REVIEW: A FINE PRODUCTION of AGE of AROUSAL OPENS The FACTORY THEATRE'S SEASON

Last Saturday night, a friend and I attended a great production of Linda Griffiths' hilarious and provocative, THE AGE OF AROUSAL at the Factory Theatre. It is undoubtedly the strongest production to have graced the Factory main stage in a number of years.

In the aftermath of the First World War, England has 400,000 more women than men. That was a whole lot of of impecunious spinsters and widows.  Women had won the right to vote, and were joining the workforce in large numbers, mostly in some form of domestic service, or retail.  Unless you'd been left an inheritance, as a single woman you were facing a life of genteel - and sometimes not so genteel - poverty.

Enter Mary Barfoot (Julie Stewart): suffragette, lesbian, intellectual, heiress, and educator. Barfoot, a formidable woman of great intellectual and sexual power hovers on the cusp of losing her beauty.  Barfoot knows most women don't inherit and many won't  - or don't want to marry a pay cheque. She is determined to improve women's lot by securing them financial independence through vocational training.

Barfoot and her much younger lover/business partner Rhonda Nunn (Marie Beath Badian) run a secretarial college for women.  Armed with a trio of terrifying looking Remington typewriters, the couple undertakes the emancipation of a hapless trio of sisters:  the Maddens.

Griffiths' play was loosely based on an 1893 novel called THE ODD WOMEN and the Maddens are decidedly an odd lot.  Alice (Juno Rinaldi) is a high-strung neurotic, Virginia (Aviva Armour-Ostroff), a cross-dressing dipsomaniac and Monica (Leah Doz), a sexually voracious shop girl, who is way too pretty for her own good. When Barfoot's wealthy, handsome, nice guy male doctor/dilettante cousin, Everard (Sam Kalilieh) returns from abroad, putting a fox in this hen house, things get very complicated indeed.

Griffiths' brilliant script may be set 100 years ago, but it still feels very fresh and current in its exploration of feminism, sexuality, gender politics, aging, money, power, and loneliness.

The cast uniformly executes wonderful physical and vocal character work.  This is a very solid ensemble.  Brewin directs a smart, brisk-paced production that lets Griffiths' intellectually and emotionally complex, and delightfully mad script really shine.

The actors are required to articulate both their outside and inside voices, which leads to many moments of hilarity, and a few of gut-wrenching and painful truth.

Two things about the production made me feel sad.  One, was sitting and watching the wonderful play unfold and  again, mourning the loss of Linda Griffiths last year. She was a unique voice in Canadian theatre:  intellectually brilliant, and fearlessly intense. She will never write another play again.  What a tragic loss!

The other thing that saddened me was the embarrassing lack of production values on stage: set, lighting, and costumes. No designers were credited, although a wardrobe coordinator was hired.  My heart goes out to her. The show looks like someone went to Goodwill, Ardene's, and the Kind Exchange with about a hundred bucks.

I don't expect to see stretch polyester on an actress in a period play on the stage of a major theatre. Leggings? Tank tops? Seriously?  Everard, a wealthy, well-traveled womanizer is in a suit that doesn't fit.

With the exception of the typewriters, the visual elements of the production were below the standard of an underfunded community theatre. A performance this good deserves an equally fine standard of production design.  This isn't naked theatre: it's just a pound-foolish decision not to employ a design team.









THE AGE OF AROUSAL continues at the Factory Theatre until November 8th from Tuesday -Saturday at 8:00 with pay-what-you-can matinee performances at 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoons. Call (416) 504 9971 or go to www.factorytheatre.ca

INTERVIEW: CLIFF CARDINAL IS READY FOR HIS CLOSE UP

It's a cool, overcast autumn day, when I meet Cliff Cardinal in the lobby of the Daniel Spectrum Theatre, home of Native Earth Performing Arts (NEPA).


We head out the door of the theatre and stroll through Cabbagetown to the Jet Fuel for a coffee. We look at the Victorian mansions, and the remaining town homes from the original Regent Park development in the '70s.  I say they remind me of London tenements. " I like those houses." says Cardinal. "They're where the stories are."

Cardinal is back living in Toronto after a three year stint training at The National Theatre School of Canada as a playwright.  It's the most prestigious theatre school in the country, and the most difficult to get into.  The playwriting program takes two students a year. Last spring, after completing the three year program, he graduated.

As we enter the cafe, he takes a picture of the exterior, and texts it to a friend who is meeting him after we're done.  She's here from Montreal, and he wants to be sure she can find it. This guy is on it.

When I first met Cardinal, almost four years ago, HUFF was in development.  He was being pushed to make it a multi-actor show.  He wanted to write and perform a multiple character monologue.  Even in its earliest iteration, the play was a wild ride: heart-breaking, terrifying and blackly hilarious.


Cardinal sagely ignored the dramaturgical advice, and wrote a monologue, which he performs alone.  It was a good call. Cardinal has performed HUFF over 70 times and is opening NEPA's 15/16 season with the show.  As usual, HUFF has opened in Toronto to praise from both audiences and critics for the script and the performance.

"Huff is about risk-taking. Wind (the protagonist) lives for dangerous joys." A pause. "I write about outsiders:  the freaks, the people who defy social convention, the ones who don't fit in.  They are the ones who will do anything to be accepted and loved.  That's what gets them in trouble."

What did Cardinal learn in Montreal?  "To meet the work."  Cardinal's been working hard. "Every morning, I get up and write between 6:00 and 9:00 am."

In addition to writing, performing, and touring HUFF, his play STITCH closed NEPA's last season.  The play he wrote during his sophomore year at NTS, ROMANCESHIP is "coming to a theatre near you next season."  He grins.  What's it about? "Oh a couple in a dysfunctional relationship. I also wrote a vicious social satire in year three. It's a frontal attack on Canadian values. It needs a big cast.  We did it as a graduating project.  I'd love to do it here in a big theatre."

Another grin.  I ask him about his earlier education. "My mom (actress Tantoo Cardinal) and my family moved around a lot.  I've lived in Pine Ridge, L.A., Vermont.  I've been in Toronto off and on since I was 15.  I attended 7 different high schools.  I dropped out.  My mom said, "OK, you're going to work as an apprentice with Video Cabaret. Billy (Merasty) will keep an eye on you." Michael Hollingwoth (the artistic director) said, "Sit at the back and watch and if someone asks you do something, do it."  Another grin. Michael eventually gave me my first professional acting job.  Watching the rehearsals of NEW FRANCE taught me a lot - about, history, about theatre, about acting, about how plays get made and developed."

This year, Cardinal is is the writer-in-residence at Video Cabaret. "In rez-indence?" I pun?

Cardinal has had an excellent education.  The outsider is inside the theatre now, sharing the dangerous joys of his work with admiring audiences.

This winter, HUFF goes on tour to Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Edmonton, Calgary, Peterborough and Quebec City.

I saw the show last night. The play, the performance and the production are all excellent. Cardinal is more than ready to bring his edgy, challenging work to audiences in Toronto and across Canada.

 
HUFF continues until October 25th at the AKI STUDIO THEATRE , 585 Dundas Street East as part of NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ARTS 15/16 season. Tuesday- Saturday 8:00 PM. SUNDAY at 2:00 pm. .Tickets are $15-$30 and may be obtained online at www.nativeearth.ca or  by calling 416 531 1402.

INTERVIEW: KAREN HINES COMES HOME to TORONTO to PERFORM CRAWLSPACE

For many middle-class Canadians, home ownership is a benchmark of personal and financial success. For a single woman, self-employed, and working in the arts, being able to get it together to buy a house solo is a huge achievement.

Karen Hines, a beloved performer (POCHSY) director, (MUMP and SMOOT) and writer managed to do just that.  In 2006, she bought a home of her very own in Toronto.  Then her real estate dream turned into a nightmare.

I spoke with Karen as she, and designer Patrick Lavender and Kelly Reid were taking a break from busily transforming performing/art space Videofag into what she described as "a murky psychological space - kind of a dessicated Ikea showroom."

For the next few weeks, Hines will be using the deconstructed zone of domesticity she and her collaborators have created, to perform CRAWLSPACE, her latest play, based on her brief, expensive, and ghastly experience of home ownership in Toronto.

It all began when, at the end of a very successful year professionally, Hines decided to jump into the white-hot Toronto real estate market. "I felt queasy right from the start. I did all the things you are supposed to do. I worked with an agent (played by Georgia Beaty). I got a home inspection: but, certain elements didn't feel right. Small things turned into huge problems."

Hines chronicled her experience with the house in a National Magazine Award-nominated article for SWERVE Magazine, "MY LITTLE HOUSE of HORRORS". The play, however, is not a straight adaptation of the article.

"Creating the show has been a very organic process. Sound is a huge part of the environment. We've built this dream showcase room, and we're inviting 15 people a night into the space to have a salon experience.  I want the audience to have the feeling of being invited into my living room.  It's a lived experience."

"I have a great team!  John (Turner) who I've known for 30 years directed. Mike (Kennard) helped create the sound.  Then I have all these great, fresh young artists like Jordan (Tannahill) who invited me to be part of the Videofag season, and who consulted with me on the script."

What made buying the house such a terrible life experience?

"I needed things to go perfectly: and they didn't. The dream is: you're going to create this beautiful space, a showcase.  You're going to have all of this security. The reality is how much it costs to repair things."  A pause.  "An overheated market is fueled by greed, property lust, flippers who know what to do to make a house look perfect. I want to create a space to explore all of the emotions that arise in that kind of intense situation.  Buying a house is very emotionally driven."

I have to ask: "Where do you live now?"

Hines said," I now live in Calgary with my wonderful boyfriend.He has been enormously supportive and helpful. I am still recovering from the experience." So at least  Hines ended up with one dream, and found a prince.  Phew!

Not only that, the show she's created out of her real estate nightmare is a hit!

Hines' willingness to go to the dark side of  home ownership certainly seems to have struck a chord with Toronto audiences.  Her two week run had nearly sold out before she opened. She's added performances on September 28th and 29th to accommodate demand.

Hines and company's CRAWLSPACE, is a white hot Toronto property. Jump on the bandwagon and get a ticket, if you still can.

CRAWLSPACE continues until September 29th at 7:00 pm nightly at VIDEOFAG, 187 AUGUSTA AVENUE in Kensington Market.crawlspaceplay.com 

REVIEW: EMPIRE HEATS UP THE SPIEGELTENT

Recently, a new building popped up in my neighbourhood.   It's a sleek, stained glass and wooden structure, with a windowed cupola in the centre of the roof.

Then, posters went up along the fence. The building is (mercifully) not the sales office for yet another waterfront condo project. It's a Spiegeltent, a portable structure invented in the late 19th century, and constructed to house a circus or other spectacle. In this case, the show is EMPIRE , the smoking hot adult circus by the New York-based SPIEGELWORLD company.

Last week, a circus-loving pal and I ventured into that cool-looking wood and glass structure at the foot of Rees Street on Queens' Quay, to take a peek at the goings-on inside.They are well worth a visit.

Velvet and wood booths interspersed with graffiti/street art influenced paintings line the walls. Inside that, rows of very comfortable folding wooden chairs and areas of little cocktail tables and seats surround a circular stage, beneath the centre dome. The interior feels like a cosy early 20th century New York saloon, complete with a bar at the back, where you may obtain popcorn and libation.

As the audience settles in, performers flaunting stylish costumes and outlandish characters float around the room, interacting with each other, and the audience: flirting, playing, seducing and gradually, completely immersing us in the world of the show.

It's quite a show! The production is an inventive and dynamic mash-up: part vaudeville, part Weimar cabaret, part Times Square street theatre and part naughty Vegas-style nightclub act.  Jaw-dropping acrobatics and stunt-performances, underscored by guitar-driven pop-rock vocals are punctuated by some very risque comedy. A vaudeville style couple who appear willing to try anything once ensure, among other things that you may never be able to look at a banana in the same way again!

The entire production is incredibly sexy: edgy, glamorous, playful, inventive, and beautiful to look at. It's also incredibly romantic. As I watched the duos and trios perform their most high-risk feats, it was their trust in each other, and their commitment to their art that stayed with me, long after my walk home.

Leave the kids at home, and take your best beloved, or that hottie you've had your eye on, and go see EMPIRE.  If a night in the Spiegeltent can't get you out of the friend zone, nothing will.




EMPIRE continues from September 1st in Toronto in the  air-conditioned and licensed Spiegeltent at 318 Queens' Quay West at the corner of Rees Street and Queen's Quay. For dates, times, tickets and information: http://spiegelworld.ca/the-show/

INTERVIEW: S&G Has a BLIND DATE with REBBECA NORTHAN

When I pick up the phone to call Rebecca Northan, I feel super-nervous.  An interview with someone I've never met and don't know, is, after all, a kind of blind date:  and Rebecca Northan is the reigning queen of the blind date.

It's easy to understand why.  On the phone, she's open, and easy to speak with. Warm, affable, charming, a little flirtatious:  in life, Northan's a perfect date, which has worked out rather well for her.

When she opens this week at the Tarragon, she'll be on her 400th blind date in seven years. She played six weeks in the West End of London. Kevin McCollum, producer of RENT and AVENUE Q, produced both her US tour, and her off-Broadway debut in 2010. Both her previous runs at Harbourfront (the last, five years ago) sold out.

How did this mad, wonderfully successful show start? At the invitation of Tina Rasmussen, the artistic director of World Stage at Harbourfront, who asked Rebecca to come up with ten minutes for the SpiegelTent.

"I saw what they were doing in there, and it was, well, hot!  Sexy, risque...I was in nose ( that's clown-speak for the familiar red nose) and I thought, "How do you do a hot, sexy, clown show?

Well, for starters, by being  a French clown in nose. "Yeah, you know, French girls... and by going on a date with a different guy every night."

"The first time, was in the Spiegeltent, and then, it grew from there."

So how do men react to being asked on a date by a clown?

"I think the nose gives me a certain freedom, and lets me get away with more. It also gives the guy's actual date, if he has one, some security, you know, that we are playing, and that I'm not actually going to run off with him! We, my team and I, go to great lengths to make sure, if the guy has come with a date, that the woman feels safe, and is taken care of."

How?

"Well, for instance, when we we were in Winnipeg, I had a date called Warren, who was there was his wife.  It was opening night.  I usually wear a red dress for the date, but she was really freaked out by the dress.  Apparently, Warren really has a thing for women in red dresses.  She asked me if I could change dresses for my "date" with her husband.  Fortunately, it being opening night, I had another dress- not red - backstage for the party afterward.  I changed, and the show went ahead!"

Does she have any clue what is going to happen, or is she, more or less, in control?

"No, it's a collaboration, something we call spontaneous theatre. I create the evening with my collaborators, my date, and my team. We do the show with an outline, but I'll throw it out if something comes up." Like?

"Well I work with scenographers Christy Bruce and Kristian Reimer,and Jamie Northan, my brother, who creates the sound. Christy and Kristian come up with the props, create the scenes, and play the other characters;  if we need a waiter at a restaurant, for example. We just did a show where the guy wanted us to go on boat ride for our date.  It was my first request for a boat ride date in seven years!  My scenographers had to come up with a boat for us, or at least something like a boat!"

Has she ever been on a blind date in life? "No! The whole time I've been doing this show, I've been in the same relationship, with the same man. I think it would have been too hard: to be that vulnerable both in my work and in my life, at the same time." A pause. "At it's heart, BLIND DATE is a love story. A perfect execution of the show is fun, surprising, moving, titillating and sexy - in a frame of consideration, openness, and respect. Single guys who have been my blind date onstage have had single women from the audience give them their numbers after the show.  The audience really gets to see who both people are - at their best."

There used to be a lot of stigma attached to blind dating. Now, with the proliferation of on-line dating sites and apps, many, probably most single ( and a few not so single) people have gone on a blind date, at least once. Still, any, and all dating remains scary: vulnerable, intimate, hopeful. 

What, I wonder, has Northan learned from her seven years of blind dates? "I can't get used to be stared at!  That's just something innate in primates!" A laugh.  A pause. "I'm a much better listener - and I've learned to take responsibility for my partner. We say, my crew and I, that as a team, during the show, we are on our best house-guest behavior: thoughtful, attentive, considerate and fun!"

Sounds like a perfect date!

BLIND DATE opens at the TARRAGON THEATRE, 30 BRIDGMAN STREET, on September 8 and runs until Sunday, October 4th, with performances from Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00 PM and matinees at 2:30 PM on Saturdays and Sundays.  Tickets start at $15 for rush seats. To book seats or for further information call Patron Services: (416) 531 1827.

REVIEW: DUSK DANCES BRING SUMMER MAGIC to WITHROW PARK

On the Monday night of the long weekend, one of the joys of a Toronto summer opened in Withrow Park.

Each summer, for one brief, beautiful week, artistic director, Sylvie Bouchard, and a diverse array of invited performers and choreographers make dance magic happen in Toronto's Withrow Park.

The event has a kind of cheerful anarchy about it.  A genial Brad Brackenridge, in a festive blue tail coat and top hat, MC's the proceedings, introducing us to the performers at the beginning of each act, and blowing a vuvuzela to lead the audience from site to site.

DUSK DANCES takes place in five different areas within the park. Audiences experience an array of delightful dances by following Brackenridge from place to place. You can't get lost.  If the horn isn't enough for you, standard bearing assistants illuminate the pathways between the dances with fairy lights atop tall poles.

The pieces on offer showcase dance influenced by many performance styles, and world cultures, reflecting the diversity of Toronto's current dance scene. This is contemporary dance at its freshest, and unstuffiest.

Monday evening began with the renowned flameco dancer, Esmeralda Enrique performing a beautiful solo she created especially for this year's festival. RECURDOS has gorgeous live accompaniment by vocalist, Tamar Ilana, and guitarist, Michael Kavanaugh.  Powerful, elegant, and passionate, it was a beautiful beginning.

We moved from the flamenco stage, over to a nearby open field, beneath leafy trees, where choreographer Lua Shayenne and her four dancers: Miranda Liverpool, Kassi Scott, Natasha Phanor and Shireen Ali rained down physicality and energy in MURMURE de FEMME.  The piece is, according to the program notes, "an ode to the spirit of femininity in relation to Mother Earth."  Shayenne created an African contemporary dance for the park, driven by the beats of drummers, Derek Thorne and Yakadi Macru. They're an impressively dynamic crew with some jaw-dropping moves.

Next up was BELLA, a revival of Danny Grossman and Judy Jarvis's ode to Puccini, and the lovers in Marc Chagall's paintings. BELLA makes considerable demands of the dancers, both physically and technically, and Meredith Thompson and Michael Caldwell more than rose to the challenges presented. They were beautiful together, dancing on, and around Mary Kerr's Chagall-inspired painted pony.  It was a lyrical romantic duet to swoon for.

Then we were led further afield, to a clearing ornamented with strands of green and yellow fairy lights, where contemporary dance stalwarts, Sylvie Bouchard and Marie-Josee Chartier performed a charming and very funny duet, PHOTURIS VERSICOLOR. The piece is about two fire-fly femme fatale sisters reunited after separation at birth.  The droll and whimsical costumes by Cheryl Lalonde, and a guest "Photinus" appearance by Michael Caldwell really iced the cake. The little ones in the audience loved it!

The last dance of the night, DISCONCERTANTE is set on a group of five esteemed veterans of Canada's contemporary dance scene:  Karen Kaeja, Claudia Moore, Linnea Swan, Graham Mckelvie and Ron Stewart.  Choreographer Tedd Robinson poses a relational question, "When is it that we understand what is happening to us?" Robinson and company create a sophisticated and moving reflection on relationships, love, and mortality, with a lush underscore of Chopin.

Dusk Dances is a family-friendly, affordable, contemporary dance event.  If you've never seen a contemporary dance performance, this is a great introduction to the art form. If you love dance, this is certain to be one of the highlights of your summer. If you arrive early( 6:45 pm) dance master, Miko Sobreira is there with Guaracha y Son providing free salsa lessons.  Newbies are more than welcome.

By the way, I had an outdoor theatre producer tell me this summer,  if everyone who came to see a performance gave them $5, they would have no deficit.  Skip a latte this week, and support your local arts community.

DUSK DANCES continues in WITHROW PARK, beginning with free salsa lessons at 6:45 pm nightly, and at 1:45 pm on matinee days ( Thursday, and Sunday August 9th) . Performances begin at 2:30 PM (Thursday and Sunday) and 7:30 PM nightly, August 3rd to 9th.

WITHROW PARK is located one block SOUTH of the Danforth, between Logan and Carlaw, near Chester Subway Station. Admission is by donation.  

REVIEW: TRAINWRECK - 10 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT DATING FROM AMY SCHUMER

At the urging of one of my BFFs and his adored consort, I went to see TRAINWRECK last night.

It's a rom-com, people:  humour, brain-candy, light entertainment. It's not rocket science, and certainly not a treatise on gender politics.  If it were, I'd be under the dining room table with a bottle of scotch right now, weeping quietly, while chasing away the bats.

Why, gentle readers?  As a woman, what lessons in love, dating, and hook-up sex did I take away from TRAINWRECK, Amy Schumer, the "feminist" comedy star's debut feature?

1. Your father, and your relationship with him, determine your future relationships with men.

2. If there's any chance you're going to be doing the walk of shame in the morning, stick a pair of flats in your purse. That way you look like less of an idiot getting on the ferry, hung-over, at 8:00 am, after your most recent toy-boy assignation.

3. Under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol, you will, on occasion, make poor sexual choices you will regret, or at least, not want to repeat. In short, choose your fuck buddies while you are still relatively sober.

4. Hot, stupid men remain stupid, and stupid gets old very quickly.

5. For some women, ladding it up is preferable to being the second wife of some guy in a pull-over, becoming a step-parent, and living in the 'burbs.  Yes, hell, yes!

6. Sleeping with a client/subject isn't always a career ending move.  Sleeping with an intern almost always is.

7. For women, certain types of very demanding jobs, and the bosses that come with them ( Tilda Swinton rules!) are fundamentally incompatible with the demands of a long-term relationship: especially if the woman with said demanding boss, is, at least occasionally, expected to be the supportive wife/girlfriend in the middle of a workday, in the middle of the week.

8. Other women, married women with kids, usually, will judge you for choosing to remain single, because they know you wouldn't want be stuck with one of their double standard wielding, pot-bellied, "keepers" for love or money, and they hate you for it.

9. Admit it, everyone wants to marry a rich, good looking, white doctor. Nothing else a North American woman achieves in her life will confer the social status of "doctor's wife".

10. If marrying a successful doctor is on your to-do list, in addition to being intelligent, attractive, funny, and having a successful career that you are willing to use to bolster his medical practice, you have to make like a cheerleader. This means you MUST be: pretty in an unaggressive, sexually non-threatening way, fit enough to look good in spandex, athletic, ingratiating, cheerful, and so desperate to land a husband, that you are willing to dance, and beg for love like a dog.

Seriously, she got the guy an article in Vanity Fair, and he didn't call her, send roses, and say thank you instantly?  He, and we should have been cheering for her success. Instead, she gets to grovel in a soft-porn costume.  If that's a happy ending, I'll take the bus.

In life, Schumer is 34, successful and single. It's that terrible age when many women realize that if they wanted to get married, they should have done it 10 years earlier, unless they are OK with being some 50 year old man's second, or third wife, or settling for a lame duck husband they'll have to carry financially, and emotionally.  The pickings, as a woman ages, are about as appealing as left-over salad bar. Yes, you can still get laid a lot, as any woman who has ever been on a dating site knows.  Finding an equal partner: that's another story.

For many women, it is often MUCH BETTER to be single, than to be married. However, all rom-coms must end with a happy couple.

So Amy, thanks for the laughs.  You're a funny, talented woman, and a damn fine actress.  He's a cute guy and if you're happy, I'm happy for you.  Just don't expect me to fist-pump, and shout "hurrah" when you put on a cheerleader costume to land the doctor.

Tonight, I'm going to rent a Mae West movie.