Review: Il Trovatore

Russell Braun (behind) as Conte di Luna, Ramón Vargas as Manrico and Elza van den Heever as Leonora. Photo: Michael Cooper

Better Heard than Seen

by Shannon Christy

The great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso once said that all it takes for a successful performance of Il Trovatore is the four greatest singers in the world. This piece is a staple of the standard operatic repertoire despite the fact that the music was written for the masses; and the story, though extremely convoluted, is compelling.  However, in addition to having essentially four leads with incredible range the opera itself requires an additional quality, acting.  The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Il Trovatore succeeds with the music but fails with the acting. 

Manrico, played by Ramón Vargas, and Azucena, performed by Elena Manistana both succeed in their portrayals and musical performances. When he discovers that his betrothed, believing him dead, has decided to join a convent Manrico looks properly horrified and motivated to do anything to stop it.  When Azucena, condemned to burn alive, reenacts the night she witnessed her mother share the same fate you can see the wretched charred body of her mother with her hair being consumed by flames, empty melted sockets where her eyes should be, gasping with her last breath that she should be avenged. This is because both Mr. Vargas and Ms. Manistana use their bodies and especially their faces to convey these emotions. 

The Story: Interview - Arden Ryshpan, Canadian Actors' Equity Association Executive Director

(photo credit: Michael Cooper)

A Woman of Some Importance
We have to educate our friends, families and neighbours to see arts and culture as a part of the fabric of our society that is as integral as universal health care.

Arden Ryshpan has been an arts activist almost since birth. She is the daughter of actor, Howard, and her mother, Virginia, was an essential part of the ACTRA machine (as was Arden who served on its board). Now, as Executive Director of the stage-performers' association, she and her board are facing difficult times. But art thrives in Toronto (where the majority of Equity members live) even when the process of governing takes time.

CHARPO: What are the special issues CAEA faces in Toronto?
RYSHPAN: The issues really aren't that different from city to city, province to province. Of course, there are nuances and different concerns rise to the top of the list depending on where you live but for the most part, the struggles facing people trying to create theatre are the same everywhere. It just comes in a slightly different political package. The majority of Equity members live in Toronto. What is an issue for 30 people somewhere else is an issue for 300 here in Toronto so the sheer numbers tend to tip the balance. The issues aren't new - not enough work, not enough affordable rehearsal space for people trying to create their own work, our own policies that contain conditions that aren't that helpful to smaller companies, how to use media cleverly in order for the public to hear about your show and choose it over the huge number of other options they have here in Toronto - these issues are shared ,in some part, with every region in the country.  One thing that is a bit different here is that we don't have the same kind of support for the arts from the Mayor that other cities do.

Theatre For Thought, September 29, 2012

DIANA IN RUNYONLAND
joel fishbane

When you see a guy reach for stars in the sky, you can bet that he’s doin’ it for some doll. But when you see one of Canada’s best known directors take on one of musical theatre’s most iconic shows, you can bet that she’s got other things in mind. “It scared me,” admits Diana Leblanc as she talks about taking the reins of a new production of the Loesser / Burrows musical Guys and Dolls. “But it was too wonderful an opportunity. And at my age, you can’t afford to turn things down.”

One of Canada’s best known artists, Leblanc is a founding member of Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre and has become known for her work as an actor and director for numerous theatres including Stratford, Canadian Stage and Théâtre Français de Toronto. She’s also forged a long term relationship with Montreal’s Segal Centre: Guys and Dolls will be her eighth time working with the theatre. It will also be the first time she’s ever directed a musical.

Review: Antony and Cleopatra

FetiShakes

by Christian Baines

Those who missed what remains of Toronto’s Fetish Fair this year would do well to get down to Buddies for The Theatre Elusive’s energetic take on Antony and Cleopatra. But even if the wardrobe reads more like Priape’s Fall catalogue than Shakespeare, this production has its heart and its focus in the right place.  

At a relatively lean two hours with no interval, this Antony & Cleopatra embodies that brand of provocative, youthful hunger more often applied to productions of Macbeth or Titus Andronicus. But it never veers off into excess violence or gore. Instead, director Rosanna Saracino favours minimalism, restricting her set to two seats of power and letting her actors do the rest. She encourages them to explore the play’s sensuality, and so they do. If that means scenes of beatings and whippings induce a sly smirk, rather than a wince of sympathy, so be it. It’s become a common trick in landing Shakespeare’s darker tragedies, to keep the show’s tongue firmly in cheek, and Saracino uses it well. The show’s tone remains consistent, yet never cheap or excessive in its campness, and while that might not please purists, it’s undeniably entertaining.

CharPo's Real Theatre! September 28, 2012

Review: Obaaberima

(photo credit: Jeremy Mimnagh)

In Between Everything

by Jason Booker

A new play by a new performer.  What to expect?  Is it a version of their life or total fiction?  Will it be brilliant or disastrous?  Will one side of the performer-writer be stronger than the other?  Or will it be all about finding a balance, living in between?

Obaaberima by Tawiah M’Carthy is one of those plays that strives to be in between everything. 

Agyeman, born in Ghana and on the eve of his release from a Canadian prison, introduces himself, orange prison jumpsuit half-on, half-off, posing at extreme angles and staring defiantly at audience members.  The play transitions to tell how he got there from an eight-year-old self slipping into his mother’s dress and high heels while left at home alone to now, following him through the schoolyard bullying he encounters, the local tailor who rescues him from a beating and encourages the young Agyeman to be true to himself.  Punctiliously dropping in on the character every few years as he develops, Agyeman gradually meets other men, falls in love and moves to Canada to train as a lawyer. 

The Still, September 27, 2012

Could a work of promo art be as grim and hilarious at the same time. Clearly it's a stiff, but we like photog Ashton Doudelet's detail of the dirty feet. It's for Bloodless, that rarest of things - a new Canadian musical, opening next week.

Whiskey-a-Rainbow, September 26, 2012

Week 2
by Stuart Munro

It’s a school night and I have a glass of whiskey in hand. It must be time for week two of Over the Rainbow!

Daryn Jones (looking rather sharp I might add) introduced our top nine Dorothys who went into a rousing rendition of “Munchkin Land/Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz (and sounding great I might add!). Sadly Andrew Lloyd Webber (ALW) was missing this week so there was no awkward flirting between him and Jones. Thankfully, it seems Jones’s sights are now set on Thom Allison (the handsomest man on the planet), who was wearing a diamond necklace Sunday night and apparently took a helicopter to get to Toronto from Niagara-on-the-Lake where he’s currently starring in Ragtime. Director/choreographer Arlene Phillips was looking stunning and, with ALW’s absence, will be making the final decisions on who gets eliminated.

Cut to a rehearsal session where the girls are singing “Defying Gravity,” and who should show up but Kristen Chenowith! The girls were all, understandably, shocked and amazed by the sudden appearance of this megastar. Cheno is here this week to mentor the star-struck girls. No pressure, right?

Review: Between The Sheets

Christine Horne and Susan Coyne. Photo Credit: John Lauener.

PTA (Parents, Teachers Animus)

by Cassie Muise

“Between the Sheets” is a fast-paced, high-stakes production about a parent-teacher interview gone wrong. When walking into the theatre, we are transported back to school. Indeed, the details of the classroom we see before us – the alphabet in large swooping letters, children’s art on the walls, and a break-down of the day including two “nutrition breaks” – is meticulously crafted and might actually be the set up from my third grade classroom. The specificity of this set helps to draw one in immediately, making the awkward opening music, assumedly designed to create tension, unnecessary. Kelly Wolf’s set with the words “Parent Teacher Interviews” glaring at you on the chalk board set us up just fine.

Jordi Mand has written an interesting, thought-provoking piece. I sincerely hope to see more work from her. As a new writer, her use of language is impressive. Having many family and friends who are teachers, I was impressed with the flow and “teacher jargon” sprinkled throughout the play. Being a teacher is more challenging than ever, and it is difficult to accurately capture their style of communication. Christine Horne gives a beautiful, complex, and natural performance as Teresa, the passionate Grade three teacher.

In a Word... Arlene Duncan, Dora-winning actor

(photo credit: Pierre Gautreau)

Be careful what you wish for though, because sometimes your dreams can be larger than you imagined.  

by Christopher Douglas

Winner of the 2012 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female in a musical, Arlene Duncan is a woman of many talents.  Ranging from her stage roles where she sings and dances, Ms Duncan also has numerous film and television credits including the recently-wrapped sixth season of Little Mosque on the Prairie.  As if that’s not enough, she also taught herself Wordpress to redesign her website.

Sitting down with the talented Ms Duncan over an iced tea, I wasn’t sure if I’d get somber Fatima or sullen Caroline.  Since Arlene flashed that first smile, our interview flew past as we laughed and chatted.

CHARPO:  After your successes on film and television, what made you return to theatre and – more specifically – to Caroline, or Change?

DUNCAN:  I wanted to come back to the theatre.  I mean, I missed the music and everything.  I love to sing and dance and this show would be a chance to work that muscle again.  But theatre is disciplined in a way that film and television isn’t.  Theatre has an immediacy to it, the thrill and the energy and the reactions of the audience, that allows you to have control of the character in a different way; from night to night, you have to roll with how the character might subtly shift.

Be careful what you wish for though, because sometimes your dreams can be larger than you imagined.  I put it into the wind that I would love to do theatre again and that I hoped an amazing part would come along.  Then Caroline appeared and she was one of those roles.

The Vid, September 26, 2012

It's a party...it's Sister Act!

After Dark, September 25, 2012

Chronicle of a Death Foretold
We know it's coming, why aren't we prepared?
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

When I was 15 I was an apprentice critic at Quebec City's Chronicle Telegraph - North America's oldest newspaper. It was a weekly, then, when before it had been the daily of the not-so-tiny Quebec City anglo community. Things happened. One of the biggest employers of my school-mates' dads, Anglo Pulp and Paper (yes, that was its name), became less Anglo. High-schools and primary schools closed down. Our hospital, Jeffrey Hale, became more bilingual. When I left, one of the last bastions of anglophony, St. Brigid's Retirement Home, became quite, quite franco. (When I was a boy we would take little St. Patrick's Day shows into St. Brigid's.) The community died, moved away to bigger cities for opportunity or because of politics, or was assimilated. According to the Chronicle Telegraph's website, there are more places to buy it in Montreal, now, than in Quebec City. Some consider what happened to Quebec's anglo community a tragedy  - a death foretold. Others (myself included) think of this as an evolution. A transition. Adaptation.

The Show, September 24, 2012

(photo credit: Christian Dresse, from the Opéra de Marseille production)

If you pushed a hard-core, dyed-in-the-wool Wagnerian into the corner, they would scream and weep before they admitted to loving any opera by Giuseppe Verdi. But keep slapping them about because eventually they will admit that there is one - a dark, haunting piece with a story as convoluted as all of the Ring Cycle and thematics as complex and wondrous as any by the crazy German. It is Il Trovatore, a tale of brothers separated at birth, Tsigani, infanticide and feudal-age (and hopeless) love. It is an opera that is insanely difficult to mount because it requires four (count 'em) great voices. This is, of course, something the COC can pull off quite, quite well. (Ramón Vargas, anyone?)

Review: Proud

Maev Beatty and Michael Healey (photo credit: Sean Howard)

Genius-Proud
by Gregory W. Bunker

What happened at the Berkeley Street Theatre last night was genius. Proud is an important contribution to the discussion of identity and democracy in this country, accomplished by examining the not-so-evident agenda of the current government. It just so happens that this examination can be, conveniently, narrowed down to the vision of a single person. Michael Healey cleverly creates a well-researched piece of historical fiction to convey his analysis, and he mashes it up with some sexy to keep it funny and awkwardly human.

The 90-minute play begins by assuming that the Conservatives—instead of the NDP—sweep Quebec in the 2011 Federal election. The new majority government has a clear mandate for change (through discipline!) reiterated in a comically sober opening monologue by the new, unnamed, Prime Minister, brilliantly played by Healey. The audience is then briefly introduced to the clinical and somewhat psychotic sidekick Chief of Staff (Tom Barnett). Although the opening scene portrays the Prime Minister in his familiar public persona, the fantastic script does not allow him to be so easily demonized—what would be new or insightful about that? The real novelty of the play is what follows.

The Story: Yves Simard on I On The Sky

(photo credit: Robert Etcheverry)

Me and I on the sky
...a parkbench in New York City begins a journey
by Yves Simard (Scriptwriter and director)

As a performer, I’ve spent a significant part of my professional life on tour. I had the chance of meeting many interesting individuals. I also had the opportunity of witnessing people living their own lives in their own unique way. In fact, one such experience provided me with the basis for the I on the sky project.  The whole idea for the show popped into my mind as I was between performances in New York City.  When you are on tour and not performing, you often have free time you may not know what to do with. In this instance, I decided to go out for a walk in Central Park. I walked for a while taking in the sun and seeing the many individuals going about their daily lives. I decided to sit down on a bench and look up at the beautiful blue sky.  As I saw the people walking by, I suddenly realized that I didn’t know any one and that in fact, I was something like a temporary immigrant in the USA. Which got me thinking about people you come across in the streets. 

In fact, you don’t know most of the people that pass you by. You have no idea where they come from, where they’re going or even why. I was sitting on a park bench, the weather was beautiful, the sky was blue… and I was homesick. That is what I was feeling at that moment. 

Review: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Merely Competent

Hart House presents an uninspired opener to their new season

by Stuart Munro

At one point towards the end of Tom Stoppard’s 1966 play, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, one of the titular characters looks at the other and asks, “What’s the point?” As members of the audience at the opening night of Hart House’s new production of this classic piece, fellow CharPo writer Dave Ross and I were forced to answer this question with “Yes, exactly.” It’s not that this production is a disaster (though that might’ve been more entertaining). Rather it too often falls flat, allowing neither the absurdity to shine nor the questions surrounding what it means to be a character in a play vs. a person with free will to be clearly examined.

Theatre For Thought, September 22, 2012

MEMO TO MONTREAL: DON’T FORGET THE STUDENT PRESS
joel fishbane

The twin corpses of Montreal’s independent papers (the Hour and the Mirror) are still fresh in their graves and meanwhile some other news has just come down the pipeline: according to a memo being circulated by the Quebec Drama Federation, the Montreal Gazette will no longer publish theatre reviews other than for productions by the Centaur or Segal, Montreal’s two major regional theatres. “This decision will have a serious impact on our community,” reads the memo, which goes on to say that there needs to be “a concrete and positive approach which could demonstrate that the community would be active participants in finding solutions.” 

For those of you in the rest of Canada, it’s important to realize that in Montreal there’s only one major English language daily along with a smattering of community papers. Getting press for theatre is difficult in any city, but here it can feel like a Sisyphean task. Given this, the time has come for theatre companies to shift focus and take advantage of the media outlets still available to them. Paramount among these is the university press. With the last surviving professional papers devoting less space to culture, the importance of The Link, The Concordian, The McGill Daily and The McGill Tribune has just been underscored and circled in red. 

CharPo's Real Theatre! September 21, 2012

BREAKING NEWS: Statement from Ken Gass on Factory Theatre

September 20, 2012

Statement from Ken Gass re Factory Theatre

The extent of the community response to my abrupt firing from Factory Theatre on June 20^th was unexpected and overwhelming.  More than 4200 people signed a petition demanding my reinstatement and the board’s resignation.   250 prominent artists stated their intentions to boycott the Factory, both as artists and as audience members.  Hundreds more have written personal letters of support.   All this has made it very difficult for me to simply move on to the next chapter of my creative life as per my original release on June 21st.  Thus, while the protest action has been a community initiative, I have remained deeply engaged in the issues and the debate. 

Review: No Great Mischief

David Fox (photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann)

The Recollected Family

by Christian Baines

Adapted from Alistair MacLeod’s award winning novel of the same name, No Great Mischief follows Alexander MacDonald (R. H. Thomson) in his attempts to reconnect with his family’s past, his brother Calum (David Fox) and the many tragedies and trials that have befallen both. Distinctively Canadian and occasionally compelling, it’s an unapologetically anecdotal story, ultimately not much more than a series of clips and memories from Alexander’s life.

The first trial, however, is for the audience – a marathon slog of exposition that, while possibly immersive on the written page, makes for a pretty tedious opening to a two hours plus play. The audience’s second great challenge is making sense of Calum. This is no shame to Fox, whose detailed embodiment of the character is unquestionable. With a burdened past and a battered liver, Calum’s life has been one of hard knocks, but his quasi-reflective ramblings only serve to make the play more impenetrable, right when it’s crying out for a reprieve from Alexander’s dense narration. 

The Still, September 20, 2012

A beautiful portrait with composition typical of Cylla von Tiedemann. From No Great Mischief, at Tarragon. Nicola Lipman, R.H. Thomson, John Dolan.

In A Word...J. Kelly Nestruck, critic at The Globe and Mail

(photo credit: Catherine Farquharson, documentographer.com)

The Man with the Magic Pants

[ED: Today we're  continuing a new weekly feature at The Charlebois Post - Toronto: In a Word... Each week, on Wednesday, you'll be treated to a short-form interview with someone in the Toronto theatre. Some will be talking about their upcoming productions, some about their lives, some just addressing questions about their work or the world around them. Enjoy!]

CHARPO: We tend to see the Toronto theatre community as big and happy - especially with the Doras giving us that impression each year. How do you see it?

NESTRUCK: I agree that it is big. Given the community is currently rent asunder by the Factory Theatre situation, I'm not sure happy is the word I'd use to describe it at this exact moment, however. The reaction to Ken Gass being fired and especially to the subsequent boycott have exposed a lot of fault-lines in the family. 

That said, as a child of divorce, big, happy families make me suspicious. I think it's a sign of health that people are disagreeing and debating openly - it shows a certain maturity in the Toronto theatre scene. There's been a little too much tiresome hurling about of words like "bully" and "traitor" of late, however. LINK

The Vid, September 19, 2012

Jeremy Mimnagh's fascinating (and challenging) trailer for Julie Sits Waiting.

(Read our review)

Whiskey-a-Rainbow, September 18, 2012

Week 1
by Stuart Munro

[Ed: Yup, we're following the CBC series Over the Rainbow, and who better to tackle this cataclysmically important subject than our musical theatre pundit, Stuart Munro. Enjoy!]

Sunday night, in a whiskey fueled fervor, a friend and I watched the premiere of CBC’s Over The Rainbow, the reality television show that lets you (yes you!) pick the girl who will get to star as Dorothy in the Mirvish/Andrew Lloyd Webber production of The Wizard of Oz, opening this December at the Ed Mirvish Theatre (formerly the Canon, formerly the Pantages, formerly the Imperial, formerly the Pantages). This show follows the, admittedly, successful presentation of 2008’s How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria? which cast the lead for Toronto’s The Sound of Music (a gorgeous production I saw six times. Yup. Six. I’ve got no shame.) Ten girls from across the country have been flown to Toronto for a Canadian Idol style sing-off while Canadian viewers slowly vote down to one lucky girl.

Before getting into a re-cap and my impressions, I just want to say how confusing I find this casting process for a Toronto production (let alone casting at all, but that’s another discussion altogether). For the respective English productions where this format has been used (Sound of Music, Joseph, Oliver!, Wizard of Oz . . .) I can understand why getting a nation wrapped up in the process might make sense. Given its relative size and amazing commuter rail network, a family from the north could conceivably make a day trip (or at the very least an over nighter) to London to take in the show they’ve had a say in casting. I’m not saying it would be cheap, but it would be possible. (It reminds me a bit of the day trips we would take from Victoria or Vancouver to see the big tours that used to come through. I remember my mum once telling me it was a $1000 day for the family and we were all tired and grumpy by the end of it, but damn if we didn’t have a good time!) But here in Canada, the idea of a family hopping on a plane from Victoria to Toronto to only see a show seems a bit less likely. A day trip could be possible (but awful), and to really make the trip worth it, you’d want to start factoring in things like a trip to Niagara Falls and other tourist traps. The price tag rises quickly. But hey, the 2008 Sound of Music ran for well over a year which, in this day and age, ain’t that bad.

But on with the show!

After Dark, September 18, 2012

I Want To Live!
Potboilers and our lives
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

When I was a kid, my mother plunked me in front of our TV and made me watch a potboiler called I Want to Live! Starring Susan Hayward, it was ostensibly a true story about a woman committed to death row for mere fringe participation in a crime that went wrong. She is executed at the end in a moment I remember as being vigorously realistic. My mother tended to plunk us in front of "lesson" movies - racism is bad, justice is harsh, the Holocaust was not nice. She helped me develop a wide streak of leftism (even as she continued to be a mad-ardent Catholic - arguably the least leftist church on the planet).

The lesson I took away from I Want to Live! was that life isn't fair.

I think it's a lesson that hit me again this week when my medical life went swirling around the toilet bowl again. Now, before you turn away from what looks like a poor-me piece, I promise it is leading to a point that I hope will have more universal resonance.

News: fu-Gen Season Launch

David Yee

Ten and Beyond

fu-GEN launches while harking to the past

by Jasmine Chen

(photos by Karl Ang)

“Welcome.

The theme for our 10th Anniversary Season is “home”. It’s an appropriate theme, because that’s why we started this little company 10 years ago; not around a single production or the work of a lone artist, but to create a HOME for the Asian Canadian theatre artist. Because we didn’t have one. What we DID have was a brilliant community of independent artists who were creating brave, exciting, risky work… who were challenging the stereotypes that they faced in audition rooms, stages and film sets all across the country… but who were, all the same, without a supportive infrastructure. 

Tonight we’re celebrating our 10th anniversary and also the 30th anniversary of the play “Yellow Fever” by Rick Shiomi, the first ever Asian Canadian play. Later on in our season, we’ll do more readings of Yellow Fever, in the 905 North communities of Markham and Richmond Hill… because apparently people live up there.” - David Yee, Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre Company. 

It was raining when I arrived at the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre in the late afternoon. I was there early to volunteer and help set up the bar that would later serve the many guests celebrating fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company's 1oth Anniversary Season Launch. As I walked through the main doors there were men installing a wall, others hanging paintings in the lobby, and a gentleman tuning a piano. Tonight would be the first event to break in the new space! That space being the lobby of Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre (RPACC)and the Aki Studio, run by Native Earth Performing Arts. The actors were already waiting in the lobby, chatting before heading into rehearsal with playwright and director Rick Shiomi, whose play Yellow Fever would be performed later that night. I hadn't known this before, but Yellow Fever was celebrating its 30th Anniversary as the first Asian Canadian play EVER produced in Canada. How appropriate, am I right?! 

The Show, September 17, 2012

(photo credit: AmandaLynne Ballard)

Yup...it's here. After all the talk, after all the squabbling (read some of it here), after all the drama offstage (right), the play about a Prime Minister who may or may not be our own Mr. Harper, has arrived to be dissected, thrown in people's faces, generate I-told-you-so's or, dammit, "merely" to delight!

It is, of course, Proud by Michael Healey. Miles Potter is directing Mr. Healey himself (as the PM). Tom Barnett returns to act in this third of the trilogy (which includes the previous Generous and Courageous) and is joined by Maev (The Penelopiad) Beatty and Jeff (Clybourne Park) Lillico.

The story? A new MP is taught in the ways of good ol' fashioned Canadian right-wing conservatism and all the loveliness that entails. But don't expect holier-than-thou. As Mr. Potter wrote yesterday at CharPo-Canada "there is something wonderfully silly about rehearsing a play that, looked at from one angle is a political examination, and looked at from another is a sex farce. How to describe experienced actors seriously discussing the best angle to stare at someone's breasts? Or to safely have sex on a desk?"

The Story: An Artist Performs

Olivier as Shylock (from the Cleveland University Library)

An Artist Performs
We asked theatre people from Toronto to tell us of the one performance they will never forget. We loved their answers...so will you. Also, share your own stories in the comments section below!

Joel Greenberg (Artistic director, Studio 180)
In 1970, I arrived in London for the first time, thinking that I would spend the rest of my life there. I also thought that the 1970 season was fairly standard issue - every important British actor was playing in one or more productions - it was a living history of all things theatre. And the first of the 55 shows I saw was Jonathan Miller's much touted take on The Merchant of Venice. Laurence Olivier played Shylock, and though I found some of the production baffling, Sir L.O. was everything that a first-time aspiring theatre professional could have hoped for. I had to watch the filmed version many years later, so overwhelmed was I by being in the company of this actor and the company surrounding him. Having tickets in the 3rd or 4th row made the evening, jet lag and all, something I have never forgotten.

First-Person: Miles Potter on Proud by Michael Healey

Michael Healey

The Play (not the controversy) Is The Thing
Michael's Shavian examination of right wing Canadian politics could be a delightful surprise.
by Miles Potter

Last year I was listening to my radio one morning in my kitchen when I heard Michael Healey's name mentioned. Now this was CBC, and while it's not totally unusual for artists to show up on the CBC, it's not usually on the national news. I tried to pay closer attention while cooking or cleaning or whatever I was doing in the kitchen; I live in the country when not away working, and I don't get newspapers so I'm often woefully out of the loop when it comes to the theatre news. But hearing Michael's name on the news made me think I'd better listen up; the report was almost over, so I only got a partial version of the story. 

So I went and booted up my steam driven (it seems) dial-up internet to see if I could find out what Michael was up to. I got an article from somewhere laying out the bones of the story; I gleaned the facts that he had written an apparently controversial play and his “home” theatre, the Tarragon, didn't want to do it. And so he had quit. Interesting. I was actually in a kind of conversation with another theatre at the time, and I suggested that this would be a great time for some theatre to step in and grab it, which was probably foolhardy as I knew virtually nothing about the play, but in any case that particular conversation went nowhere anyway. 

Review: Julie Sits Waiting

(Photo credit: Jeremy Mimnagh)

The Familiar Unconventional
by Christian Baines

Self-professed ‘dirty opera,’ Julie Sits Waiting brings the contemporary story of adultery by way of online dating to the chamber opera stage. Familiar? Yes, but also unconventional in its execution. Julie (Fides Krucker), married to a police officer and Mick (Richard Armstrong), an Anglican priest, make for an unusual tryst, one that carries the weight of both characters’ advanced years. These are not the sexy adulterers of sleazy pulp novels, and that sense of realism sits the work uncomfortably outside the bounds of the familiar. That is, arguably, right where this story needs to be.

The show is perhaps more a sensory experience than a narrative one, more interested in riding through Julie and Mick’s journey of lust and fear than making sense of it. It’s rare to see such a rich collaboration between designers in this kind of piece, and in Julie Sits Waiting, their work gives the audience a much greater sense of the characters’ experience than they might glean from the libretto alone. Yes, we’ve seen visual tropes like broken shards/blades on many a stage before, but combined with Jeremy Mimnagh’s surreal video and Louis Dufort’s evocative, disturbing score, it’s an effective setting.

Theatre For Thought, September 15, 2012

FALLING TOWARDS YEAR’S END
Your Canadian Theatre Fall Preview
joel fishbane

There’s a chill in the air and the other day I had to cycle wearing gloves: I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country, but here in Quebec autumn is making itself known. For the theatre world this means the start of another season of shows: the 2012-13 season is upon us and actors everywhere are shaking away their tans to step once more into the footlights. It would be impossible to cover everything going on in Canadian theatre between now and Christmas but here are just a few of the highlights. 

Chris Abraham, who last season helmed Annabel Soutar’s Seeds (now playing in French in Montreal), will return for a double bill, at least if you feel like crossing the country. At the start of November you can catch his production of my favourite John Mighton play, The Little Years, over at Tarragon (Toronto). Two weeks later, all the way over in Gateway Theatre (Richmond), Abraham teams up with Marcus Youseff and James Long for Winners and Losers, a devised piece in which a harmless game turns into a ruthless dissection of the players’ intimate lives. 

CharPo's Real Theatre! September 14, 2012

The Still, September 13, 2012

Are we looking forward to the new season? You bet we are! Do we want to see this show? Absolutely! This evocative shot is from the Canadian Stage production of Tear the Curtain!, sliding into the house in a month.

Look - we don't know if all these photogs across the country named Cooper are related, but we like their pictures. Here it's David Cooper who's at work, creating a sumptuously lit noir-ish moment where the eye is drawn away from the background lights and to the (dead?) arm of the woman and the half-lit face of the man (her murderer?). What sets Mr. Cooper's work apart is that there is less of the catch-as-catch-can feel of most theatre photos and an insistence, within the work itself, to pause and consider.

In a Word..Kelly Thornton, Artistic Director at Nightwood Theatre

[ED: Today we're  inaugurating a new weekly feature at The Charlebois Post - Toronto: In a Word... Each week, on Wednesday, you'll be treated to a short-form interview with someone in the Toronto theatre. Some will be talking about their upcoming productions, some about their lives, some just addressing questions about their work or the world around them. Enjoy!]


I'd love audiences to be astonished by the power of women's voice in theatre.
Kelly Thornton faces a new season and looks again at Penelopiad
by Jasmine Chen

CHARPO: As Nightwood enters its 33rd season, what challenges did you face when planning the programming? Did you have themes you knew you wanted to explore, or were you surprised with the season you eventually arrived at?

KELLY: Well, it's very interesting, having launched the New Groundswell Festival last year, the mandate of this festival is to fortify new work before it hits the Mainstage,  before it's open to critics and audiences at large. The idea of the workshop production is to lay seed for a Mainstage production. So, certainly Between the Sheets revealed so much in the Groundswell Festival. It was very appealing to audiences, and we knew right after the festival that we would go forward with it. 

And then The Penelopiad was such a raging hit! I mean people were so passionate, sometimes angry about not getting a ticket that we knew we had to bring it back. The Penelopiad is one of those plays that just doesn't happen every day. For us as a company it was such a huge ambitious show, we were mavericks to take it on, I think. With the alchemy of the Company, the characters, the cast and the whole design and production team, we really had a gift of a show on our hands. That was an obvious choice to bring back. So in terms of themes, I think the Fates really brought those two pieces of the puzzle together. 

The New Groundswell Festival is premiering a work by Judith Thompson [Who Killed Snow White?], which was also just coming up the pipes. Judith was playwright-in-residence last year with OAC, and she came to us with a monologue in Femcab about the disconnect between young women and feminism. It's a subject matter that has been very personal to her, so she really wanted to take it on. She came to us with this super provocative anti-feminist teenager, a first year University student taking an elective in Women's Studies and really having a clash with her teacher. It's comic but then goes very dark, in the way that Thompson does. 

Odelah Creations with La Memoire Du Corps|Body Memory is a Company that I have been watching. Their explorations come from a very Québecois - very physical perspective. They research into personal stories from women and body memory. I want to continue to stretch the boundaries of what theatre can be and I'm interested in the Quebec voice. And then The Oracle at Gros Morne is a totally different kettle of fish coming out of Newfoundland! The New Groundswell festival with its touring productions, is trying to reveal to the Toronto audience what's happening in other regions of the country.

There's no real theme that I hung the season on. My desire as the Artistic Director of Nightwood, is to interpret 'What's my job as the AD of a feminist theatre company in the 21st century'? For me, it's to look at women in all directions, to look deeply and excavate the women's experience, in the most flawed of women to the most heroic of women. I'm not necessarily just looking at women's success, but also the struggle that they have.

The Vid, September 12, 2012

Unless you've been living in a cave (or watching something other than CBC), you know that Over the Rainbow, the CBC/Mirvish reality show about casting Dorothy in Wizard of Oz begins September 16. (As they say...check your local listings.)

After Dark, September 11, 2012

The Language of Disrespect
Things have actually gotten worse
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Last week I wrote about how politics should be teaching us, in theatre, lessons about respect and civility. You just had to look at political campaigns in Quebec and the United States to understand that when we have grievances in the arts, we clearly should not be as rancorous. Firstly, because our community is too small to contain feuds and, secondly, because somewhere - down the line - most of us will have to work together. Grudges must die (or at least be set aside and painted over with a smile).

After I wrote that editorial two things happened:

- There was an assassination attempt on our premier-elect, allegedly by some guy spouting stupidity about how "The English are awakening!" What made the event more chilling and tragic was that there was an actual death during the attempt, a stage techie named Denis Blanchette.

- I received an open letter (email) about the crisis at Factory Theatre that I suspect I was meant to publish but where the content of the letter was so angry and uncivil I decided I would not put it up on the site. I stated that I would no longer publish pieces that did not advance dialogue that might resolve the situation.

Review: Death of a Salesman

Joseph Ziegler and Ari Cohen (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

A Death Foretold
by Beat Rice

It is common knowledge that Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a staple in the roster of classic American theatre. It won numerous awards and is now studied in English and drama classrooms in high schools and theatre schools alike. I remember learning myself about about how Willy Loman is the symbol of the idealistic and unattainable American dream. I have even heard people use the name ‘Willy Loman’ as a term to refer to those who rely desperately on selling to make a living and to obtain self-worth. To some, Willy Loman may be a signifier of hopes had, and dreams lost. The remounted production at Soulpepper acknowledges this, but also shows Willy Loman for what he really is: a human being, just like the rest of us. 

The Show, September 9, 2012

Look at this stunning photo by Tanja-Tiziana very carefully. It is of Tawiah M'carthy and it's for the upcoming production of Obaaberima. This is one of those photos which tell part of the story of a play while seducing you into finding out more. And there is much, much more to discover. M'carthy's work (he created it and performs in it) is indeed a work that harks back to a motherland but if you look - again - closely...at the lips, for instance...you will see it also a work about Queer identity. This is a potent mix - colour and sexuality - that is addressed rarely in our theatres and - guess what? - even more rarely in the Queer community. Moreover, M'carthy is bringing an African cultural vocabulary to the piece. However the evening turns out, from the outset we are talking of one that is as challenging as it is potentially destabilizing.

The Story: Soheil Parsa on the season at Modern Times

The Lesson and Forgiveness
Organizing a year
by Soheil Parsa

This year I will work on two shows with Modern Times: ‘The Lesson’, by Eugène Ionesco, and a new creation called ‘Forgiveness’, which is in its second phase of development.

I’ve had a long history with ‘The Lesson’. I remember reading it for the first time in Farsi in Tehran back in the 70s, shortly before the Revolution. The next time would be in English, in preparation to direct Ionesco’s ‘The Chairs’ in 2001 in Toronto. When I stumbled upon the play again in 2010, I decided that I had to direct it. 

I guess my fascination with the play is two-fold. To begin with, the concept of dictatorship in the ‘The Lesson’ is familiar to me. I experienced it first-hand in Iran, and my attempt to understand that experience is one of the reasons that I choose the type of material Modern Times does. Secondly, ‘The Lesson’ speaks to ideologies, which are present around the world. For Ionesco, it’s ideology of language: empty slogans that seem so beautiful at first, but which eventually kill; the Professor uses language as a weapon against the student. I have witnessed this in many venues, Canada as well: when the truth crumbles, language can be used to cajole, intimidate and pacify.