion about sex, power, consent, and the law might have ensued when the photo and the story turned up on Twitter.<br />
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Without consent, it's sexual assault. Why is it so hard to get men - gay or straight - to understand something so bloody simple? <br />
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<a href="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; 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Tickets may be purchased by phone at 416-975-8555, at the Buddies in <a href="http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/tickets/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bad Times Theatre box office</a>, or online <a href="https://tickets.buddiesinbadtimes.com/TheatreManager/1/online?event=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-84646015402417322902017-05-04T14:50:00.000-07:002017-09-18T14:17:03.508-07:00REVIEWS: Madness and Civilization: WhyNot Theatre Delivers a Compelling Prince HamletIt's WHYNOT Theatre's 10th anniversary and artistic director Ravi Jain decided to revisit HAMLET, the first show the company ever did.<br />
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It's was a wonderful choice. Jain's intellectual rigor, bold choices and risk-taking really shine in this imperfect, but fascinating production.<br />
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One of Jain's bold choices is the casting. Most of the company are female. Jeff Ho takes the role of Ophelia - so we have a straight couple with the gender roles reversed - or do we? All the women playing men are dressed in haberdashery. The only obviously female character on the stage is Karen Robinson, who plays Gertrude with great warmth and lush sensuality.<br />
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Jain's production effectively stands "received practices" on its anachronistic head. Nice going!<br />
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HAMLET is a tough play for a modern audience. In Shakespeare's time most spectators would have believed in ghosts,in an after-life,in God, in Hell and Heaven. For a cross-cultural, globe-trotting audience more likely to regard religion from an anthropological perspective, the play can demand a little more suspension of disbelief than it can muster.<br />
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Jain and his cast surmount this difficulty with elan. When Hamlet's father's ghost appears on the ramparts, the scene seems to begin in reality with the guards,then shifts to Hamlet's bed as he tosses and turns alone and asleep. Did Hamlet dream his late father's visitation? Is the dream prescient -or just a product of his disturbed imagination? Brilliant.<br />
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The Danish court, wonderfully designed by Lorenzo Savoini,is a hall of mirrors illuminated by gilt chandeliers suspended above a parquet platform. There's a visual nod to Versailles, but also to self-reflexive modernity, where we all watch ourselves and each other constantly on social media. The mirrors face the audience,implicating the spectators in the spectacle. Piles of dirt surround the stage and as the characters are subsumed by their weaknesses and mortality; despair (Ophelia),rage (Laertes), carnality (Claudius and Gertrude)they become covered in dirt.<br />
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I don't think I've ever seen a better or more convincing Claudius and Gertrude. In his pale, tight suit, silver hair just slightly too long, Rick Roberts epitomizes a certain kind of aging sleazebag.<br />
I believed he would have killed his own brother in order to sleep with his sister-in-law. <br />
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His delivery of the "your father lost a father" speech was perfect: a patina of parental concern and reason coating a core of disgust and annoyance. When he prays, it's to the looking-glass, a moment less with the Almighty and more with the reflection of his own soul: a mirror held up to Nature indeed.<br />
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Maria Vancratsis is an outstanding Polonius, deftly drawing a meddlesome,self-important courtier and helicopter parent. The Stratford veteran's delivery was beautiful.<br />
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Horatio is played by Dawn Jani Birley. She uses sign language to
communicate. A skilled and compelling performer,the statuesque artist
commands the stage. Her Horatio occupies a parallel place to the
audience, also seen but not heard, silent witness to all of the action.<br />
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Christine Horne, rail thin, her ghost-like,luminous pallor accentuated by an all-black wardrobe plays Hamlet as depressed, and so grief-stricken by the death of her father as to be teetering on the edge of insanity. Horne looks like she hasn't had a shower in a week.<br />
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Her scenes with Horatio and Gertrude are nuanced and credible. Her relationship with Ophelia is also well-drawn. She and Ho make us feel the loss of their love through the intrusions of meddlesome parents. Her relationship with Horatio is a total bro-mance, showcasing her mastery of Hamlet's wit. The scene with Hamlet, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is uproarious.<br />
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The night I saw her, Horne seemed less confident with the self-reflective soliloquies. One of the few flaws with the production is the company's uneven ability to deliver the text with clarity and precision.<br />
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Jain privileges the emotional underpinnings of the text over its gorgeous
language. He has made a lot of cuts, moving things around in a way that enhances the psycho-drama and downplays both the supernatural elements of the play and the physical violence. No swords are ever drawn,though Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah's Laertes evinces a great and chilling moment of physical violence in the scene before the duel.<br />
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At the end of the tragedy, when the bodies are piled on the stage, Horatio is left with us, the dead, and the dirt to which we all return. Her grief is palpable. Hamlet's conclusion,like our own is inescapable and final. <br />
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Jain and company made all tickets "pay what you can afford" starting at $5.00 so money was no excuse not to see this fine and affecting contemporary production of what is arguably the greatest play in the English language.<br />
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I would like to apologize for putting this up so late. This is the second show I've seen and not had an opportunity to write about until after the fact. The other was the wonderful LITTLE PRETTY and THE EXCEPTIONAL at The Factory Theatre.<br />
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I want the artists I've seen, but not covered to know I appreciate you sharing your talent. The city is a richer, more vibrant place because of you. <br />
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<i>WhyNot Theatre in association with Soulpepper present Prince Hamlet ran until April 29th at The Franco Boni Theatre, The Theatre Centre.</i> <br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-72771787115403454242017-03-26T20:06:00.000-07:002017-11-29T07:25:52.600-08:00REVIEW: SOUSATZKA'S Talented Cast Can't Salvage Its Mess of a BookWith the help of a talented and devoted group of colleagues, a disgraced theatre impresario raises a small fortune and gambles it on a bid to redeem his reputation and his career: but, will his madly ambitious new musical be a hit?<br />
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SOUSATZKA's backstage story is crystal clear. We know who the protagonist is, what his stakes are, and what he must do to achieve his goal.<br />
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Unfortunately for Mr. Drabinsky and his cohorts, the same can't be said of the production at the centre of the current chapter of his personal drama.<br />
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I saw SOUSATZKA twice: once in early previews and again on opening night. I wanted to see how a team of world-class experts develop a new show for Broadway.<br />
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Apparently they move things around, make some cuts, and then add more scenes. </div>
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In a program note insert provided opening night, we are told that Mr. Drabinsky's vision was to bring the Jewish diaspora of pre-WW II Eastern Europe and the South African anti-Apartheid activists in exile together in one show.<br />
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The source material onto which Mr. Drabinsky's ambitious idea is fused is a 1962 novel,"Madame Sousatzka" by Bernice Rubens. No South Africans appear in the novel, nor does the Holocaust. The novel is about a compelling eccentric of a Russian piano teacher training a Jewish child prodigy who is torn between loyalty to his clingy mother and loyalty to his demanding music teacher.<br />
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So; an ambitious concept has been superimposed onto a novel about something else altogether, and then was turned into a musical, with a score written in several styles, by different composers. Richard Shire is credited with the music and Richard Maltby Jr, with the lyrics, and additional music created by Lebo M. who provided the South African music in LION KING.<br />
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There's a lot to admire about SOUSATZKA: a fascinating protagonist wonderfully played by a brilliant Broadway star, impassioned performances from a talented cast, beautiful choral singing, skillful ensemble work, a fine orchestra and some gorgeous costumes by Paul Tazewell.<br />
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Alas, the show's unwieldy book by Craig Lucas is a mess. It has more plot lines than a Brazilian soap opera and there's a musical number - or three - to go with every one. There's sixteen numbers in Act One and seventeen in Act Two. SOUSATZKA is cluttered, clunky, manipulative and way too long. The direction by Adrian Noble is uneven.<br />
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The show desperately needs forty-five minutes to an hour's worth of cuts. </div>
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The prologue, set in South Africa is straight exposition, awkwardly staged. The Holocaust memorial scene at the end of Act One comes hard on the heels of a skin-crawling rape scene that feels exploitative. A Christmas sequence in Act Two is lovely to look at, but does nothing to move the plot forward. There's a scene in a punk club inexplicably underscored by a sugary pop dance tune. The DJ would have been beaten up by the crowd in the Queen St. West punk clubs of my misspent youth.</div>
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The current messy state of the show is no fault of the excellent cast. As Madame Sousatzka, Victoria Clark shines like the Tony award-winning star she is. She brings the ambitious, cultivated, troubled and eccentric Sousatzka fully to life, both emotionally and physically. Her lush soprano voice fills the theatre. She also has the best-written part in the show.<br />
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Her prized pupil, Themba, fares much less well. Jordan Barrow is a talented guy who unfortunately only gets to mope around the stage asking "Who am I" over and over, mime playing the piano (Why, why, why? Why not have the actor playing the role of a musical prodigy actually play the piano?) and sing a couple of the worst songs in the show. "Gifted" is absolutely painful. <br />
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There's a side plot line where Themba has a white girlfriend who's a dancer. The story is underdeveloped, goes nowhere, and was responsible for one of the most cringe-worthy moments of the night. Virginia Preston, who is lovely, talented and deserving of a whole lot better executes a horribly choreographed solo in a two-piece red spandex hooker-wear outfit, straight out of an American Apparel ad. The only thing she's missing is a pole.<br />
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The habitues of Sousatzka's boarding house: punker and good-time girl Jenny (Sarah Jean Ford); Mr. Cordle, an osteopath and former actor (Nick Wyman); and Sousatzka's childhood friend, The Countess (Judy Kaye) are all well-drawn and delightful and charmingly played. Kaye and Clark's friendship and old history leads to one of the best musical numbers in the show, the moving "Let Go".</div>
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The whole South African plot-line is poorly developed, as are most of the South African characters. They are under-used, under-written and awkwardly integrated into the action of the show. It's a terrible waste of talent.<br />
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Naledi (Fuschia!)is an interesting character, played by a compelling actress with a gorgeous voice. We hardly get to see or hear her. Ryan Allen is terrific as Themba's imprisoned father Jabulani Khenketha. His singing is magnificent. The moments when he voices the redacted letters he's written from prison to his wife and his son are some of the best in the show. At the end, it's not even clear if he's alive or dead.</div>
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As Themba's activist mother, Xholiswa Khenketha, Montego Glover sings beautifully, but her poorly -written role leaves her stuck playing bitter, strident or clingy. Why the dinner after Themba's initial failed concert isn't at her house, when she was the one doing the cooking makes no sense whatsoever. She needs more nuance and more agency.</div>
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The philandering impresario Felix Manders (John Hillner) and his snobby wife (Christianne Tisdale) do fine comedic turns and actually move the plot forward. The Gilbert and Sullivan-influenced choral number in their salon is great fun, but the scene that follows goes on far for too long. </div>
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"Rainbow Nation" is a moving anthem and should be Themba's encore. It feels like the natural place to end the show.<br />
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The denouement is the result of SOUSATZKA's most problematic plot line and left me wincing at its insensitivity. If you're raped at eighteen, and you have a baby as a result of that rape, are you really going to be unreservedly thrilled when your son with the rapist turns up at your door? It's a pretty big leap from that ugly truth to a teary reconciliation.<br />
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SOUSATZKA feels more like a vision of two solitudes than the creation of one rainbow nation: three, if you count the creators' tone-deafness to gender issues.<br />
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<i>SOUSATZKA continues at the Elgin Theatre until April 9th, 2017. For tickets or further information go to:</i> <a href="http://sousatzka.com/" target="_blank"> http://sousatzka.com </a></div>
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-7975638378820271922017-03-23T12:46:00.001-07:002017-03-23T12:46:05.792-07:00INTERVIEW: Adam Bailey and Laura Anne Harris on ideas whose time has come (again)Laura Anne Harris and Adam Bailey are friends, colleagues and Fringe rock stars. Tonight, they open remounts of their national hit shows, PITCH BLONDE and ADAM BAILEY IS ON FIRE in a double bill at the TORONTO CENTRE for THE PERFORMING ARTS for two nights this week.<br /><br /> I spoke to both of them last week as they prepared their respective remounts.<br /><br /> Laura Anne is coming up here from Syracuse, N.Y. especially for PITCH BLONDE. Her husband, musician Chris Peterson is completing a graduate degree tin the U.S. and she decided to join him for his final year. It's her 10th year performing the show.<br /><br /> Ten years! Where have you been?<br /><br />"All across Canada on the national Fringe circuit. Also to FemFest in Winnipeg, to Orlando and Lancaster, P.A. in the U.S.: now that I have a green card I can go EVERYWHERE in the U.S. After touring this show off and on for ten years, going back to do it this time feels like visiting an old friend."<br /><br />It's certainly a great moment to tell the story of a woman who persisted.<br /><br />PITCH BLONDE is the story of Judy Holliday, the Academy-Award winning actress with an I.Q. of 170 who made a career of playing dumb blondes. <br /><br /> "The best performance of Holliday's career wasn't her Oscar-winner in BORN YESTERDAY: it was her testimony during the McCarthy trials. She needed acting to get out of the situation she was in. She used her perceived persona to control the interview."<br /><br />Holliday's situation seems eeirily and sadly current.<br /><br />" Roy Cohn, one of McCarthy's notorious associates was also one of Donald Trump's lawyers. Holliday was a woman who opposed tyranny. She was Jewish, and McCarthyism had antisemitic overtones. The alt-right is doing the same thing as McCarthy did: looking for bogey-men under the bed. "<br /><br />She continues: " Holliday's moment of great success ( her Oscar) was followed closely by a moment of great infamy. She triumphed." <br /><br />I ask Harris what is different for her playing Holliday 10 years later. "It's more grounded. I'm more grounded. " She laughs. "I've changed the script a little bit over time. We meet her husband, David Oppenheim in this version. I wanted to show Holliday's full humanity; to honour her story and to honour her as a person."<br /><br />Harris has five starred and sold out everywhere with this show. If you've never seen it before, you're in for a treat.<br /><br />A few days later, I finally manage to catch up with the other half of the bill, Adam Bailey. I ask him how the double-bill came to be. <br /><br />"They (Toronto Centre for The Performing Arts) asked! And Laura and I have such a great relationship."<br /><br />Harris directed HENRI, Bailey's play about early 20th C painter Henri Rousseau, which he's bringing to Toronto this summer.<br /><br />"I am the gay son of an Evangelical Christian minister. I grew up in Belleville where my dad ran the Quinte Christian Fellowship."<br /><br />That sounds like quite a story. <br /><br />"It's called ADAM BAILEY IS ON FIRE because there are people who think I am on fire: that I will be in hell for being a gay man. The play hasn't stopped being relevant. In the States, there's this perception of gay vs. religion. But I live between two worlds in this play: the world of my upbringing and my world as a gay man."<br /><br />How dis his family take it?<br /><br />"My family is not a worry: my sense of responsibility is towards the audience. The play is an exploration of me trying to be truthful to who I am, in every sense. It isn't didactic: there is no right answer."<br /><br />Like Bailey, I had a very religious upbringing that I rebelled against as a young woman. We talk about that and I ask him, how wild was he?<br /><br />"When Amish kids turn 16, they are no longer Amish by default. They get to decide. They have two years to make a final decision. Some of those kids are pretty wild for two years. I was pretty wild."<br /><br />I'm Catholic. We can repent for our sins. If you're an evangelical Christian, what do you do, I ask?<br /><br />"What is sin? Less than perfection. Sin is imperfection. To ask for forgiveness is to admit you're less than perfect. We're all less than perfect."<br /><br />Bailey is older now and he's married to his husband. I ask him where he got married. "Outside." After a pause, he continues: "One of the hardest things to talk about was respectability politics within the gay community. That stuff was important to what this has meant to me. There are a lot of harsh realities about being in the gay community."<br /><br />That topic is as taboo as religion. <br /><br />We are running out of time. I ask Bailey what he wants people to know about the show.<br /><br />"It's hilarious!" Is that it?<br /><br />"A friend of mine came up to me after the show at the Fringe last summer and said"You made me laugh so hard and then you made me cry and now I have to hurt you!" Then she gave me a big hug."<br /><br />I want to give Bailey a big hug but we're on the phone so I just wish him Merde and tell him I'll see him on Friday night.<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i>PITCH BLONDE and ADAM BAILEY IS ON FIRE are at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, Studio Theatre on Thursday March 23 and Friday, March 24th starting at 7:00 PM. Click <a href="http://www.tocentre.com/events/pitch-blonde">HERE</a> to order tickets. Please note you must purchase two separate tickets for the double bill.</i></div>
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Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-2741212139666982422017-03-21T17:23:00.002-07:002017-03-24T08:43:53.904-07:00INTERVIEW: Sean Dixon Talks About Creating THE ORANGE DOT with S&GIt's one day before THE ORANGE DOT opens at Crows' Theatre and Sean Dixon is on his way to his play's final preview. We speak as he walks to the theatre.<br />
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Dixon is an acclaimed and internationally successful novelist and playwright, who began writing in 1991. THE ORANGE DOT is anticipated for good reason: Dixon's last play in Toronto, the critically acclaimed A GOD IN NEED OF HELP was short-listed for a Governor General's award. He describes the new play as its companion piece.<br />
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THE ORANGE DOT has had a long genesis: you might say an ancient one.<br />
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The idea came to Dixon back in 2012. Initially, he planned to write a play as a reaction/response to Harold Pinter's THE DUMB WAITER: a challenge (and a commission) set out for him by THEATREFRONT artistic director, Vikki Anderson. <br />
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"Before my mother died, she was in the hospital for a long while. I spent a lot of time with her there. While she slept, I read The EPIC of GILGAMESH. Do you know it?"<br />
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I've heard of it, I tell him, but I have never read it. My bad.<br />
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"It's considered the world's first book," he tells me. "The Sumerians had a massive, well-developed culture in what is now Northern Iraq." That much I knew from a long-ago visit to the British Museum, where there's a spectacular display of cultural artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia. "Gilgamesh is a Sumerian text. It dates to 1800 BC, about 1000 year before the Old Testament was written. In one of the stories, a goddess takes a tree and floats it down a flooded river because she wants to sleep in its branches. "<br />
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There is something inherently matriarchal about a tree: its roots drawing from and nurturing the earth, its lofty arms variously offering shelter, challenge, and embrace. "You know that silver maple on Roncesvalles? Outside the church? The big one? The silver maple? That's near my house. It's one of the oldest trees in city: it's over a hundred years old. In my mind, that's the tree in the story."<br />
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So the tree is a character? "Oh yes: there's a tree and two actors. It's a character-driven piece. I love the collaborative aspect of working with the company. It's been fun to hand the story over to the actors and to Vikki and watch them take it over and make it their own." <br />
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Dixon is in good company: his two-hander is being played by renowned actor Shawn Doyle making a return to the stage, and Daniela Vlaskalic, who created and toured nationally in the acclaimed DROWNING GIRLS.<br />
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"He's (Joe, the character played by Doyle) is a regular guy with a hidden emotional life. She ( Natalie, Vlaskalic's character) has just come back to work after the death of her mother. They work for the city as arborists. They are waiting by this tree for a piece of equipment that's stuck in traffic. They're killing time: hanging out with their phones, chatting, waiting to take the tree down."<br />
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Dixon has arrived at the theatre: our time is up. From our conversation I can guarantee you two things about his new play: you'll have a lot to talk about afterwards, and you'll probably learn something you didn't know. For me, those are always two good reasons to check out a show.<br />
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<i><img alt="Image result for the orange dot play theatrefront photos" class="irc_mi" height="285" src="https://nowtoronto.com/downloads/82969/download/Daniela%20Vlaskalic%20and%20Shawn%20Doyle%20in%20The%20Orange%20Dot%204%20-%20John%20Lauener%20Photography%20copy.jpg?cb=6465f46f046c14e39c73b9e40e7aeb95" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="400" /> </i><br />
<i>THE ORANGE DOT written by Sean Dixon and produced by THEATREFRONT continues at Streetcar Crowsnest Guloien Theatre until April 1, 2017. To book tickets or for further information go to:</i> <a href="http://www.theatrefront.com/" target="_blank">www.theatrefront.com</a><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-12434419545629286302017-03-08T11:37:00.000-08:002017-03-08T11:37:08.893-08:00Review: The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival: Good Cheap Fun!I always find March the grimmest month of the winter. The city is coated in a film of grey grit, the weather is dodgy, and real spring seems a long way off.<br />
<br />
In an effort to shake off the winter doldrums, I ventured off to the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival for the first time ever last Saturday night.<br />
<br />
I had this idea that I was going to do a survey of a few of the female comedians at the festival: Flo and Joan, Dame Judy Dench (there are guys and gals in that one) Full Time Idiot...<br />
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Somehow I managed to grab a Sunday ticket off my desk when I headed to the Theatre Centre on Saturday night. I'm crediting pre-flu brain for that winner move. "No problem," said the nice woman at the box office. "Do you want to see the 8:00 PM show here tonight instead?" <br />
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Why not? So I ended up seeing OSFUG from NYC and HIP BANG! from Vancouver instead of TEMPLETON PHILHARMONIC and DAME JUDI DENCH. <br />
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This is one of the things I love about festivals: going random - by choice or by chance, often takes me to something really enjoyable I would have otherwise overlooked.<br />
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OSFUG it turned out is a troupe of smart young sketch comedians from New York City doing a high-speed, high-energy series of mini-sketches with minimal, but effective props and costumes: some well used bananas, a donut box, a few hats and an excellent set of devil's horns. I particularly enjoyed their hell-hole town hall bit. The poignancy of the young barista looking for a coffee client with the same name as her absentee father had me both laughing and tearing up.<br />
<br />
After a brief interval ( The Theatre Centre has a lovely cafe lobby) HIP BANG! from Vancouver took the stage. The duo has played the Toronto Fringe before, but had somehow escaped my notice.<br />
Devin Mackenzie and Tom Hill have great stage chemistry and I really enjoyed their delightfully daffy material. I don't think water bottles have ever made me laugh before, but these two deployed them in a way that had me in stitches.<br />
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The only bad thing was this: I couldn't go back on Sunday to see that other show. An evil virus completely took over my being Sunday morning and I've been home, febrile and hacking ever since.<br />
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The festival begins the second half of its two-week run tonight. There are some favourites: Pete 'N Chris, Spoon and Hammer with sections of their hit "Behold The Barfly" on this week, as well as some big names in Canadian comedy, including a panel interview with Baroness Von Sketch the all-women comedy troupe with a hit series on CBC.<br />
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Go have fun for those of us who can't - and, if you're seeing two or more shows - go random on at least one of them. I'm sure glad I did!<br />
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<i>The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival runs until March 12, 2017 at various venues in downtown Toronto. For schedules dates, times and tickets go to: <a href="http://www.torontosketchfest.com/">http://www.torontosketchfest.com</a> or call to order tickets at (647) 505 1050.</i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-52715065200977403472017-02-10T16:17:00.001-08:002017-02-10T16:21:38.289-08:00REVIEW: At Coal Mine Theatre SUPERIOR DONUTS is a treat to savour.Consider if you will, the lowly doughnut: deep fried, delicious, greasy goodness.<br />
<br />
Doughnuts and comedy have a few things in common. The pleasures they offer are often regarded as plebeian, and while both may seem common-place, they are not all that easy to make successfully as anyone who's ever tried their hand at either will tell you.<br />
<br />
Tracy Letts has written a very successful comedy, and while some of the strokes may be broad, his hand is skillful and assured.<br />
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In Superior Donuts, Letts takes a rueful look at The American Dream: the promise of prosperity and endless possibilities offered to the huddled masses. Specifically he's looking at the many ways that dream gets perverted by cowardice and greed and destroyed by casual violence.<br />
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In the current political situation to the south of us, Letts offers a gentle meditation on what it means to be an American. This might not sound particularly funny, and the play is not without tragedy, but it offers a lot of joy and it has a big warm heart.<br />
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As usual, at Coal Mine, the standard of acting is one of the joys of the production. It's rare to see such a fine and skillful ensemble deliver such uniformly good performances. I keep going to the theatre in Toronto and seeing television acting on stage. It was nice to see a bunch of actors who know the difference between the two and give theatrical performances on a stage. The opening night audience loved it.<br />
<br />
Director Ted Dykstra has assembled an excellent nine member cast anchored
by the utterly wonderful Robert Persichini as Arthur Przybyszewski, the
sad-sack proprietor of Superior Donuts, a failing donut joint in a part
of Chicago where the old businesses of immigrant families are giving
way to tonier chain stores like Starbucks.<br />
<br />
The shambolic Przybyszewski has abandoned hope: his child, his marriage and any vestige of ambition either personal or professional. At the start of the play, his shop has been trashed by vandals who've spray-bombed a sexist expletive used to describe a coward. The cops (who are regulars) are there. The female officer, Randy (a delightful and very funny Darla Biccum) is sweet on him but Arthur has long ago gone blind to possibility.<br />
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In one of his monologues, Przybyszewski describes himself as an evader, rather than a resister. "Resisters," he explains, "fight."<br />
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He hires a new shop assistant: a young, black kid called Franco. Nabil Rajo brings a great deal of charm and youthful energy to the role of Franco: a dreamer, a hustler and more than a bit of a gambler. Franco's written a novel "America will be...", the title an homage to the great American poet, Langston Hughes. He believes fervently in his dreams which are the source of all his joy and most of his troubles.<br />
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In the space between Franco's exuberance and Arthur's pessimism, Letts explores some very interesting territory about what it means to be an American man in these troubled times. Anna Treush' set and costumes perfectly evoke both place and time. <br />
<br />
Lett's Chicago reminded me of old Queen Street West, back when it was
lined with East European butchers and bakeries and I went to Rooneen's
bakery for soup on cold winter days while my laundry was spinning across
the street. Thugs and hustlers, cafe philosophers and bag ladies inhabited the 'hood. Now there's a Loblaw's instead of the Czech butcher and the Ukrainian baker.<br />
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The Galaxy Donut at Queen and Bathurst is long gone: replaced by a Starbucks. You may know where Letts is going with this story but there's a lot of joy in the ride<br />
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Coal Mine Theatre presents SUPERIOR DONUTS at Coal Mine Theatre, 1454 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Tuesday-Saturday @ 7:30 • Sunday Matinee @ 2pm (new this year!)*<br />
*Sunday, February 5 @ 7:30pm<br />
Rush seats are sometimes available at the door at 7:00 PM.<br />
All Tickets $35 (previews $25)<a href="http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2595274"> http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2595274</a><br />
For more info visit<a href="http://www.coalminetheatre.com/" target="_blank"> www.coalminetheatre.com</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Persichini in Superior Donuts</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-91971182317785425552017-01-24T15:24:00.000-08:002017-02-07T15:19:18.445-08:00INTERVIEW: Sandra Shamas is Back! This Time, There are No Rules!It all started with a couple of wild turkeys. And no, Sandra Shamas is not talking about bourbon shooters.<br />
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"They were in my yard." She lives in the country. I ask about the impact of rural life on her as an artist.</div>
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"Well, the move took a lot of creativity! It evoked my adaptability. You're constantly adjusting to new conditions. Some days just getting from the house to the barn is an adventure. I have to trust myself."</div>
<br />
Shamas' career began long before the turkeys showed up. Her phenomenal success started in 1987 when she won a slot in the Edmonton Fringe. This was back in the pre-lottery days, when it was first come, first served, and hopefuls lined up to get a place. She had an hour slot and an idea for a show: but she didn't have a play.<br />
<br />
"I knew it was about a relationship - and I knew the end: we fall in love. I knew there was a break-up in the middle and a week in stinky pajamas, crying on the phone with your girlfriends. And I knew when he came back, when I looked beside the bed in the morning at the pile of his clothes on the floor from the night before, there was going to be laundry."<br />
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Shamas figured out the rest on the plane to Edmonton. The result, MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK AND THERE'S GOING TO BE LAUNDRY was described by one male critic "as a woman having a conversation at a kitchen table". He meant it derisively. Who wants to hear some woman talk about her life in an intimate way? It was an instant hit.<br />
<br />
"I took it (his critique) as a great compliment. I wanted to speak about the culture of women - and women talk at the kitchen table."<br />
<br />
For legions of woman, young and old, who have spent most of their lives having some man or other talk at them, not to them, Shamas was a voice in the theatrical wilderness. The show she came up with on that fateful trip to Edmonton marked the start of a career that has spanned 30 years, many more hit shows and packed theatres across the country, including an eight week sold-out run at Toronto's Winter Garden Theatre.<br />
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This time, Shamas has chosen the Paula Fleck Theatre at Harbourfront. "I wanted an intimate venue. The Fleck is 441 seats: half the size of the Winter Garden. And it has soft seats - soft seats are very important at our age."<br />
<br />
I'm laughing already.<br />
<br />
There's always plenty of laughter at a Shamas show, although she doesn't see herself as a comedian. "I see myself as a truth-teller. Truth-telling is primary - and the truth can be funny."<br />
<br />
When Shamas gets hold of it, the truth can be hilarious: also, painful, enraging, thought-provoking and very moving.<br />
<br />
Back to those wild turkeys: four years ago, Shamas was standing at her kitchen sink doing the dishes in her rural Ontario kitchen, looking out the window at the birds and thinking about a conversation she'd had at a dinner table the night before.<br />
<br />
"I was the MC at a local charity event. It was chaotic: you know the kind of thing run by people who control by chaos? I was seated at a dinner table with several couples. An 89 year old woman asked me, "Where's your husband?" I said, "I don't have a husband." She said, "What do you do all day?" I realized she thought of her husband as her job. This got me thinking: how do we as women see our relevance in society as we age? If we want a partner at this point, what would we want that to look like? What do want the next 30 years to look like?"<br />
<br />
Very few women in Canada have had lengthy and successful careers as monologists. Touring and child-rearing are nearly impossible to reconcile. I suggest to Shamas that at the point when many women start to have career momentum, they drop out to have children. This issue continues to affect women's careers in many professions.<br />
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"I didn't have kids. My niche was to amuse the women who were having those kids. Now those kids are grown up and they come with their moms and their aunties and grandmas and form part of my audience."<br />
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We talk about how things are - and aren't different for younger women.<br />
<br />
"We're in a period where women's rights seem to be regressing. Women are marching in the streets over blatant sexism: Trump, Ghomeshi. Like marching, theatre is an expression of solidarity."<br />
<br />
How does she see her relationship with the audience?<br />
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"I'm trying to ask the audience questions. Theatre is a communal experience. We come together to have a shared experience, a shared catharsis. We're all in this together."<br />
<br />
What's changed for her personally as a performer, in 30 years?<br />
<br />
"My memory. It's not as easy to remember 55 minutes! I have a special word now for the start of each piece. I've given up certain things: no caffeine, no alcohol."<br />
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How does she see the next 30 years of her life?<br />
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"I'm re-calibrating my direction. I have my independence, a life worth living that gives me things worth talking about. Helen Mirren said, "There are no rules over 60. I want to see what it's like when there are no rules."<br />
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Me too: I can't wait.<br />
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<i>Everything But the Kitchens Inc. presents</i><br />
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<b><i>THE BIG ‘WHAT NOW?’</i></b><br />
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<i>Written and Performed by Sandra Shamas</i><br />
<i>Fleck Dance Theatre, Queens Quay Terminal Building, Harbourfront Centre</i><br />
<i>207 Queens Quay West, Toronto</i><br />
<i>January 25 to February 4, 2017</i><br />
<i>Wednesday to Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 2pm</i><br />
<i>Tickets are $45 & $55 and can be purchased by calling</i><br />
<i>416-973-4000 (Press Option 1)</i><br />
<i>or online at <a href="http://my.harbourfrontcentre.com/">my.harbourfrontcentre.com</a></i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-66288487229582513062016-11-16T10:24:00.004-08:002016-11-29T15:26:05.210-08:00REVIEWS: THE DAMAGE DONE & COMFORT The first thing that struck me when I walked into The Citadel for THE DAMAGE DONE last week was the smell of fallen leaves.<br />
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The stage is covered with them, drifts and piles of them. Collapsing beauty, decay, loss, remorse, and nostalgia for the long past autumns of childhood are all evoked by the dying foliage bathed in a golden light, courtesy of Guiseppe Condello .<br />
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At the back of the stage hangs an industrial window, the frame rusted, the panes dirty with one visibly cracked. Downstage, a man in middle age uses a park bench as a balance beam, walking the planks with his arms out, then pitching pebbles at the fractured pane of glass.<br />
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This is Bobby (Wes Berger) and he's here to meet his childhood sweetheart, Tina (Sarah Murphy-Dyson) at their old haunt, a park in the working-class neighbourhood where they grew up. She's asked to meet to see if he will take their two girls for awhile, while she goes away to get straight.<br />
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If you're a George F. Walker fan (and I am) you've met Bobby and Tina before. THE DAMAGE DONE is the third play in Walker's trilogy about the estranged couple and their travails. <br />
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In the earlier plays, TOUGH and MOSS PARK, Tina and Bobby are a young, off-again, on-again couple, struggling to face parenthood.<br />
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Nearly 20 years later, Tina has boot-strapped her way out of a childhood of abandonment and privation. She's married a lawyer, got a house, gone back to school, become a social worker, raised two kids - and become an addict. Bobby, a dreamer and petty criminal has gone in and out of work, and in and out of his children's lives. He's trying to write, and dreams of a life without the drudgery of manual labour.<br />
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Walker shows, as Dickens did, what poverty does to people. The stress created by insecurity about having one's most basic human needs met traumatizes survivors. Poverty may be behind Tina, but the fear it has created in her has never gone away. In the aftermath of a break-up, it's threatening to engulf her. Bobby, underemployed and slacking, looks like a disaster, but Tina is the one who is falling apart inside.<br />
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Berger and Murphy-Dyson have great stage chemistry and inhabit their roles with an authentic physicality, nicely enhanced by Ken Gass' confident, understated direction.<br />
<br />
As always, Walker and Gass underline the warmth and humour,as well as the challenges and sorrows of Bobby and Tina's troubled relationship and their messy, imperfect lives.<br />
<br />
THE DAMAGE DONE is a clear-eyed and impassioned look at the long-term consequences of an impoverished childhood. I had tears in my eyes at the end of the night.<br />
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Saturday night, Red Snow Collective opened COMFORT at AKI Studio, in the Daniels Spectrum Theatre.<br />
<br />
Diana Tso revisits a particularly ugly aspect of the Second World War: the so-called "comfort women". Chinese and Asian women were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army and brutally used as sex slaves by Japanese troops.<br />
<br />
Tso and her director William Yong tell this difficult story with great artistry and sensitivity, employing dance, live music and Chinese opera to support the well-researched text.<br />
<br />
Tso uses the frame of a famous Chinese story, THE BUTTERFLY LOVERS to underpin the love story of Li Dan Feng and Zhou Ping Yang, who cannot be kept apart: not by class differences, parental opposition, or the truly awful catastrophe of war.<br />
<br />
Viki Kim and Jeff Yung are very affecting as the star-crossed lovers. The rest of the cast does a fine job in a multiplicity of roles, handling the tonal shifts and physical demands of the various characters with great dexterity. I particularly enjoyed Oliver Koomsatira as Ping Yang's faithful and mischievous cormorant.<br />
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The live music by Constantine Caravassilis is wonderfully played by Cathy Nosaty (piano, Accordian),Patty Chan (Chinese violin) and Brandon Valdivia (percussion) and greatly enhances the production.<br />
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I felt the second act could have been trimmed a bit, but the ending was heartfelt with out being in any way sentimental or cloying.<br />
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The play is not only an homage to the survivors of the comfort women's horrifying ordeal, it's a powerful plea for an end to war.<br />
Aleppo ran out of food this week. The cries for an end to violence can't be loud enough.<br />
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These two new Canadian plays by smaller,independent Toronto companies are both well worth checking out.<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Damage Done by George F. Walker continues at </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Citadel</b>, 304
Parliament Street (south of Dundas), Toronto</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>to <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_576534598" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">December 11, 2016</span></span> (NOTE -<u> No performances on<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_576534599" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ"> Dec<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>1</span></span></u> &2)</b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Tues - Sat<u> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_576534600" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">8:30 </span></span>PM</u>, Sundays at
<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_576534601" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">2:30 PM</span></span></b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sunday matinees are<b>
Pay-What-You-Can</b> at the door</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>. Tickets are available at </i>
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.canadianrep.ca&source=gmail&ust=1480456917072000&usg=AFQjCNFJlShPKCSL5Hrl0U11yJFLTpWlWQ" href="http://www.canadianrep.ca/" target="_blank">www.canadianrep.ca</a></b> <b> or by phone at
<a href="tel:416-946-3065" target="_blank" value="+14169463065">416-946-3065</a>.</b></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Red Snow Collective presents<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>Comfort<span style="font-family: inherit;"> until </span>December 10, 201<span style="font-family: inherit;">6 at </span>Aki Studio Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>585 Dundas Street East<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>(Daniel’s Spectrum), Toronto, ON Tuesday – Saturdays @ 8pm • Saturday Matinees @ 2pm Pay-What-You-Can Tuesdays<br />Tickets can be purchased online at <a href="http://nativeearth.ca/boxoffice">nativeearth.ca/boxoffice</a>, by phone at 416-531-1402,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>or in-person at Toronto Centre for the Arts’ Box Office, 5040 Yonge Street</b></span></i></div>
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-11222624560541271432016-11-16T10:24:00.003-08:002016-11-29T09:14:12.336-08:00PROARTE DANZA Opens Tonight as part of NEXTSTEPS at the Paula Fleck Theatre<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Called "the best small-scale contemporary ballet company in Canada" by the Globe and Mail, (2012) ProArte Danza has been presenting its unique fusion of ballet and modern dance in Toronto since 2004.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've seen the company several times now, and I've never been disappointed. The talent of the dancers and the strength of the repertoire are both consistently first-rate.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tonight, ProArte opens their 2016 Toronto run with a double-bill featuring <b><i>Fearful Symmetries </i></b>a world premiere choreographed by Artistic Director, Roberto Campanella and<b><i> Diversion</i></b> the Ontario premiere of a work by Artistic Associate Robert Glumbeck that Vancouver's Georgia Strait described as "mind-blowing."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Campanella's <i><b>Fearful Symmetries</b></i> employs American composer John Adams' composition of the same title to underscore an exploration of the choreographer's own experiences as a young immigrant arriving to Canada from Italy, against that of the current generation of young artists, with particular attention to the influence of urban aesthetics and pop culture on both.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Robert Glumbeck's <i><b>Diversion</b></i> examines various departures in life, both expected and unexpected, with the company of eleven dancers performing to an electronic score by Britain's Marconi Union.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This season, ProArte's dancers are Sonja Boretski, Caryn Chappell, Tyler Gledhill, Benjamin Landsberg, Ryan Lee, Sash Ludavicius, Tori Mehaffey, Daniel McArthur, Julie Pecard, Anisa Tejpar and Christopher Valentini.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have seen fragments of this work in rehearsal in the studio and it was both charged and beautifully danced. I can hardly wait for tonight's performance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuIA09U_la9g5aZiD8Hki8YKw3njz-G10-lhgvyj1PD87wiT2RXNTcDSHV8glqp-pvmKnAXtHiBO08jfU4Nb6dsfUoaL93Z-EIchTvBIKYt1c-7WRCXbR_ZS_91qbyp5SpR-Iiu11TFYO/s1600/ProArteDanza-SeasonImage+by+Bruce+Zinger-RGB-M.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuIA09U_la9g5aZiD8Hki8YKw3njz-G10-lhgvyj1PD87wiT2RXNTcDSHV8glqp-pvmKnAXtHiBO08jfU4Nb6dsfUoaL93Z-EIchTvBIKYt1c-7WRCXbR_ZS_91qbyp5SpR-Iiu11TFYO/s320/ProArteDanza-SeasonImage+by+Bruce+Zinger-RGB-M.jpg" width="320" /></a> </span></span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">ProArte Danza</span></span></b></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> Season 2016 Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, 207 Queens Quay West, 3rd Floor from Wednesday, November 16 until Saturday, November 19th, 2016 nightly at 8:00 PM. Tickets range from $25 - $45 with discounts for students, seniors, arts workers and groups. To order, call (416) 973 4000 or go to</i> <a href="http://proartedanza.com/">http://proartedanza.com</a></span></span><br />
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Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-64729358215716441722016-11-14T12:13:00.000-08:002016-11-16T09:39:45.295-08:00REVIEWS: ACQUIESCE at FACTORY and CONSTELLATIONS at CANADIAN STAGE Contemplate This Life - and the NextIt's November. Even on a sunny day in Toronto, there's not much light, at least not for very long. Brief and golden when it comes, grey and dismal on the overcast days: by 5:00 PM it's dark.<br />
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Maybe it was contemplating November,the month of Remembrance Day and Dia de los Meurtes that has encouraged so many of Toronto's theatres to open their seasons with meditations on death and its aftermath.<br />
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In ACQUIESCE, currently at the Factory, David Yee looks at the relationship between an estranged father and son in the aftermath of the father's death. The play begins when the son is tricked by a distant cousin into coming to Hong Kong to bury the father he avoided his entire adult life. Sin hated, still hates his father. He's also much more like him than he wants to admit. <br />
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What do we get from our parents? As we, and they, age, what do we owe them? Duty, devotion, charity, compassion? What do we understand about their lives, really?<br />
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Sin has run, no, fled his past, but he hasn't escaped it and it threatens to overwhelm him.<br />
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It's a familiar journey; the angry young artist rebel son making peace with the ghost of a controlling and demanding male parent. Thanks to sure the directorial hand of Nina Aquino, a lovely design (Robin Fisher, sets, Monica Lee - props) and gorgeous lighting by Michelle Ramsey, ACQUIESCE feels like a fresh look at a universal human story. It's beautifully and inventively told. <br />
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Aquino fills suitcases with luminous images: the shimmering detritus of the inescapable past. She also makes great use of the Factory's often difficult mainstage, using its depth to move the action forwards and backwards in time.<br />
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While the play is deeply affecting, it also has moments of flat-out hilarity: a talking stuffie in the form of Paddington Bear, Kai's obsession with face cream.<br />
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The cast: Yee as Sin Hwang, the author, John Ng as his old-school Chinese immigrant dad, Richard Lee as Kai, the Hong Kong cousin and the embodiment of filial piety and duty, and Rosie Simon as Sin's long-suffering girlfriend, Nine all do fine work here.<br />
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Yee initially wrote this play as a much younger man. The first act could have easily lost 15-20 minutes and never missed them. It's a minor fault with a moving, heartfelt story about fathers, sons and families. The Factory's 16-17 season is off to a very good start.<br />
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Love, loss and string theory are currently on the boards over at Canadian Stage where CONSTELLATIONS, British playwright Nick Payne, gets a Toronto production. <br />
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Ostensibly, the play is a human exploration of a scientific theory. If there are other universes, could there be one in which someone who is dead here on earth, is alive somewhere else?<br />
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The conceit of the play is this: a man, Roland (Graham Cuthbertson) and a woman,(Cara Ricketts) come together and drift apart, through a series of repeated scenes, played for different emphasis and effect. Their choices within the scenes determine the range of outcomes.<br />
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You can see why actors love this play. It's really an extended acting exercise.<br />
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I've seen other plays written using the same construction. Toronto playwright, Erin Thompson had a hit on the Fringe with MEET CUTE two summers back, which I think worked a lot better dramatically than this beautiful to look at, but oddly chilly production.</div>
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As a theatrical examination of human relations and theoretical physics, CONSTELLATIONS can't hold a candle to say, COPENHAGEN or POSSIBLE WORLDS. In spite of a gorgeous stage production, CONSTELLATIONS is also not a particularly engaging love story.<br />
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Hinton and his design team create an exquisite visual allusion to our planet's place in the universe: a tilting platform floating adrift in the cold, beautiful heavens. The opening stage picture with its wash of clouds and the mirrored back wall suggesting infinity is utterly arresting. The live cello accompaniment by Jane Chan underlines the action with an aching loveliness. The staging is fantastic.<br />
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The couple at the heart of the piece, alas, don't have much chemistry onstage. In a measure that further distances the audience from the material, they eschew the British accents written into the dialogue and perform them in good old Canadian, a decision I always find distracting.<br />
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The conceit of CONSTELLATIONS is much better as theory than as theatrical practice, although it's worth checking out for Hinton's fine production of an OK play.<br />
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AQUIESCE continues at the FACTORY THEATRE until NOVEMBER 27th: For times and tickets go to: <a href="https://www.factorytheatre.ca/what-s-on/" target="_blank">https://www.factorytheatre.ca/what-s-on/</a><br />
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CONSTELLATION continues at the Bluma Appel Theatre, CANADIAN STAGE also until November 27th. For dates times and tickets: <a href="https://www.canadianstage.com/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=constellations" target="_blank">https://www.canadianstage.com/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=constellations</a><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-86832899433176834832016-11-03T19:11:00.000-07:002016-11-03T19:11:10.060-07:00REVIEW: Coal Mine' Theatre's BREATHING CORPSES is SPOOKY and SHARPLast Wednesday on a chilly, dark autumn night, a few short days before Halloween, I went to see Coal Mine Theatre's season-opener, British playwright Laura Wade's BREATHING CORPSES.<br />
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It's a perfect late autumn entertainment: a dark elegiac meditation on mortality, and the effect one person's death can have on the people around them, even those who never knew them in life.<br />
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A group of seemingly unconnected characters are impacted by a series of violent deaths: a suicide and two murders.<br />
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Wade's play is elegantly constructed, smartly written, and filled in equal measure with difficult relationships and dark humour. Here, doors are a potent and chilling metaphor. Do you really want to know what's on the other side?<br />
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Director David Ferry and his talented cast: Simon Bracken, Erin Humphry, Kim Nelson, Johnathan Sousa, Benjamin Sutherland, Severn Thompson and Richard Sheridan-Willis skillfully enrich the inter-connected stories with their performances, bringing individuality, poignancy and charm to each character and relationship. I particularly enjoyed Erin Humphry's turn as a chambermaid in a semi-sketchy hotel. Is the sparkle in her eye the twinkle of charm, or the glint of pathology?<br />
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As always at Coal Mine, the show makes excellent use of the minimal space, in great measure due to the excellent set design by Steve Lucas.<br />
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In his notes in the program, Ferry muses on the difference between determinism and chance in the matter of death. Certainly none of us will live forever: that much is determined. The rest? Wade's twist of an ending left me in shock: horrified and laughing uncomfortably at the same time.<br />
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BREATHING CORPSES is a very entertaining night of theatre: especially if you like a walk on the scary side of the street. On a dark, wet November night, is there any other side?<br />
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<i>BREATHING CORPSES continues until November 13th at the COAL MINE THEATRE, 1454 Danforth Avenue from Tuesday to Sunday at 7:30 PM with a matinee on Sunday at 2:00 PM. For tickets and further information go to: <a href="http://www.coalminetheatre.com/">www.coalminetheatre.com</a></i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-46735744109142444132016-10-29T11:11:00.001-07:002016-10-31T10:07:00.596-07:00Interview: WhyNot Theatre Presents the Beautiful and Innovative Like Mother/Like DaughterRavi Jain has got to be one of the busiest guys working in theatre these days. He's remounting A BRIMFUL OF ASHA, his run-away hit about his relationship with his mother. He and his mom open at Soulpepper later this week.<br />
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He's also helmed a fascinating piece of devised theatre ending its far-too short run at 918 Bathurst Street tonight, where mothers and daughters get together around a dining room table, and talk about their relationship, their histories both apart and together, and the impact of that relationship on their lives.<br />
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Full, rich, and fascinating, right?<br />
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Last Saturday afternoon, I spoke with two of the participants in the project, daughter, Ximena Huiza and mother, Isabel Iribarren about what drew them to the project, and about the process of creating the production.<br />
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Ximena is a theatre practitioner; an actor and creator. Since graduating from the theatre program at Fanshawe five years ago she's worked in Toronto with Aluna Theatre. WhyNot posted on the TAPA blog, asking for mothers and daughters, where one half of the pair were born outside Canada.</div>
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You can tell Ximena and Isabel are related, not only from their features, but from their personalities and the way they use their bodies and hands when they talk. They're both lively, warm, sharp, engaged, passionate, smart: we talked for close to an hour and the time flew by.<br />
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Isabel and Ximena came from Venezula with their family, Isabel's second husband and younger son from her second marriage, Jesus, now 13. Ximena started her theatre program when they got here.<br />
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When she graduated, she lived at home for 6 months. 'We can't live together! We fight too much!"<br />
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Isabel went back to school also: a schoolteacher with a business degree, she went to George Brown here and got a degree in Early Childhood Education when she arrived in Canada.<br />
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As we spoke, I thought of the Chilean women I worked with at a formalwear rental shop in Winnipeg, while I was in university. All of those women had been teachers in Chile: in Winnipeg, they were doing laundry and steam-pressing suits in the back of the store. My own immigrant grandmother worked in a candy factory. I'm glad Isabel is teaching.<br />
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I ask them how they are alike: Ximena says, "Our personalities are so similar! We both want the last word."<br />
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How are they different? At 27, Ximena is the oldest childless woman in her family in four generations. Does she want children? She looks at her mom. They both laugh. She sighs. "Eventually, yes. Not now!"<br />
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Her older sister is married with kids and living in the US. So Isabel has those grandchildren moms seem to want. "Oh yes! it's wonderful."<br />
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What is her best childhood memory? "On Margarita Island, (off the coast of Venezula) where we used to go for summer vacations."<br />
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Their biggest worry? A pause. We have a long conversation about both women's broken relationship with their biological fathers. Neither sees or speaks to that man in their life.<br />
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We sit in silence. I think of my own Dad and our mutual admiration society, how much we adored each other. Last Saturday would have been his 81st birthday. Even though he's gone, I still know I have his love. Not having that in life is an inconceivable suffering to me. The pain of it knocked all of us on our heels, reeling in the silence of that void.<br />
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Ximena says, "Here, I am Canadian. But I tell my friends, if you want to under stand ma vida loca, you have to meet my mother. They you'll know who I am."<br />
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We stop. We hug. They go back to Ravi and the other moms and daughters to continue to prepare the show.<br />
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I saw Like Mother/Like Daughter last night with a girlfriend. I would love to have gone with my own mom, but she's in Winnipeg, and I'm not sure she could do the stairs these days.<br />
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It's beautiful: delicate, generous, inspiring, warm, funny, and in moments, heart-rending. Just like going home to mom. <br />
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After the show, we are invited to join the performers around a dinner table to share food and talk about the experience of being there, of being mothers and daughters. Connection, community, catharsis: these are some of the best things theatre can bring and this show offers all of them.<br />
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Please bring this back!<br />
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WhyNot Theatre in collaboration with Complicite Theatre presents Like Mother/Like Daughter until October 30th at 918 Bathurst Street: <a href="http://www.theatrewhynot.org/project/like-mother-like-daughter/">http://www.theatrewhynot.org/project/like-mother-like-daughter/</a><br />
<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-64358814845509852482016-10-01T09:54:00.001-07:002016-10-03T10:57:59.200-07:00For Jem Rolls: On the End of the Fringe and the Coming Winter<br />
Dear Jem,<br />
Only you<br />
Could have written<br />
With such insight and passion<br />
About summer '16 on the road.<br />
The permutations and the combinations<br />
and the machinations<br />
the money making<br />
and the money losing<br />
the worry<br />
and the bitching<br />
and the magic<br />
and the pleasure and<br />
the beauty<br />
and the magic<br />
and the<br />
art and the joy and<br />
the fun, fun, fun<br />
until September rolls away...<br />
<br />
One old grey, gloomy certainty<br />
hangs over us all:<br />
winter is coming.<br />
<br />
We have survived other winters, you and I<br />
In Winnipeg,<br />
For the love of freezing!<br />
I cherish my memories of you<br />
wandering the streets of Fort Rouge<br />
Talking to yourself like a madman<br />
As you prepared for the inevitable<br />
change<br />
of seasons, and your next show.<br />
I was just shivering over to Safeway or the MLCC.<br />
No poetry was coursing through me,<br />
Just thoughts of my next dinner<br />
Or the week ahead at work.<br />
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The quotidian is not your metier,<br />
Poet.<br />
All this fretting about ticket prices,<br />
and board decisions<br />
and un-lotteries,<br />
and lousy, under-qualified reviewers<br />
and whether or not<br />
the clowns and the improvisors<br />
and the re-mounters<br />
Will inherit the circuit<br />
Is just sound and fury<br />
Signifying one sorry certainty:<br />
The tour is over for another year.<br />
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Winter is coming: but spring will follow.<br />
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In eight months:<br />
you'll be back,<br />
a return as inevitable as robins<br />
tender leaves and a warmer sun.<br />
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We're writers:<br />
Nothing is going to shut us up,<br />
although we may<br />
Spend the next few months indoors<br />
in the zone of rumination and creation.<br />
We need to really:<br />
that new show won't write itself.<br />
There will be another stage<br />
and another audience<br />
and more nights of<br />
donning the motley<br />
and going here and there: <br />
So fret not:<br />
There's only one Jem Rolls<br />
and you must do<br />
what you must do: write more poems.<br />
<br />
Face it;<br />
there's no point in worrying about money,<br />
as my old dad often pointed out:<br />
you're born owing the hospital<br />
and you die owing the undertaker.<br />
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Sure five stars, a 300 seater and a sold-out run<br />
in every town on the circuit<br />
might make for a better winter someplace warm,<br />
but you didn't think being a poet<br />
was any way to get rich,<br />
did you?<br />
<br />
No one is getting rich out there:<br />
We all know it.<br />
<br />
We've done what we loved<br />
with people we loved being with.<br />
And on a good night, we put on a good show<br />
and<br />
people who spend their time off with us<br />
enjoy themselves and give us $10 apiece.<br />
<br />
I feel richer every time I get to do it.<br />
For now I'll keep daily grinding<br />
my way out of (tour) debt and treasure<br />
my horde of memories<br />
of time well wasted<br />
with you sorry lot<br />
on the road.<br />
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Sometimes the stars align<br />
(and no, not the ones in the papers<br />
on top of the reviews)<br />
and you go home in September<br />
ahead and not behind<br />
with the bank and the backers.<br />
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Sometimes not.<br />
<br />
Forget about money.<br />
<br />
This was never about money.<br />
It's a lottery.<br />
<br />
Can you win a lottery?<br />
Sure. We've both won CAFF.<br />
And sometimes, you get that hit and the hold-over:<br />
the dosh and the glory and the touch of envy. <br />
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The Fringe is about art and ideas and pleasure.<br />
It is about intellectual freedom and being a free spirit<br />
in a room full of free spirits being spirited together.<br />
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Uplift me</div>
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in the beer tent</div>
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and tell me of your travels</div>
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when next we meet.<br />
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The stars will align:<br />
There will be more poetry,<br />
More passion,<br />
More pleasures<br />
More warm, lovely summer nights.<br />
<br />
xoC </div>
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-24160478632187578812016-09-05T19:15:00.001-07:002016-09-05T19:18:35.619-07:00REVIEW: COME WHAT MAYHEM: SPARKLING SOCIAL SATIRE LIGHTS UP THE SECOND CITY MAINSTAGETheatre has a long and worthy tradition of droll, subversive social satire. From Moliere to Michael Healey there have been many excellent playwrights whose work takes gleeful delight in tipping sacred cows: politicians, fads, fallacies, and social conventions.<br />
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I love political and social satire, but sadly, I don't see much of it on the stages of regular theatres. Of late, productions on offer dealing with the current state of the world tend to be both very very serious, and bum-numbingly tedious.<br />
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When comedies are mounted, they veer to the fluffy, unchallenging sort: long on laughs, and short on substance. Every summer, old-school farces and Norm Foster plays crop up like dandelions on stock stages and rep houses across the country.<br />
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It was, therefore, delightfully refreshing to visit Second City last Tuesday night for the opening of the intelligent, shrewdly observed, and very funny COME WHAT MAYHEM. The impressively talented team of Roger Bainbridge, Kyle Dooley, Lindsay Mullan, Ann Pornel, Brandon Hackett and Becky Johnson have collectively created a two-act sketch show that adroitly takes on everything from shape-wear to the Black Lives Matter movement. <br />
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The breadth of topics and the cleverness and invention with which the myriad subjects are handled is a marvel. One of my favourite moments is a game show (with some audience involvement) that explores the contestants' knowledge of current events. It seems most of us know a lot more about entertainment news than we do about world affairs. Are we willfully ignoring the relentless assault of bad news from around the globe, or are we just plain dumb? MAYHEM offers a drawer full of similarly sharp knives, tossed with precision and flair.<br />
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The company has wonderful stage chemistry. They took amazing risks with each other, and with the up-to-the-minute material they have so brilliantly devised. Director Carly Heffernan has ensured the show is both fast-paced and well-shaped.<br />
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Since 1959, Second City has presented and produced some of the finest comedy writers and performers of that generation. The current crew is certainly a bumper crop.<br />
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Go check out COME WHAT MAYHEM. Not only will you experience a laugh filled, thrilling night of high-stakes sketch comedy; you'll be able to say you saw these terrific, young performers live, up close, and personal as they ascended to comedy stardom.<br />
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<i>COME WHAT MAYHEM continues at the Second City Mainstage in Toronto at 51 Mercer Street from Tuesday to Sunday. For further information or to reserve tickets: <a href="http://www.secondcity.com/">http://www.secondcity.com</a> or call (416) 343-0011</i>Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-37930270546982800572016-08-05T12:42:00.002-07:002016-08-05T12:42:22.949-07:00REVIEW: DUSK DANCES Offers Up Another Delicious Summer Smorgasboard of DanceToronto is a wonderful city in so many ways. One of the things I enjoy the most about living here is the veritable feast of free and pay-what-you-can outdoor performances all over the city during the summer months.<br />
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This week, one of my favourite pay-what-you-can public performances, DUSK DANCES is on in Withrow Park, in Toronto's Danforth area.<br />
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For the past 22 years, Sylvie Bouchard and company have presented a well-curated program of contemporary dance in the park. This year, the mixed program of work features artists from both Quebec and Ontario, with plenty for both dance-newbies and seasoned dance-goers to appreciate and enjoy.<br />
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Dance in a broad range of styles is presented in an approachable and family-friendly manner. Hostess Allegra Charleston (the clown alter-ego of choreographer and dancer, Susie Burpee) is the mistress of ceremonies for this year's program of five works at five different sites within the park. Audiences are aided by volunteers in decamping, and moving from stage to stage to take in the work. The choreographers in turn, have made inventive uses of their respective playing areas.<br />
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We arrived just as the pre-show Nia class given by Martha Randall was winding up. With live accompaniment by the band DOUBLE-TOOTH , the movement session energized the crowd, as did the delightfully silly antics of the enthusiastic hostess.<br />
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The first piece of the night had the audience seated at the base of a small hillock for HEYKLORO, an urban dance created by Gadfly choreographers, Apolonia Velasquez and Ofilio Sinbadinho, and vigorously performed by the impressive crew of Raoul Wilke, Lauren Lyn, Daniel Gomez, and Celine Richard-Robichon. The sharp, angular movements and confident, pulsing physicality of the dancing was driven by a street music mix by Dr Draw and Sinbadinho. The black costumes and dark googles were in perfect keeping with the edgy street vibe.<br />
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Next up was La Otra Orilla, with a duet both choreographed and performed by Myriam Allard and Hedi Graja.The piece was a flamenco-buffoon mash-up, danced on a long, narrow, wooden platform: a perfect surface for the elegant percussive footwork. Here, the bata de cola, the traditional ruched flamenco skirt was massive and sculptural: long enough to form a ruffled cocoon over a entire dancer's body. This wearable sculpture had strong visual impact and became a third character in the piece.<br />
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Next, was Susie Burpee's utterly wonderful duet THIS IS HOW WE LOVE. Audience members were invited to reply to the question, "What does love feel like?" The shouted-out responses covered a gamut of human emotions, which two self-appointed "love experts", also from the audience, wrote onto the backs of cards. The performers then created the dance by randomly selecting cards from baskets, and and interpreting the recorded emotions to a score by Satie. As in life, the two performers were seldom feeling anything like the same thing at the same time. Brendan Wyatt and Sylvie Bouchard were lovely in this: silly, tender, beautiful and brave. It was performed in front of a flower garden beneath a giant tree: a perfect idyll for a summer romance.<br />
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Michael Caldwell's WAVES was beautifully danced by Mairead Filgate, Molly Johnson, and Meredith Thompson. Kyle Brender's saxophone followed the dancers as they executed an elaborate interplay of forms, shapes, sounds, and colour. Caldwell's notes state that the work was influenced by radical movements in film-making and visual art. It was the most cerebral offering on the program, but there was much to enjoy in its fluidity and restraint.<br />
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The last piece of the night took place on a concrete ball hockey pad, inside, on top of, and around a car. AUTO-FICTION by Montreal-based Human Playground is a half-hour series of visceral, propulsive, and athletic duets and trios exploring extremes in human relations and emotions. The stadium lighting and aggressive score by David Drury underlined the intensity of the physical work. David Albert-Toth, Jessica Serli and Simon-Xavier Lefebvre were outstanding. <br />
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The dance deserved a kind of concentrated attention it was difficult to offer in this environment, at least from my vantage point. I was standing near the back, on one side, and while my sight-line was good, I was constantly being jostled by restless little ones running in, out of, and through the crowd, and being shushed and admonished by their parents. Try get a spot where you can give AUTO FICTION the focus it merits. It's as rewarding as it is demanding.<br />
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If you can, do treat yourself to this eclectic and highly entertaining program of contemporary dance. DUSK DANCES always gives warm summer memories to cherish long after the show is over.<br />
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<i>DUSK DANCES continues at Withrow Park (Pape subway Station) in Toronto this weekend until Sunday August 7th at 7:00 PM, with a 2:00 PM matinee on the 7th. Bring your own chairs, cushions, or blankets to sit on. The company relies on pay-what-you-can-donations, which can be made on-site, to volunteers, or by texting 3033, then DDTO10 or DDTO20 to make a donation.</i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-19428856023727092472016-07-23T15:12:00.001-07:002016-07-25T11:32:55.625-07:00REVIEW: BAD ROMANCES: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL & TAMING of THE SHREW are DARK, FUNNY and VERY PROBLEMATICSummer: a grove, a warm, clear night, a Shakespearean love story. Sounds romantic, right? In the case of two productions currently playing in Toronto, not so much.<br />
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Both Canadian Stage and Driftwood Theatre have their annual outdoor summer productions onstage here this weekend. Both productions are sharp and stylish, but take a decidedly darker look at love than you might expect from a mid-summer frolic in the park.<br />
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Canadian Stage's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL is an assured, droll, and unsettling production of one of Shakespeare's more difficult romances. Ted Witzel is a clever and imaginative director and there's much to admire in his production. His battle scenes are particularly compelling. He makes great use of contemporary music in the transitions. The set by Teresa Przybylski is dynamic. I particularly liked the mismatched chairs as a metaphor for all of the mismatched couples. The relationships are clear, the character work by the actors is skillful. It's a production with a lot of style and lot of soul, but sadly, very little heart.<br />
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Helen lives under the protection of the Countess Rossillion, mother of Bertram, and proprietress of a spa in the south of France. As the Countess, Nicky Guadagni is confident and capable: the best actor onstage with the delivery of the text.<br />
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As Helen, Mina James fares far less well. She seems adequately besotted with Bertram, but plays Helen as a one-note "nice girl" driven solely by desperation, without a shred of malice or cunning, which hardly seems in keeping with the course of action she takes to close the deal with him. She's also not very nuanced in her delivery of the text.<br />
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Helen pursues Bertram to France where the King of France (a funny and well-spoken Marvin L. Ishmael) bestows the hand of her heart's desire, and a sizable dowry in exchange for curing a fistula. The butt-plug on a drill she deployed made me think her old man was a scholar of South Park, not medicine. The torture device turns up later in the show in a more sinister context.<br />
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Betram, who seems to be having an affair on the down low with his clearly love-struck friend Parolles, and, is wilding with girls on the side, wants nothing to do with Helen, who he considers beneath contempt. He marries her, but refuses to consummate the relationship, choosing instead to flee to a battlefield in Florence, leaving Helen with a list of near-impossible contractual conditions to meet before the marriage is valid.<br />
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Kaleb Alexander plays Bertram as a good-looking, privileged douche-bag. It's certainly a valid take on the character, but it leaves the audience with no possibility of rooting for him and Helen as a couple. I kept hoping he'd get a fatal case of clap or die in a road-side explosion.<br />
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As it is, when it turns out Diana has deceived him, and he has, indeed, bedded and impregnated his legal wife, he seems inexplicably chuffed by the turn of events.<br />
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The director has made the centre of the production Betram's friend, the bad apple, Parolles. Here, Parolles is a gay man who is being punished for who he is. Quasim Khan give a wonderfully complex performance, garnering our sympathies, while clearly exhibiting the character's less attractive qualities. The scene where Parolle's fellow soldiers give him a comeuppance for bragging and lying, is, here, an ugly gay bashing. It's the most powerful moment in the production.<br />
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The other star turn is Rachel Jones as the clown Lavatch, in cow prints and a Dolly Parton wig, delivering a series of beat poems by Witzel. Like Parolles, Lavatch is castigated for owning her sexuality. You can't take your eyes off Jones when she's onstage. She does a great job with Witzel's monologues, though I would have preferred Witzel had concentrated on ensuring all his actors delivered the poetry in the text of Shakespeare's play, rather than supplementing the Bard's writing with his own.<br />
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As stylish, clever and well-observed as the production is, you can only feel sorry, rather than hopeful for the couple at the heart of the play. It's entertaining as social satire: but it's not much of either a comedy or a romance.<br />
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Then, over in Withrow Park, Driftwood Theatre has set the even more problematic TAMING OF THE SHREW in 1989, turning it into a pop musical. The '80s love duets as sub-text can't wall-paper over the fact that Kate (a suitably fierce Siobhan Richardson) is handed by her mother over to Petruchio, who, with his eye on her dowry, starves her, hits her and gas-lights her into submission.<br />
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D. Jeremy Smith has directed a fast-paced and engaging production, heavily focused on music and on a secondary gay rights theme. Lucentio (a lovely Fiona Smith) is gender fluid, giving her secret courtship of Bianca (a very sweet Tahirih Vedani) a plausible contemporary context. These are the lovers we find ourselves rooting for. Paulo Santalucia is also delightful as Tranio.<br />
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Geoffrey Armour has the thankless task of playing Petruchio. He comes off as a guy who believes he is in love with Kate, and that he's doing the right thing: in short, he plays him as a textbook nice guy abuser. I don't think I've ever seen a production of the play where the dynamic between Kate and Petruchio was as disturbing. <br />
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The premise of the production is ostensibly that Kate and Petruchio are in a consensual D/s relationship. I can see how this concept held appeal, but the text of the play doesn't really support it. It's a fun production and it's worth seeing, but nothing that happens here changes the dark heart of the story. This SHREW is a portrait of an abusive relationship in a fancy black leather music box.<br />
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<i>ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL continues in High Park until September 4th, with performances Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 8:00 PM. <a href="http://www.canadianstage.com/">www.canadianstage.com</a> TAMING OF THE SHREW continues in Toronto in Withrow Park until July 24th with performances at 7:30 PM and then in various Ontario destinations: <a href="http://www.driftwoodtheatre.com/">www.driftwoodtheatre.com</a></i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-24312452391986438362016-07-21T13:14:00.000-07:002016-07-23T13:00:46.579-07:00INTERVIEW: SIOBHAN RICHARDSON TALKS to S&G about Boundaries, Respect and a Modern Take on TAMING OF THE SHREWSiobhan Richardson is an in-charge kind of woman. When I haven't called her by 12:09 for our scheduled noon chat, she's calling me. In fairness, I was bearing down on Saturday morning housework, and lost track of time. She hadn't. She very graciously gave me five minutes to get organized, and call her back. Good thing I'd prepared a list of questions the night before!<br />
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It's two days until Driftwood Theatre's Toronto run of TAMING OF THE SHREW opens for the Toronto leg of its tour. They've already been to several Ontario cities, including London, and her home town of Kitchener. So far, the show has gone really well.<br />
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"We've been playing to really large houses: larger than we anticipated. It's exciting. The energy of the audiences has been wonderful."<br />
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I find Richardson's energy infectious. She tells me that Driftwood's take on Shakespeare's infamous battle of the sexes is being set in 1989, in Toronto. Lucentio is gender-fluid and woos Bianca secretly. Kate and Petruchio are in a consensual D/s relationship.<br />
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"The production uses Shakespeare's play to explore issues of acceptance, respect, and consent. Petruchio says, "If she be pleased, and I be pleased, what's that to you?" Good question.<br />
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"To tame, isn't to subjugate, but to create ties. Petruchio uses the metaphor of a falconer and and a falcon. When the bird doesn't eat, the keeper doesn't eat."<br />
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Yes, I point out, but the falconer still owns the bird. The bird is chattel. Petruchio treats Kate as chattel.<br />
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Not in this production. Richardson tells me that her Kate willingly gives control to Petruchio because she knows he loves her. "Kate is surrounded by people who hate her, or fear her. Her own mother treats her with no respect. Petruchio accepts her as she is, and for who she is. Their relationship is one of great trust. This allows her to be pushed to the edge of her limits." A pause. "Jeremy(Smith, Driftwood's artistic director, and the director of the production) lit a candle that I could walk towards. He gave us a lot of reading material. He had a really clear vision of the production that inspired all of us. Doing this has been an immersive experience."<br />
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The late '80s setting allowed them to employ pop music from the period, giving Richardson and company an excellent opportunity to use their vocal chops. She has done a lot of musical theatre and loves to sing. Does she have a favourite role? "Oh, I played twins in a musical, THE LAST RESORT at Sterling. It was great fun, a great challenge. members of the audience actually thought there were two actors!"<br />
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Richardson likes all kinds of challenges. She's a well-trained stage combatant, and is the fight captain of the production, as well as its leading lady.<br />
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"I'm a tough girl. I can take what he (Petruchio) dishes out. Look, ultimately, the play is a comedy. We want the production to stimulate conversation among people, and to help them enjoy the story."<br />
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I've certainly enjoyed my conversation with Richardson. She's thoughtful, tough-minded, energetic and passionate. I hope Petruchio appreciates her.<br />
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<i>Driftwood Theatre's production continues in Toronto at Withrow Park ( a short walk from Pape Station) until July 24 and then resumes touring Ontario throughout the summer. Toronto performances begin at 7:30 PM . All performances are Pay What You Can. Chairs can be rented on site and refreshments are available. <a href="http://www.driftwoodtheatre.com/">www.driftwoodtheatre.com</a> for more information.</i><br />
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Correction: Richard Lee is the fight director of Taming of the Shrew. Ms. Richardson is the fight captain for the production. The author wishes to apologize for her earlier error, and for failing to credit Mr. Lee for his work.<br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3034777129700667247.post-32556804639489911452016-07-08T09:26:00.001-07:002016-07-08T12:10:32.887-07:00REVIEWS: FRINGE TORONTO 2016: Some FAVES from the FEAST The Toronto Fringe, is sadly, winding down to its final weekend.<br />
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As I sit back at my desk at work, I thought I'd share some moments I'm going to cherish from this year ,and tell you about some shows you still have time to see until Sunday, July 10th when the Toronto Fringe draws to a close.<br />
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One of the things that made this year so special, was a visit from my sister, Lisa. Lisa loves going to the theatre as much as I do, and a big part of her holiday here was spent running from Fringe show to Fringe show together, and then going home and comparing notes late night.We shared a room, as we had when we were girls.<br />
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We started Fringing on Thursday evening, as Wednesday night she treated me to a Peter Gabriel/Sting concert. It was my first time at an ACC show and I felt like a tourist in my own city.We walked home down Bremner Boulevard through a neighbourhood that didn't exist 12 years ago, the last time she was here for a summer vacation.<br />
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So it seemed fitting that her first ever Toronto Fringe experience was a walk through the Annex with writer/performer Alex Eddington for LIFE LIST, letting her be a tourist in one of my favourite neighbourhoods in this city. Alex takes the audience of twenty-four on a bird-hunt. The show combines music, ritual, and story-telling as Alex shares his love of bird-watching inherited from his mom, who passed away recently. LIFE LIST is a unique immersive theatre experience. I found myself with a tear in my eye at the end.<br />
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Then we hiked back to the beer tent. We were going to see BLIND TO HAPPINESS at 10:30 PM in the Annex Theatre and had time for a drink with some old friends between shows. Lisa went for an Arnold Palmer, an iced tea and lemonade combo on offer from Insomnia, one of the food vendors at the tent this year. Delicious, and not too sweet.<br />
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BLIND TO HAPPINESS was packed, and absolutely wonderful: great performance and writing by Tim Murphy, and fine direction by Johnnie Walker. Murphy's performing chops are gob-smacking, and the story about the nature of happiness is moving. Last night, he took a best of festival award, so if you miss him this week you have a chance to catch him later this month at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.<br />
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We'd had dinner and a football game earlier in the day, so at that point, we called it a night, and headed home.<br />
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We started Canada Day by seeing TOLLER, Sky Gilbert's story about Canadian figure skating legend, visual artist, and tortured soul, Toller Cranston. David Livingston bears an uncanny resemblance to Cranston, and he gives a fine performance in a challenging role. One of the experiences he shares is a story about being bullied as a kid in a small town for the offense of wearing a scarf to school. On the eve of the Pride parade, it was, I felt, important to be reminded of what gay people have endured just for being themselves. This show has an extra performance on Sunday. It's one of the best shows in this year's festival. Catch it while you can.<br />
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Lisa caught another football match and I went to see Keir Cutler do SHAKESPEARE CRACKPOT. As always with Keir, I left the theatre more knowledgeable than I was when I entered. This time, I learned more about the cult of Shakespeare, and also about Cutler's remarkable parents. The stories about their accomplishments and contributions to Canadian society on a Canada Day afternoon, were more than worth the price of admission.<br />
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Friday night, it was BRIGHT LIGHTS. Again, the theatre was packed for Kat Sandler's highly anticipated collaboration with Amy Lee, Heather Marie Annis, Chris Wilson, Peter Carlone and Colin Munch. As always with Sandler, the set-up generated tons of conflict-driven action, and laughs aplenty. High energy performances, great comedy chops, and tight ensemble work made this a real crowd-pleaser.<br />
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Then we stayed at the Tarragon to see ABSOLUTE MAGIC with Keith Brown. Brown is incredibly personable and engaging, and his illusions left the audience gasping. Years from now, when he's playing Vegas, you'll be able to say you saw him when.<br />
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Saturday, I scheduled myself for a four-show day. Lisa had scheduled herself for a 3:00 PM Euro-Cup match. We started our morning seeing THE ROAD TO SANTIAGO, Rory Ledbetter's charming love story about his trip to Spain with his then-fiance.He made me want to walk the Camino, or at least try the red wine and coke combo beverage he describes in the show. It was a romantic, thoughtful and engaging story, well-told.<br />
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Lisa went back to watch football at Paupers. I went to see the delightful Penny Ashton in PROMISE AND PROMISCUITY. Ashton gives a witty, captivating, and high-energy performance in her very funny and wickedly clever, musical, Jane Austen homage/satire. Ashton's character work is superb throughout. I particularly enjoyed the ball scene. I've seen two shows at the Randolph, and the acoustics are less than optimal, no fault of the performers, although it certainly makes them have to work even harder to be heard. I think the centre of the house is likely the best place to sit or at least, close to the front.<br />
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I joined Lisa at the pub for the overtime portion of the game, and then, we wandered over to the Factory Theatre to see CAM BABY and CURIOUS CONTAGIOUS. CAM BABY was a stand-out: a terrific ensemble of young actors tackling a torn-from-the-headlines script about voyeurism, body image, quarter-life crises, and the ways in which social media has challenged expectations of privacy in relationships. I hope a theatre picks it up for a remount. It's one of the best new plays I've seen this year.<br />
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CURIOUS CONTAGIOUS was one of the shows I was most excited to see this year. Mind of a Snail is an endlessly inventive company and their beautiful story uses magic realism, gorgeous layered projections, masks, costumes and an original score to talk about the impact of urban sprawl on the environment. It was heartfelt and utterly lovely. They won Patron's Pick, and have an extra show on Sunday. It's a kid-friendly show. Go check them out.<br />
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We had pizza for dinner and headed in to see HAPPINESS at the Passe Muraille.at 11:00 PM. The play is a stylish and sharp social satire, written and performed by Tony Adams and Cory Thibert. I didn't think the show need the over the top ending, but I really enjoyed both the otherwise well-crafted story, and the fine and energetic performances.<br />
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We took the day off Sunday for PRIDE and football and I headed off to see one of the festival's hottest tickets, FOR THE RECORD. Shari Hollet, Chris Earle, and their daughter Lucy created a solid, vinyl-driven, coming of age tale set in Kops Record store. The venue is tiny -30 seats - and following the performers through the crowded space was both fun, and occasionally frustrating. Hollet and I are of the same vintage, and her tale of growing up poor in a wealthy neighbourhood really resonated. Hollet played her 17 year-old self with both insight and abandon, and Lucy's transitions through all of the other characters were both understated, and polished. Mostly, the show is an homage to Hollet's tough-minded, hard-working, chain-smoking, thrice married, barely present mother. I'm very glad I saw it. It's one of those gems that could only happen at the Fringe.<br />
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I went home, shared a cheese board with my sis, and dragged her off to see BEST PICTURE at a late night show which was on past her bed time. We were really happy we stayed up that night! Funny, well-observed, and lighting quick, the cast of three makes EVERY Oscar-winning picture happen in 60 minutes. It's a treat of a show. Go, and take a film buff.<br />
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Sadly, I had to go back to work on Monday. While I was off earning the rent, Lisa ducked into DANCE ANIMAL and told me I had to see it. I went for their 11:00 PM show last night. Super high-octane fun from an incredibly funny cast of improvisers: it's one of my feel-good faves of the festival.It's also held over.<br />
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I rushed out of work early to catch OUT, Greg Campbell's deeply personal, very funny, occasionally terrifying, and moving story about coming out at the age 17 in the late '70s. It's excellent: beautifully written, and wonderfully performed, with skillful direction by Clinton Walker. OUT also took a best of fest award. It 's well-deserved.<br />
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Monday night we went to see GOD OF CARNAGE. It's a polished production of the black comedy that explores the darker aspects of human nature beneath our civilized veneers. Stephen Flett on his cel phone is worth the price of admission.<br />
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Last night, I went to see WEIRD, which combines aerial silks and Shakespeare to tell the tale of the Scottish play, from the point of view of the three witches.It's an innovative and compelling take on an old story, with a decidedly feminist bent. Well worth seeing, and the winner of the Cutting Edge Award last night, for the originality of the production.<br />
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I'm going to immerse myself for the last weekend, and catch a few more shows before the festival ends on Sunday. I plan to see: IN THE TRENCHES, because no one else is doing commedia dell'arte this year, and I was impressed by the way they busked the line-ups, FALLING AWAKE , because it has had great buzz from other performers, ALL KIDDING ASIDE because I know Christel Bartelse, and love her warmth onstage, PERSEPHONE because a friend saw it, and told me he loved it - and I have a soft spot for Greek myths, FAR AWAY, because it had good buzz, ANGELS AND ALIENS, again because I've heard good things and because Jeff Leard is in it, and he's a terrific performer, THE COMEDY of ERRORS, because dinner and Shakespeare together seems like a good way to end a four-show day, LITTLE PRICKS because Denise Norman is telling a story that intrigues me, and RATED R, because several choreographers and dancers I respect told me it was one of the best dance shows they'd seen this year.<br />
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I never get to everything I want to see. For instance, I haven't seen a single musical this festival, and I would like to have seen several of them, including LIKE A FLY IN AMBER. I saw nothing at Kids' Fringe.Sigh.<br />
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Many shows don't sell out their runs and there are often tickets available an hour before the performance at the door, including tickets for the Patron's Picks performances, which are currently listed on the Fringe website. I have had some great Fringe experiences walking into the show next door to a show that was sold out.<br />
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I'll see you in line, or around the tent this weekend. Happy Fringing!<br />
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<i>The Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival continues until July 10th at venues around west central Toronto. For tickets, schedules, and information about the festival, and the list of held-over shows playing at the Toronto Centre for The Arts and foe one extra show on Sunday, go to: <a href="http://www.fringetoronto.com/">http://www.fringetoronto.com</a> or call (416) 966-1062. Advance tickets may also be obtained at the Fringe Box office, located in the tent behind Honest Ed's at Bloor and Bathurst. </i><br />
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<br />Celeste Sansregrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06906752549498213770noreply@blogger.com0