Theatre For Thought, March 31, 2012

ARTISTS AND TAXES: A BRIEF PRIMER

joel fishbane

Most people know me as a writer / actor / man about town, but every Spring I moonlight as a tax preparer for the self-employed. A lifelong relationship with the tax collector is an occupational hazard for artists and it would be a great benefit if schools were bestowing upon their students a rudimentary understanding of how it all works; since they’re not, allow me to briefly fill in the gaps. 

Most artists end up owing money and the reason is simple: those with regular employment are taxed at source, meaning that things like income tax and pension plan contributions are taken off their paycheques. Artists, though, are considered contractual employees and are often paid in lump sums. They must pay their income tax and pension plan contributions at the end of the year.

CharPo's Real Theatre!, March 30, 2012

Review: Vieux Carré

Kaneza Schaal (Photo: © Franck Beloncle)

“Loneliness is an affliction.” - The Writer

Wooster Group explodes into World Stage

by Jessica Yen

The Wooster Group's Version of Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carré is not for the faint of heart. This mind-bending two hour experimental piece takes the audience deep into one of Tennessee Williams' most autobiographical plays.

In signature Wooster Group style, this piece is a multilayered landscape of movement, technology and text. We travel through The Writer's memories of his time as a young man living in the French quarter of New Orleans. In his encounters with the various tenants of the boarding house, The Writer undergoes a transformation, awakening sexually and artistically. 

News: Théâtre français de Toronto time-travels with 2012-13 season

Théâtre français de Toronto's Artistic Director, Guy Migneault, yesterday announced a season that travels time and place, beginning with a work by the Father of French Theatre, Molière: Les fourberies de Scapin. The three other (adult) plays of the year are Canadian works: Philippe Soldevila and Christian Essiambre's Les Trois exile de Christian E. (previously seen at Nouvelle Scène in Ottawa), Il (deux) by Mansel Robinson (in a translation by the brilliant Jean-Marc Dalpé) and a revival of Albertine en cinq temps, Michel Tremblay's fascinating coup de théâtre about a woman's life as seen by her at five different times - from young woman to old age.

Two young people's works will be presented in the season as well.

See the TfT website (in French)

CPT's Picture of the Week, March 29, 2012

Kawa Ada & Yolande Bavan in Anosh Irani's My Granny the Goldfish at Factory Theatre

Photo by Nicola Betts.

Review: Sia

Brendan McMurtry-Howlett and Thomas Olajide (photo credit: Sandra Lefrancois)

Searing Sia

Cahoots at Factory serves up pain and compassion

by Jasmine Chen

Last night’s opening of SIA at The Factory Theatre could not have fallen on a more appropriate day. On World Theatre Day, when we were asking ourselves, what is the purpose of theatre?, SIA answered. Matthew Mackenzie’s new play does what great theatre is supposed to do, challenge our perceptions, provoke thought, and be a mirror to society, reflecting what can sometimes be hard truths to swallow. SIA is grueling, painful, unforgiving at times, but in the end full of compassion. 

After Dark, March 27, 2012

IKIWISI
Obscenity, libel and censorship in the age of the internet
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

In a US obscenity case back in 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously wrote in an opinion that hard-core pornography was hard to define but, "I know it when I see it." (He later regretted having written it and was convinced it would be on his tombstone - indeed, it was mentioned in most of the obits when he died in 1985.)

Indeed, if you consider all the hot-button words artists use, have aimed at them or bandy about, many fall into the vague and personal realm of "I know it when I see it" (IKIWISI): obscenity, pornography, erotica, slander, libel, racism, sexism, homophobia...

Let me give you my reasons for thinking about these things this week in particular:

First-Person: Matthew Mackenzie on the creation of SIA

Full of Fire and Hope

A journey, cultural dislocation and a play

by Matthew Mackenzie (photos courtesy of Matthew Mackenzie)

In the fall of 2003 I flew from Alberta to West Africa, with a brief stopover in Toronto.  My plan was to go and research my play concerning the civil war that had recently torn the tiny country of Liberia apart.  Talked out of going directly to Liberia by my parents, I decided to go to Ghana, which was the most stable English speaking country in the region, where there was a significant Liberian refugee population.  Alarmed that I was travelling half way around the world without having done any kind of research, my Aunt Karen—who is a Librarian at the University of Toronto—hastily put me in touch with a Ghanaian student she knew, in the hopes that he would be able to offer some guidance.  As it just so happened, a member of the congregation the Ghanaian student belonged to back home, was the former Head Nurse of the Buduburam Camp—the largest Liberian refugee settlement in the world.

Review: My Granny The Goldfish

Sincerity Wins The Day

The script is uneven, but the cast is superb

by Stuart Munro

“Yes, you may die. But are you happy with the life you have lived?”

These words are spoken early on in Act II by a loving grandmother to her grandson as they wait to hear the results of his biopsy. In many ways, this simple question is at the heart of Anosh Irani’s play “My Granny the Goldfish,” on stage now at The Factory Theatre.

Set primarily in a Vancouver hospital room, “My Granny the Goldfish” is the story of Nico (Kawa Ada), a recent arrival from Mumbai, India, who may or may not have cancer. His granny (Yolande Bavan) shows up unexpectedly in order to comfort him. Eventually, his parents Farzeen and Dara (Veena Sood and Sanjay Talwar) arrive as well, and the stage is set for an awkward family reunion; old grievances are brought up, and ultimately some wounds begin to heal.

Theatre For Thought, March 24, 2012

SUNDAY IN THE PARK.

joel fishbane

Bennett and I are walking through the park when she remarks that she thinks it’s ridiculous for Montreal arts reporters to review any show that doesn’t come out of the Segal Centre or Centaur Theatre. Being the two largest Anglo theatre companies in Montreal, she argues that their audiences are large enough that they can risk a bad review. But the smaller theatre companies are struggling to survive and while they should be supported through preview articles, reviewers should stay away. 

I frown as she speaks. Usually I agree with Bennett, which is why I spend time with her. When you’re a curmudgeon, it’s good to find people who keep you calm. 

I try to explain the artistic value of theatre critiques. In my view, it’s insulting to independent theatres to treat them differently then larger companies, as if they aren’t worthy of the same scrutiny. “The only question is whether a show deserves to be seen,” I postulate. “Championing a company just for existing degrades a city’s cultural landscape.”

EVENT: Shakespeare - The Authorship Question (April 7)

CharPo's Real Theatre! March 9, 2012

CPT's Picture of the Week, March 22, 2012

Nicole Underhay in Cylla von Tiedemann's magnificent photo of the Tarragon's creepiest, 

The Small Room At The Top Of The Stairs

(read our review)

After Dark, March 20, 2012

The Unbearable Lightness of PR
Why are there still some theatre companies who hire ultra-maroons?
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois
What are the lessons we have learned from the death of Vancouver Playhouse (and, in passing, I do not think it is going to rise again)?

For me the chief question is, "Why didn't I, as a concerned Canadian theatre person, know that this was coming?" I have since heard from many Vancouverites that the writing was on the wall. I have also heard that the atmosphere in Vancouver is not conducive (if not downright hostile) to theatre production. But I have learned these things after the fact. Somewhere along the line someone was not communicating to the rest of us. And I do mean "us", as the whole country should be mortified by what has happened in Vancouver.

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Review: The 7 Deadly Sins (and Holier Fare)

Sacred to Profane

Against The Grain tempts the devil

by Axel Van Chee

One thing I love about small companies is that they need to be innovative and constantly explore all the possibilities in terms of modes of production, venues, and repertory choices with their limited funds. Although they may not always succeed, the results are often surprising and enlightening. Against the Grain Theatre has done just that with their latest production of The 7 Deadly Sins (and Holier Fare) featuring four modern pieces, two of which are even by living American composers. It certainly is a daring affair, and like a charcuterie, each of the four is a different representation of the modern musical sound, and although you may not like one, chances are, you are going to like one of the others.

Theatre For Thought, March 17, 2012

REQUIEM FOR A PLAYHOUSE

joel fishbane

Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse (1963 – 2012). Passed away suddenly on Saturday, March 10 surrounded by friends, family and protestors who insisted that they were conducting a vigil instead of a wake. The Theatre will be deeply missed by its artistic director, board of directors, fifteen permanent staff, two hundred contractors, hundreds of artists, thousands of subscribers and millions of fans of Canadian culture. 

The Theatre had a long and, perhaps unsurprisingly, dramatic life. It survived numerous marriages, divorces, trysts and trial separations involving countless artistic directors, board members and Canadian artists. Born in 1962, the infant Theatre was deposited on the doorstep of managing producer Michael Johnston by the municipal government. Although Vancouver had a thriving amateur community, it was determined that a professional theatre was needed to improve the city’s cultural life.

EVENT: My Granny the Goldfish (Factory Theatre, March 17-April 15)

EVENT: SIA (Factory Theatre March 24-April 15)

CharPo's Real Theatre! March 16, 2012

CPT's Picture of the Week, March 15

Poster art for Dying Hard

continuing at Tarragon to March 18

(photo by Dahlia Katz dahliakatz.com)

Review: free as injuns

James Cade (photo credit: Juan Camlio Palacio)

Passion

free as injuns engages the senses

by Jessica Yen

Inspired by O’Neill’s classic American play Desire Under the Elms, free as injuns is a saga centered around the Cabot family, three sons born from different mothers, a heavy handed widower father, and his new (significantly younger) wife. Even Cabot is the youngest son who is guided by his dead mother’s voice (played by Yvette Nolan in voiceover). He is driven by his need to reclaim the farm which he believes is his birthright. Enter Be Cabot, Ephraim’s young half-native wife who immediately finds herself irresistibly drawn to Even. They find love in each other and more importantly the shared desire to take back the land. Be becomes pregnant with Even’s child, deceiving Ephraim into believing that it is his. Everyone but the oblivious Ephraim is forced to live under the lie which eventually undoes Even and his relationship with Be. 

Luminato announces season six

Among the offerings in the 2012 Luminato Festival, this summer in Toronto, is a new work by Robert Lepage and a revival of Philip Glass's seminal opera Einstein on The Beach, it was announced today.

The Lepage work, Playing Cards 1: Spades, will be performed at the Toby Tannebaum Opera Centre, the Glass (directed by Robert Wilson) at the Sony.

Other works of interest at the festival include:

- La Belle et la Bête, the multi-media work by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, first performed in Montreal at TNM

- A tribute concert to the late Kate McGarrigle by her son Rufus and sister (and music partner) Anna.

Visit the Luminato website (under construction)

After Dark, March 13, 2012

What a Week!
Canadian theatre rides the cyclone
By Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Jayzus, I had a really juicy rant all ready to go, this week, but the news - so...much...news - put me on a CharPo and emptional rollercoaster and now - as I write this (hours before the goddam time-change) I am feeling insanely bleery.

I got on the funride when Manitoba Theatre Centre announced its season and there it was, screaming in my face, Ride The Cyclone was part of their season. Ride the Cyclone is a hugely successful musical, little in size but - I have read everywhere - huge in heart. I had heard rumours that Cyclone was going to pop up as part of big-house seasons and the MTC announcement boded well for - maybe, perhaps, I hope - a presentation in Montreal where I could see it. (No news yet, on this score.)

Review: Legally Blonde

(photo credit: Seanna Kennedy Photgraphy)

Legally Bland
The tickets aren't cheap...the show is
By Stuart Munro

Some people may be surprised to hear this, but Legally Blonde: The Musical is actually a good show. It retains all the characters, wit, and self-esteem boosting qualities of the MGM film on which it is partly based; and musical theatre fans will find more fully developed characters, some fantastic songs (by songwriting team Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin), and enough bend and snap to keep you highly entertained.

Unfortunately, almost nothing about the Lower Ossington Theatre’s production of Legally Blonde: The Musical calls attention to these highlights.

First-Person: Joel Ivany on The 7 Deadly Sins

Holier Than Thou

Going beyond Weill

by Joel Ivany, Artistic Director and Founder - Against the Grain Theatre

On Friday March 16 and Saturday March 17, Against the Grain Theatre will be presenting a concert entitled The Seven Deadly Sins (And Holier Fare). As the title suggests, the program features Kurt Weill’s ballet chanté Die Sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins), but it also includes Benjamin Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac and two contemporary two-piano pieces. 

To give you a taste of what we’ve been delving into to prepare for this production, allow me to introduce you to “the sins,” AtG style:

Review: Cosi fan tutte

As Everyone Does

Mozart at UofT

by Axel Van Chee

Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte is a comedy, a farce on love on the surface, but the depth of human emotions, the anguish, the questioning, the sharp barb of sting is ever present. And it is one of those operas that the directors love to play with: it can be colourfully camp, to intriguingly avant garde, to calculatingly grotesque. The Opera Division at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music’s Cosi went with a traditional production set in a baroque- classical style marble mansion designed by Fred Perruzza, complete with topiaries, roman garden statues, candelabras, a host of house servants, and at one point, an elaborate gondola. With some ingenious directing by Michael Patrick Albano, what is playing at McMillan Theatre is possibly one of the funniest Cosi fan tuttes  I’ve seen, with just the right amount of hilarity without being vulgar, and still hangs on to the uncertainty which really is the backbone of the opera.

Theatre For Thought, March 10, 2012

THE BECHDEL TEST AND CANADIAN THEATRE

joel fishbane

[Publisher's note: Joel Fishbane is a columnist and writer for The Charlebois Post - Montreal and The Charlebois Post - Canada as well as a frequent commentator on the This Is The CPC podcast. We will now include his weekly column here on the Toronto site as well...this first to appear here will delight/enrage and get you talking. Enjoy!]

Things are never easy for the actress over forty. For decades now, the archetypes for female roles have remained relatively unchanged: older women are either harpies like Queen Margaret in Richard III or some variation of Mother Nurture (the Saintly Relative, the Wise Woman, the Helpful Teacher etc.) whose wisdom helps the central character towards self-actualization. Rarely are we invited to explore these characters on their own terms. 

CharPo's Real Theatre! March 9, 2012

Review: The Game of Love and Chance

Gemma James-Smith and Gil Garratt (photo credit: lucetg.com)

Marivaudages

A play brought back to greatness

by Chris Lane

Once in a while a modern adaptation of an old text comes along that is both fresh and classic, and Centaur Theatre’s production of The Game of Love and Chance manages to be just that. The play was written in the 17th century by the French master Pierre de Marivaux, who is particularly known for the unique way he manipulates language. Local playwright Nicolas Billon has recently written a new translation of the work, and he succeeds at maintaining the playful wit of Marivaux’s words while making the language modern and accessible (and of course, English). The director, Matthew Jocelyn (artistic director of Toronto's Canadian Stage - where this production is headed), shows his expertise in adapting Marivaux’s work in this uproarious production.

Review: The Small Room At The Top of The Stairs

Nicole Underhay (photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann)

The Killing Curiosity

Tarragon presents a GG winner's spook-fest

by Beat Rice

I can’t remember the last time I felt spooked when I was watching a play. Carole Fréchette’s play, translated by John Murrell, is one that builds in mystery and tension, until it falls apart near the end. But we will get to that later.

Last night, the English premiere of The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs opened in the Mainspace at the Tarragon Theatre. The brilliant Weyni Mengesha also makes her directing debut at the Tarragon. Collaborating with designer Astrid Jansen, the set is in one corner of the room with the audience in an ‘L’ shape. The set is minimalistic, but with Bonnie Beecher’s lighting, we see hallways, a narrow staircase, and a dark room. The staging is simple yet highly effective. Mengesha uses the space in a way that allows our imaginations to put things in place. Thomas Ryder Payne’s eerie sound design creates a horror movie like feel. 

Review: The Happy Woman

(L-R) Maria Vacratsis, Martin Happer, Maev Beaty, Ingrid Rae Doucet and Barbara Gordon in The Happy Woman. Photo Credit: Guntar Kravis

Story Time

Happy Woman has a strong plot...but other problems

by Dave Ross

“Happy, happy, happy…” These words open the production of Rose Cullis's The Happy Woman from Nightwood Theatre. The play is billed as a “darkly comic exploration of what happens when bliss gets in the way of truth and threatens to destroy the very foundation we rely on.”  The play gives us exactly that, a darkly comic story with tragic elements dispersed throughout. Unfortunately, the production itself lacks in several regards.

After Dark, March 6, 2012

Confusion
CharPo is in deep debate
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Maybe it's because I'm old. Maybe it's because Arden Ryshpan, the executive director of Actor's Equity is a friend since our days in the trenches of the ACTRA board. Maybe it's because I was a union activist in CEGEP, staging guerilla theatre during student/teacher strike marches and even walking out of a production directed by Jean Gascon because I felt we were scabbing...

Maybe it's because of all of these things that I truly did not see a controversy coming at me like a train in Actor's Equity's stance on non-Equity productions (as expressed by Arden herself on this site). Joel Fishbane's enormously well-reasoned rebuttal came out of the blue for me. The discussions we've had in the CharPo contributors forums surprised me.

First-Person: Rose Cullis on The Happy Woman

Hap-hap-happy!

...it began in a small village in Spain...

by Rose Cullis

The Happy Woman began a number of years ago, when I was briefly living in a small village in Spain.  Every morning I went to a little, clattering café and watched two burly men and their mother preside over an extraordinary cast of characters.  The mother, in particular, fascinated me.  She was a big woman, and clearly very hard-working, but she wore a lady-like knee-length skirt and a delicately-crocheted sweater, and she beamed with satisfaction as she served customers.  

I was fascinated by her stalwart happiness, and so I began a play where a woman (Margaret) is returning home from the market dragging a cart behind her.   She stops to mop her face and marvel at the beauty of the day and delight in having a grandchild on the way.  Margaret encounters her more cynical neighbour, (BellaDonna), on the street.   When Margaret leaves, BellaDonna turns out to the audience to reveal both her role as “chorus”, as well as the news that Margaret’s life is not as idyllic as it seems:  her daughter is acting out, and her daughter -in-law seems to be going mad with her pregnancy.  

From this opening scene I stitched bits and pieces from my own life, until the play took on a shape that helped me understand my fascination with Margaret.  Cassie, Margaret’s daughter, appeared, suffering from some kind of mysterious angst.  She finds her mother’s joyfulness implacable; Margaret can’t hear anything, Cassie complains, if it’s not in a major key.  Then, Margaret’s perfect son, Christian entered the story - apparently contented and happy – much like Margaret herself.  His pregnant wife, Stasia, is troubled, however, and her fears and obsessions will prove to be uncannily related to unspoken tensions in the family.   

Interview: Patrick Kwok-Choon of War Horse

click photo to enlarge: The cast of War Horse (Patrick Kwok-Choon kneeling centre)

(photo credit: Brinkhoff / Mögenberg)

Riding the Horse to History

One of the puppeteers/actors in the country's biggest hit tells how

by Dave Ross

CHARPO: First, I’d like to say that I was at opening night this past Tuesday, and what an amazing show. I was blown away by the power of the performance, and it’s probably the best piece of theatre I’ve ever seen.

KWOK-CHOON: (Laughter) Well, thank you very much, that’s always wonderful to hear.

CHARPO: My first question for you is, what is it like to portray both a human and an animal character in this play? Is it particularly challenging or different in any way?

KWOK-CHOON: It’s amazing to be able to do both. I signed on to this production to work with the puppets. As you know, I help play baby Joey, but I also work with the muster horses during the cavalry charge. Creating an animal character is really not that different from portraying a range of human characters in a given performance. The difference is in the level of focus and detail. When working with baby Joey, there are three of us. You know the choreography and the steps, but you have to be constantly aware of the other puppeteers and of the space you’re in. The puppets take on a life of their own, but the most important thing is learning to work together as a team with the other puppeteers, breathing together and working to bring that life into the puppets. The puppeteers also rotate—sometimes I’ll play baby Joey’s head, sometimes the front legs, and sometimes the hind.