Review: Snow White

Deliciously Dopey and Delightfully Good
Ross Petty’s Snow White has a little bit of something for everyone
by Stuart Munro

Now in their 17th year, the Ross Petty Pantos have become something of a holiday tradition here in Toronto, and it's no wonder – these high-energy productions have managed to thrill and delight audiences of all ages for close to two decades, and last night’s opening of Snow White: The Deliciously Dopey Family Musical was no exception. That rare blend of just right for the kids but oh-so-vulgar for the adults make this an evening everyone can enjoy.

The Panto tradition is an import from England where it is a holiday staple. A classic, well known story is mixed with contemporary music and jokes, and headlined by a few well known names to create an unforgettable night out for the family. The plot of the original story tends to be little more than a jumping off point, as is evident here. Seven Dwarves? Who needs ‘em?! This year we have Snow White and 007! 

CharPo's Real Theatre! November 30, 2012

Review: Binti's Journey

L-R: Ijeoma Emesowum, Sodienye Waboso, Allison Edwards-Crew, 

Thomas Olajide (Photo: Greg Edwards)

The Untainted Heart
by Gregory W. Bunker

Binti’s Journey is a journey worth taking, young or old. The story is set in present-day Malawi and is centred on the changes 13-year-old Binti endures after losing her father, her only surviving parent, to AIDS. Based on the young adult book The Heaven Shop by internationally acclaimed Canadian author Deborah Ellis, and produced by Theatre Direct at the Young People’s Theatre, you might be forgiven if you’d think such a play was only for youth. And in the beginning, the slight overdramatization suggests this. Certainly, young people have the most to gain from seeing the play—it is, after all, about the multi-faceted and far-reaching consequences of HIV/AIDS on the individual, family, community, and our generation at large. But this play is so well-crafted, and its message of HIV/AIDS awareness so well-delivered, that anyone who sees it will find it to be an entertaining, thought-provoking piece that educates in the best kind of way.

The Still, November 29, 2012

What's not to like in this portrait by Jason Strang of one of the puppets from Old Trout's Ignorance at Canadian Stage.

(Read our review)

Review: Ignorance

(photo credit: Jason Strang Photography)

Ignorance is Bliss
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop amazes with its new production

by Stuart Munro

What is happiness? Is it really just a simple matter of winning or losing? These questions, and some slightly more complex ones related to them, are purportedly the subject matter of Ignorance, the new piece by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, now playing at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre. Created by the Workshop, Ignorance also received input from anonymous contributors via the company’s website during its development, resulting in a uniquely collaborative piece.

In a Word...Erin Brandenberg on BOBLO

Audiences seem to respond to our work, but it seems to be more of a personal connection.

by Christopher Douglas

Erin Brandenburg, creator of festival hits like Reesor, Pelee and Petrichor, ventures into a new direction with her latest piece, BOBLO. Co-created with her partner, Andrew Penner of The Sunparlor Players, BOBLO plays for the next two weeks at The Great Hall Black Box Theatre. Inspired by personal memories and collected stories about the Bob-Lo Island Amusement Park, their collective, Kitchenband, has created a unique way to take an audience back in time while staying in the present, to pay tribute to a place that is gone but not forgotten through songs and remembrances, photos and field recordings. When asked about how this ghost story came to life, Erin had a few things to say.

CHARPO: Shows seem to require an awfully long workshop period these days. How do you feel about the years it can sometimes take to have a fully realized performance before a paying audience?

BRANDENBURG: This is the first show we've developed in this way – with a two year period dedicated to development before presenting it as a co-production with The Theatre Centre. Having the time to experiment and try out ideas, or even having the time to really delve into an idea and throw it out if it doesn't work, has been really important for this project. But it’s also a challenge to sustain the creative drive over such a long time period. With this show, I don't think we could have done it in a shorter time period - we were really fortunate to have a residency at The Theatre Centre to allow for that time.

The Vid, November 28, 2012

Teaser for Ordinary Days. The production, now playing Winnipeg, is on its way to the city. 

(Read Joel Fishbane's preview of the production)

After Dark, November 27, 2012

Lemons, Lemonade and The Sour Taste That Stays

Dutchman hangs around for a bit

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

I have invited the contributors at CharPo to, when the mood strikes them, write what we are going to call "Reconsidered". The idea is that, after thinking about it, many people will revise opinions about a work of art. We come out of a play with friends, we go to a café, and over the carrot cake we parse what we have just seen. The others put ideas into our head, we into theirs and then - hours, days, weeks later - we are hit by a new idea about the show. Those ideas remain largely unexpressed. However, I feel they form the foundations of future considerations not just of the piece seen but of the art itself.

The "Reconsidered" pieces will not be, "I thought it was shit, but now I think it's great!" - though that's okay too. It will be along the lines of a comment a colleague made last year when he was considering his top ten for the end of the year. He said that the plays that he was remembering for his list were, more often than not, the ones he had not raved about. 

The Show

Ava Jane Markus (photo credit: Josie Di Luzio)

We've seen it twice, two different reviewers, both wise, wise people. Terminus seduces, troubles, delights. Of the piece, during SummerWorks, Christian Baines wrote, "This was my second outing with Terminus, and though envious of those around me, who were experiencing the tale for the first time, I enjoyed seeing director Mitchell Cushman’s unique take on it – particularly its unusual and suitably confronting stage configuration...The Canadian debut of this Abbey Theatre gem is surely one of SummerWorks 2012’s standout sleepers. Dark, intimate and truly unique, it’s not to be missed." Then for the remount for Mirvish's brilliant new series of small productions, Jason Booker added, "this otherworldly show must be experienced." Need we say more? (See all of Christian Baines' review) (See all of Jason Booker's review)

Review: Tagged and It's Complicated

PROFILING THE ART OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LOVE 
joel fishbane

Dating in the 21rst century has spawned a whole sub-genre of musicals, from I Love You Because… to A Craigslist Cantata, each of which comment on how the new generation deals with the impact of technology on love. To quote Jonathan Larson’s Rent, it’s all about “connection in an isolating age”. Into this mix comes Tagged & It’s Complicated, a new musical that chronicles the efforts of two social misfits, Tim (Matty Burns) and Katherine (Ruth Goodwin) to find true love via the Molten Lava Dating Company.

Almost entirely sung, Tagged… is set entirely in Tim and Katherine’s bedrooms; the two are on stage the entire time but never interact (at least not in reality). Katharine’s a workaholic while Tim’s unemployed and living with his parents. Unfortunately, not much more can be said about the characters. They reveal little about themselves during the show’s one hour time span, which right now is about thirty minutes longer then the current plot needs.

The Story: First-person: Wendy Nielsen on the COC Ensemble Studio

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio: Then, But Especially Now

by Wendy Nielsen

Next week, the Canadian Opera Company will hold its second annual competition to see which young singers will be invited to join the COC’s prestigious Ensemble Studio training program for young opera professionals. It may well be history in the making.

In that historical light, I challenge you to think of Ben Heppner in any grassy shade of green. The same goes for Isabel Bayrakdarian, John Fanning, Joseph Kaiser, Gaetan Laperriere, Allyson McHardy, Jessica Muirhead, Gidon Saks, Janet Stubbs, and an all-star cast as wide as the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts’ main stage. Before they ‘arrived’ they all shared one monumental step along the way. They were all members of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio program, an elite collection of extraordinarily talented young singers with futures in the big house.

It’s a story not unlike that fabled tale of young Canadian comics honing their skills at Toronto’s Second City. You’ve likely heard the Second City stories before, but what do you know about the Canadian Opera Company’s young artist program, the Ensemble Studio?

Review: Terminus

Maev Beaty (photo credit: Josie Di Luzio)

Apparitions at the Royal Alex
by Jason Booker

Outside the March’s production of Terminus transforms into a ghost story told round the campfire.  Staged with the audience seated on the deck of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the show is a wall of text that awakens and arouses audience members, entertaining them with gruesome characters, unnerving plotting and insinuating imagery. 

With a strong concept from director Mitchell Cushman, Terminus is expertly staged and wonderfully unique.  Cushman takes up the challenge of Mark O’Rowe’s script, maintaining that storytelling comes first, though this tale is anything but family-friendly.  Audience members are pelted with crude but real language and situations that are fanciful but graphic, like the one involving entrails.  The unflinching dialogue, written in a rap prose that rhymes but isn’t precise or metered, slams into the audience’s ear, particularly because of the Irish accents the actors acquire for the show.  There are moments when the barrage of language is almost more pleasant to hear than the specific words – these rhythms are so lyrical yet tricky to deliver and ultimately profound.  The art isn’t always the tale being told (so often the case with ghost stories) but in the method of delivery – and this one is a hit.

Theatre For Thought, November 24, 2012

SIMPLE TAKES A LOT OF WORK
joel fishbane

Last month, while killing time in New York, I decided to get lost in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After taking the subway to 86th Street, I enjoyed a New York breakfast of street food and coffee on those iconic steps before heading inside to look the painting “Grey Weather” by Georges Seurat. Along the way, I plugged in my iPod and listened to the only musical worth listening to when you’re lost at the Met: Adam Gwon’s song cycle Ordinary Days.

“The Met’s the only place in New York City where the traffic patterns don’t make sense,” sings Deb, one of the four characters in this quirky musical about the crossroads of youth. The show is made up of two completely separate storylines, but the scene at the Met is one of the few times when all four characters manage to break into each other’s lives.  “The show is about how one small thing that one character does creates a domino effect on everyone else,” explains Kayla Gordon, who’s directing the Canadian premiere. “It’s a show about asking ‘what is my big picture? What am I doing with my life?’”

CharPo's Real Theatre! November 23, 2012

The Still, November 22, 2012

Lordie! we like black and white photography to promote theatre especially for a play that has nothing black or white about it - the very nebulous Oleanna. Richard Burdett created this stunning - almost journalistic - shot using focus, negative space and some tinkering. The two characters (played by Jacqui Skeete and James R. Wood) seem to be floating in a void, with the blackness (slightly left of centre) offering utter separation even as Skeete's face suggests something quite different.

(Read out review)

In a Word...Ambur Braid

From what I've experienced, the key is to do your job consistently well, to be very reliable and to be relentless.

Soprano Ambur Braid is quickly establishing herself as a rising young artist in dramatic coloratura soprano roles that encompass Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Massenet’s Esclarmonde, Handel’s Semele, and Mozart’s Queen of the Night. In her final season as a member of the ensemble at the Canadian Opera Company, Ms. Braid was seen in Christopher Alden’s new production of Die Fledermaus as Adele and will perform the role of Vitellia in the Ensemble Studio performance of La clemenza di Tito. Additionally in the 2012-2013 season, she sings the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Atelier. She recently sang the Queen of the Night in the Ensemble Studio performance of Die Zauberflöte to great acclaim causing the National Post to praise her turning a “stock figurine into a scary, knife-wielding matriarch.” Other recent appearances with the Canadian Opera Company include Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, The Greek Woman in Iphigénie en Tauride, and the Danish Lady in Death in Venice. Previous operatic credits include Diane in Iphigénie en Tauride with Opera Atelier; Konstanze in Die entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Queen of the Night in die Zauberflote, Princess/Fire in L’enfant et les sortileges with the San Francisco Conservatory; and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with The Glenn Gould School. Her awards include the East Bay Opera Competition, San Francisco Conservatory Concerto Competition, and Palm Beach Opera Competition. (Source: amburbraid.com)

CHARPO:  You made a deep impression in AtG's "Villains" pastiche in a minuscule venue and again in the mega production of Fledermaus more recently at COC. Could you compare the two experiences?

BRAID: Well, I do love playing the villainess... Joel Ivany has done a wonderful thing with AtG by bringing incredible music out of the opera house and into less austere venues - with beer! The environment is much more casual, which lends to more interaction with the audience and more improvisation.  Joel is a very creative director and working with him is always a lot of fun. The "Villains" night was in an antique furniture store and we only rehearsed twice for that show, but all 3 of my pieces were solos and he just told me to do whatever I needed to do to be frightening. And so I performed the aria from Esclarmonde as a drunk witch. The two queen of the night arias were done pretty normally, in a corset and stilettos, respectively. I also sat on a few audience members laps and canoodled them with my coloratura. It was fun! 

Die Fledermaus was certainly a mega production. We rehearsed for many weeks and were really able to form our characters over a long rehearsal period, with a director who is so knowledgeable, and so prepared.  My Adele ended up being a bit more Lulu than the typical Adele because we really dug down into the dark truth of the piece. Christopher Alden and the designers did an incredible job with this production - it was unlike any Fledermaus done before and I am so thrilled to have been a part of it. 

The Vid, November 21, 2012

The trailer for Soulpepper's Alligator Pie which our Stuart Munro called "pure unadulterated joy"

After Dark, November 20, 2012

On The Eating of One's Own Head

Can critics' dislikes and the internet be creating precisely what theatre needs?

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

This week Andrew Dickson, one of The Guardian's many very able theatre critics, tweeted thusly: 

"Invitation arrives for Kiss Me, Kate, dir by Trevor Nunn. No, no, thanks awfully, very kind, really don't think so #wouldrathereatmyownhead"

I laughed out loud because I knew what he was talking about. There are productions I get invited to that I would rather eat my own head than spend an evening seeing let alone reviewing. Kiss Me, Kate would be in my top ten for sure, along with Annie (and a lot of musicals), anything by Ionesco, a lot of Albee, mime, a lot of Greek theatre, tons of Shakespeare, most French opera...need I go on?

The fact is, we all have tastes. My uncle loves opera but when I told him I had seen the Ring at Covent Garden he said, "Better you than me." He is, says he, "Saving Wagner for my old age." He's 75.

The Show, November 19, 2012

Matty Burns and Ruth Goodwin in Tagged and It's Complicated

It can't be called a renaissance because...well...there never was really naissance (unless you count the collective creations of the 70s and 80s with their tunes), but - damn! - there seem to be made-in-Canada musicals a little everywhere. And they're working. We think that is so because smart theatre people - learning from the Fringe model - are scaling down and, in the process, creating an intimate show that speaks (sings) quite directly to audiences that are smaller, hipper and - let's say it - younger. That is the case with the cross-country and still-touring hit Ride the Cyclone. Coming soon to the city, as well, is Do You Want What I Have Got - A Craiglist Cantata. Continuing on the theme of souls joined in virtual worlds is yet another new work by Matty Burns and Ben Wright. Tagged and It's Complicated opens this week and the company has let just enough of its content loose to suggest this might be another little charmer. (See also: Matty Burns on the journey of the piece; a video from a studio session for one of the songs from the show.)

The Story: Interview with Esther Vallins on Half-Pint Theatre

Halfpint go BOOM!
by Cassie Muise

Esther Vallins is a born and raised Torontonian trained extensively all over Canada, including Randolph Academy and The Banff Centre. Her company, Half-Pint's first show, 'tick, tick... BOOM!' opened to excellent critical claim, and is now nominated alongside the likes of Stratford and Shaw for nine BroadwayWorld Awards. One of those nominations includes one for Vallins as Best Leading Actress in the production. (source: company website)

CHARPO:  Why start a new company?

VALLINS: One of the most valuable things I've learned being in the industry, is if the work is not there, create the work yourself. So that's just what I, and the ladies of Half-Pint Theatre did. As recent graduates of three different theatre schools, all of us found ourselves striving to succeed and get recognition, in a very competitive, tight community. We want to create the work not just for ourselves, but also for new artists who find themselves in a similar position to us. We're also all just so passionate about our wonderful city. Toronto has so much amazing talent, and there needs to be more companies showcasing what this town has to offer!

Review: Oleanna

Mamet’s People, Mamet’s Problem

by Christian Baines

@XtianBaines

David Mamet’s writing can often feel like a kind of theatrical assault, with a broad sweep of ideas and points of view conveyed in dialogue that is not just perpetually active, but often heavy on colloquialism and peculiarity. Oleanna, his two-handed power play, is no exception, pitting a young student’s seemingly self-righteous political correctness against her teacher, whose sense of old world familiarity seems to mask much darker impulses. 

It’s a tough piece for Jaybird Productions to choose for their debut. For one, when you take on Mamet, you take on Mamet’s clipped dialogue. There’s nary a finished line in the play’s opening, making it difficult for actors James R. Woods and Jacqui Skeete to build momentum, as a tense, yet seemingly benign meeting between teacher and student takes a much more sinister tone. Could the actors and director Jaqui Burke put a few more layers into the exchange to carry it through? Perhaps. But is there something lacking in the play itself?

Review: Tales Of...

The Story Hour
Tales Of: Firsts
by Christopher Douglas

Dry and warm from the cold rains of Monday night, the charming Rustic Owl hosted the first of a new monthly storytelling series. The evening's theme was Tales of: Firsts - a witty way to launch.  

The quaint environs welcomed a small but friendly crowd to hear six storytellers share their experiences. 

Starting the evening was comedian Marco Bernardi regaling the audience with his tale of growing up and coming out in a small city, and writer/comic Paul Bellini's first funeral. Not Paul's funeral but the first he would attend... for his Italian grandfather... on Paul's 14th birthday... as Paul stared at the shirtless summer-student gravediggers.

Theatre For Thought, November 17, 2012

HARPER GOVERNMENT RINGS THE BELL AGAIN
joel fishbane

Both the Conservative government and a slew of Canadian artists each got a chance to enjoy their favourite hobby this week. The Conservatives got to provoke the anger of the artists and the artists had a good time getting angered. This time around, the issue was the unglamorous Bill C-427,  a private members bill introduced by Tyrone Benskin, the former artistic director of Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop. The bill was an attempt to rewrite the Income Tax Act to allow for income averaging for artists.

In layman’s terms, income averaging allows individuals who have a varied annual income to spread out their tax liability over a period of time. I won't bore you with the math – which, I assure you, is really boring – but the point is the bill was defeated and, as always, a few artists got their undergarments in a twist. I have a hard time taking it seriously whenever artists come down hard on the Conservatives. It strikes me as a Pavlovian reaction: at some point, artists were trained to think that the Conservatives don’t support culture and so whenever they ring the bell, the arts community begins to froth at the mouth. 

Bill C-427 wasn’t very well written

With apologies to Tyrone Benskin, I’m siding with the Conservatives on this one. Bill C-427 wasn’t very well written – read it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. Not only that, but it ignored the fact that artists are not the only people out there with a varied annual income. Look at farmers, salespeople, restaurant workers, or practically any entrepreneur. If Bill C-427 had been more inclusive – more applicable to all Canadians – then perhaps it would have fared slightly better.

Income averaging is a fine idea and perhaps one day it will come to Canada. But in the meantime, there are plenty of things the Canadian artist can do if they want to lessen their tax burden. First, all artists like to complain about the tax breaks the government gives to corporations. So why not go out there and become a corporation. It’s completely legal and, paperwork aside, relatively painless. As an incorporated entity, you can elect to pay yourself a salary and have the rest of your profits taxed at the corporate rate rather than the individual one.

Another suggestion is to familiarize yourself with the expenses you are allowed to claim. In Quebec, for instance, artists can deduct income derived from royalties. Federally, all artists can deduct the cost of business-related supplies, travel, commissions and so forth. As a self-employed person, an artist who works out of the home can also deduct a portion of their rent, mortgage, property tax and insurance. The government even allows you to carry-forward this amount, a fact which is very helpful for those of us who have a varied annual income. 

In the end, all artists need to conduct themselves like any small business and make sure that they put money aside for taxes over the course of the year. The best thing to do is open a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) and dump some money in there. It will accrue tax free interest and will be sitting there waiting when the government comes calling. 

But most of all, artists may just have to accept that a volatile financial life is all part of the business. Enjoy the good years when you have them and use the profits and reinvest it in your company - which is yourself. And the next time the Conservatives ring the bell, don’t be so quick to froth at the mouth. Stephen Harper’s government is very much like a stopped clock: they’re always right at least twice a day.

Review: The Arsonists

Fiona Reid (photo credit: Bruce Zinger)

Firebugs

by Dave Ross

@dmjross

Plays translated from their original language are always intriguing. Sometimes, the story manages to transcend language barriers, and sometimes things can get lost in the translation—caution must be exercised. Max Frisch’s The Arsonists was translated anew from its original German to English by Alistair Beaton in 2007, and made its Canadian debut last night at Canadian Stage, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of the story.

The program notes state that the play can be read as “a comment on the neutrality of Switzerland during World War II, in particular its 'don’t ask, don’t tell' response to the rise of Nazism.” I can see that interpretation but it was not apparent—I had to search for it. The Arsonists tells the story of Gottlieb Biedermann (Michael Ball) and wife Babette (Fiona Reid), an upper-class couple who find themselves the unwilling hosts to Schmitz (Dan Chameroy) and Eisenring (Shawn Wright), two arsonists who take up residence in the attic, along with their score of detonators and drums of gasoline. A surreal commentary on our ability to ignore acts of evil, the story is rife with opportunity for humour, but it’s also a very simple one. I expect much of the audience could enjoy the play without its intended moral message.

CharPo's Real Theatre! November 16, 2012

Review: Jekyll and Hyde

Constantine Marouli, Deborah Cox (PHOTO CREDIT: CHRIS BENNION PHOTO)

This is the Moment . . . When Things Start to go Wrong
Like its namesake, this Jekyll & Hyde has a bit of split personality

by Stuart Munro

Jekyll & Hyde is one of those shows I’ve never been sure what to do with. The score is peppered with some of the most memorable songs that the 1990s added to the musical theatre canon, but Leslie Bricusse’s book and lyrics are so overwrought and Frank Wildhorn’s pop score is so repetitive that I’ve always found the material impossible to sift through and find something coherent enough to build a show out of. So imagine my surprise last night when the curtain came up on a somewhat subdued and restrained treatment of this famously over-the-top show. The opening mob-like scene has been replaced with an upstairs/downstairs look at London society and, along with what I’m sure are some new orchestrations, there is an almost restrained and chamber quality to the first two-thirds of Act I. Sure, some of the 90s pop-ishness still comes out in the score, but it’s not nearly as brash as previous incarnations of this piece have been.

Sadly, all that hard-earned subtlety comes to a crashing halt as soon as Mr. Hyde appears, and the show quickly descends into the over-the-top ridiculousness I tend to associate with it. The climactic confrontation between our two titular characters has been reduced from an intense battle of the wills to a 1980s Def Leppard music video, and the show’s finale is laden with enough heavy-handed Christian imagery sure to leave even the most pious among us confused.

Review: The Little Years

Bethany Jillard and Chick Reid (photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann)

The Curse of Passing Time
by Beat Rice

The current version of The Little Years was commissioned by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival last year where it was part of their season in the studio theatre. The production now has a new life at the Tarragon with recreated designs and some different casting. It shows us the beautiful and malicious ways people can affect others unintentionally. 

We are introduced to young Kate, played by Bethany Jilliard, at the beginning of the play. We meet a bright, curious pre-teen with questions and ideas about time, space, and physics, as big as the universe.  We instantly have high hopes for her, but unfortunately her ideas are deemed unacceptable and foolish for a young girl in the 50’s. Her mother, played by Chick Reid, discourages her from even talking of such subjects, and instead encourages her to go out, be social, and meet boys. She decides to place her daughter out of regular school and place her in vocational school, a move that alters the fate of Kate drastically. Irene Poole plays adult Kate, who grows up to be a bitter young adult who constantly has to hear about how well her brother William is doing in life. William is an invisible but ever-present character in the play. His wife Grace, played by Pamela Sinha, gives Kate love and support to try to pull her out of her negativity. She never gives up, even as Kate descends into a darker place as she approaches mature adulthood. 

The Still, November 15, 2012

Sometimes you just have to let the image do the talking, which is the case in this deceptively simple portrait by Cylla von Tiedemann of Chick Reid for The Little Years. Everything - from pose, to dress, to makeup, to ring and pearls - tells us part of the story of this woman.

In A Word...Playwright Brad Fraser

(photo credit: G. Elliot Simpson)

The Voice...and when to use it

Brad Fraser is an internationally produced and mutli-award winning playwright, pundit, director and screenwriter, residing in Toronto.

CHARPO: You've been fairly vocal about situations both political (Harper, Ford) and theatrical/political (Healey, Gass), and now you have a column in Xtra - is this a playwright's prerogative (as opposed to other celebs we wish would just shut up)?

FRASER: I think it’s is the obligation of any person in society to speak out when they see something wrong being done. The only celebs people want to shut up are usually the stupid ones so I don't think it's just a celebrity thing. Also when the majority of people are towing an obvious immoral party line it's up to those with the strength to say so to do so regardless of their profession. A playwright is just one of the many things I am.

The Vid, November 14, 2012

Behind the scenes of Soulpepper's Endgame.

(Read our review)

After Dark, November 13, 2012

My First Time
The importance being exposed
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

My mother died when I was 13. You need to know that because it is important to the story of my first time.

My mother was the kind of Catholic who, if Christmas fell on a Sunday, would bring us all to church twice - once for Christmas, once for the Sunday. When my mother died my father - profoundly in love with his wife of 25 years and the mother of his six children - went mad with grief and got through it two ways: by falling in love with another magnificent woman and by blaming the Catholic Church for my mother's death. My mother had not been a well woman since being hit with rheumatic fever as a child and so her seven pregnancies (she lost one) had been hellish. My father thought she had died so young because they had never used birth control because of my mother's Catholicism. (Stay with me...there is a point to this.)

My father, relieved, I believe, of my Mother's staunch Catholicism, became a lot more liberal. When I was 15 he allowed me to start drinking...in the house...with him. (His own father was an alcoholic and he preferred I do my drinking at home so he could see how I handled it.) He brought me to my first x-rated film at about the same time. (I have always looked like I was 30 so he suspected I was already buying nudie magazines. He was right.)

Opinion: Stuart Munro on Reality TV Casting

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Over the Rainbow winner, Danielle Wade

The pros and cons of reality TV casting
The Case of Over the Rainbow

Stuart Munro

After eight weeks of highly entertaining television, Canada has finally picked its Dorothy for the upcoming production of The Wizard of OZ – 20 year-old Danielle Wade. This young woman will be carrying no small burden on her shoulders, as nearly everyone in the audience on opening night will have watched her progress through the competition, not to mention the millions of dollars invested in this mega production by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Mirvish. These two men are no doubt nervous; their headliner has been picked, not through the regular casting process, but through a Canadian Idol-style competition. And while I think the viewers at home have picked a great Dorothy, the fact remains that we’re not casting directors. Which begs the question: Can this casting process be considered ‘legitimate?’ What are the pros and cons of choosing a leading lady in this fashion?

The Show, November 12, 2012

(from Tarragon website)

On reading a play by John Mighton you might not be wrong if you said he was an acquired taste. But on stage something happens to his words - alchemy, if you like (though Mighton, a mathematician, would bridle at the term). His play, The Little Years, fits well into the heads of directors and especially well into the mouths of actors. The work has been road-tested at Stratford with the same director who is bringing the piece to Tarragon, Chris Abraham.

Kate, in the 1950s, is told to give up her math and science dreams and to be a good girl. Simply, a person is formed by dreams - both granted and unfulfilled. Kate, as we see over decades, is no exception. Mighton once again proves why he delights. It is germane, here, to site what the jury for his Siminovitch Prize said of him: "His voice has grace, delicacy and a gentle humanity."

The Story: First-Person - Matty Burns on Tagged and It's Complicated

From Napkins to Opening
The jagged journey of Tagged and It's Complicated 
by Matty Burns

Only a few years ago, I thought I had it all. I was living the dream, enjoying my final year at Queen’s University and had everything I could possibly want. I had spent four years not letting school get in the way of my education! I learned a lot about myself, made the best friends I could ask for and secured a spot in the the theatre and campus community that fit me just fine. I was home. Everything was looking up Milhouse! Then over night the curtain opened and reality sunk in. It was time for the bubble to burst. I knew it was coming. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I could possibly hold onto this dream life for a little longer. But I wasn’t the only one leaving. Things were about to change and fast. I didn’t even go to my graduation ceremony because I was so upset about having to move on. But I had to grow up... again....this was the next step. 

Opinion: Holger Syme on the new Soulpepper season

Albert Schultz (photo credit: Sandy Nicholson)

Soulpepper: Requiem for a Dream

This is an obituary.

by Holger Syme (reprinted, with permission, from dispositio)

Let me quote Soulpepper’s own company history, a history that traces the progress from a “dream” to “making the dream a reality” to the birth of “a new company”:

Soulpepper Theatre Company began with twelve actors who wanted to explore the great stories of classical theatre and inspire the next generation of artists and audiences. … A few years out of the Stratford Young Company, these actors were craving a return to the classics and saw that there was a void in the Toronto theatre scene. Why in one of the theatre capitals of the world was there not a world class classical theatre company? At a series of boisterous and passionate dinner parties over many months, the foundations were laid to form a theatre company which met that very need.

By opening the season with [Schiller's Don Carlos], the Soulpepper founders wanted to make clear that they were up for the challenge, ready to tackle even the toughest of texts and make them exciting and engaging for Toronto audiences.

The first season at Harbourfront was a huge success. The critics and audiences raved. Soulpepper had delivered what Toronto audiences were craving.

Fifteen years later, the company enjoys great success in its beautiful venue in the Distillery District. But the dream its website describes in such evocative terms? That dream is over.

The new season, just announced yesterday [ed: Tuesday], may be logistically ambitious. It may be unusual among Toronto companies in not being exclusively driven by brand new work, preferably written by Canadian authors. But what it isn’t is the kind of season “a world class classical theatre company” might put together.

Theatre For Thought, November 10, 2012

HATCHED FROM A THEATRICAL EGG
joel fishbane

“I didn’t want it to be an issue play,” said Claire Burns. “Just a play that deals with certain issues.” She’s referring to Hatched, her new play that was inspired from her own experience as an egg donor back in 2004. Produced by Toronto’s Triangle Co-Op Productions, the show aims to be less about the moral / legal issues surrounding in vitro fertilization and more about the ripple effect our choices have on generations to come.

It’s hard to discuss Hatched without resorting to puns, so I’ll get them out of the way now. The show was “conceived” after Burns donated her eggs, it “gestated” while Burns conducted research, interviewing egg donors, recipients and donor children. After its initial “birth”, it was “nurtured” by Burns with some dramaturgical help from the people at Triangle Co-Op. And last week, the show finally arrived, aged and mature, at the Toronto Free Gallery.

Review: The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine

(photo credit: Deanna L. Palazzo)

Ernest's Hammer

by Christian Baines

@XtianBaines

If you’re going to follow the well-worn theatre trope of a disintegrating – though possibly inescapable – relationship, told through an intimate two hander, you’d better find a fairly unique way to flesh it out. The Anger In Ernest & Ernestine rises to the task fairly well, setting its terminally flawed bliss within a self-aware ‘theatre home’ and using banal familiarity to create a sense of whimsy that instantly attracts us to the rather odd central couple.

Ernest is a sweet, well-organized and slightly uptight nebbish. Ernestine is more of a free spirit, for whom a messy life is one well-lived. Writer/director, Robert Morgan (co-writing with Martha Ross and Leah Cherniak) never pretends the course of this marriage will run smooth, illustrating petty annoyances between the pair from the get go. Where, for instance, is the ideal place in the room for a tissue box? And whatever did happen to Ernest’s hammer? 

CharPo's Real Theatre! November 9, 2012

Review: Romeo and Juliet

Paolo Santalucia (photo credit: Daniel DiMarco)

Where we set our scene...

...and a Romeo to dream about

by Cassie Muise

Everyone knows the story of star-crossed lovers, Romeo & Juliet. Whether you’ve seen it with Leo DiCaprio and Clare Danes, or The Lion King 2, the story of star-crossed lovers kept apart by a family feud is still as accessible as it is relevant today. There are many things to enjoy about this slick, well-polished production of what is arguably Shakespeare’s best-known play. 

As always, I am impressed with Hart House’s sophisticated, seamless execution. The lighting, set, and music are well used without being distracting. What is distracting, however, is the fact that it is set in modern day, hip-hop, gangster-overrun Verona. Although there were some gimmicks I appreciated about this – the boys using sunglasses instead of masks for the party, and the party itself a club with pulsing beats and crazy lights – I usually find modernized versions of R&J unnecessary, and this was no exception. In fact, by the second act almost all of the modernized elements had vanished, except the clothing. I wonder if this was an attempt to engage younger audiences. Although the cast brought this world to life with vim and vigour, I think that the approach they went for here is best left to West Side Story. They did it better. 

The Still, November 8, 2012

There is so much happening in Shaun Benson's terrific photo of Richard Clarkin and Yanna McIntosh in Speaking in Tongues, that we don't know where to start. McIntosh's closed eyes suggest passion, but the place itself is motel-sleazy. The way the light falls on the wall and bed-spread frames but also reveals. (You wouldn't want to do the luminol-thing on that bed...)

(Read our review of the production)