THE CHARLEBOIS POST - CANADA

Theatre For Thought, February 25, 2012

2012-02-25T00:01:00.002-05:00

ANOTHER HAMLET

joel fishbane

As far as theatrical trends go, our obsession with One-Man Hamlets has to be one of the most bizarre. No one ever seems interested in solo-versions of King Lear or Henry VIII, yet new one-man versions are cropping up all the time (and yes, it is always one man). Artists who have tackled the idea include Clayton Jevne (Victoria), Michael Birch (New York) and the folks at the Classical Theatre Company in Texas. Until recently, the latest version was Rhaoul Baneja’s Hamlet (Solo) which has had a life of its own since appearing at Theatre Passe Mureille in Toronto. But Baneja will have to make some room on the bench: thanks to BJ Harrison, there’s a new one-man Hamlet in town.

Harrison reads classic books, utilizing his incredible talent for voicework and characterization to bring the works to life.

If Harrison’s name provokes some head-scratching, it’s probably because you’re not a fan of the Classic Tales Podcast. Harrison is the chief cook and bottle washer of this humble little operation which, at last glance, had over 7 million downloads on iTunes (Harrison estimates about 20 000 downloads a week). The concept is simple: Harrison reads classic books, utilizing his incredible talent for voicework and characterization to bring the works to life. Over the years, he has tackled short stories, poetry and serialized novels by a cadre of famed authors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Last week, Harrison launched his most ambitious project yet: a five-part unabridged reading of Hamlet. “Hamlet has been my favourite play for many, many years,” he reports on his blog. “If I had to point to one work of literature that has turned my casual pursuit of books into a passion for the classics, this is it.”

Harrison isn’t a trained actor and he isn’t after interpretation, which may prove to be a blessing. A long time ago, someone put Hamlet on a high literary pedestal and actors often risk treating the text with the reverence of a religious tomb. Or, rather than create their own interpretation, they imitate the performances of presumed goliaths like Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh. Harrison, though, is taking a much simpler approach. If the first instalment (corresponding with Act One) is any indication, his goal is to present the text as simply as he can.

...he’s decided to precede each episode with an interpretive essay by Charles and Mary Lamb.

Given that his audience isn’t necessarily a theatrical one, he’s decided to precede each episode with an interpretive essay by Charles and Mary Lamb. I’ll admit to not being a fan of this decision, as I don’t like the idea of telling a reader what to think of a text. Still, one can’t fault his reasoning, especially given that the very word ‘Hamlet’ tends to scare people away (even the theatrical ones).

To delineate characters, Harrison also interpolates a narrative tag into the script - “To be or not to be”, says Hamlet, “that is the question.” It’s a little jarring to listen to and Harrison’s characterization is so distinct that I think he might be a little overly cautious. Though, to be fair, I know the play. Listeners approaching the text for the first time may appreciate a little hand-holding (or ear-holding, as the case may be).

Audio presentations of Shakespeare, such as those presented by the Complete Arkangel Shakespeare, are perhaps my favourite way to enjoy the Bard: one can never be distracted by some director’s “clever” ideas. The audio format demands attention is always paid to the narrative and the script. Harrison’s other audio works have always demonstrated a fine dramatic flair and my hope is that, when completed, Harrison’s Hamlet will be a unique addition to this quirky theatrical niche.

At the very least, he’s already demonstrated he knows a good Danish prince from a bad. “If I can turn out a better Hamlet than Mel Gibson,” says Harrison, “I would consider this endeavour a success.”

You can subscribe to The Classic Tales via iTunes or visit Harrison at www.thebestaudiobooks.com. Instalments of Hamlet by William Shakespeare will be released every Friday from February 17 – March 16, 2012.

The Friday Five, February 24, 2012

2012-02-24T00:02:00.000-05:00

Five Reasons Why We're Stopping The Friday Five

Your worst nightmare has come true. The gates of hell have swung open and flaming horrors scream through your mind, devouring your happiness, your sanity, your very will to live. Where once you had faith, there is now only darkness. Where once you had strength, there lies a broken child. Where once you had hope, there sits a steaming pile of hopeshit. The Matt and Kyle and Matt Friday Five has come to an end, and with it, the end of all things. Why? Choose one of the answers below.

by Kyle Gatehouse of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. We've All Gotten Very, Very Fat

Typing has become impossible, not only because our fingers are too fat for keyboards, but because we'll have heart attacks if we move or think.

2. We're Too Cool For Blog School

Blogs are so Internet 2.0. When they start beaming pure information into the back of our eyeballs, we'll consider a return to Internet stardom. Until then, we're going retro and sending telegram jokes to the highest bidders. A little bit old is uncool, but a lot old is ununcool.

3. Death Is Our Fetish

We'll get triple hard boners from the wave of suicides that are sure to follow this post.

4. We're Handsome Millionaires

We've got lots of hot rich things to do, like drive to the living room and pet our tigers. Pools don't swim themselves!

5. Theatre Is Dead

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. 'Nuff said.

Thanks to our parents for reading, and thanks to you other eight readers as well.

Please send all cheques and telegram requests to:

Rich Fatties

69 Handsome and Funny Boul.

Hollywood, CA

90210

CharPo's Real Theatre! February 24, 2012

2012-02-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

Review: (Ottawa) 33 (A Kabarett)

2012-02-23T16:08:00.001-05:00

(photo by Toni Mustra)

Ghosts

Weimar Germany as seen outside of Cabaret

by Jim Murchison

’33 (A Kabarett) is billed as a cabaret of ghosts. It is loosely based on the demise of a real life cabaret called the Eldorado that was closed down by the Nazis and later operated as a Nazi headquarters. The only one left in the theatre as the play opens is the Master of Ceremonies. He has bittersweet memories of his friends and colleagues who were taken, a few clothes and his own fear. Everyone is gone.

Bremner Duthie is a powerful performer.

Bremner Duthie and Dave Dawson share the credit for the design of ’33 (A Kabarett). It is just a suggestion of scattered possessions of lost performers. The bare floor is strewn with memories of the fallen, resistors to fascism; in short the artists and dreamers. Clothes lie in little piles. There are also suitcases, shoes and a clown’s nose. A microphone stands alone, stage left, badly in need of someone to speak into it. It is not an accident that there is no credit for a set design. There is no set for the play really; just shadows and recollections of what used to be.

The lighting design by Christine Hecker and Dave Dawson is perfect. It is bright and stark when the actor is at his most exposed and vulnerable. Spotlights focus tightly on the actor when the mood is intense and solitary. There is a warm and rich red glow on the curtains that makes them seem more opulent during the grander musical numbers. At times the house lights come up so the MC can speak with us more directly.

Bremner Duthie is a powerful performer. His entrance into the theatre is in darkness save for a flashlight. He is desperately seeking any of his cabaret’s company and his despair at finding that they have all been apprehended is a potent introduction to his Master of Ceremonies character. When the lights do come up, they reveal a face half made up, half melted away. It is a poignant reminder of the faces we put on, of our imperfections and the feeble facade that covers our darkest, most sinister secrets.

He compliments our bravery at the same time that he urges us to run; leave the theatre and let him take the blame.

He is alternating between German, English, French and other languages trying to determine what language his oppressors speak when he spots us. This starts the direct dialogue with the audience that connects us to the action. The manner in which the MC addresses the audience is personal and intimate. He compliments our bravery at the same time that he urges us to run; leave the theatre and let him take the blame. Later he admonishes “theatre types” for their pretension and their wardrobes. Mostly what he does is live the Kabarett. He performs deprecating comedy that derides his audience and taunts them into becoming involved. He dances... and he sings; Mac the Knife, Falling in Love Again and most importantly Our Town is Burning which was the seed that inspired the play to be written. Duthie has a rich baritone and emotionally interprets the songs. He whispers, growls, hisses as the song requires.

Unfortunately, what makes the play good also keeps it from being great. It swells to a certain level and falls again. There are many times that Duthie gets to an emotional pitch that has nowhere to go but to collapse. The rhythm repeats itself like a pulse. It is important for theatre to have a pulse but in this case the repetition makes the emotional breakdowns become predictable. I think the blame for this is equally shared between Duthie’s writing and Dawson’s direction. A bigger audience would certainly help as the theatre was only one third full. Ultimately, it is worthwhile to see ’33 A Kabarett, but it falls short of being a triumph.

'33 (a Kabarett) continues to March 10

Review: (Toronto) Obeah Opera

2012-02-23T14:08:00.001-05:00

l-r Bemnet Tekleyohannes, Joni NehRita, Nicole Brooks, Macomere Fifi and Saidah Baba Talibah (Photographer: Nation Cheong)

Both Thought and Entertainment
The magical Obeah Opera
by Axel Van Chee

There is nothing like an accidental education, especially one that is delivered via beautiful music. The world premiere of the powerful Obeah Opera produced by b current & Theatre Archipelago proves to be just such a thing: it is both thought provoking and entertaining. The opera is sung entirely a cappella, using only female voices. For two hours starting with the very first chord, it is as if you are transported to a lush, distant Caribbean Island, and serenaded by the Islanders with their oral history. It is like Obeah, it is magical.

Being both the composer and the librettist is also clearly an advantage for Brooks...

The creator/composer/librettist Nicole Brooks, who also sings the formidable role of Candy, sets the opera during the infamous 1692 Salem witch trial, from the point of view of the slave girls Tituba, Candy, Sarah, Mary and the Elder. This provides ample opportunities for Brooks to explore the relationships between the slaves themselves and that of the slaves and the villagers. These characters built by Brooks based on real people through her research are not mere caricatures, but fully realized human beings with a clear sense of personal histories and journeys. And here lies one major difference between Arthur Miller’s Salem and Nicole Brooks’s Salem: while Miller’s characters only exist through the extent of The Crucible, Brooks’s characters live beyond the life of the opera.

Being both the composer and the librettist is also clearly an advantage for Brooks who seamlessly weaves the influences of classical, jazz, blues, gospel, and other Black cultural musical traditions into the opera. In Act 1, she cleverly gives the slaves the music rich in Black history, and the villagers a more traditional, classical-folky sound. The piece Salem Salem Salem is essentially a rondo fugue. The contrast is striking, humourous, and registers immediately. The choral music is gloriously rich in harmonics with many shifting colours. It is so effectively composed and magnificently sung by the chorus that I wonder why there aren't more musical works without orchestras. Music Director Tova Kardonne has done an astonishing work in preparing these singers. And where else can you hear syncopated sick noises, on pitch?

The four slave girls are exquisitely portrayed and sung by Nicole Brooks (Candy), Saphire Demitro (Sarah), Joni NehRita (Tituba), and Saidah Baba Talibah (Mary), each a fantastic singer in their own right. Macomere Fifi’s Elder is nothing short of sensational in her iridescent patchwork rag with a 10-foot train designed by Julia Tribe. Together, they have enough melisma to give Beyonce and Mariah Carey a run for their money.

Director Ahdri Zina Mandiela uses the limited theater space with ingenuity and elegance, and her gifted singers/actors and great production/designer team are certainly a boon to her operation. From the airy drapery all over the theatre to the simple wooden stage to the lanterns and the blue under-the-stage lighting, it is evident that they have stretched every single dollar they have to its maximum potential. Together, they’ve created a mystical place for some bewitching stage voodoo. Be dazzled, and learn something new too.

Obeah Opera runs to March 4

Review: (Toronto) The Big Smoke

2012-02-23T11:59:00.002-05:00

A Solo Fails to Stir

Structure and script hamper a tale of life and death

by Beat Rice

The Big Smoke is a unique one-woman show that is also a different kind of musical. The narrative is sung and in some parts spoken by co-writer, composer, and performer Amy Nostbakken. The play is sung in a jazzy style and is done entirely a cappella.

The story follows Nathalie's last summer before she dies. She is a young painter from Toronto, in London to compete for an exhibition spot. She tells us about the gallery openings and shows she and the other young artists attend, of raunchy nights in clubs, and of trysts with different men. It was unoriginal and shallow. We do not find out enough about the character's nature to care about her decline in the end. There were many details in the story-telling that felt petty and made the show longer than it needed to be. Detailed descriptions are effective when one knows why they are being provided.

the piece as a whole did not tell an engaging story

Although Nostbakken has a great, warm, sultry singing voice, the jazzy song style did not match the decline of Nathalie's psychological state. It was confusing. Perhaps it was meant to juxtapose her emotional state. If so it was not clear. There were also moments in the narrative where some parts were spoken. The reasons for choosing to sing some parts and speak in sing-song, was also not very clear. For instance, when Nathalie is acting out other characters in a certain vocal style, the change makes sense, but when being herself and describing an event that happened to her, it does not.

Although I appreciate the venture into something new, such as singing poetic narrative, the piece as a whole did not tell an engaging story. Yes, it is one that a lot of people can probably relate to, but it needs to have more than that to move whole audiences.

The Big Smoke presented by Theatre Ad Infinitum Canada in association with Why Not Theatre

Directed by Nir Paldi

Written by Amy Nostbakken and Nir Paldi

Composed and Performed by Amy Nostbakken

The Big Smoke plays at the Factory Studio Theatre until March 4.

Review: (Vancouver) Intimate Apparel

2012-02-23T11:32:00.002-05:00

Daren Herbert and Marci T. House (Photo by David Cooper)

A Play gets one of many airings

Intimate Apparel is a Canadian staple this year - should it be?

by Jay Catterson

Intimate Apparel, written by Lynn Nottage, and directed for Arts Club Vancouver by John Cooper, centres around the life of an African-American seamstress named Esther and is set in turn-of-the-century New York City. Her talent and passion for sewing has provided her with a stable job sewing corsets and lingerie for wealthy women, enabling her to set aside her life's earnings inside a patchwork quilt in hopes of starting a beauty shop. She mysteriously receives a letter from a Panamanian laborer, and although she cannot read and write, she corresponds to this gentleman with the help of her friends, eliciting a clandestine penpal romance. Surprisingly he proposes to her via correspondence, and she accepts, setting up the dramatic events that challenge Esther's notions of love and self-worth.

Actress Marci T. House as Esther delivers a performance that is stellar...

Overall, the Arts Club Vancouver does a commendable job of presenting this work. I did feel that the pacing of the story was a bit slow at times, and the direction could have been executed better to deliver some of the more climactic moments with more impact. However, the small ensemble does a fine job delivering the source material, with performances that are heartfelt and at times rather heartbreaking. Actress Marci T. House as Esther delivers a performance that is stellar, highlighting the sensitivity of her character as well as the inner turmoil of her desire to love and be loved in return.

This production also boasts exquisite costumes by Alison Green, and detailed sets by Pam Johnson, which reflect 1905 New York City very well, although I found the use of projections highlighting the different scenes of the play rather distracting and could've been omitted. Arts Club Vancouver's production of Intimate Apparel is a great precursor of things to come for this local theatre company, for they manage to expose, yet layer the hidden complexities of love - much like the delicate, yet intricate undergarments that Esther sews.

Highly recommended.

Intimate Apparel continues at the Arts Club to March 10

Among other productions the work is or will be playing at Neptune Theatre and at Centaur Theatre

CPC's Picture of the Week, February 23, 2012

2012-02-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

It's the Horse, of course, of course

War Horse, premiering this week

Albert Narracott (Alex Furber) and Joey as a foal (Patrick Kwok-Choon, Rahnuma Panthaky, Mairi Babb). Photo by Brinkhoff / Mögenburg

News: Theatre Calgary announces huge, ambitious 2012-13 season

2012-02-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

Theatre Calgary is going out on a limb next year and presenting a six-play season that should cost the company a pretty penny. It includes two musicals (Next to Normal, opening the season, and Anne of Green Gables, closing it), a costume drama (Pride and Prejudice), a work virtually written for top actors (God of Carnage), the large-cast seasonal favourite (A Christmas Carol) and a new work with a foreign setting (The Kite Runner).

You may recognize this last for its previous incarnations: a magnificent novel and movie.

TC may be able to save some money in coproductions (Pride is with the NAC, Normal and Kite with Citadel), but you cannot fault the house and artistic director Dennis Garnhum for ambition.

See the company's website

CPC's Video of the Week, February 22, 2012

2012-02-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

Promo for Soulpepper's production of Lee MacDougall's High Life -

a deliciously dark work about losers and a heist

After Dark, February 21, 2012

2012-02-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Insidious Nature of Theatre
Damned if it's not everywhere
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Believe it or not...

There was a time when Radio-Canada, through it's primetime Sunday (hit) series Les beaux dimanches, would broadcast plays by ours and the world's greatest playwrights. (They even did my play, which brought it an estimated audience of 800,000 and sent me on a three-month trip through Europe...God bless those times.) There was a time when CBC showed opera and theatre and ballet. There was a time when even the American giants presented plays or the work of playwrights on shows like Playhouse 90 and The Goodyear Television Playhouse; on the latter Paddy Chayefsky tested the waters with his piece, Marty (before it went on to its movie version and an odd little Oscar for Ernest Borgnine in the role Rod Steiger created on TV) as did William Gibson with his seminal The Miracle Worker on the former.

Glee is clearly a Broadway queen's wet dream - or so I thought 'til I did some sniffing around.

Theatre and playwrights were integral to the creation of television.

No more. Indeed, it's gotten so bad at the Ceeb that it's a fucking miracle if their idiot arts feed on Twitter talks about anything besides Whitney's funeral or Demi's breakup.

But something else is happening and I like it very much. In a very surreptitious way, theatre is coming back onto the small screen. (In passing, it is also bringing with it a larger acceptance of Queer culture...but that's for another column.)

Let's start with the two obvious shows: Glee and Smash (the second would never have been possible without the first). Glee is clearly a Broadway queen's wet dream - or so I thought 'til I did some sniffing around. I spotted an app on the Apple store which allows Glee geeks - Gleeks - to sing - in real time - with other Gleeks around the world to a Karaoke recording of a song that appeared on the series. It also allows the Gleeks to record their rendition and subsequently have them rated by other Gleeks (1000s, it would appear) across the globe. This is a really fun app and you can burn away hours of your life listening to some shower-diva (or divo who is really a diva) blasting ersatz-Streisand with "Don't Rain on My Parade" - right down to the pronunciation: budda (for butter). Now many would say that these Broadway star wannabes always existed but I would suggest that Glee showed them that there was a way - besides American Idol - that they could pour out their guts in a song and it was about the drama not the Céline-Dionesque soar-note.

Smash is not a great show, but for a theatre aspirant it is a fun show.

If Glee teaches the hopeful about the drama of the musical itself, Smash is now showing them about the mechanics of mounting one. It is not a great show, but for a theatre aspirant it is a fun show. It does not reflect the full truth of mounting a production, but it is a reasonable facsimile. And, like my play (which never played to a bigger audience than those 800K who watched Rad-Can) it is going beyond what a community house can possibly do and saying: this is what you're looking for. I would suspect glee club coaches and community theatre directors around the world are falling on their knees and thanking God for - and cursing - both shows. (Listen to some of the people on that Gleek app if you want to know what I mean by cursing; keep that for the shower, kid.)

Look, I don't care if - for now - the only result of this is that productions of Annie get mounted in every hamlet in the nation (believe it or not, there were two Annies in St. John's last year!). The fact is, many of us - myself included - got the theatre bug in a roundabout way (from TV, from film - like when I saw the movie A Man For All Seasons with Paul Scofield and then studied the play in English class - from a book, even from a People magazine) - but what we haven't had in the last three decades is the legitimization of how we feel reflected in pop culture. Now, with Glee, Smash and all those little app-Gleeks out there, we do.

Rejoice.

Interview: Dennis Foon on New Canadian Kid

2012-02-20T00:02:00.000-05:00

Warona Steshwaelo and Mike Payette in New Canadian Kid

(photo: Ashley Belmer)

Veteran Canadian Writer

Upstage host Eric Sukhu spoke with playwright Dennis Foon about his play New Canadian Kid presented by Black Theatre Workshop as part of Black History Month. Below is an abridged version by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE

Tell us about New Canadian Kid.

FOON

New Canadian Kids started many years ago when I was working on a project with a school in Vancouver. Speaking with kids from 42 different language groups about their experience as a New Canadian was an eye-opener for me.

Even though I was an immigrant, I hadn’t given it a lot of thought. My own family were immigrants but hearing about what it’s like coming into a country not knowing anyone or even the language allows you to feel it from their perspective.

We don’t think about these things; you just deal with it. The heart of the show.puts you in the shoes of the immigrant and allows you to feel the experience.

The hardest thing for kids is seeing their parents in crisis. Seeing their parents trying to make a new life and often not able to maintain their positions as engineers for example is stressful for kids.

I helped them build their own play about these experiences. Doing that got me inside the skin of the whole problem.

UPSTAGE

How many kids were involved in this project?

FOON

About 30 kids. I helped them build their own play about these experiences. Doing that got me inside the skin of the whole problem. Then decided to do my own play. My Director suggested reversing the languages so that Canadians speak a kind of gibberish and the immigrants speak English. That way, we see it from their perspective.

I wrote the play so that everything Canadians said was accompanied by a gesture therefore didn’t need a language. Playing with that idea created an effect where we could do all kinds of word play; funny on its own. Working with skilled actors over time, the gibberish became a quite refined and elegant language.

UPSTAGE

Was it difficult to work that into the script?

FOON

I had to think about it especially from a physical point of view because everything was accompanied by an action. If I said, give that to me, the motion had to be included.

In one way the staging is simple; in another a good part of it is basically physical comedy.

UPSTAGE

So you were using a variety of theatrical ways to communicate.

FOON

I’ve always been interested in playing with theatricality. In one way the staging is simple; in another a good part of it is basically physical comedy.

UPSTAGE

When was New Canadian Kid written?

FOON

1978. I’ve been told it’s the most produced Canadian play ever. Every year there’s a production of it going on somewhere.

I’ve received many letters from kids who were sensitized to either their own behaviour or another kid’s behaviour.

UPSTAGE

What’s interesting is its relevance. Bullying issues today seem to escalate into different levels, especially with cyberspace.

FOON

Working with kids trying to reflect their experience, you find out a lot about society at large.

UPSTAGE

Is there any way to end bullying?

FOON

As an artist what I try to do is raise awareness. What theatre can do is make you feel. I’ve received many letters from kids who were sensitized to either their own behaviour or another kid’s behaviour. Getting people to talk about a play like this can do something. I’m not saying it can change the world but if we can be touched by it, that’s a start.

Black Theatre Workshop website

Openings We're Tracking, February 20-26, 2012

2012-02-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

This week the community theatre group Eastside Players are premiering a new work (we just like saying that phrase...makes us hum). Rapture, by Joanna Murray-Smith, tells of a group of friends coping with the spiritual awakening among them (see that title). Truly a subject for our time. (Toronto)

Meanwhile, another community company, The Northumberland Players, take on a doozy: Cabaret. If you've been living in a cave, this is the story of an eccentric singer, a writer and Berlin during the rise of Nazism. Rife with some of the best tunes ever, it is always fun and demands an ensemble treatment.

Réjean Ducharme is an enigma. He is still alive but hasn't been photographed in decades. Everyone has a story of having seen him somewhere though that is unlikely. He lets his plays do the talking and what plays they are: lyrical, infuriatingly dense - watching has been compared to being in a drugged state. Ines Pérée et Inat Tendu is one of those - even the name is a pun of contortionist proportions (and virtually un-translatable). As one character declares, "Give me more than everything or give me nothing!" (Montreal)

Review: (Toronto) Everything Under the Moon (World Stage 2012)

2012-02-19T13:47:00.002-05:00

Remembering the Awe

World Stage brings it all home

by Beat Rice

Remember those moments when you were a kid and being in awe of something? Remember how your imagination used to bubble up as you listened to someone tell you a story? You can now relive that pure kind of joy at the Harbourfront Centre. Everything Under the Moon is a multidisciplinary piece that involves story told through song and shadow, music and puppets. It incorporates beautiful visuals in the form of light and dark, and hand animated action, using overhead projectors. Everything Under the Moon tells the story of a honeybee and a brown bat, who become friends as they travel north and south.

A huge round of applause should go out to the two Assistant Stage Managers...

The show has a great balance of simplicity and complexity. The tale is simple enough for children to follow and the concept of shadow play and manipulating tangible objects to tell a story is one that has been employed for centuries. However the creative artistry and uses of space and lights has the ability to also amaze adults.

Many different kinds of instruments and vocals set the mood and helped tell the story. The score, written and performed by Christine Fellows is light, fun, and catchy. It mirrors the artwork by Shary Boyle that captures the charming story through her cartoonish illustrations. A huge round of applause should go out to the two Assistant Stage Managers, Emma Letki and Amy Siegel, who doubled as Projection and Puppeteering Assistants. They had complicated sequences of changing slides and operating large puppets without much time to prepare and all by memory.

The one issue I had with the piece were the slightly elongated pauses between scenes and songs. Perhaps because it was opening night or things were not as spot-on as planned, but either way, there were awkward silent moments where we were left in semi darkness waiting for the next projected image to be prepared. The energy of what we had just seen would drop in these moments. A musical transition would have helped sustain. There were, after all, about a dozen different instruments visible onstage.

Everything Under the Moon is perfectly timed with Family Day weekend. The show is sure to delight audiences of any age

Everything Under the Moon plays at the Enwave Theatre until February 23

The Sunday Read: Actor's Notes - Paul Hopkins and In Absentia

2012-02-19T00:01:00.005-05:00

l-r Paul Hopkins, Jillian Fargey, Jade Hassouné (photo: lucetg.com)

From With-In Absentia

Actor's notes

by Paul Hopkins

I’m currently performing in Morris Panych’s new play, In Absentia, at the Centaur. I play Tom, husband to Colette. To me, this is a story about love. And boy, do I love this play. It reminds me of what I love about theatre: The opportunity to explore the big questions. Below are various thoughts, questions and obstacles that I had during the rehearsal process. The audience only gets to see a prepared meal. What’s below might give a taste of some of the ingredients that went into it.

FYI - The play, in case you haven’t seen it: Colette lives in a house next to a lake in cottage country. A year earlier, her husband was kidnapped, in Columbia. She’d agreed to pay the ransom but then never heard back from the kidnappers. Since then she has remained in limbo, not sure whether her husband is alive or dead. She has taken to talking to an imaginary husband, and receiving consolation from her neighbour and sister. The play begins when a young man shows up at her door, seemingly out of nowhere. The play moves forward from this moment but is comprised of little scenes that jump back and forth in time.

I Love Theatre. Theatre allows me to bathe in the ultimate questions alongside smart, compassionate, engaging people. Rehearsal for this play, especially early in the process, was all about examining and uncovering…trying to find a way to use theatre and its devices to express or manifest this beautiful story about love.

In Absentia and Morris Panych. The term “In absentia” is Latin and is typically used to refer to a defendant in a trial who isn’t present at the trial. Morris suggested, in an interview, that it refers to an absence of God. Is this a play that puts God on trial? I wonder.

What a joy to have Morris in the early rehearsal. Most interesting: he doesn’t have all the answers. Thankfully, neither does the play.

The Play.

The play reads beautifully. Putting it on its feet...a noble challenge.
The structure of the play reminds me of something a friend said about his Vipassana meditation retreat. You realize that your mind is constantly swirling around unsolvable problems. The structure of the play is like her mind swirling and checking out every angle to find a solution where there is no solution.

Is there a God. For Colette, she begs the question of Tom: Is there meaning in life or is it random? Tom thinks some things don’t make sense. Colette can’t accept that and needs to find meaning behind her horrible circumstances. Is there a God or an ultimate reason behind reasons? Tom thinks there isn’t. Colette thinks there has got to be something. I think Tom eventually changes his mind: Love exists when everything else is gone.

Colette and Hamlet. Hamlet came up a few times in rehearsals:

Imagery of being frozen, static, unable to feel or move forward: Hamlet: Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew. Colette: This isn’t feeling this is the absence of feeling… They want to move forward but can’t.
Lots of soliloquies: does the character step out of the action to soliloquize? How does it move the action forward?

How do I play Tom?

Tom isn’t a ghost or a spirit. Okay. Is he a figment of her imagination/sub conscience? Is she channeling his spirit? So are my intentions linked with hers? Morris uses the image of a dream. The characters in a dream have their own motives. What motivates characters in a dream? We have taken to calling him an entity.
Why does Tom move, enter, exit. I’m directing myself while onstage. I need to be in the story not outside of it. Yet I’m playing a character outside the story. I guess I can use it. What do I do with my hands? Morris suggests this isn’t a bad question for my character to have. Why do I leave the stage? Why do I enter the stage? I don’t know… I’m lost… So is the character?
A guide. Tom’s is a guide for Colette’s journey. He loves her. He challenges her. He consoles her. He steers her. But he’s limited in what he can do from where he is.
Lost. I keep getting lost and don’t know where I’m supposed to be on stage.

Tumaco, Columbia. What a terrible place. No trustworthy authority, ruled by corruption. Part of the US war on drugs. Farmers of coca can make twice the minimum wage, $12 an hour. Then the U.S. army comes in and fumigates their crops. So they move to Tumaco. Thank God this isn’t the air we breathe in Canada…as far as we know.

Confession. Colette confesses her sins, as if it might bring him back if she purged herself.

Reviews. I think these reviews reveal more about the reviewer than the play.

In Absentia continues at Cenatur to March 4

The Abominable Showman, February 19, 2012

2012-02-19T00:01:00.004-05:00

The Windmill As it stands today by schau mal einer an, via Google’s Panoramio picture-sharing website

The Theatre of War

As Canadian troops train in combat operations overseas, the Abominable Showman pays tribute to one of the finest wartime theatres ever, The Windmill, where T&A provided Londoners and allied soldiers much-needed relief during World War II

By Richard Burnett

My British father was 10 years old when World War II started, and almost 16 when the war finally ended in 1945. Two years later my dad would serve in the British military as a member of a Sexton tank crew in Germany, from 1947-1949. There he saw the carnage inflicted on Germany by the allies.

But my father had also survived The Blitz, when the Nazis bombed London almost every night between September 7, 1940 and May 10, 1941, killing 20,000 Londoners (as well as another 20,000 Brits living outside the city) and destroying or damaging over one million homes in London alone.

My British grandfather, William Burnett, was a firefighter in London during The Blitz. One day when he came home from a shift he found my father (who was 10 years old at the time) playing with an unexploded German incendiary bomb in the back yard!

The Revue de Ville at The Windmill
during the Blitz

Anyway, 67 years later, in 2007, on my way to visit family in Mauritius, I pit-stopped in London to celebrate my boozy birthday with good London friends, and knew I was in deep trouble when my travel buddy Vinnie and I were several shots into a bottle of absinthe in a nightclub that looked like the alien bar in the original Star Wars movie.

London – or Londonistan, as I like to call it, since British jihadists were terrorizing the city at the time – is still the pulse of Europe, though I couldn’t find mine when we stumbled from Detroit, the absinthe bar, to the Shadow Lounge on Old Compton Street in Soho, an expensive gay disco where Graham Norton and Rupert Everett like to hang out with the beautiful people.

That weekend we also caught a performance of the terrific revival of Cabaret at the historic Lyric Theatre in London’s West End on Shaftesbury Avenue, pretty much just around the corner from what I think ranks as one of the greatest wartime theatres on the planet, the old Windmill Theatre on Great Windmill Street, which today is a high-end strip joint – or a gentlemen’s “table-dancing” nightclub, in local parlance.

I spotted the joint as we left the Lyric because I recognized it from the terrific 2005 docudrama Mrs. Henderson Presents, scripted by Bent playwright Martin Sherman and starring the great Shakespearean stage actor Judi Dench in the title role.

Dench at the 2007 BAFTAs
(Wikipedia)

Dench, incidentally, was in the same class as Vanessa Redgrave at drama school, trained at the Old Vic Theatre in the 1950s, created the role of Sally Bowles in the London premiere of Cabaret, and once famously said, “The best moment of playing [William Shakespeare's] Juliet is the nanosecond when they offer you the part.”

When I told my dad about the Windmill, he replied, “Yes, I went there once during the war.”

In other words, he got into the Windmill as an under-aged young teen to check out a little T&A.

Which makes sense since the old Windmill essentially became an infamous burlesque theatre after Laura Henderson bought the Palais de Luxe building in 1930, hired architect Howard Jones to remodel the interior to a tiny one-tier theatre, and renamed it the Windmill.

Program from The Windmill’s
famous and infamous Revue de Ville

Henderson’s theatre manager, the famed London impresario Vivian van Damm, came up with the brilliant idea of showcasing glamorous nude females on stage, inspired by the Folies Bergères and Moulin Rouge in Paris.

Wikipedia explains, “This coup was made possible by convincing Lord Cromer, then Lord Chamberlain, in his position as the censor for all theatrical performances in London, that the display of nudity in theatres was not obscene: since the authorities could not credibly hold nude statues to be morally objectionable, the theatre presented its nudes – the legendary “Windmill Girls”– in motionless poses as living statues or tableaux vivants. The ruling: ‘If you move, it's rude.’”

Interestingly, a quarter-century later, my friend, Montreal theatre legend Louis Negin, became the first actor to ever appear nude on a legitimate British stage, in John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes in London’s West End back in 1967.

“In London at that time if you went to see a play with nudity in it, you had to join a [theatre] club which couldn’t be closed down [by the police],” Negin explained to me. “When Lord Chamberlain dissolved that law, Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes – with its explicit scenes of gay rape in prison – was a huge success with audiences in Canada and the West End.”

Benny Hill getting made up at the Windmill

All that to say, The Windmill shows became a huge commercial success and The Windmill then became the only theatre in London which stayed open throughout World War II, earning its legendary slogan, “We never closed.”

The Windmill provided much-needed respite for Londoners and allied soldiers, and I wish we had an equivalent for our Canadian soldiers serving overseas today.

While Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar ended in 2011, this past week Canadian soldiers conducted Joint Operations Access Exercise 12-01 with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division (also Marlene’s Dietrich’s favourite soldiers during her wartime tours behind enemy lines during WWII) in North Carolina. Another 1,500 Canadian troops are currently retraining near Yellowknife for the $20-million exercise Arctic Ram, relearning skills neglected during 10 years of desert warfare in case this country ever has to defend its Arctic sovereignty. And this week Canada also secured the Cologne-Bonn airport in Germany as the European hub to support Canadian troops in whatever foreign missions come after the war in Afghanistan.

While the theatre of war keeps changing, it’s still true soldiers and the folks in war-torn cities still need to be entertained, even if only just for a couple of hours. That’s what Laura Henderson understood so well at The Windmill.

When Henderson died on November 29, 1944, at age 82, she left The Windmill to Van Damm, better known by his backstage nickname “VD.” Van Damm ran the theatre until his death in December 1960. Along the way, innumerable British entertainers got their career starts at The Windmill, including comic Benny Hill.

In its latest incarnation The Windmill International has – appropriately, I think – become a “table-dancing” nightclub. The luxurious venue maintains its original features while keeping in style with the old theatre.

Cutline for program 2012: British historian Maurice Poole gave an illustrated talk on the Windmill Theatre, at the Sanctum Soho Hotel on February 6, 2012. Special guests included Jill Millard Shapiro, a former Windmill girl and the program (pictured) was modeled on an original Windmill Theatre program.

As for Judi Dench, who portrayed Henderson in the Mrs. Henderson Presents biopic, she is currently waging her own war: London’s Daily mail reports this weekend that the 77-year-old Dench is battling to save her eyesight from a disease (called macular degeneration) which can lead to blindness, and that has already left her unable to read scripts.

“I can’t read scripts anymore because of the trouble with my eyes,” Dench told the Daily Mail, admitting she can’t even see the person opposite her at dinner anymore. “And so somebody comes in and reads them to me, like telling me a story. It’s usually my daughter or my agent or a friend and actually I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind.”

Clearly Dench still has some fight in her, in her new theatre of war.

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Charlebois Post - Canada Articles on The Healey Affair

2012-02-18T17:44:00.000-05:00

(In order of publication)

Brad Fraser's Open Letter to Richard Rose

Steve Gallucio's Open letter to Richard Rose

Brad Fraser's essay on the Healey Affair

Gaëtan Charlebois's comments on the Healey Affair

Steve Galluccio's Editorial on the Healey Affair

Editorial: Steve Galluccio on The Healey Affair

2012-02-18T16:24:00.002-05:00

The Quebec Thing

The Healey Affair - Not Here

by Steve Galluccio

Going back to the Mike Healey/Tarragon affair...

It is clear now that the Tarragon did not produce the Healey play, which was supposedly anti-Harper, fearing reprisals from the Harper government.

I wrote a movie called Funkytown set in the disco 70s. One of the back stories was how the election of the PQ government drove a lot of big businesses out of Montreal and as a result we lost our biggest-city status to Toronto. One of the characters, Gilles, a francophone record producer, is fervently anti-Lévesque and his party. I also took a shot at the Office de La Langue française, the language watchdog organization which is still in existence today. The movie was bilingual, with Québécois (for the most part sovereignist) actors playing the roles. It was well received, and did boffo box office.

A few eyebrows were raised in the media, and that is okay because all these issues are still very sensitive ones in Québec. But the movie got made. No one pulled out. No one was afraid of what it said. And that is the sign that I live in a truly free society. I thought it was a Canadian thing. Clearly it is not. It is a Québec thing.

We continue to make art and are not afraid of Harper cutting our funding. We are fighting because this is who we are in Québec: we have fought for the survival of our language and our culture and we will continue to fight. I can only wish that the ROC would do the same.

What happened at the Tarragon proves otherwise. I have never been happier and prouder to call myself Québécois than I am today.

For more on the Healey Affair read:
Steve Gallucio's Open letter to Richard Rose
Brad Fraser's Open Letter to Richard Rose
Brad Fraser's essay on the Healey Affair
Gaëtan Charlebois's comments on the Healey Affair

Obituary: Jennifer Cook

2012-02-18T14:38:00.000-05:00

The unsung heroine
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Jennifer Cook, who died this week after a prolonged illness, was one of the great unsung heroines of Canadian theatre having touched the lives of artists across the country. She began her work in Canadian theatre at Centaur where she served as secretary to the artistic director and general manager (under Maurice Podbrey). She became friends with many of the creators simply passing through the company, and was a close accomplice of virtually all who worked there. It was during this period that I met her and before long she was not only my best friend, but also managed my career as a playwright, ushering my work into CBC radio and coproducing my play Michael (which was subsequently performed, in French, at Quat'Sous, largely thanks to her involvement).

Cook continued her work in theatre after retirement, offering her volunteer services to GCTC when she moved to Ottawa. She also worked as a DJ for a time.

But it was simply with her temperament - always positive and enthusiastic - and with her encouragement, that she allowed us to see the light in the - often profound - theatrical darkness. She helped many of us to stay the course.

She leaves behind her two sons, Miles and Alastair, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Review: (Toronto) Beckett: Feck It!

2012-02-18T14:04:00.001-05:00

Laura Condlln, Shannon Mercer and Sofia Tomic (Photo by John Lauener)

See It!

A Beckett noob gets bit

by Stuart Munro

I confess. Even though I went to a performing arts school, I don’t know anything about Samuel Beckett. Certainly the name had come up more than once, and I knew the title of Waiting for Godot, but that was the extent of my experience. (It was a music theatre school. Ask me about Sondheim sometime.) So I didn’t know what to expect from the opening night of Queen of Puddings Music Theatre’s Beckett: Feck It!

I certainly didn’t expect to love it.

Beckett: Feck It! combines four of the shorter plays by the Irish playwright with more contemporary Irish classical music which the playbill asserts is “inspired by his work.” The formula feels a bit artificial, as if the creators were looking for a way to link the plays together with something more than a fade out/fade in. But even given that, the structure works; the music and song always have the same tone and energy of what’s preceded or what’s to come. Soprano Shannon Mercer possesses a beautiful and clear voice and delivers all the music in convincing German and Irish. Ms. Mercer appears in one of the short plays as well and manages to hold her own alongside the more seasoned actors.

It may seem difficult, at first, to assess the ability of any actor in a play with virtually no dialogue...

The production stars two veterans of Canadian theatre, Laura Condlln and Tom Rooney, both of whom have several years at Stratford under their belt. Alongside them are two newcomers, Michal Grezjszczak and Sofia Tomic, both recent graduates from the Ryerson Theatre School. It may seem difficult, at first, to assess the ability of any actor in a play with virtually no dialogue (the first play is titled “Act Without Words II”), but what is said in silence can be equally as profound, and all four actors excel, whether speaking or not.

Directors Jennifer Tarver, Dáirine Ní Mheadhra, and John Hess have chosen their material carefully. The plays, while seemingly unconnected, all have a cyclical structure and could continue ad infinitum. Behind each one is an important, if seemingly simple, life lesson. Only the final play, “Ohio Impromptu,” breaks the cycle, allowing the evening to end.

...it manages to simultaneously create an oppressive and expansive atmosphere...

The production’s design is fairly simple and serves to suggest a mood more than anything. Set and costume designer Teresa Przybylski has clothed the actors in vaguely early twentieth century working class apparel (save Shannon Mercer’s gorgeous red dress), and the set creates a rolling landscape that seems to come down from the sky and continue onto the land. Again, the playbill tells us this is meant to represent the “low cloudy Irish skies that always seem to hug the Earth. . . .” Somehow, it manages to simultaneously create an oppressive and expansive atmosphere, no doubt aided by Kimberly Purtell’s lighting.

My only complaint would be the tone of the latter plays. The first play is a seemingly lighthearted commentary on our interconnectedness, but the laughing more or less ends here. I don’t say this to imply the evening stopped being entertaining, I simply wanted to laugh a bit more. I also would’ve liked music presented in the same language as the plays themselves. I know Beckett was Irish and spoke German, but these language additions, while fitting musically, seemed a little incongruous. The playbill credits a SURTITLES designer, but these were missing from Friday night’s performance. A translation is provided in the playbill, but it’s always nice to be able to have it in context.

These grumbles are minor, however, and I left the theatre marveling at how so much could be said with so little. Beckett: Feck It! is an evening of theatre that will surprise, entertain, and challenge you, all in the short span of seventy minutes. It shouldn’t be missed.

Beckett: Feck It! is at Canadian Stage to February 25

Theatre For Thought, February 18, 2012

2012-02-18T00:01:00.002-05:00

MAMET VS THE MAGICAL POST OBAMA TIME
joel fishbane

As frustrated as I can be with some of David Mamet’s work, I remain doggedly convinced that he is one of the finest playwrights of the modern age. It is, I think, a glorious thing to experience anything he has written: he has the ability to cut through the great chafe of life and, in prose that is lean but never anorexic, reveal wisdom in all areas: art, lust, guns, even campaign buttons. Oh and race. Let’s not forget that.

Mamet’s 2006 book The Wicked Son dealt with anti-Semitism and self hatred among the Jews; not content with this controversy, he returned to Broadway in 2009 with Race, a play that tackles the great racial divide that has haunted America ever since Thomas Jefferson was forced to remove references to slaves from the Declaration of Independence (it’s true, look it up).

... three attorneys, two black and one white, debate whether to defend a white man charged with raping a black woman.

Race is finally getting its Canadian premiere thanks to Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre and if you’ve always been on the fence about David Mamet, this play will probably be the one that sends you to one side or the other. Even the synopsis doesn’t pull any punches: three attorneys, two black and one white, debate whether to defend a white man charged with raping a black woman. The heated premise forces all the characters to expose the unresolved racial and sexual issues at the heart of our culture.

“The play covers so many Taboo topics,” said my friend Tristan D. Lalla, who's appearing in the production. “They're all incredibly poignant and relevant to the world we all co-exist in today.”

I was eager to talk to Tristan about Race, both because he’s a sharp Montreal actor and an outspoken social activist. Back in August, 2011, Tristan made headlines after he accused bouncers at Montreal’s Saint Sulpice of racial discrimination - he and friends were denied admittance because they were in “le style hip-hop”. Not surprisingly, he remarked that Mamet's views on racism “are eye opening, yes, but for me, they aren't new.”

Although Race is set in contemporary America, Tristan knows firsthand that its themes are far too relevant for Canadians. Many people, according to him, believe we’ve entered a golden age of equality. His director (Heather Ingalls) was even asked why Catalyst Theatre was producing Race, given that there was according to the questioner, no race problem in Canada. “That's why we're doing this play,” Tristan told me via email. “Unfortunately, many people somehow have convinced themselves that that is true... that we live in some kind of Magical ‘Post-Obama’ time.”

Mamet has given the entertainment world a pantheon of modern classics.

Race opened to mixed reviews in 2009 with critics divided between the show’s subject and its style. All agreed it represented a general return-to-form for Mamet, who had been focusing on adaptations (Faustus, The Voysey Inheritance) and madcap comedy (November, Romance). But critics were equally unhappy with the story itself, calling it “hollow” (Variety), “clunky” (New York Post) and “lacking in dramatic tension” (New York Times.).

Their disappointment was palpable. In addition to the Pulitzer-prize winning Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet’s work in film, TV and stage has created a pantheon of modern classics: American Buffalo (stage), The Untouchables (film), The Unit (TV). But with his run of adaptations and farces, Mamet has long threatened to become a caricature of himself, especially in his recent films (I’d argue he’s been remaking his 1997 film The Spanish Prisoner for years.)

So it’s easy to understand why people were itching for a new Mamet they can champion; and equally easy to see why they were disappointed. It’s unfair to judge any artist’s work to others in the oeuvre, but this doesn’t stop people from doing it. The danger of being prolific and popular is that you’re your own worst enemy. Put another way, Race is not Glengarry Glen Ross - but everyone wants it to be.

Viewed as its own animal, Race remains a provocative exploration of a subject most playwrights (and theatre companies) are loathe to explore. Whether or not you agree with its depiction of race in the western world, it should spark the sort of uneasy conversation that needs to be had. Aside from its risky topic, Race also contains all the hallmarks of the classic David Mamet play. Language has long been a prison in Mamet’s work and Race’s characters stumble into more than one verbal cell. There’s the traditional manipulation, the corkscrew plot, the trademark dialogue known to the theatre world as “Mamet-speak’.

Given its topic, the staging of Race will probably always be something of a political act, but this should not be taken to mean the play is not inherently theatrical. “[Race] leaves you uneasy, wanting, and curious,” said Tristan. “It leaves you questioning what you just heard, what You Believe, who you trust... It leaves you Talking- which is what good theatre should do.”

Race by David Mamet runs from February 24 – March 11, 2012 at Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton. For tickets call 780.420.1757 or visit www.catalysttheatre.ca.

News: (Victoria) Pacific Opera announces new season

2012-02-17T11:39:00.001-05:00

As they prepare to climb into their latest production, Carmen, Pacific Opera has announced its plans for the 2012-13 season.

Along with some standard-issue regional house content (Tosca), the company is taking a couple of interesting chances with Verdi's lesser performed Macbeth and a light-hearted gem from the Benjamin Britten opus, Albert Herring.

Britten's masterworks are decidedly unpleasant - Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Death in Venice and Rape of Lucretia to name some - Herring, however, is an operatic romp. The Verdi, featuring a rousing battle chorus toward the end and a mad scene worthy of Donizetti, tends to surprise audiences who are used to the tune-laden works of the composer; the piece is decidedly more dark and text-driven. However, the company is good about taking chances - notably this very season with new works like Mary's Wedding and the less-performed Donizetti bel canto Maria Stuarda. (GLC)

Visit the company's website.

The Friday Five, February 17, 2012

2012-02-17T00:02:00.006-05:00

(fig. 1)

FIVE WAYS TO SIT IN THE AUDIENCE

Try these out with your friends!

by Matt Raudsepp of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. Nobody To My Left/Somebody To My Right: Safe (fig. 1)

The Holy Grail of assigned seating. Some “theatre goer” didn’t go, and you find yourself with an empty seat next to you. Throw that elbow open and extend a foot into nothingness… this play is going to be good! Pro Tip: use the empty spot for your jacket, bags, and program.

(fig. 2)

2. Nobody To My Left/Somebody To My Right: Confrontational (fig. 2)

The person sitting to your right asks you if they can place their jacket in that Holy Grail of an empty space to your left. Well, guess what? Your jacket, bags, and program are already filling it quite nicely, thank you very much. Show your neighbour that you’re the king of the row by invading his space (you wanted to shift your arm and leg anyway). Be sure to keep a firm grip on the armrest while you throw that other elbow open and place the bottom of your foot on his thigh... this play just got a lot worse for your neighbour! Pro Tip: feign ignorance for as long as you can.

3. The Bust (fig. 3)

(fig. 3)

This play is a bust? You are a bust. Turn your back on the show and nap in a near-fetal position… this play is busted! Pro Tip: rest your feet on the bosom of the woman sitting in the row behind you to level up the “bust” pun yet again.

4. The Standing Ovation (fig. 4)

(fig. 4)

Wish you could see the stage better while simultaneously showing your appreciation for the performance? Step right up and get a bird’s eye view… this play was far too understood by audiences ‘til you stood up! Pro Tip: that was a pun.

5. One Hand Clapping (fig. 5)

Are the actors seemingly performing for themselves up there? Feels a little too “wanky”? Why not join in on the self-gratification? Leave a decoy sleeve on the armrest and slip that hand down your shirt and into your pants. Pro Tip: the sound of applause perfectly masks the sound you’re now making.

(fig. 5)

CharPo's Real Theatre!, February 17, 2012

2012-02-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

News: Keynote speakers announced for APASO

2012-02-16T13:56:00.003-05:00

Brault

The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) is hosting the annual meeting of The Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO), in April. The announced speakers are Simon Brault, CEO at the National Theatre School and writer of No Culture, No Future and Tim Jones, President and CEO of Artscape.

Press release:

APASO Toronto 2012 April 11 – 14, 2012

KEY NOTE SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED!

The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) is proud to announce Simon Brault and Tim Jones as Keynote Speakers for the upcoming APASO 2012 Conference in Toronto, Ontario.

SIMON BRAULT Thursday, April 12

BIOGRAPHY: SIMON BRAULT, O.C.
CEO, National Theatre School of Canada

Simon Brault was named the National Theatre School’s CEO in 2008 and has held several key administrative positions with the NTS since 1981.

In 1997, he initiated Journées de la culture, a Quebec‐wide cultural event; in 2002, he led a 20‐member delegation at the Sommet de Montréal and founded Culture Montréal. Since 2007, he heads the steering committee of the RV07 – Montreal, Cultural Metropolis.

He is Vice‐Chair of the Canada Council, an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec, a Fellow of the CGA, and a recipient of the Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadership.

On September 23, 2009, Mr. Brault launched his first book of essays on the rise of arts and culture on global public agendas. Titled Le FACTEUR C ‐ L'Avenir passe par la culture, it was published by La Presse / Éditions Voix parallèles and was released in English, in May 2010, by Cormorant Books (translation Jonathan Kaplansky) under the title No Culture, No Future.

In 2011, the Presses de l'Université du Québec and the Chaire de leadership Pierre‐Péladeau published a monograph about Simon Brault: Prendre fait et cause pour la culture. It is a scholarly thesis on his personal and professional journey in the arts.

Synopsis: No Culture, No Future by Simon Brault: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits,” proclaims the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Simon Brault takes these words to heart and goes one step further. In No Culture, No Future, he establishes that arts are not just a right but a necessity. A longtime advocate of the arts in Montreal, Brault has taken action to re-establish that city as one of the most culturally accomplished communities in Canada. No Culture, No Future is part of his campaign to convince the people and governments of cities across Canada that investment in the arts benefits all citizens.
If you have not already read Mr. Brault’s book, No Culture, No Future, there will be copies on sale at the APASO conference. We look forward to welcoming Mr. Brault on Thursday, April 12, 2012.

TIM JONES Friday, April 13

BIOGRAPHY: TIM JONES
PRESIDENT, CEO, Artscape

Tim Jones is a champion for the role that the arts play in transforming cities and communities. Under his direction as President and CEO since 1998, Artscape has grown from a Toronto-based affordable studio provider to an internationally recognized leader in city-building through the arts. In Toronto, Tim has played a catalytic role in the redevelopment of the Distillery District and galvanized the vision, interest and investment to create Artscape Gibraltar Point and the award-winning Artscape Wychwood Barns. In Canada and abroad, Tim acts as a consultant and advisor on projects, policy and initiatives and speaks at more than 20 conferences and events each year. He and his colleagues at Artscape are passionately committed to exchanging knowledge with others on how arts, culture and creativity can help make our world more livable, sustainable, and prosperous.

FULL APASO SCHEDULE & LOCAL registration coming soon!

Meme-ing

2012-02-16T13:42:00.000-05:00

by Natasha Gauthier

(click to enlarge)

Blog: Critical Condition, February 16, 2012

2012-02-16T11:48:00.002-05:00

Oh! The Fucking Week

When seven days can be as exhilarating as it is frustrating

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Have you ever had one of those weeks where, while running errands on a gray, rainy day, you are at a stop light and you think: I have two choices; I throw myself into the oncoming, or I cause a catastrophic accident which will kill a dozen, much to my delight. It is a sorry emotional state; a mixture of excitement at how fast things are going and rage at how you seem to be the only one in the whirlwind (it's like no one else notices). You are feeling both love for the world and a deep misanthropy at the same time.

"Platonic"

This week - because of a variety of positive causes (the huge readership of Brad Fraser's essay, the exchange about it on Facebook and Twitter; the growing readerships for both CPM and CPC) mixed with the negative ones (ongoing medical issues with me and my SO, the non-discussion of Fraser's piece everywhere but Twitter and Facebook) - I was in a state I can only compare to the one actors are in the day after they've closed a hit show and there is no next show lined up.

Inertia.

Stasis.

Chose a word.

Then I was reading Roger Ebert's biography. In it, Ebert used the term "Platonic" in a sense I didn't understand. Well, God bless iBooks which allows you to tap a word and opens a dictionary to that word. Here is the sense Ebert meant: "confined to words, theories, or ideals, and not leading to practical action".

And I was at peace. Sometimes you just need to have a name for something for everything to feel right. I am so, so tired of being in a country and community (theatre) where everything is platonic. We are letting the Tories step all over what we believe to be right (gun registry, privacy) while doing a whole shitload of talking but nothing actually practical. As I have written here, the Healey affair at Tarragon is a clear sign of worse to come - but we do nothing (except on Facebook and Twitter...cheesh!).

In my home life I am just as platonic. I am caught between doctors, mourning for my life, instead of bringing a professional complaint against one and satisfying myself she will at least get her hands slapped. My condition isn't improving but I can do nothing about it because I am caregiver for my SO and there are no real systems in place to help either of us.

So I moan. You moan. He/she/it moans.

There...

Onwards.

CPC's Picture of the Week, February 16, 2012

2012-02-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

Marilyn Koop's magnificent art for Beckett: Feck It! at Canadian Stage

CPC's Video of the Week, February 15, 2012

2012-02-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

Part II of the "documentary" series made by

Sidemart Theatrical Grocery for Scientific Americans

(see Part I here)

News: (Ottawa) GCTC artistic director stepping down

2012-02-14T16:02:00.001-05:00

After seven years as artistic director of GCTC (Great Canadian Theatre Company) in Ottawa, Lise Ann Johnson has decided to step down. The announcement was made by board chair Nhanci Wright who noted that Ms Johnson had several accomplishments to her credit during her tenure including the company's move to a new venue. Ms Johnson also created the company's successful festival of alternative theatre, undercurrents. Ms Johnson will leave in the Fall of this year and a selection committee is being formed to find her replacement. (GLC with Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Editor for The Charlebois Post - Canada)

Press release:

GCTC Artistic Director Lise Ann Johnson to step down

at the beginning of the 2012-13 season.

GCTC Board Chair, Nhanci Wright announced today that Lise Ann Johnson will step down as Artistic Director at the beginning of the 2012-13 season. Ms. Johnson has been the Company’s Artistic Director for the past seven years and will end her term in the fall of 2012.

Nhanci Wright adds “GCTC is very grateful to Lise Ann for shepherding the company through one of its most important transitions, and we will be sad to see her go. During Lise Ann’s tenure, the company built, opened and embraced the new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre.” Ms. Johnson joined GCTC in 2005, and along with General Manager Nancy Oakley, was instrumental in helping the company move from its former home in a converted truck repair garage at 910 Gladstone Avenue to the new purpose-built Irving Greenberg Theatre in 2007. “As Lise Ann helped lead the company through this transition, she expanded the company’s reach into the community and continued the company’s long history of producing dynamic, exciting theatre.”

Lise Ann Johnson stated, “GCTC has just celebrated its fifth season at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre. Now that the company is firmly established in its new home, and given the incredible momentum of the Taking Care of (Unfinished) Business fundraising campaign, this is the perfect time for GCTC to start looking ahead to the next exciting phase of its future. I am extremely proud of everything this company has accomplished and will miss working with the staff whom I love dearly, but after seven wonderful years, it’s time for a new Artistic Director to bring new ideas and new energy to the company.”

After seven successful seasons, Lise Ann is one of the company’s longest serving Artistic Directors. Lise Ann brought her passion for Canadian creation to the company, and during her tenure the company developed and produced eleven world premieres. Lise Ann placed particular emphasis on producing work written by playwrights originally from or currently based in Ottawa, including plays by Pierre Brault, Arthur Milner, Hannah Moscovitch, Richard Sanger, Rosa Laborde, Morwyn Brebner and Andrew Moodie. Ms. Johnson also sought out and collaborated with local theatre companies such as A Company of Fools, Sleeping Dog Theatre, New Theatre of Ottawa, and the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama to develop and premiere new productions.

Lise Ann was enthusiastic about supporting the development of emerging artists and companies based in Ottawa. Since its move to the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, GCTC ran many professional development programs for new companies and artists, including playwrights units, a directors unit, a production mentorship program, master classes and internships. Most recently, she created the highly successful undercurrents festival in 2011, which is now in its second edition. The festival is designed to showcase original creation by independent theatre companies and features both local and national work. Lise Ann says, “undercurrents is one of the most exciting things to happen to GCTC since our move to the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre. It’s a wonderful platform for new work, new artists and new audiences. Patrick Gauthier has done a great job producing the festival, and I will really miss working with him on it.”

Along with programming GCTC’s seasons, Ms. Johnson continued to direct one or two plays each season. In particular, she will be fondly remembered by audiences for her productions of Plan B by Michael Healey, her award-winning production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien, and Heroes by Gerard Sibleyras. She will direct Circle Mirror Transformation, GCTC’s final production of the current season, as well as a production in the 2012-13 season. She is currently planning the 2012-2013 season, which the company will launch on April 11, 2012.

“We were all sad to hear the news that Lise Ann is leaving,” adds Nancy Oakley, GCTC’s General Manager. “She is one of a long line of strong Artistic Directors the company has hired over the years.”

The company is pleased to announce that Board member, Bruce Nicol, will be heading the selection committee for the national search. The committee will be comprised of members of the board, GCTC staff and community. The position will be posted immediately and the search committee will follow a well established process for searching and hiring senior management. The company expects to have a new Artistic Director in place by the fall of 2012.

Nhanci Wright says it is an exciting time for the company. “In the past 12 months, the GCTC Board has eliminated half the debt on the building. This momentum will see us clear the remaining debt and launch us into the next phase of producing provocative and uniquely Canadian theatre.”

About the Great Canadian Theatre Company:

GCTC is celebrating its 37th Anniversary Season in 2011 – 2012 and we have great cause to celebrate our achievements. In that time, we have developed from five people who joined together at Carleton University with little more than an idea, to become a vibrant independent professional theatre company. GCTC is committed to the production of new Canadian work, and to producing theatre that provokes examination of Canadian life and our place in the world. We continue to commission and workshop new work by Canadian playwrights, as well as mentor emerging artists and theatre companies through professional development programs. Website: www.gctc.ca

Media Contact:

Sheilagh D’Arcy McGee – media@gctc.ca

Valentine Treat / February Heat

2012-02-14T00:02:00.097-05:00

Our Second Annual Gallery of Gorgeous

The Charlebois Post likes show folk. All of them! (Really!) But, because we are only human, there are some we like more than others and though - on the face of it - it looks like it is only about their physical beauty it is also because they are all really, really, really talented. (Really!)

Take Quincy Armorer, for instance. Doesn't the talent just radiate out of the eyes of this spanking new artistic director of Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal? Doesn't that wondrous forehead look like it's covering a brain that is just full of ideas and theatre concepts? Of course it does!

(Photo: Robert Popkin)

And Megan Follows (seen here in her recent Nightwood hit The Penelopiad). We were astounded when, as a very little girl, she turned in a truly magnificent performance as Anne of Green Gables, but the woman she is now has also learned to dominate the stage even when wearing gorgeous flowing gowns...just as she did, back when, in the Stratford production of Romeo and Juliet.

...and on the subject of Romeo and Juliet...

What about Ms Follows' Romeo, who is now one of the bosses of Stratford itself, Antoni Cimolino, and has just come off directing the hit Enron at Theatre Calgary. You can tell that if he was named the next artistic director at Stratford he would be perfect; just look into those dreamy blue eyes.

Regis (photo: David Cooper)

And way on the other side of the country we just know that Marsha Regis will be brilliant in Arts Club's Intimate Apparel this week. The woman just exudes a certain star quality, a certain regal je ne sais quoi.

Turner

And while we're in Vancouver, let's talk about Aaron Turner. Montreal's loss is Vancouver's gain as this committed, intense actor proves in this photo of him in his hobby of lumberjack.

Werleman (by Li Chapman)

We once saw a play that featured both Turner and Karl Werleman. It truly was one of the most stimulating nights we've had in or out of a theatre. Our minds were provoked, our senses challenged. All in all, the kind of experience everyone should have at least once in a playhouse. (And it sure was a lot of tall for one tiny venue.)

We've said it before and we'll say it again. Cameryn Moore is sexy (and not just because she says all those mind-bendingly dirty things in her show Phone Whore). We like her well-rounded performances and boy! (screw Dorothy Parker) men (and women) WILL make passes at girls who wear glasses.

But the sexiest bunch in the country also happen to be right here at The Charlebois Post. We like our men funny...and lying across beds like Matt and Kyle and Matt.

After Dark, February 14, 2012

2012-02-14T00:01:00.004-05:00

Flinch Mob

All signs point to a chill - a very weird one

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois
(see below for comments from Michael Healey)

The news is not good and for all the wrong reasons. We are NOT being pounded on by Harper's conservatives except in the usual sleazy ways. But the effect is the same: we are submitting like archetypal sissy liberals, hearts a-bleeding, eyes a-tearing.

I know this all sounds brutal and over the top but I have just lived through nearly two weeks of rhetorical give and take with people on all sides of the censorship issue. Except it's not the censorship issue; it's the flinch-before-they-hit-us issue. It is another set of cases where good-thinking people should be doing something - mobilizing - and where there will be a lot of really, really good talk and writing and nothing will get done because - dammit! - it's really, really scary out there right now.

Two cases:

1) A right-winger (insert name of any CP pol or Quebecor/Sun hysteric here) spouts off about state-subsidized porn. Yes, indeed, Radio-Canada - through its online service tou.tv - is showing a satire about the porn industry - Hard - which, itself, is humorously soft core. Even the Heritage minister James Moore (quickly becoming the left's favourite boogie-man) sermonizes. (He did it in a beautifully sleazy way, too. The Toronto Sun has him saying, "This programming cannot be defended", and then, "Having now seen the show in question…") (Boldface added…) Radio-Canada flinches and reprograms and now Hard cannot be seen on demand except after midnight.

2) Michael Healey writes Proud, presents it to Richard Rose, artistic director of Tarragon, and is told it will not be programmed into the next season because, Healey says, it could subject the company to legal problems from the Prime Minister (who is featured in the play). All this despite an eleven year relationship between the playwright and company (which Healey parts from, quite publicly). It's not censorship…per se. It's Flinchfest at the Tarragon.

I do not blame the powers at Rad-Can, nor Rose for backing off. What I blame them for - and blame everyone in the cultural community for - is the subsequent silence. Outside of Facebook, I am not seeing discussions about why we flinch, think we have to flinch and might flinch in the future. Or, better, how we can stop flinching. The closest we've come is right here on this site in Brad Fraser's open letter to Rose, Steve Galluccio's open letter and Mr. Fraser's brilliantly considered essay on the whole business.

But as Brad and I have noticed, with some dismay, is the very few comments following these articles despite both his letter and essay being the most popular articles at The Charlebois Post - Canada...ever. Brad and I have had some great discussions with dozens of people in and out of theatre…on Facebook. I have invited all of them (pro and con) to go public. I have invited Mr. Rose directly (twice!).

Silence.

Death by flinching.

Here is a boil on the body theatrical that needs lancing and it is just going to grow and grow over the next three-four years to the point where the Tories need do nothing at all to keep us all "in line". We'll do that job all by ourselves. And then, yes, we'll get five more years of the Tories come the next election.

* * * * *

One of the people who participated in Facebook discussions was playwright Michael Healey. I asked his permission to include the following comment:
To reiterate a few points: the theatre's liability, as described to me by Richard, would be the loss of revenue from a theatre shut for 6 weeks. They couldn't be sued out of existence. My understanding is that the theatre's fed funding comes from the Can Council, which is arms-length and transparent (Heritage is neither), so their risk there is minimal. In my opinion, Richard gains nothing at all by responding publicly to the controversy. First, because there's no good that comes out of having your season choices second-guessed in public, and second, because what's he going to say? That he chose the theatre's security over one of its playwrights? That just stirs the pot, and his goal is to put this behind him as quickly as possible. The real issue here -- forget Tarragon, forget Richard -- is this: no one would have had a moment's hesitation if I'd written a play with Paul Martin as the central character. This is about the atmosphere created by this gvt's high-handed approach to dissent of any kind. And one of the tactics they use is isolation -- teach one dissenter a lesson, and it makes the others hesitate. Let's not use that shitty tactic, isolation, on the Tarragon. If I wind up self-producing, I will want as many co-producers as possible, and wouldn't it be great if Tarragon was on that list?

Listen to an episode of The Current with Healey, Moore and a representative from PACT. Listen carefully. The PACT rep speaks as if she's just wandered into a minefield and Moore subsequently treats her as an ally and Anna Maria Tremonti is treated by the minister like she is everything that is wrong at the Ceeb (read: on the left).

Openings We're Tracking, February 13-19, 2012

2012-02-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

Vile Passéist poster art for Jew of Malta and Edward II

Fitzgerald

It's grim, rainy/icy, gray and slushy outside; what better way to celebrate midwinter hideousness than with the grayness (but quirkiness) of Samuel Beckett in Beckett: Feck It which Canadian stage is calling "an invigorating collection of [his] plays and the music he has inspired." The brilliant Jennifer Tarver directs. (Toronto)

Vile Passéist, almost certainly the most adventurous company in the country, is mounting a Marlowe season with Jew of Malta and Edward II. Both have difficult, flawed protagonists, both have lust, rage and buckets of blood. Both challenge. We like it. (Read artistic director Dan Bray's discussion of the company here. (Halifax)

Across the bay was the green light and, we were told in high school, green meant hope. Gatsby, however, is instead lured into the twisted world of the unattainable Daisy - all of it in the time of prohibition and crazy parties. If you don't know this Fitzgerald masterpiece, Grand Theatre in London is giving you a theatre crash course.

The Abominable Showman, February 12, 2012

2012-02-12T00:03:00.002-05:00

Go West

Canada’s most famous transsexual Nina Arsenault brings her critically-hailed one-transwoman show The Silicone Diaries to Vancouver

by Richard Burnett (all photos courtesy Nina Arsenault)

It’s true that the thrill of seeing Canada’s most celebrated transsexual Nina Arsenault step onstage for the first time in her graphic autobiographical one-transwoman show The Silicone Diaries in Montreal back in 2010 was pure voyeurism.

This thrill cannot be duplicated with mere videos or photographs. Observing Nina’s body and what she has done to it is a voyeuristic sensation completely rooted in the real. And by god, with her eye-popping 36D-26-40 figure, Nina Arsenault could pose in Penthouse.

I realized there is a double standard for transsexuals, because if you're a beautiful transsexual, people will accept you more easily.

“The hardest part of my transformation was when I was living as a woman but still looked very masculine and people would make fun of me on the street,” Nina told me before her Montreal Silicone Diaries run. “They’d yell things out of their car. I realized there is a double standard for transsexuals, because if you're a beautiful transsexual, people will accept you more easily. If you ‘pass’ you will be more accepted. You may not even be noticed. But if you don’t pass... That's what really hurt me - people don’t see you as human.”

Truth is, after 61 cosmetic surgeries over eight long years, Nina – who headlines the Vancouver Easy Cultural Centre (affectionately named "The Cultch" by its patrons) February 14-25 - doesn’t look very human.

I once asked famed NYC tranny (and photographer Dave LaChappelle's muse) Amanda Lepore what she thinks she looks like, and Lepore replied, “There is something alien about my face – there is something spacey about me. If I dressed like Lady Gaga, [my face] would get lost. But because I dress retro, vamp and classic, the [alien] qualities come out more.”

Nina Arsenault is equally frank. “I look like a cyborg,” she says.

But it wasn’t always so.

Today, 30 years later, it is Nina who looks like she could pose for Penthouse.

The first scene in The Silicone Diaries is set in the Golden Horseshoe Trailer Park of Beamsville, Ontario, where Arsenault lived with her parents and brother until the age of six. In this scene, young Nina (then Rodney) and the local trailer park boys gather to look at a stack of Penthouse magazines. Arsenault’s tour-de-force retelling of her life documents her path from the Golden Horseshoe Trailer Park to becoming a sex worker to pay for all of her surgeries (which so far have cost her $200,000). Today, 30 years later, it is Nina who looks like she could pose for Penthouse.

“My parents are generally supportive, though my mom thinks I’m too sexy,” Nina admits. “She thinks I didn’t need to get my breasts done so large and my lips so big. And she thinks I wear too much make-up. She’s worried about my life being difficult but now that they've come to see my plays, they get a kick out of how audacious I am.”

The Silcone Diaries climaxes at the 90-minute mark with a drawn-out and narcissistic recreation of Nina’s infamous “Crying Game-style collision” with Pamela Anderson’s ex-hubby, rocker Tommy Lee, in Toronto’s hipster Ultra club back in 2006.

“He was in the sectioned off VIP area and the place was packed with star fuckers, silicone-enhanced women with bad extensions,” Nina recalls. “These wanna-be Pamela Andersons were intentionally trying to capture his eye. I just happened to be there and he picked me out of the pack to come over and sit on his lap.”

Needless to say, the meeting ended quickly.

“Was he polite?” Nina asks rhetorically. “I think he’s a laidback guy who’s seen it all. I had the sense that he's an adventurous guy with a wild sense of humour and a really big heart.”

“Among other things,” I crack.

Nina laughs. “Yeah, he's really cocksure!”

...from my body, I spin off other arts, like photographs of my body, or this play about my body.

The way Nina has reshaped her body reminds me of Pete Burns of the 1980s Brit-pop band Dead or Alive, who says his body is an ever-changing piece of art.

“I feel the same way,” says Nina, whose transition and (ahem) body of work is well-documented on her website for all to see. “And from my body, I spin off other arts, like photographs of my body, or this play about my body. The next phase of my work will document the signs of aging. I don’t really see myself ever stopping. I’ve always taken pictures of every stage of my life and videotaped all of my surgical procedures."

When I asked Nina if she still goes for touch-ups every now and then, she laughed heartily.

“Well, I didn’t go for five years! I got really sick of it, [especially after] putting all those strange dicks in my mouth [to pay for it all]!” Nina laughs again. “So I took a break. People were beginning to think I was addicted to plastic surgery and I thought I looked as good as I could possibly look. But I don’t think I could let my face age naturally at this point. Because I don’t have a natural face. Once it starts dropping I won’t look like an old woman. I’ll look quite strange, I think. We always say, ‘Once you’ve had this much work done, you’re always in the game.’”

Just like Cher and Joan Rivers. “Yeah, they’re in the game,” Nina agrees. “Imagine if Joan Rivers let that face fall and those cheeks started sliding down? It wouldn’t look right.”

... it is evident her sensibilities are clearly informed by gay and drag culture, much like the sashaying work of Mae West.

The Silicone Diaries is not so much about a boy becoming a girl as it is about beauty.

Nina’s self-perceived transition from ugly duckling to plastic Barbie doll is at the heart of The Silicone Diaries – dramaturgy by Judith Rudakoff and directed by Brendan Healy (also artistic director of Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre where Silicone Diaries debuted in 2009) – though it is evident her sensibilities are clearly informed by gay and drag culture, much like the sashaying work of Mae West.

When I saw Silicone Diaries at Montreal’s Théâtre La Chapelle, I felt the final 30 minutes (following her pivotal scene about meeting rocker Tommy Lee) were something of an anticlimax and could have been condensed. Still, the rapt audience sat on Nina’s every word and couldn’t take their eyes off that body, proving that deep down inside we are all voyeurs. For challenging audiences in this way Arsenault was honoured by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in 2011 for Excellence in the Arts.

Arseneault is now set to capture hearts and minds in Vancouver too.

“At some point looking beautiful became more important than looking like a woman," Nina says. “It became more important than looking natural. And I don’t think my transition will ever end because my body is always changing, always aging. Losing beauty, faded beauty – I don’t think my transition will ever be over. Maybe one day I’ll even decide to get my pussy.”

The Silicone Diaries starring Nina Arseneault, at the The Culch / Vancouver East Cultural Centre (1895 Venables Street), February 14 – 25. Box Office: 604-251-1363. Click here for more info.

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Read also: David King's review of Silcone Diaries

Sunday Read: First Person: Dan Bray on The Jew of Malta

2012-02-12T00:02:00.001-05:00

Dealing With an Unfortunate Reputation

Vile Passéist brings Marlowe to Winter

by Dan Bray

In many ways, the Jewish community’s eventual acceptance into 19th-century society must have been more terrifying to the predominantly Christian population than the minority’s previous isolation. Jews were suddenly hard to recognize, their integration meaning that they were no longer relegated to the fringe of society (ghettos, for example) or forced into traditional professions: “In the period from 1840 to 1900 the British image of the Jew progressed from a collection of stereotypes ⎯ the financier, the peddler, the sharp entrepreneur, the rather shady ancillary of the machinery of the law ⎯ to a more accurate representation of a Victorian bourgeois with distinctive religious practices and traditions”. Furthermore, Jewish involvement in global trade was on the rise, especially when it came to importing foreign goods (such as diamonds, coral, and spices) to Europe, a fact which makes the opening scene of The Jew of Malta more realistic (or if you are a 19th-century, Christian businessman, threatening.)

While Marlowe’s play is centered around one Jewish man, it also involves many covetous people of various religions...

The Jew of Malta has unfortunately earned the reputation of being outrageously anti-Semitic. While Marlowe’s play is centered around one Jewish man, it also involves many covetous people of various religions, all “united by their desire for gold”.

Barabas, the titular Jew, bonds with the audience through manifold asides, and as we get to know him, we watch him transform from a sympathetic victim of his hypocritical government to a conflicted, disturbed killing-machine. The Jew of Malta is not a play for the faint of heart, and it demands its viewers to go in with an open mind; it challenges us to question both stereotypes and our expectations. The preconception that The Jew of Malta is primarily an anti-Semitic play is to do the play a great disservice: Marlowe’s disdain for all his characters and their beliefs pushes the play beyond anti-Semitism, especially when one realizes that Judaism hardly factors in to Barabas’ actions. While it acts as a catalyst for the action and although he often refers to himself as a Jew, he never does anything because he is Jewish. This is the largest preconception facing the play, but properly so. Marlowe does not make it easy for us to get past it, especially since⎯as Barabas slips further and further into the eddy of revenge⎯he finds himself enacting the role of the evil Jew because it is, in the end, the only sort of Jew his fellow Maltese know. His ultimate inability to separate himself from the role he plays seals his fate, and it allows Marlowe’s play to endure under the otherwise troubling designation as tragedy.

Jesse Robb as Barabas

Since the Renaissance ended, The Jew of Malta’s production history has been sparse and troubled. It was written between 1589 and 1590; it was originally performed at the Rose Theatre with the most popular actor of the times, Edward Alleyn, in the title role. It was performed regularly and most certainly taken in by Shakespeare; in 1632, however, the playhouses were closed due to the rising Puritan movement, and the play was not re-staged until 1818. Edmund Kean, as popular to his audience as Alleyn had been to his, took on the role, adapting the text to make it more palatable to the tastes of the Romantic period. He was unsuccessful. Although his performance as Barabas was unanimously praised, the production was shut down after eleven performances.

It is likely that this short run surprised Kean who had in many ways attempted to downplay the play’s anti-Semitism. He had even gone so far as to arrange an original prologue to the play, gently condemning Elizabethan prejudices, but his endeavours and adaptation proved to be in vain. Although he portrayed Barabas “with a human face, turning the character’s extravagant actions into reactions” and depicted his “murderous actions [… as] the legacy of his ill treatment”, his audience was still struggling with their new stance towards anti-Semitism, and the complicated representation of a central Jewish character proved too much to process. In their attempt to be sensitive, Kean’s audience went into Marlowe’s play expecting to be offended, afraid that to condone such a play would be to revert the anti-Semitism “that remained deeply embedded in the English psyche”.

...this production has presented many challenges that we had not foreseen.

Regardless of how you stage The Jew of Malta, it is forever doomed to be at least a palimpsest of the “savage satire” (as T.S. Eliot called it) that made Marlowe [in]famous. Seeing as modern audiences are even more cognizant of atrocities committed against the Jews than Kean’s audience (some of the most obvious examples taking place between their time and ours), this production has presented many challenges that we had not foreseen. While it would be false to say that the thought of omitting the anti-Semitic passages was not tempting, we have opted to preserve Marlowe’s text as much as possible. This season is dedicated to representing “the Other” in society, and to whitewash our production the way that Kean did his is to seriously handicap both VPT’s mandate as well as Marlowe’s tragedy. We have set our play in the same period that Kean staged his production in order to explore how anti-Semitism evolved in England (and Europe) around that time. Preserving the text also provides essential insight into the early-modern period, where anti-Semitic fervour was fuelled by a complete lack of knowledge about the minority they were disparaging (there had been hardly any Jews in England since they were expelled in the 13th century, which also explains why Marlowe set his play in southern Europe). Therefore, Marlowe’s Jew was built from stereotypes, but Barabas is still able to transcend these stereotypes and become a versatile protagonist worthy of his creator.

Many people assume that The Jew of Malta is not typically staged because it is so anti-Semitic. Rather, the truth (in my opinion) is that it is not staged because it is not Shakespeare. One may argue that Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice (written about six years after Marlowe’s), outdoes its predecessor in terms of anti-Semitism. Although Shylock is a compelling character, one must be careful of trusting him too much. Like Barabas, he has been unfairly treated by his fellow Venetians, but the bulk of the play’s action is motivated by Shylock’s insistence to persecute the titular merchant according to his religion. His stubbornness seals his fate: “The citizenry of Venice and its political leadership all repeatedly implore Shylock to show forgiveness and be merciful, implicitly as a Christian would […]. Shylock's insistence on […] inflexible and legalistic justice, and on violent revenge as a form of justice are rooted in medieval and Renaissance Christian concepts of Judaism as a legalistic religion that emphasizes unjust forms of ‘justice’ according to an outmoded and indefensible Talmudic law in contrast to the supposed Christian emphasis on mercy and forgiveness.”

(Click to enlarge)

Yet, Barabas’ violence (as opposed to Shylock’s) is not motivated by his religion, but rather as a reaction to his exploitation at the hands of the Christian government. This manipulation, compounded the Christians’ fear that Barabas is just an evil stereotype, is (in our production, at least) the very sort of oversight that fuels his rage. Barabas ultimately plays into the stereotype of the murderous Jew because that is the role into which his society has forced him. Unfortunately, as Barabas’ vengeance spirals out of control, he inevitably becomes the monster that they always imagined him to be.

Marlowe’s untimely death cut his canon short, and what he left us with is a rich and diverse handful of plays, albeit one rife with complicated characters and themes. VPT’s 2012 winter season is dedicated to depictions of “the Other,” and I believe that there are very few shows from the period that provide us with as many fascinating and controversial figures as The Jew of Malta. Regardless of what Marlowe intended (and in spite of what cursory readers impose on the play), Barabas is a provocative and multi-faceted character and his play is able to adapt to different audiences’ sensitivities: his inherent versatility provides an endless source of possibilities for directors, actors, and⎯of course⎯the people who watch his tragedy.

Dan Bray is the Artistic Director and founding member of Vile Passéist Theatre. The company exclusively stages early-modern drama highlighting the works of various playwrights who are typically overshadowed or marginalized by William Shakespeare. VPT’s fourth season includes two works by Christopher Marlowe: The Jew of Malta and Edward II. This summer, VPT is also producing Thomas Middleton’s short play, The Yorkshire Tragedy. Its 2013 season includes two plays by John Fletcher, The Tamer Tamed and The Maid’s Tragedy (with Francis Beaumont).

Review: (Ottawa) Actor's Nightmare and 'Dentity Crisis

2012-02-11T11:53:00.002-05:00

Durang-O

by Jim Murchison

It has been a while since I have been part of a college production so I was excited about seeing two clever one act plays at the Algonquin campus. The studio theatre is not easy to find and in fact I was lost for awhile. There were two plays by Christopher Durang at the Studio theatre that night. The first, Actor’s Nightmare followed by ‘Dentity Crisis. They were both wildly irreverent and examined some of our worst neuroses.

He can’t recall being to a single rehearsal.

George (Alain G. Chauvin) is about to go on stage with no idea of who or what he is playing. He can’t recall being to a single rehearsal.

Chauvin’s clever performance was a strong mix of fear, false bravado, confusion and desperation that struck the right notes consistently. Lighting Designer David Magladry has purposely set spotlights in a manner that makes it difficult to “see the light”. George hilariously struggles to find shifting spotlights that are too small or low to accommodate him. Frantically scrambling for position, he desperately recites every soliloquy he knows.

His co-stars, Henry Irving (Aiden Reed) and Sarah (Robin Thomas) do a great job in not making things easier for our leading man. George, still trying to figure out if he’s doing Noel Coward or Shakespeare, increases their frustrations. I particularly enjoyed Aiden Reed in his Shakespearean persona where he matched George’s level of angst, silently melting down while George spouted everything but the correct cue.

Only Meg (Patti Vopni) the stage manager offers any consistent support but soon loses patience with George’s lack of preparedness. Her performance transitioned effortlessly from nurturing to gentle reprimand.

Durang’s penultimate scene with Ellen (Lizzie Franklin) as a girl in a garbage can is a non sequitur that seems to interfere with the conclusion of the play. It’s my sole criticism of his writing, but hey maybe I missed something!

...challenges our perceptions of sanity, sexuality and gender.

The second play, ‘Dentity Crisis, set in the family home, challenges our perceptions of sanity, sexuality and gender. Jane (Lizzie Franklin) as the daughter is the only character that is receiving therapy and she appears to be the one least in need of it. Franklin’s strong performance has many moments of silence that require her to appear disengaged yet aware of what is going on. She never loses character or misses her cue which can sometimes be more challenging than speaking on stage.

Her libidinous mother Edith (Robin Thomas) is in denial about everything. Thomas gives a strong performance as the effervescent but dysfunctional mother who has a rosy outlook about life because she never faces it head on. Her charming performance of Edith’s over the top optimism, reminds me of Catherine O’Hara.

Bubba Vein plays a gender conflicted psychologist named Summers. Vein struggled a bit at times tonight. He had a minor cue glitch and it took him a bit of time to shake the nerves away. We all go through it. It may help him to remember the feeling, if he plays in Actor’s Nightmare some day.

A woman’s character (Tasha Montgomery) is possibly Summers’ wife, or maybe not? Nothing is straightforward. Nonetheless, Montgomery in a minor role does a good job portraying a character that adds to the general mayhem of the story line.

Aaron Lajeunesse is the absurdly chameleonic Robert. He bounces from personality to personality depending on “who” is needed at the time. His performance was a crowd favourite and he played it full throttle.

Both plays were directed by Mary Ellis, a well established actor and teacher. She had fun directing the pieces and it shows. I am sure students will continue to benefit from her enthusiasm, expertise and experience.

I am not sure how many of the students, actors and crew will go on to careers in the theatre, but certainly they have been bit by a bug that will not go away. I hope that many go on to experience but at the very least they are forging great memories and experiences that will serve them well wherever life leads them.

The Durang works will be performed one more time, this evening. 613-727-4723 ext. 5784 Cash at the door only. Adults: $10 Students/Seniors/Theatre Alumni: $8 February 8th - 11th, 2012 7:30pm

Theatre for Thought, February 11, 2012

2012-02-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

An Open Letter to the Board of Directors of Stratford Shakespeare Festival

from joel fishbane

Dear Stratford Shakespeare Festival:

I am writing with great concern over the way you have chosen to conduct the search for your festival’s new artistic director. A series of private interviews behind closed doors is no way to generate interest in the contest. If the Republican Primaries are any indication, the public is hungry for a media firestorm centered around a dramatic competition with a completely manufactured narrative.

I would like to formally offer you the chance to flirt with idea of naming me as a candidate for Artistic Director.

As the reported front-runner, Antoni Cimolino has already emerged as the Mitt Romney of your campaign; your next step is to leak to the media outlets that you are flirting with several dark horse candidates. These candidates would not have to be ideal selections – in fact, as the Republican primaries have shown, the less competent they are, the more attention they will receive. To this end, I would like to formally offer you the chance to flirt with idea of naming me as a candidate for Artistic Director.

Together, I believe we can inspire the Canadian media to bring publicity to your festival through the creation of a circus-like atmosphere. First, we will schedule a series of televised debates (thirty or so would probably suffice, but I’m happy to discuss more). Each debate could be hosted by a series of prestigious judges, such as a panel from the recently cancelled So You Think You Can Dance, Canada!. I would also suggest involving Anne-France Goldwater, Quebec’s “Judge Judy”, to lend the occasion the sort of gravitas it deserves.

I could attack Mr. Cimolino for his belief that Shakespeare actually wrote his own plays...

Ostensibly, we would use these debates as a way of holding a spirited discussion regarding the future of Canadian theatre. Of course, it would really be an excuse for some entertaining personal attacks and humiliating verbal gaffes. I could attack Mr. Cimolino for his belief that Shakespeare actually wrote his own plays (thereby accusing him of alienating Oxfordians, a powerful and often ignored demographic). Ideally, Mr. Cimolino would respond by remarking on my dubious moral character and questionable taste in shoes. I would return the rebuke by revealing that from the moment he graduated from the University of Windsor, Mr. Cimolino has worked as an actor, director, stage manager, fundraiser and even helped establish a performing arts centre in El Salvador. “Really, sir!” I will say. “Find a job and stick to it!”

From now on, Mr. Shakespeare and his friends can peddle their pro-Britannia jingoistic iambic pentameter somewhere else!

I could also launch a comprehensive website announcing my bold strategy for the future of the Stratford Festival, including my comprehensive 999 show plan to boost revenue: 9 shows a season, 9 performances a week, 9 dollars a ticket. Then there would be my call for a return to a more nationalist repertoire. Prime Minister Harper has already announced his opposition to hostile takeovers of Canadian companies. We can only be courting favour by eliminating the influence of foreign-born playwrights who no doubt have their own subversive agenda. From now on, Mr. Shakespeare and his friends can peddle their pro-Britannia jingoistic iambic pentameter somewhere else!

Quebec will threaten another referendum on sovereignty if I am named the Artistic Director.

Of course, the narrative of this competition would be scripted far in advance. Sometime around April, it will be revealed that I once remarked that not everything Margaret Atwood has done is worthy of national acclaim. Later, while being interviewed on The National, I will embarrass myself by not knowing the difference between stage left and a curtain call.

The final nail in the coffin will come when I will be accused of disinterest in the plays of Michel Tremblay, thereby alienating myself from Francophone theatre-goers. Quebec will threaten another referendum on sovereignty if I am named the Artistic Director. At this point, in the interest of Canadian unity, I will bow out of the competition. Mr. Cimolino will be elected and Canadian theatre will have had four much-needed months in the spotlight. Everyone’s a winner!

I trust you will find this plan both appealing and of great interest. I would suggest getting in touch with me as soon as possible we can begin planting evidence of some life-long rivalry between me and Mr. Cimolino. Perhaps we can say he once ran over my dog? In any case, I remain open to suggestions.

Sincerely,

Joel Fishbane

Review: (Montreal) I, Claudia

2012-02-10T13:50:00.000-05:00

Would you be 12 years old again?

Geordie brings Claudia to Montreal

by Nanette Soucy

Can parents of 12-year olds, besought by the stuff of parenthood, have an accurate idea of what it’s like to be one of these “tweens” we hear about now? If they have a memory of being a “pre-teen”, in today’s reality it’s completely irrelevant. While you’re struggling with the new Facebook layout, their entire emotional landscape is being shaped by the compelling exhibitionism and creative self design that the Internet is made from. When they feel like escaping, they disappear into their screens.

Touring since 2005, Kristen Thomson’s I, Claudia has become a Canadian classic.

Claudia, on the other hand, isn’t like the other kids. She might not have the token cell phone of today’s youth, but she certainly knows the mean girls. She prefers to disappear into the Bulgonian Groundskeeper’s boiler room to make scientific observations on her goldfish, and miss her Dad, who has recently left. She only gets to see him on the weekends, so Tuesday mornings, like every bad day when you're 12 3/4, are the worst days of her life.

Touring since 2005, Kristen Thomson’s I, Claudia has become a Canadian classic. It beautifully and brazenly reminds us of the features of every thirteen-year-old's emotional landscape that have since become underbrush beneath our full-grown selves. Claudia experiments with language, uses words, gestures, expressions she doesn't quite understand, flirts with dirty jokes she knows are cheeky, but maybe not how. This is in contrast to her grandfather, who knows exactly what he's saying when musing about nurses and restraints in retirement homes.

Parents prone to clutching pearls may balk at Claudia’s precociousness, but Thomson’s characters strike a balance between youth and adulthood that underline the similarities between them, while their masks give them a life so true, they’re hilarious. Claudia’s angst is so visceral, it makes one relive one’s own twelfth year, and we can’t but suddenly love every young girl, ever and want to soothe her pain and dance along as her awkward frame conjures a disco sanctuary out of a murky, greasy boiler room. This is a show every teenager should take their parents to.

I, Claudia runs to February 19

Review: (Toronto) Zero Hour

2012-02-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

Speaking to the Past

Must one read Wikipedia before a show?

by Beat Rice

Zero Hour is a full length one-man show that tells the biographical story of artist, comedian, and actor, Zero Mostel. The play is written and performed by Jim Brochu, who knew Mostel personally.

Jim Brochu is a captivating performer who maintained an energy that is necessary to carry a one-man show. The context of his telling of his life story is an interview with a reporter from the New York Times. The reporter is invisible as Mostel responds to his questions and comments on his clothes. The audience eventually finds themselves in the position of the reporter, listening and responding to Mostel’s story. He starts off in chronological order, hitting on the most important and influential events in life. Act 1 focuses on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the blacklisting that occurred in the 40’s in America, which accused people (namely very influential artists and people in the entertainment industry with access to media) of being communists and conducting ‘Un-American activities’. The blacklisting of these individuals destroyed their careers, reputation, and even some lives. Zero tells his side of the story with passion and sadness, as we watch him relive those harrowing days through his memory.

...a joy to watch onstage.

Act 2 was a continuation of the interview covering Mostel’s success as an actor, on Broadway and in film. He spoke of working with Jerome Robbins, a man he despised for naming names to HUAC, but highly respected for his artistic genius. We learn a little bit about his film career, but not much. I am not familiar enough with the real Zero Mostel to know if Jim Brochu’s portrayal is an accurate portrayal or a mere homage, but his performance was very realistic and believable. He played a man of sharp wit, who has a funny way of putting words together, a man with theatricality who shows every emotion, and a man with a crude sense of humour paired with artistic sensitivity. He really is quite the personality and is a joy to watch onstage.

One personal qualm I had with the play was the many references I did not understand. It is my own lack of knowledge that is at fault, others in the audience who are more familiar with the artists and political figures and events of the time would understand. There were also Jewish terms/traditions/stereotypes that eluded me and there were times when my ignorance frustrated me (especially when everyone else was laughing), but the moments were fleeting, and I would return my attention as Mostel continued to tell his story.

I do however appreciate the allusions for it did take us back and helped create his world at the time.

There were a few times when Piper Laurie’s staging became dull. With such a large stage and cluttered set, and only one actor, the movement seemed confined to down stage centre at the work table and occasionally an armchair. If that was the ideal way to stage the piece, perhaps a smaller performance space would have helped it feel less mundane.

Zero Hour plays at the Bathurst Street Theatre until March 11

Review: (Montreal) Scientific Americans

2012-02-10T11:43:00.001-05:00

Michael Blake (photo credit: Andrée Lanthier)

Mighton by the Numbers

Sidemart at Segal examines issues and offers entertainment

by Chris Lane

We all know that working for the military can take over your life. And that they are always watching you. Or is it the Soviets who are watching you? Scientific Americans, by Canadian playwright John Mighton, presents numerous questions and possible answers in a sharp, witty and multifaceted depiction of a young scientist getting drawn into the harsh world of American military research.

...there are plenty of subtle hints that there is some chilling form of external control.

Trent Pardy plays Jim, a likable and naïve physicist who lands a job doing research at a military base. While it initially appears that he has enough freedom to choose what kinds of projects he works on, he inevitably winds up involved in the development of a weapon. As his job increasingly consumes his time and energy, his already-strained relationship with his fiancée Carol, an academic played by the vivacious Julia Course, turns sour when she learns about this new development. The play is largely about Jim struggling to balance his work, his morals, and his relationship with Carol, without losing himself along the way.

The piece presents some very interesting themes, such as the power of ideas conflicting with the ethics of choosing to pursue or quash the more dangerous of one’s ideas. Paranoia is another major theme of this piece, as Jim encounters people who question the personal agency and choice of military workers and of citizens of the modern world in general, and there are plenty of subtle hints that there is some chilling form of external control. The one mouthpiece of military authority is the ranking officer who oversees Jim’s work, portrayed by Michael Blake, who skillfully comes across as so jovial and personable that it is worrisome.

Scientific Americans is a play designed to make the viewer think, and Graham Cuthbertson is a pleasure to watch as Bill, the Freudian army psychologist who pleasantly helps the audience do their thinking. The playwright has some particularly shrewd insights that Bill cheerfully shares in these enjoyable monologues that are interspersed throughout the play. In keeping with Freudian thinking, the play includes some interactions between Jim and his emotionally distant mother. Susan Bain just about steals the show in these scenes that are both poignant and at times bitingly funny.

To depict the stark military environment, the Segal Centre’s main stage has been impressively transformed into a modern, grey workspace complete with seemingly automatic sliding stage doors. The minimalist use of video projection is particularly effective at complementing the furniture to set the stage for each scene. The sound design, which would suit a science fiction movie, is also very fitting.

Scientific Americans is being presented at the Segal Centre in association with the up-and-coming Sidemart Theatrical Grocery, and is directed by Sidemart’s own Andrew Shaver. The show runs until February 26th.

The Friday Five, February 10, 2012

2012-02-10T00:01:00.006-05:00

FIVE THINGS CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER NEVER SAID (BUT I LIKE TO THINK HE DID)

Canadian Icon, Christopher Plummer says a lot of things. He has never said any of the following, but sometimes, when I lie awake at night, I imagine that he has. Come, imagine with me...

by Matt G of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. “Call me Sir Christopher Plummer.”

2. “Once, on the set of The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews and I had sex in the back of the church. She felt awful about it, but I kept saying ‘Relax, it’s not a real church, it’s just a movie church, God doesn’t give a shit’. None of the other nuns felt nearly as bad about it.”

3. “Tighter! Damn you! I want my face tighter! So tight that when I smile my lips bleed.”

4. “So me, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen all took a shit into a brown paper bag, we put it on the porch and set it on fire. Alec Guiness was pissed.”

5. My all time favourite Canadian actors are Matthew, Kyle, and Matthew of MattandKyleandMatt

CharPo's Real Theatre!, February 10, 2012

2012-02-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

First Person: Brad Fraser on The Healey Affair

2012-02-09T11:20:00.001-05:00

LET’S NOT NOT TALK ABOUT IT

BY BRAD FRASER

(Written for The Charlebois Post)

I can’t claim to know Michael Healey particularly well. I know of his great success as a playwright, of course, and we’ve corresponded a few times on facebook in a “shared pithy observations about something in common” sort of way. He seems professional and even-tempered, so when he gives an interview stating that Tarragon Artistic Director Richard Rose (with whom Healey has shared a professional relationship for over a decade and a number of play productions) has decided not to program his latest political satire because someone on the theatre’s board of directors felt some of the material could possibly be libelous to our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, I find no reason to doubt Mr Healey’s veracity. Nor was there anything in Healey’s public statements that seemed vindictive or petty. Add to this the fact that Richard Rose has refused to confirm, deny or elaborate on these comments in any way and it’s pretty hard not to conclude that something happened that was unpleasant enough for the playwright to need to take the kind of stand playwrights generally don’t take because it can screw up their livelihood.

As I see it there are most likely two possible explanations here.

...there are people who would not fault the theatre for taking such a stand and refusing to produce the play.

The first explanation is that everything is indeed as reported in the first Globe and Mail interview; someone got cold feet about offending the PM (who is, it must be said, most easily offended), losing Tarragon’s national funding (as is purportedly what happened with the Summerworks/Catherine Frid/"She dared to write a play based on an accused terrorist’s interview" fiasco of a year ago) and making their future livelihood much more uncertain. Given the levels of pettiness to which this government has been seen to stoop and Harper’s on-again, off-again flirtation with legal action against those who say things he doesn’t like, there are people who would not fault the theatre for taking such a stand and refusing to produce the play.

These people would be doing all of us a great disservice, however, because if the main focus of the many arts-based organizations that serve and entertain this country becomes not offending the prevailing government, it’s going to lead to increasingly lame and innocuous art.

It is the role of all art, and most particularly the theatre, to hold a mirror up to our society and show us who we truly are in ways that can either enchant or demean. Both tactics are valid and both are important. There’s no drama without comedy and there’s no laughter without pain. It’s the ability to delight while teaching, to attack and alter societal mores, to point to the phoniness, pedantry and corruption that exist all around us and to make an audience see these things in a light they’ve never experienced before that allows the theatre to continue to thrive after thousands of years. For anyone - politician, board member, artistic director or artist - to attempt to limit what the theatre can say or what it can be is one of the most shameful acts of censorship that any individual or any institution can inflict.

Through this possible act of self-censorship they are essentially taking the first step toward becoming at least a partial propagandist for the government...

That some working within the theatre, knowingly or otherwise, might be aiding the government by giving in to this sneaky and, I suspect, tactical “libel chill” (and it must be said that Healey’s legal council saw nothing libelous in the play so the accuracy of the charge is still very debatable) is horrifying.

Horrifying because a theatre that has claimed to celebrate the best in Canadian playwriting for the last thirty years has just turfed a play in order not to offend the government and lose their funding. Through this possible act of self-censorship they are essentially taking the first step toward becoming at least a partial propagandist for the government and, perhaps eventually, an obvious shill like the Sun Media Group. This also means that any playwright wanting to submit a play to the Tarragon for production consideration will now have to vet their script to ensure it doesn’t say anything that could potentially offend our Prime Minister and, eventually perhaps, anyone else in his party. Those are not the sorts of thoughts that lead to brilliant playwrighting. Ever.

The second possibility is one certain people working in the theatre cling to and it shows in the comments that have been circulating about this matter. They suggest the play was simply not up to snuff so the libel issue took on an importance it might not have had in a better play. We don’t know if this is true because none of us has actually read the play and, as Mr Rose has made clear in his only public statement, he does not comment on programming decisions publicly.

...sometimes people you’ve collaborated with turn in something that just doesn’t work in the way you thought it would.

And he’s completely within his rights to keep silent on his choices. There are only so many spots in each season and it’s impossible for any AD to produce all of the plays he or she wants to. Very good plays are often left behind for very suspect reasons and very bad plays are often produced for even more suspect reasons. Until you’ve dealt with the many pressures that are brought to bear when lining up a group of plays to sell to subscribers, there’s really no way of understanding how complex, delicate and political it all really is. And sometimes - well sometimes people you’ve collaborated with turn in something that just doesn’t work in the way you thought it would.

This doesn’t mean the script is bad, although sometimes it is. It could mean the script isn’t ready or that the director is no longer sympathetic to the material or that it just didn’t turn out as expected. Sometimes it can be very hard to explain to the playwright why you don’t want to produce the play. The kind of critical comments required to make this clear can be very hard to say and the likelihood of those comments causing bruised feelings and shaken egos between friends or collaborators can lead some to say things that are much easier, like “We don’t want to libel the PM”. It’s a short, snappy answer that thrusts the responsibility squarely onto the shoulders of Stephen Harper, a man many love to hate

Sadly, neither of these scenarios cast Richard Rose in a particularly flattering light as it seems he either chose not to produce the play out of the fear of an unspoken threat or he was unable or unwilling to articulate to a writer he’s worked with for over a decade, a writer who has brought considerable acclaim and income into the theatre, the real reason he doesn’t want to produce the play.

It’s just a place that sells lies.

Whatever the fiscal or legal issues, a theatre that cannot speak the truth of what its writers see in a candid and robust manner - no matter how unpleasant or dangerous the ideas might be - is not a theatre at all. It's just a place that sells lies.

But the real questions being posed by this situation are much larger than they may appear at first. The entire Canadian theatre community is beginning to realize this. Will the government continue to penalize theatres who produce projects the government doesn’t approve of? What are the specific criteria for not offending the government? Will there be a checklist that will keep us safe from silent retribution, or just amorphous rules that are never truly known until you break one? This is how many right wing organizations and governments control people. Not through actual persecution, denial or punishment but by implying such things will happen and, in doing so, forcing people to censor themselves.

Will there be cuts if the Office...is offended?

How will Stephen Harper’s rather frightening, soon to arrive, “Office of Religious Freedom” figure into arts funding? Will there be cuts if that office is offended?

Many of us, in our passive Canadian way, hate these sorts of controversies. They force us to deal with complicated and emotional issues. We are a small, close-knit community. Most everyone likes Richard Rose. Most everyone likes Michael Healey. Both of these men are potential future employers for many. They are not people we want to offend or hurt. But, at the same time, the very worst thing we can do right now is not talk about all of this and what it means. The conflict this is creating within the community and within us is very important.

Without conflict there’s no drama and no forward-moving narrative. Conflict forces us out of stasis and demands the energy that leads to change. Some of our best ideas can come from our enemies - and some of the worst ideas come from those we trust the most. Nothing teaches us with greater efficacy than that which physically, emotionally or psychically hurts, surprises or frightens us. Conflict is essential to progress and we go nowhere without it.

Let’s look at it as a lesson that has initiated an important and overdue discussion.

So let’s not look at this breach between Mr. Healey and Mr. Rose as some sort of a fight in which sides need to be taken. Let’s look at it as a lesson that has initiated an important and overdue discussion.

We need to find a way to ensure that all government and corporate money invested in the arts comes without conditions or provisos that constrict artists and their support organizations.

We need to discuss the role of the boards of directors at non-profit theatres and how much control and influence they should have over artistic decisions. We must be sure the mandate of individual or influential board members or contributors is not in conflict with the mandate of the theatre’s artistic staff.

We need to discuss and look for alternate ways to raise both awareness and funds in order to keep all of our arts groups free of partisan interference. We must discuss how successful we, the theatre professionals, are at attracting an ever-expanding audience and how we can do better.

We need to discuss whether our mid-sized theatres have the professional expertise required to properly promote the scripts they produce. We need to discuss programming that keeps taking risks in order to keep generating hits and revenue, remembering that the most fiscally successful theatre events were all new and often risky works at one time.

In the end, whatever we might learn about Richard Rose’s reasoning in all of this, we still have to thank him for not copping out like so many in his position would do with some lame, false excuse for not producing the play. In coming out and stating that Michael Healey’s show wouldn’t be produced because it might, in some way, lead to questionable legal action from our Prime Minister, he has introduced us to a discussion we all need to share.

And in speaking out publicly and telling his side of the story with passion and intelligence Mr Healey has taken a risk every playwright knows rarely pays off in the short term. But if this discussion leads to actual change then the gift he’s given us all is beyond measure.

So let’s not not talk about it. Okay?

See also Brad Fraser's open letter to Richard Rose

CPC's Picture of the Week, February 9, 2012

2012-02-09T00:01:00.001-05:00

Krisztina Szabó as the Pilgrim (centre) and Russell Braun as Jaufré (above) in the Canadian Opera Company production of Love from Afar. (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Review: (Toronto) In The Heights

2012-02-08T11:56:00.001-05:00

Nicole Cline and Perry Young (photo credit: John Daughtry)

Failing to Reach the Heights

Dancap brings a tour to TO

by Stuart Munro

I first saw In The Heights on Broadway in the spring of 2009. Less than a year had passed since it won its multiple Tony awards (including the 2008 Tony for Best New Musical), and much of the original cast was still with the production. Tickets were still in such demand that I had to buy mine a week in advance, and even then it was in the last row of the balcony. Pre-show, the audience was charged, and I was excited to experience a show with which I was completely unfamiliar. By the time the curtain came down at the end of the show, I was confused. The plot was haphazard, the music seemed bland and repetitive, and the staging and choreography had been cumbersome. Nevertheless, the audience had loved it, and I blamed my lacklustre experience on my terrible seat, and possibly a bad sound design.

The plot is so fractured that it’s difficult to understand why several points are even part of the overall story.

I was excited to give In The Heights a second chance. Unfortunately, the non-Equity tour currently playing at the Toronto Centre for the Arts has done nothing to change my impression of the show.

The plot of In The Heights is so fractured that it’s difficult to understand why several points are even part of the overall story. The action moves from scene to scene, story to story, in an awkward, episodic fashion, and sometimes so much time will pass between plot points that we’ve forgotten that they were going on at all. In brief, In The Heights tells the story of Usnavi (played on opening night by understudy Jeffrey Nuñez), the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, who is determined to move back to his parents’ homeland. He operates a corner store with his cousin, Sonny (Robert Ramirez) in the New York City neighbourhood of Washington Heights. The opening number, filled with clumsy exposition, introduces us to the other major players and their various sub-plots.

The spoken word (used primarily by Usnavi) is the most genuine and honest, even if it gets a little tiresome by the end of the evening.

Act I follows a fairly formulaic pattern: each character is reintroduced in a short scene that typically ends in some sort of argument or misunderstanding. Left alone, the character then proceeds to make his or her way to centre-stage to sing a song. The lighting is always the same: a bright overhead spot with a darkened background. The song ends in a blackout, and the cycle is repeated, ad nauseam. The music itself runs the gamut, from spoken word to Latin-inspired musical pop to generic musical theatre that sounds like it could have been material rejected from RENT. The spoken word (used primarily by Usnavi) is the most genuine and honest, even if it gets a little tiresome by the end of the evening. Many of the lyrics and much of the dialogue is in Spanish. Supporters of this practice insist that the spirit and meaning of the text will transcend any language barrier, but for me, this loss of clarity only serves to frustrate me and make me wonder what I’m missing. Act II awkwardly attempts to wrap up the various stories from Act I, and introduces some new elements of class and racial discrimination, which are never properly dealt with. Ultimately the show’s ending, which accompanies a change of heart from Usnavi, comes so suddenly and unexpectedly that I find it difficult to reconcile with the show’s overall story.

There are a few bright points in this production, however. Jeffrey Nuñez’s Usnavi is charming, sincere, and appropriately bashful. I’m unclear as to whether he’s scheduled for the entire Toronto run, or just opening night, but he was certainly able to carry the part. Likewise, Presliah Nuñez’s Vanessa (Usnavi’s love interest, intent on building a life outside Washington Heights) is full of drive and passion. Ms. Nuñez possesses a powerful voice which remains pure and honest throughout.

... the entire company simply looked uncomfortable and under-rehearsed.

Thomas Kail’s original direction and Andy Blankenbuehler’s original choreography have been recreated by Broadway company member Michael Balderrama, but it is clear that this is all he is reproducing; the remainder of the company has clearly been given little guidance, and they manage to reduce their characters to caricatures, lacking any honesty or sincerity. I hesitate to suggest that this is because of their non-Equity status (Equity is the union of professional stage actors), but the entire company simply looked uncomfortable and under-rehearsed.

In The Heights tells the story of a close-knit community within the Latino population of cosmopolitan New York City. This story has failed to reach me twice now, and leaves me wondering if its content is simply too specific to reach out to a wider audience.

In the Heights continues to February 19

CPC's Video of the Week, February 8, 2012

2012-02-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

A charming "making of" The Drowsy Chaperone at

The Palace Theatre, London, Ontario, presented by

Musical Theatre Productions