Review: One/Un (SummerWorks)

(photo credit: Production Lombric)

A Iranian-French-Québécois-Canadian’s story
by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff

We confront an audience, actually an absent audience, but all the chairs are there. Soon actor/creator Mani Soleymanlou takes a seat and begins to address us, the non-absent audience, as well as the tech crew directly.  He barks orders at the guy who keeps “fucking up the lights,” and casually tells us not to worry about our cellphones.  It’s a little hokey, but it gets the point across.  We the audience are implicated in his struggle to create a narrative out of a chaotic Iranian-French-Québécois-Canadian’s story. 

Review: Les Demimondes (SummerWorks)

(photo credit: David Hawe)

In Praise of Pros
by Beat Rice


Les Demimondes is a hilarious multidisciplinary show that explores both sides of prostitution in a non-political, but over-exaggerated way. The show stars, Cat Nimmo, Andrya Duff, and Jesse Dell , who play multiple characters and roles, and Alexandra Tigchelaar (also a creator of the piece) who is the personification of prostitution herself. The show is an eclectic mix of strong solo performance, narrative choreography, song, and video (which actually serves a purpose in the show and isn’t just used for special effects!). Tigchelaar is an incredible performer. She is sharp, acerbic, witty, compassionate, and nostalgic. She gives and gives with every scene, and in one poignant moment, removes her makeup and speaks to us through a mirror, subdued, and real. Director Stephen Lawson has created a good balance of heightened scenes and quieter scenes, which allow the audience a moment to reflect on everything that has been discussed, and how it relates to the current action on stage.

Review: My Pregnant Brother (SummerWorks)

(photo credit: Pam Price)

Is the personal too personal?
by Beat Rice

My Pregnant Brother is a one-woman show written and performed by Johanna Nutter,  directed and dramaturged by Jeremy Taylor. Nutter tells a very personal story about her family and their unbelievable circumstances that the show’s title hints at. The story is so far fetched you almost can’t believe it, but Nutter plays herself, and is honest, genuine, and just dramatic enough to keep us with her. She tells the story of how her brother was born her sister, of her mother’s confusion, and of her struggle to keep the family all together. Nutter’s brother is transgendered, and has a relationship with a man who gets him pregnant. After giving birth, he moves to Vancouver and gives his child away to a woman who responded to his post on the Internet. 

Review: Haunted (SummerWorks)

(photo credit: Samya Kullab)

Strong performances looking for a stronger conclusion

by Jason Booker

Watching friends and loved ones deal with death is challenging in real life. Watching a play about it rarely easier. Haunted, a piece written and directed by Daniel Karasik, deals with the death of Dad a year before: Mom tries moving on and restarting her love life while daughter, Sarah, copes with painter’s block (a lack of inspiration). Mom turns to Judaism and David the Rabbi, while Sarah brushes off the comforting analysis of her scientist girlfriend.

Many of the two person scenes work well since Karasik has a great ear for dialogue and has created some interesting characters and surprising situations, though the choices always seem believable from these people. The initial scene crackles along (somewhat too fast) but the audience soon catches up.

Review: Marine Life (SummerWorks)

(photo credit: Natasha Mytnowytch)

It Only Sounds Unpromising
by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff

Picture the following triangle: An idealistic environmental activist is in legal difficulties.   Her eager beaver, but sexually dysfunctional, lawyer can’t keep his hands off her – until, that is, he encounters her brother, an abysmally bad subway musician whose incestuous designs on his sister are not entirely unrequited.   Add in a murder plot and a good deal of technical information about hermaphroditic marine species . . . well, you wouldn’t necessarily think this to be promising theatrical material.  You’d be wrong.  

Review: Pietà (SummerWorks)

On Losing Everything
by Beat Rice

Pietà is a play written by Danish playwright Astrid Saalbach. The play has two actors, but it might as well be a one-woman show. Tamsin Kelsey plays Maria, who wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of the previous night, or of the man she wakes up beside. The play is well written and is a creative twist on the story of someone experiencing a mid-life crisis. What happens when a career woman who seems to have it all, loses everything that is important to her?

Review: Extinction Song (SummerWorks)

One Play, One Child, A Man
by Dave Ross

Extinction Song has been getting a great deal of advance buzz these past few weeks. The story of a young boy who retreats into a dreamland to avoid being “extincted,” there is almost no way to predict what the story will be like. The work has already won a Sterling Award for best play, and it is clear that it has earned it.

Review: When it Rains (SummerWorks)

The Power of Visuals

by Christian Baines

Alan and Anna are siblings whose respective marriages are both on the brink of disaster. The key difference? Anna knows it, though much of the problem may lie within her own head.

When It Rains is a story about life’s most universal realities – love, sex, birth, death – all vividly explored by the innovative use of projections in lieu of any specific set or lighting. The piece rarely employs set pieces any more complicated than two chairs, allowing its four highly talented cast-members and designer Nick Bottomley’s graphic novel-inspired imagery to propel the narrative.