tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31927386810880346072024-02-21T04:28:22.298-08:00BrokenLegReviewsA site dedicated to reviewing stage performances in the greater Vancouver, B.C. area.Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.comBlogger303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-37403148130983735202019-10-04T18:42:00.000-07:002019-10-04T18:42:19.223-07:00<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: Times; font-size: 48px;">BLR </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">must close its curtain for the rest of the season</span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Regrettably <i>BLR</i> must close the curtains on its site for the balance of the current Vancouver theatrical season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This difficult decision was taken due primarily to the post-retirement launch of a labour relations consultancy a year back. That added atop ongoing personal and family obligations meant simply this : too many things were being attempted, each in a sub-optimal way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">To not have proper time to do the deep-dive analysis of plays that is my preferred style necessitates this <i>caesura </i><i>dramatis</i><i>. </i>Should circumstances permit <i>BLR</i> to once more provide readers its long-read review forum, no question we will be in touch anew.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the meantime do accept my humble and grateful <i>Thanks!</i> for the 100,000 hits on the site's 300 reviews since its kick-off back in 2012. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Until curtain call, readers, <i>Break a leg!</i> in all you do.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b>-30-</b></span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-36279085985920330862019-09-20T21:38:00.000-07:002019-09-20T22:24:27.475-07:00<br />
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<i style="font-family: Times; font-size: 48px;">1,000 Splendid Suns </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">is oppressive, difficult & smart </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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Religion. Taken apart, the word derives from the same Latin root as "ligature" -- namely "a thing used for tying or binding tightly". Add the prefix "re" and that favourite Western funeral hymn "Blessed Be The Tie That Binds" takes on whole new meaning. Repeat-repeat-repeat the theme over the ages, <i>ad nauseam</i>.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now add male domination and patriarchy coupled with repression and violence, still somehow all of this is meant to point to a future in Kabul of "1,000 splendid suns" that "hide behind her walls" and promise to shine on life's wreckages there. So the poet wishes.</span><br />
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As a stage production, <i>Suns </i>is as the above hed suggests : "difficult, oppressive & smart". And it is the last adjective that informs the ACT / Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre collaboration to render the show, to this eye, a triumph of nuance and sensitivity -- an elaborate tragic display of light, dark, colour, and haunting soundscape across the Stanley Theatre's 60-odd feet of proscenium stage.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJA-TQ7Pr8ey3c_kzv2AIIriGV7Xj5Lks2ySgnCcNoV0hH8_KF83XqRTj0hwJwcS9Zy5V2Mcn5A8rsOwuf7re02ZB1aq7Lt2SSGhSYXHCZBaHiSJuIIMXZ3ZBTq6g1e49af-iExGkXkMHF/s1600/1000+splendid+suns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1000" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJA-TQ7Pr8ey3c_kzv2AIIriGV7Xj5Lks2ySgnCcNoV0hH8_KF83XqRTj0hwJwcS9Zy5V2Mcn5A8rsOwuf7re02ZB1aq7Lt2SSGhSYXHCZBaHiSJuIIMXZ3ZBTq6g1e49af-iExGkXkMHF/s400/1000+splendid+suns.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ken MacDonald's impressionistic set with multicoloured scrim sequences joined composer David Coulter's rich soundscape to imagine Afghanistan in a not-to-forget marriage of sight & sound.<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></td></tr>
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The tale that is told is of the Sunni Talib in Afghanistan, the vindictive tribal "victors" in 1996 of what nearly 25 years later seems like perpetual civil war there. Luckily for us, Irish-Indian playwright Ursula Rani Sarma felt a compulsion to adapt Afghan-American Khaled Hossein's second novel of this sad time and place. Lucky, because regardless how desperate and oppressive this culture is, there is always hope in the shadows.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Rasheed is the neighbour of young Laila who is the only survivor when her family's home in Kabul is bombed just as they were planning their escape to Pakistan. Rasheed takes Laila in as a foster daughter. She grieves not only her dead family but also the loss of her childhood friend and teen-age love Tariq. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Hearing from a friend of Rasheed that Tariq has been killed during his own flight to Pakistan, Laila succumbs to Rasheed's insistence she become his second wife. He does so in order that no shame befall his family by her continuing to live under his roof. Just 15, she has her own motives. But still she joins his other wife Mariam in bondage to Rasheed -- Mariam, meanwhile, old enough to be Laila's auntie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Their ages are not their only contrast. While Laila has a jaunty intellect inspired by a university prof father who loved poetry, Mariam is untutored but instinctual. Laila knew love as a child, while Mariam was discarded and outcast by Dad after her illegitimate birth. Ultimately she in turn abandons her mother "for love", an arranged (paid-for) marriage to Rasheed the shoemaker. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Laila's daughter Aziza is born shortly after her marriage to Rasheed, and at first childless Mariam is seethingly jealous. Her five or so miscarriages have, understandably, jaded her. The essence of <i>Suns</i> is how Mariam and Laila ultimately form a survival bond in response to Rasheed's abusive and violent temperament. They learn from Mariam's Nana that "There is only one skill, <i>tahamul</i>. Endure."</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Indeed the endurance bond that grows between Mariam and Laila is the at heart of their struggles, despite the gaps in their age and psyches. The baby Aziza is a large catalyst here. But in this life in this place there can be no triumph, ultimately, only escape, whether alive or dead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As Rasheed points out, rural Afghanistan villages have thrived on fundamentalist Islamic practices like Sharia revenge-laws for centuries. And just this week <i>The Economist</i> declares "Violence against civilians in Afghanistan stands at near-record levels" <i>-plus-</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">"The Taliban are slowly gaining ground and control much of the countryside."</span></div>
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But back to the Stanley and "fiction". No question what perhaps compels the most -- straightaway -- is the unique blend of composer David Coulter's symphonic cacophony of strings and recorders and electro-pop drones-&-percussion. Add his audial brilliance to set designer Ken MacDonald's wizard backdrop of mountains and sun and rockery in every imaginable hue : red and orange and white and black and green and faint yellow. A better marriage of sight and sound I do not believe I have yet witnessed in eight years of doing <i>BLR </i>reviews.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Then there are the actors. Not a weak outing by any of the eleven who comprise the cast. But major <i>major</i> huzzah's are in order for Anita Majumdar as Laila : her facial modulation and delicacy and subtlety joined exquisite vocal projection and interpretation-of-role that simply stun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Her foil, Deena Azia as Mariam, is nearly equal in power and punch, while Anousha Alamian as Rasheed betrays almost no redeeming human qualities as a culturally-bred and wholly conditioned male chauvinist bully. Which is what novelist Hosseini intended and playwright Sarma delivers compellingly. For her part, the hovering Nana, Arggy Jenati, is chilling as the ghost haunting her daughter Mariam.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">With five minutes to go in Act 1 I was desperately hoping Intermission would rescue me from the weight and mass of the storyline. Act 2 didn't lighten up one iota overall -- though the playful scenes between teen Aziza (Aiyana Vasaya) and her spoiled but charming little brat of a brother Zalmai (Shaheem Fathhi) at least brought a wink or two of comic relief.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Men and religion are often a toxic match. <i>1,000 Splendid Suns</i> does nothing to neutralize such a poisonous concoction. That Afghanistan and the Taliban are the chosen vehicles to propel this theme forward is as much coincidence as design -- the template has existed for centuries and continues cancerously across much of today's world. For a peek at what true courage looks like, by contrast, the women of <i>Suns</i> are a breathtaking and heartbreaking mix simply not to be missed.</span></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times"; font-size: 23px;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><i>Particulars :</i></b><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Produced by</b></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Arts Club Theatre in partnership with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>At</b><i> </i></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>On until</b><i> </i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">October 13, 2019. </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Run-time</b></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> 130 minutes including intermission. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Tickets & schedule information</b></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> via </span><a href="http://www.artsclub.com/" style="color: #888888; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;">www.artsclub.com</span></a><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> or by phoning 604.687.1644. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times"; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Performers</span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> </span></i><i style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">: </i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";">A</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";">nousha Alamian</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Rasheed), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Abraham Asto</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Tariq/Driver/Militiaman), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Deena Aziz</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Mariam), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Shaheem Fathhi</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Zalmai/Boy), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Arggy Jenati</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Nana/Fariba/Doctor), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Anita Majumdar</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Laila), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Shekhar Paleja</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";">(Jalil/Abdul/Sharif/Wakil/Talib 1), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Veenu Sandhu</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Ensemble), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Munish Sharma</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Babi/Interrogator/Mullah/Faizullah), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Parm Soor</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Ensemble), </span><b style="color: #454545; font-family: calibri;">Ziyana Vasaya</b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "calibri";"> (Aziza/Girl) </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>Creative Team</i> : Haysam Kadri</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Director), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Carey Perloff</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Original Staging), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Stephen Buescher</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Choreographer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Marc R. Bondy</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Assistant Director), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Ken MacDonald</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Set Designer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Linda Cho </b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Costume Designer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Alison Green </b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Costume Coordinator), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Robert Wierzel</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Lighting Designer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Andrew Griffen </b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Associate Lighting Designer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">David Coulter</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Composer/Original Musician), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Jake Rodriguez</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Sound Designer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Verne Good </b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Associate Sound Designer), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Caryn Fehr </b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Stage Manager), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Geoff Jones</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Assistant Stage Manager), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Sharon Wu </b><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Apprentice Stage Manager) </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Michael Paller</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Original Dramaturg), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Jonathan Rider</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Original Fight Consultant), </span><b style="font-family: calibri;">Humaira Ghilzai</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Original Cultural Consultant)</span></span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-30169629701987202082019-07-10T15:43:00.001-07:002019-07-10T19:15:22.677-07:00<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: Times; font-size: 48px;">All's Well </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">is Bard at its artistic, imaginative best </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">Critics and PhD candidates who have a difficult time slotting a Shakespeare play as a history play or a comedy or a tragedy are betimes inclined to call it a "problem play". Traditionally the moniker has meant "What is the problem to be solved?" But not this show as directed by Rohit Chokhani and Johnna Wright.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Because no one can "solve" ongoing gender politics. No one can "solve" centuries of cultural & religious & class clashes. No one can "solve" history that unfolds -- often unravels -- before us. What is but fake news to some is perhaps truth or possibly a risible, demonic fairytale to others. <i>All's Well</i> is the last of these at Bard this 30th year anniversary season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Once again Will Shakespeare's women better their men who are usually awash in their customary bath of testosterone and ego tumescence. The women, to counter them, must be more discerning : reveal wit and grit and cleverness and a canny wisdom to carry them through. Just so in the hands of Chokhani & Wright. </span></div>
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The “right stuff” formula of WS is executed smartly and stylishly with unrelenting creativity. Instead of 17th century France and Italy, the show is struck in 1946/47 India. The British colonials are exiting stage left after 350 years. The country is being partitioned in two : the so-called Radcliffe Line splits the provinces of Bengal and Punjab, the former to become Pakistan.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Colourful scarves and costumes festoon this production of <i>All's Well That Ends Well </i>set in the final moments of Britain's 350 colonial occupation of India in the late 1940's. </span></div>
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From this it is both a small jump and a giant leap to colourful Bollywood-style dance sequences straight out of the popular flik <i>Monsoon Wedding. </i>For important soliloquies being delivered in the Punjab tongue by <i>All's Well</i> principals. For sitar and drumbeats and flute that exude straight from Indian soil and soul both.<br />
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The outgoing Viceroy is sick unto death. The military establishment doctors have written him off. Enter Helena, daughter of a recently deceased Bombay doctor. He has bequeathed her magic potions derived from folk medicine. Young, Helena has been informally adopted by the Countess, whose son Bertram she is utterly smitten by. Helena makes a blood-bond with the Viceroy : if she fails to cure him, she dies. If she does, he will bless whomever she chooses to marry. She gets Bertie, all right, but he's horrified at her lower caste status than his aristocratic one. He schemes to not consummate the marriage and hies off to the north to do battle with insurgents. Shortly Helena is in hot pursuit.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Serena Parmar as Helena gives the failing Viceroy Bernard Cuffling potions and salves to reverse his current deathwatch and win herself a husband, Count Bertram, who spurns her and plans sexual infidelities. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : Tim Matheson</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">When Helena in peasant-disguise arrives north, she meets a widow and her daughter Diana. Diana giggles how Bertie, a bachelor as far as she knows, has the hots for her. Helena reveals that she is Bertie's lawful wife, and in finger-snap widow and Diana and Helena plot how to save Diana from Bertie's lustful advances and get Helena pregnant by him in the process. WS's Elizabethan audiences were about to witness ye ol' "bed trick" once again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Pam Patel as Diana dances seductively for Edmund Stapleton's Count Bertram in a clever market cart that morphs into the maiden's bed-trick-room surrounded by flashy flimsy curtains. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">This Bertram is said by his mom the Countess to be but a "brash and unbridled boy". He tries to snare Diana with such lines as "Give thyself unto my sick desires!" even after he admits to being already married to Helena. She tricks him into a midnight visit under blindfold.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">In all his schemes and machinations, Bertie is aided and abetted by the script's chief clown, his foppish friend Parolles who lives a cross-dressed life sporting wildly-coloured gossamer scarves to offset his military-issue puttees. Jeff Gladstone's turn as Parolles is a droll and arch grifter of the first order. He manages to escape with his life despite his treasons against his army comrades, but just barely. "Simply the thing I am shall make me live," he declares with a classic, ambiguously gay wink.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The countless visual and audio surprises in this production make it possibly the cleverest re-write of a WS script yet performed by Bard. When Widow (Veenesh Dubois) and Helena (Serena Parmar) share their life secrets together -- speaking Hindi -- the effect is compelling indeed. Add the lights, the period costumes, the wild temptress Indian dances by the ensemble and, no question, all's well that ends well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Particulars : </i></b><i>Produced by</i> Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, <i>Artistic Director </i>Christopher Gaze. <i>At</i> <i>the </i>Howard Family stage, Vanier Park. <i>Performances</i> : On until August 11th. <i>Schedule & ticket </i>information @ <a href="http://bardonthebeach.org/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4787ff;">bardonthebeach.org</span></a>. <i>Run-time</i> 165 minutes including intermission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Cast of Characters : </i></b>Bernard Cuffliing (<i>Viceroy</i>). Veenesh Dubois (<i>Rinaldo; Widow</i>). Lucia Frangione (<i>Countess</i>). Jeff Gladstone (<i>Parolles</i>). Nathan Kay (<i>Spurio</i>). David Marr (<i>Lafeu</i>). Ashley O'Connell (<i>Sebastian</i>). Sarena Parmar (<i>Helena</i>). Pam Patel (<i>Diana</i>). Nadeem Phillip (<i>Younger Dumaine brother</i>). Munish Sharma (<i>Elder Dumaine brother</i>). Edmund Stapleton (<i>Bertram</i>). </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">Ensemble</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> : Andy Kalirai; Shannon Karan; Gunjan Kundhal; Priya Pranjivan; Talia Vandenbrink.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Creative Production Crew :</i></b> Directors <i>Rohit Chokhani & Johnna Wright. </i>Costume Designer <i>Carmen Alatorre</i>. Set Designer <i>Pam Johnson</i>. Lighting Designers <i>Alan Brodie & Conor Moore. </i>Sound Designer & Composer <i>Ruby Singh. </i>Choreographer <i>Poonam Sandhu. </i>Head Voice & Text Coach <i>Alison Matthews. </i>HiNdi Dialect Coach <i>Nutan Thakur. </i>Stage Manager <i>Joanne P. B. Smith. </i>Assistant Stage Manager <i>Jennifer Stewart. </i>Apprentice Stage Manager <i>Zoe Bellis. </i>Apprentice Director & Creative Cultural Consultant <i>Paneet Singh. </i>Assistant Costume Designer <i>Sophie Wallace.</i> Assistant Lighting Designer <i>Sophie Tang. </i>Assistant Set Desginer <i>Kimira Bhikum</i>.</span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-34824317434912076632019-06-30T13:00:00.001-07:002019-06-30T20:05:01.570-07:00<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: Times; font-size: 48px;">Shakespeare in Love </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">is truly a love song to live theatre </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">The flik <i>Shakespeare in Love</i> won a fistful of Oscars back in '99 for writers Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman. But if you haven't already, don't watch the celluloid until you have first drunk Bard's smackulus cool-aid stage version by Lee Hall, no vodka required.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Its central gag-line launches when stumblefooted Rose Theatre owner Henslowe tries to explain live drama to his impresario Fennyman : "Let me explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster...but it always works out in the end." Fennyman balks : "How?" "I don't know, it's a <i>mys</i>tery..." Henslowe flips back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">What is no mystery about this Bard show is Daryl Cloran's fully requited love letter to the art of stage acting in his production. A total celebration of the line made famous by Buffy Ste. Marie oft-cited by <i>BLR</i>. "God is alive / Magic is afoot!" Because Cloran utterly delivers on the many concepts of the script : Theatre is community. All artists need a muse. Love is an infection -- "like sickness and its cure together" as Will puts it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Will shakespeare doesn't lack for moral support to urge him past his writer's block -- all the local townspeople are eager to digest any of his immortal sonnets or new plays and encourage him mightily. .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Pure fantasy -- all fake news -- the script has a local wannabe thespian Viola de Lesseps audition for a show-in-the-making with the risible working title "Romeo & Ethel, Daughter of the Pirate King". She's dressed in drag, of course, because the Queen's moral guardian Tilney ensures no woman can be "on display" as an actor in public theatre. She masquerades as "Thomas Kent", replete with peel-off moustache. Young Shakespeare, meanwhile, suffers hugely from writer's block. He whines to Henslowe "My quill is broken, my well is dry, the proud tower of my imagination has collapsed!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Ostensibly estranged from wife Anne Hathaway, he soon meets Viola wearing aristocratic gowns at a family party. They dance. He flat-out swoons. Viola's / Thomas's joint fakeries take awhile to consummate, but in time Bill and she are truly in love. She also gamely acts as muse to inspire in him the poetic soliloquies of his ultimate script <i>Romeo & Juliet. </i>His most deathless lines he pens for her to recite. "I write them to make you immortal," he romanticizes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">As Viola, Ghazal Azarbad is enchanting and coquettish and at the same time a delightful <i>naif</i> who doesn't fail to charm even for a second. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">As <i>The Guardian</i>'s ever-clever critic Michael Billington reminded folks half-a-decade back, anyone who's ever been involved in a theatre production knows that pandemonium and mobocracy are always at play. Egos tumesce, the writer is 2nd-guessed with every re-written line and scene they spit out, the coin needed to fund the show is always scarce -- in short there is a crisis-mentality that threatens to <i>Stop!</i> any production at any second.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">And so it is with this series of plays-within-a-play. Bits of Will's sonnets get quoted over and over, as do take-off lines that are offered up with a wink from his countless plays to come. And, as if conjuring Chilliwack rocker Bill Henderson, Cloran reminds the crowd repeatedly "If there ain't no audience, there ain't no show." He titillates us not only with the endless Billy Bard quotes but with the larger-than-life characters of that time and place : not just Marlowe, but Richard Burbage of the rival company cross-town, The Curtain, not to mention Queen Elizabeth herself "Oh for God's sake, I know my own name, don't wear it out!" she scolds the troupe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Charlie Gallant's Will Shakespeare plays the gender cards cleverly : one doesn't know if Ghazal Azarbad here as cross-dressed Thomas Kent is to play the part of Romeo or the part of Juliet or none-at-all when the show finally launches. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Can theatre with all its charades and pretence capture the true nature of love? Will bets his final version of <i>R & J</i> can do just that. That is the 50-quid wager from Lord Wessex the Queen must adjudicate. Can Will pull this off, with or without Viola who's about to emigrate with her new hubby -- the same Lord Wessex -- to the colonies to grow tobacco?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">The staging of the final scenes are done in the manner of Michael Frayn's riotous 1982 <i>Noises Off</i> thanks to set designer Cory Sincennes' brilliant lazy-suzan centre stage. It rotates dizzyingly between the action front-of-house and all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that threaten to kill the show dead in its tracks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Charlie Gallant as Will and Ghazal Azarbad as Viola are choice and sexily a just-right fit, Scott Bellis's Henslowe manages to steal the show altogether more than once, Anton Livopletsky's Lord Wessex is <i>impuissance</i> at its best, Susinn McFarlen's Nurse is duplicitously delicious, and, as always, Jennifer Lines brightens the entire room even when she frowns -- to name but a few favourites from this cast of 18 who play 26 roles, plus Spot the dog : "Next time write something <i>fun</i>ny!" Queen Liz commands Will as she hands him the bag of ducats he's won, adding "And don't forget the dogs, I <i>love</i> dogs!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">While not "true" Billy Bard, this knock-off of his life and times truly shows us how live theatre productions can and do, ultimately, work on a whole different level than film.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">How? You got it by now : "It's a </span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px;">mystery!"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Particulars : </i></b><i>Produced by</i> Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, <i>Artistic Director </i>Christopher Gaze. <i>At</i> <i>the </i>BMO main stage, Vanier Park. <i>Schedule & ticket </i>information @ <a href="http://bardonthebeach.org/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #042eee;">bardonthebeach.org</span></a>. <i>Run-time</i> 145-ish minutes with intermission. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Ghazal Azarbad (<i>Viola / "Thomas"</i>). Scott Bellis (<i>Henslowe</i>). Kate Besworth (<i>John Webster</i>). Andrew Cownden (<i>Wabash; Valentine</i>). Victor Dolhai (<i>Nol</i>). Austin Eckhert (<i>Kit Marlowe</i>). Charlie Gallant (<i>Will Shakespeare</i>). Ming Hudson (<i>Mistress Quickly; Kate</i>). Warren Kimmel (<i>Fennyman</i>). Jennifer Lines (<i>Queen Elizabeth; Molly</i>). Anton Lipovetsky (<i>Frees; Lord Wessex</i>). Susinn McFarlen (<i>Nurse</i>). Andrew McNee (<i>Richard Burbage</i>). Paul Moniz de Sa (<i>Tilney; Sir Robert de Lesseps</i>). Chirag Naik (<i>Adam; boatman</i>). Kamyar Pazendeh (<i>Lambert; Ned Alleyn</i>). Jason Sakaki (<i>Sam</i>). Kingsley \ Porkchop (<i>Spot-the-dog</i>). Joel Wirkkunen (<i>Ralph; Catling</i>). </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Costume Designer <i>/ </i>Set Designer <i>Cory Sincennes</i>. Lighting Designer <i>Gerald King. </i>Sound Designer / Musical Director <i>Michelle Cuttler. </i>Head Voice & Text Coach <i>Alison Matthews. </i>Choreographer <i>Julie Tamaino. </i>Fight Director<i> Jonathan Hawley Purvis. </i>Production Stage Manager <i>Stephen Courtenay. </i>Assistant Stage Manager <i>Rebecca Mulvihill. </i>Apprentice Stage Manager <i>Heather Barr. </i>Directing Apprentice <i>Kayvon Khosham. </i>Assistant Costume Designer <i>Erica Sterry.</i> Assistant Lighting Designer <i>Celeste English. </i>Assistant Set Desginer <i>Kimira Bhikum</i>. </span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-68722327482172018352019-06-19T21:14:00.001-07:002019-06-19T22:02:00.502-07:00<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: Times; font-size: 48px;">Shrew! </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">is satirical sauce on a spaghetti Western motif of fun </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Bard on the Beach resurrects a 2007 Western <i>Ye-hah!</i> version of one of Shakespeare's most controversial scripts, <i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>. Its goofy mix of cowpokes and Elizabethan English is self-satire all on its own. Then Director Lois Anderson takes a magnifying glass to his characters in a show she happily riddles with slapstick pratfall silliness. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Here is a redux <i>Plot quicky </i>just to remind readers what it's about : Younger sister Bianca Minola is a hottie and the lust in many suitors' eyes. But older sister Katherine (Kate) is not yet married. So <i>la madre </i>Baptista rules Bianca off-limits until older sis ties the knot first. Enter Petruchio. He has dowry in mind. So he marries the feisty Kate who is what rodeo folk might call "hard twist" : a strong, no-nonsense, shoot-from-the-lip kind of free agent. The rest of the play tracks their marriage. "Mad herself, she's madly mated!" is how one character puts it.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Going "nose-to-nose" is what Petruchio (Andrew McNee) and Kate (Jennifer Lines) are all about in this re-make of the 2007 Miles Potter slapstick spaghetti rendition of <i>Shrew</i> now on show at Bard.</span><br />
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Billy Bard’s piece has enjoyed no end of controversy and disparagement. Its title starts it : the very concept of a wife being one who needs “taming” because she is a “shrew” was offensive 125 years back to a wee talent named George Bernard Shaw who huffed : "No man with any decency of feeling can sit [the final act] in the company of a woman without being extremely ashamed," he said, naming the show "altogether disgusting to modern sensibility". A 20-something actress friend said nearly 100% the same words to me just last week. </div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Others see it more benignly. Less a paternalistic screed that champions the "rule of thumb" for a beating switch and the old "wife-as-chattel" nonsense. Many consider the <i>Shrew</i> script more like a tongue-in-cheek joust. The kind Earl of Leicester enjoyed with his sassy lover Elizabeth I. But still, while being the friend-with-privileges in HRM's <i>boudoir</i> was playful good fun for Leicester, maybe overall Petruchio had it more better and less worse...?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Director Lois Anderson played Kate in the 2012 Bard version. So she knew what she was about in snatching the ever-effervescent Jennifer Lines to wrassle with the subtle deadpan of a Petruchio as delivered by Andrew McNee. Together they make whoopee more like Dunaway & Beatty in <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i> than the stylized waspish stings of Taylor & Burton in dearly-departed Frederico Zeffirelli’s 1967 <i>Shrew.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Anderson plays with words ironically and joyfully : the cast points at Kate and yells out “Shrew<i>!</i> Shrew<i>!</i> Shrew<i>!</i>” at her with each sighting. And the variant “shrewd” is thrown in repeatedly as a staccato <i>alt</i>-term for Kate, too. Which of course she is as well : Petruchio only lasso’s her with a slip-knot in his rope. It is she who finally tackles & calf-ropes him by rodeo’s end. Or, more charitably, the two find that love can ultimately grip each of them. By the halter. Even as they constantly hustle to outmuscle one another in both word and deed.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Plenty of good cheer from the ensemble when it's time to hoist the Jack Daniels #7 to celebrate the consummation of Kate's corralling Petruchio in what promises to be a mad, long marriage.</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : Tim Matheson</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 24px;">Too large a cast to fairly single out performances, suffice to say both the familiar and not-so-familiar names below all were selected for the discrete talents they bring to their roles. Sort of like the Raptors basketball team -- a variety of skills in a whole-team effort oh-so-capably blended and maximized by Ms. Anderson and each of her support crew. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Costumes by veteran Maria Gottler were choice : even in the top row I could smell both the Pinaud Clubman drift from the townspeople's fancy dress <i>-plus-</i> the mud<i>-&-</i>cowdung in Petruchio and Kate's horsey plains-drifter get-ups. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Cory Sincenne's set worked in its variants as saloon scene and snooty parlour sequences, but maybe best in the campsite canvas and clothesline sketchy earthiness of the post-nuptial suite -- all dirt-<i>&</i>-stink-<i>&-</i>funk. Take a reception completely bereft of food and party favours or riotous raucous drunken debauchery. Ya-<i>hoo! </i>ain't <i>this</i> a grand and delirious memory to write home to <i>la madre</i> about, y'all?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">No question, Billy Bard <i>aficionados</i> will find much to amuse and delight in this kick-off 30th year BotB celebratory show that continues to mock sensibility. Pure entertainment ever-so ebulliently delivered, it makes one laugh despite all of today's tut-tut finger-wags against its core 16th Century story-line. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Particulars : </i></b><i>Produced by</i> Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, <i>Artistic Director </i>Christopher Gaze. <i>At</i> <i>the </i>BMO main stage, Vanier Park. <i>Schedule & ticket </i>information @ <a href="http://bardonthebeach.org/"><span style="line-height: normal;">bardonthebeach.org</span></a>. <i>Run-time</i> 120-ish minutes with intermission. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Gazal Aarbad (<i>Various one-down women</i>). Scott Bellis (<i>Gremio</i>). Kate Besworth (<i>Bianca Minola</i>). Andrew Cownden (<i>Train conductor; pedant</i>). Victor Dolhai (<i>Sheriff/Phillip</i>). Austin Eckhert (<i>Cowboy; Pony Express rider</i>). Charlie Gallant (<i>Cowboy; Bartender et al</i>). Ming Hudson (<i>Biondella</i>). Jennifer Lines (<i>Katherine [Kate] Minola</i>). Anton Lipovetsky (<i>Hortensio; 'Lidio'</i>). Susinn McFarlen (<i>Le madre Baptista Minola</i>). Andrew McNee (<i>Petruchio</i>). Paul Moniz de Sa (<i>Mayor; Piano Player &c.</i>). Chirag Naik (<i>Tranio; 'Vincentio'</i>). Kamyar Pazendeh (<i>Lucentio; 'Cambio'</i>). Jason Sakaki (<i>Priest; Cowboy etc.</i>). Joel Wirkkunen (<i>Grumio</i>).</span></div>
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Costume Designer <i>Maria Gottler</i>. Set Designer <i>Cory Sincennes</i>. Lighting Designer <i>Gerald King. </i>Sound Designer <i>Malcolm Dow. </i>Original Compositions (2007) <i>Marc Desormeaux. </i>Head Voice & Text Coach <i>Alison Matthews. </i>Fight Director / Choreographer <i>Jonathan Hawley Purvis. </i>Production Stage Manager <i>Stephen Courtenay. </i>Assistant Stage Manager <i>Rebecca Mulvihill. </i>Apprentice Stage Manager <i>Heather Barr. </i>Directing Apprentice <i>Tai Amy Grauman. </i>Assistant Costume Designer <i>Alaia Hamer.</i> Assistant Lighting Designer <i>Celeste English. </i>Assistant Set Desginer <i>Kimira Bhikum</i>. <i>N.B. from the program : </i>"This production is inspired by Miles Potter's 2007 <i>Shrew</i>."</div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-45446990407854478862019-05-01T20:51:00.001-07:002019-05-02T20:14:56.047-07:00<br />
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<i style="font-family: Times; font-size: 48px;">The Great Leap : </i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">a USA </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 48px;">basketball ballet that bounces thru Tiananmen Square </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">The Tiananmen Square "slaughter of the innocents" ordered up by Chinese leader Li Peng in 1989 resulted in some 10,000 people or more -- mostly students -- being massacred, </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Wiki</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> tells us. Thus to link that horror to a bit of buzz over a mere game of basketball -- a "friendly exhibition" game at that -- is a stretch, no question.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Until, that is, playwright Lauren Yee puts her deft hand to work on the script and then gives the show over to Meg Roe to design and deliver. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">The result on view at ACT's BMO stage in Olympic Village is as the header above calls it : "a basketball ballet". It's a seriocomic drama, a <i>paean</i>, really, to her dad's basketball fixation as she grew up in 'Frisco in the 90's. Mix those memories with a fanciful but believable tale of love, displacement and the tragedy of just being born in <i>pre</i>-modern China. Born in transit between times and cultures a world apart. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tpnC49e-y8c8pb-IKwUX9pVDxzI4xwGRJdRpLxleAS9Oj4lOGuf-yr4eoVgioCEEphzDaMHx-91UfDz3-apLU4Fz4KS7_Xy8XRSbGzYmzJ5xulnC3huFcNBBhcGVEQfjFRNu-cZZI7eS/s1600/TGL+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1600" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tpnC49e-y8c8pb-IKwUX9pVDxzI4xwGRJdRpLxleAS9Oj4lOGuf-yr4eoVgioCEEphzDaMHx-91UfDz3-apLU4Fz4KS7_Xy8XRSbGzYmzJ5xulnC3huFcNBBhcGVEQfjFRNu-cZZI7eS/s400/TGL+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Basketball-coach-protege Wen Chang a.k.a. "Sparky" (Jovanni Sy) poses with Connie (Agnes Tong), 3-point-master Manford Lum (Milton Lim) and the foul-mouthed University of San Fran coach Saul Slezak (Toby Berner) amidst the visual projections that hi-light this Meg Roe production.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A bunch of fun in the piece is centred on Coach Slezak, an emigrant divorced Bronx Jew with a lexicon of profanity to make even a San Fran sailor blush. He is all-male, all-basketball, 1/2-b.s.-artist and 1/2-doting father figure to his "boys". His Chinese-American superstar Manford Lum taunts him when they're in Beijing : "Fuck it, a guy who can't even talk to his own <i>daugh</i>ter -- and <i>I'm</i> family...?"</span></div>
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For his part, Manford ("rhymes with Stanford") is a hustler, <i>lit. & fig.</i> At 17 he hasn't even graduated from Galileo High in Oakland but he's relentless, relentless, relentless demanding a spot on the USF exhibition team. Turns out he has ulterior motives to want to go to China. All stemming from a reproduced 1971 <i>Chronicle </i>news photo showing Slezak shaking hands with greenhorn coach Wen Chang in China. </div>
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Slezak had mentor'd Chang. Started instantly by nicknaming him "Sparky". One of their exchanges was absolutely priceless : the daunting driving Slezak is trying to coach Sparky on the fine art of trash-talk : "You have to get into their heads and fuck their shit up!" he says. An aghast Chang replies : "You mean you have to <i>cop</i>ulate on their <i>fe</i>ces...?"</div>
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A reproduced 1971 news pic of the two runs in 1989 next to an obit of Lum's mom who'd just died in Oakland. She was 6' 2" tall and loved playing hoop back in the day even more than Slezak. But never told son Manford. Still, her broken-English <i>mantra</i> to him was this : "Every game is a second chance to live your life all over again." She loved the Warriors, sure, but her tricky ball-handler son was her all-time favourite player.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The coaches meet mid-court in 1971 and exchange handshakes and taunts : "A Chinese team will <i>never</i> beat a USA team..." Slezak asserts. Chinese coach Wen Chang tells him to never underestimate the power of people who survived Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" 3-year experiment from the early years in the 1960's and now suffer under the Communist leader Slezak calls "Deng Xiao-fucking-ping-pong-Ping". </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></td></tr>
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As the production photo immediately above shows, the magic of this piece is precisely that : its production. Its lights. Its soundscape. Its choreography. </div>
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Doing research for the show, I came across the following description in <i>TorontoNow</i> by Kathleen Smith about a piece there a month ago called <i>Revisor</i>. Both <i>TGL</i>'s director Roe and sound designer Alessandro Juliani were involved in this Crystal Pite / Jonathon Young dance-theatre hybrid : </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">"The physicality becomes intense and more reflective of internal struggles. Text remains, but is now all over the place as </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Owen Belton</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Alessandro Juliani </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">and </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Meg Roe</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #484848; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">’s aural design amplifies and distorts, the metre of the words becoming a beat that drives the movement. Single phrases are excised from the text and looped."</span></span></div>
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Quite so, too, in <i>TGL</i>. The John Webber lighting design and Chimerik director Sammy Chien's projections blended exquisitely with the soundscape. The imagined sequence of Lum's mom working out in a Chinese gym was a terrific mix of hip-hop electro-tom-tom with Tanya Tagak-style throat singing (Tagak's current duet with Buffy Ste. Marie "You Gotta Run" would have been priceless here.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">As for loops in this hoop story, dialogue from early in the show cycles back and pinches itself anew into the closing scenes. The final sequence with all four actors on the lit court as Manford does his version of a Steve Nash \ Steph Curry </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";">race for glory is pure treat to watch and hear and absorb. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "georgia";">First-rate performances by them all, but Toby Berner's Saul Slezak was no-doubt a front-of-the-line Jessie Award nominee performance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Meanwhile, this : I could not help but hear echoes of the late North Carolina Tarheels basketball coach Jim Valvano ring in my ears watching </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">TGL</i><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> : </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "georgia";">“To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think -- spend some time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that's a heck of a day."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">I had a heck of a day today during the final preview matinee performance of <i>The Great Leap.</i> If you go I can almost guarantee you will too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i><u>On</u> <u>at</u></i> ACT's BMO stage on 1st Avenue. <i>Runs </i><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/3437"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;"><i>until</i> May 19, 2019</span></a>. <i>Tickets & schedule information</i> by phone at <a href="tel:604.687.1644"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.687.1644</span></a> or <a href="http://www.artsclub.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.artsclub.com</span></a>. <i>Show-time</i> 120 minutes, one intermission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i style="color: #454545;"><u>Creative</u> </i><span style="color: #454545;"> </span><i style="color: #454545;"><u>team</u></i><span style="color: #454545;"> : </span><i style="color: #454545;">Director</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Meg Roe. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Set Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Heipo C. H. Leung. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Costume Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Stephanie Kong. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Sound Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Alessandro Juliani. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Lighting Designer </i><span style="color: #454545;">John Webber</span><span style="color: #454545;">. <i>Projection</i></span><span style="color: #454545;"><i> Design </i>by Chimerik : <i>Projection Design Director </i>Sammy Chen. <i>Art Director </i>Shang-Han Chien. <i>Assistant Projection Designer </i>Andie Lloyd. <i>Assistant Graphic Artist </i>Ivan So. <i>Movement Coach </i>Agnes Tong.</span><i style="color: #454545;"> Stage Manager </i><span style="color: #454545;">Caryn Fehr. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Assistant Stage Manager</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Geoff Jones. <i>Assistant Director</i> & <i>Cultural Creative Consultant</i> Jasmine Chen. </span></span><br />
<i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><br /></i><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><u>Starring</u> :</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Toby Berner (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Saul Slezak</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Milton Lim (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Manford Lum</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">)</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Jovanni Si (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">Wen Chang - "Sparky"</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Agnes Tong (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Connie</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). </span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-46996105056523531792019-04-13T21:46:00.003-07:002019-04-14T17:38:24.237-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">Richard III</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;"> is no prettier a villain today than back then</span><br />
<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The women of Shakespeare have often been backlit. Their parts written as if looking out a window into the direct sun. His men, meanwhile, all seem to bask under spots and fresnels in sharp relief.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Not so in Camyar Chai's self-named "allegory" out-take on WS's <i>Richard III</i>. Chai (wrongly) names his piece <i>King Richard and His Women</i>. It should by rights be called <i>The Women of King Richard</i> : because it's <i>they</i> who utterly dominate Chau's scripted re-write of The Bill's original.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of the bard's early and longest scripts, imagine <i>Richard III</i> distilled down from its original 50+ cast to but five. Also reduced from probably three hours-and-more to just 65 minutes. Sixty-five minutes of hisses & spits shot forth venomously, unremittingly. In cascades.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Ex-queen Elizabeth (Leanna Brodie), ex-Queen Margaret (Linda </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Quibell) and Richard's mother The Duchess (Sandra Ferens) all call out Richard III for the dastardly coward and family-killer he was.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Never having read or seen <i>Richard III, </i>its battles between the English houses of York and Lancaster in the mid-15th Century were a challenge to follow at times. Two queens, Margaret and Elizabeth (<i>not</i> Good Queen Bess, but another, a century earlier, by marriage). Richard's mom The Duchess. His wife, sort of, Lady Anne. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The connections are all too subtle to explain. But suffice to say Richard was a scheming, conniving, betimes charming -- but mostly cynical -- power-hungry thief. Like certain others in the current realm, dignity, integrity, honesty were far-flung concepts. Which is why Mr. Chai stitched all this together to begin with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Two quotes sum it up. When attempting to call him out on his various murders, his mother The Duchess and he exchange thus :</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">D <i>: Oh, let me speak.</i></span></div>
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</i>R<i> : Do then, but I'll not hear...</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Death impending, Richard, as if bi-polar, laments :</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Richard loves Richard : that is, I am I. Is there a murderer here? No -- yes, I am. Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why -- Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself? Alack, I love myself.</i></span></div>
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King Richard </i>is cleverly-wrought and acted in exemplary fashion by each in their role. Not sure the strip-to-naked killing scene that ends it all -- somewhat mechanically done, as if collecting laundry for the weekly wash -- not sure it was dramatically necessary, but it is what it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A woman beside me wept openly at show's end. I know not why but doubt not her pain from whatever source. As always, Seven Tyrants produces a powerful script. To single out indivudul actors for excellence here would be unfair to the others as well as redundant. Except perhaps to remark how consistently Daniel Deorksen carried off Richard's deformity by hoisting his right shoulder, constantly. My rotator cuff strain ached mightily in sympathy and honour. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Suffice to say each and every actor on stage looked utterly drained & exhausted & spent after Saturday's matinee.</span> This is rife stuff for Shakespeare <i>aficionados (</i>and English monarch history buffs).<i> </i>You will have a weary ride home as you contemplate all the misery you have just seen acted out so compellingly by the cast. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #232323;"><u>Particulars</u></span><i style="color: #232323;"> </i><span style="color: #232323;">:</span><i style="color: #232323;"> Script by</i><span style="color: #232323;"> Bill Shakespeare, as adapted by Camyar Chai. <i>Produced by</i> Seven Tyrants Theatre. <i>At </i>the Tyrants Studio stage, top floor, The Penthouse Club on Seymour @ Nelson. <i>On until</i> April 19, 2019. <i>Run-time</i> 65 minutes, no intermission. <i>Tickets & schedule</i> information @ <a href="http://tickets.tyrantstudios.com/">Tyrants</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>Production team</u> : <i>Director</i> Camyar </span></span><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Chai. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Lighting Designer</i><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> David Thomas Newham. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Sound & Music Designer</i><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Daniel Deorksen. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Stage Manager </i><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Victoria Snashall.</span><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="color: #232323; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Publicist</i><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Marnie Wilson. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Front of House Manager</i><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Cobra Ramone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>Performers</u> : </span><b style="font-size: 15px;">Leanna Brodie</b><span style="font-size: 15px;"> is “Elizabeth”, </span><b style="font-size: 15px;">Ghislaine Dote</b><span style="font-size: 15px;"> is “Anne”, </span><b style="font-size: 15px;">Sandra Ferens</b><span style="font-size: 15px;"> is “The Duchess” and </span><b style="font-size: 15px;">Linda </b><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><b>Quibell</b> is “Margaret”. 7-Tyrants co-founder </span></span><b style="font-size: 15px;">Daniel Deorksen</b><span style="font-size: 15px;"> is “King Richard”.</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"> </span></span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-1061841788217328972019-04-09T21:25:00.000-07:002019-04-10T16:10:42.644-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 48px;">Glory </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">makes magic out of Depression women's hockey</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In the hands of Canadian theatre <i>wunderkind</i> Tracey Power, the show <i>Glory</i> is a wizard concoction where Hayley Wickenheiser channels Billy Elliot and the crowd cheers and dances in delight !</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is a bio-pic snapshot of the 1930's semi-professional women's hockey team the Preston <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Rivulettes"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #551a8b;">Rivulettes</span></a>. Their town, near Waterloo, is where the Speed and the Grand rivers converge. Fittingly. </span></div>
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Because speed and grand are what Power and director James MacDonald draw compellingly out of their five member team. Four hockey ruffians who happen to menstruate are led by an irascible 40-something coach whose formative years were spent in a WWI German-Canadian internment camp in Kapukasing.<br />
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He is now the local <i>rinkmeister</i> at the Lowther Street Arena in Preston. He floods and freezes the sheet and sets the local teams' practice times. Just a cover for his wistful dreams about the Cyclone Taylor superstar he never became despite some early promise.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 24px;">The </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Grrrlllls!</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> for their part start out as a clutch of summertime teen-age baseball buds : the Ranscombe sisters Hilda and Nellie and the Schmuck sisters Helen and Marm. Hilda is chief jock here. A bit dyslexic, she stays away from work in retail where she fears her trouble with numbers may deep-6 her. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24px;">But ice skate she has since a tot. She's a whiz. She convinces her buds to find winter <i>divertissement</i> for themselves by forming a hockey team to compete in the Ontario women's league.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Coach Herb Fach tries to let his team down gently about future Olympic greatness that surely would be theirs but for the wee detail of World War II killing that dream. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And compete they do. A few hundred league victories plus provincial and national championships in seven short years along with the predictable broken teeth, black eyes, busted pride and side-stepped dreams all trip across their path along the way to the Canadian history books.</span></div>
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As an immigrant Canadian from NFL country, hockey has always been a "new" gig for me, even 50 years on. But I could watch over<i>-&-</i>over the Power-MacDonald choreography of hockey-dance -- with its ritual ceremonies of skate, stickhandle, pass, shoot \ backhand, wrist, snap and <i>slap!</i> -- with no dialogue or background sound whatever. Like <i>Sports Centre</i> on mute. No question -- could watch again<i>-&-</i>again<i>-&-</i>again and be magnetized<i>-&-</i>mesmerized each and every time. </span></div>
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Because the "routines" stepped-out by the four women on stage are a wonderful mix of stop-action hockey shots and blocks done <i>in sync </i>with <i>au courant</i> ballet moves. No real skates, just lace-up boots feigning a life as skates. No ice, just a lit dance surface whose chill you can almost feel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Most effective of all, perhaps, was the near military-precision and constancy of the </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">faux </i><span style="font-size: 24px;">skate-stops each player pulled off each time they came to a halt or skipped off-ice. </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Brilliant !</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> in conception and execution both. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Victory over the Toronto Ladies (<i>sic</i>) after defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Rustlers some years back brings on hope for Olympic glories that would not happen until the 1990's and Hayley Wickenheiser's reign. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Tough times -- the Depression and Hitler both; all the customary discrimination against this "bunch of dolls" told by Coach Fach to "Man <i>up!</i>"; troubles trying to hustle up money to travel to tourneys across the land. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Power includes a chunk of social commentary in her script. "Welcome all, except dogs and Jews!" a sign declares outside one arena. A Mackenzie King immigration officer at the time the <i>MS St. Louis</i> with its 900 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler was heard to remark after being denied a berth in Halifax harbour : "Even one is too many." </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Women's suppression under patriarchal tradition is given plenty of resentful air-time. "I'm unfit to play hockey," the commentators claim, "not because of my talent but because of my va<i>gi</i>na!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But in the end -- despite being one-down or two-down -- these women and their 2019 actors nevertheless bring the full force of the "new feminism" to the fore honestly and forthrightly -- not just pay it lip service the way the political sycophants<i>-&-</i>cynics then-&-now so delight to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Probably not enough can be said about the Narda McCarroll set and lighting design. The hockey rink boards <i>cum</i> kitchen back walls and funky locker rooms worked very slick at the hands of the actors who flipped them to-<i>&-</i>fro. The metal-shaded incandescent dropsy-lights were trick. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">And so while the </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">denouement </i><span style="font-size: 24px;">of Act 2 perhaps dragged a bit, in all this is a dance delight about hockey whose images will stick with me for years to come, </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">lit.& fig.</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> I'd go see </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Glory</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> two or three times more and no doubt be breathless after each sighting -- that's how fresh and clever in conception and delivery it truly is. Not too many periods left in this team's season : grab your seats </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">now!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i><u>Particulars</u> </i>: </b><i>Script by</i> Tracey Power.<b> </b></span></span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Produced by</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"> Western Canada Theatre / Alberta Theatre Projects. </span></span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">On at</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Richmond's Gateway Theatre in Minoru Park next to RGH. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Runs </i><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/3005" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;"><i style="color: #454545;">until</i><span style="color: #454545;"> April 13, 2019</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Tickets & schedule information</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> by phoning Gateway at </span><a href="tel:604.270.1812" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.270.1812</span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> or on-line @ </span><a href="http://www.gatewaytheatre.com/" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.gatewaytheatre.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Show-time</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> 140 minutes including intermission.</span></span></div>
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<br />Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-22934734372372675672019-04-04T00:15:00.000-07:002019-04-04T09:12:55.639-07:00<br />
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<i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 48px;">Tashme : The Living Archives </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">tells another sad </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">tale of racism & repression</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Tashme. The name sounds, vaguely, as if it could be Japanese. And though I taught high school social studies 50 years back in Surrey, never once did I even hear of it. What is now Sunshine Valley RV Park just east of the Hope Slide was a Japanese-Canadian war internment camp from 1942 - 1946. Tashme housed nearly 2,700 souls who had been forcibly uprooted from their home communities around B.C. and herded there. They were officially called "enemy aliens" under the War Measures Act. Even if they were Nisei -- second generation Canadians of Japanese heritage.</span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ2bVlLk9V5zLn8OB5o2peX91QD-bTXgvTe5oGP7xZ7Q4M97H0Aqil3XLeIWEZ9zmpb660SQm4YyK_1P-R72dE7cZUmLg73SXd8w7NgkfwfR2bMx-zAUq3kPMdBWLaYTf-z9JOmZxzHy8X/s1600/Tashme+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ2bVlLk9V5zLn8OB5o2peX91QD-bTXgvTe5oGP7xZ7Q4M97H0Aqil3XLeIWEZ9zmpb660SQm4YyK_1P-R72dE7cZUmLg73SXd8w7NgkfwfR2bMx-zAUq3kPMdBWLaYTf-z9JOmZxzHy8X/s400/Tashme+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Julie Tamiko Manning and Matt Miwa pore over a Nisei journal from one of the 2,700 Japanese-Canadian detainees in Tashme, the internment camp just east of Hope, literally and figuratively. Ottawa created a 100-mile on-shore protectorate after Pearl Harbor, and Tashme was as close to Vancouver as these "alien enemies" were permitted. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Tashme Productions</span></div>
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Creators and actors Julie Tamiko Manning and Matt Miwa are offspring of Tashme detainees. Their two-hander is a loving memory play -- a verbatim documentary that attempts to be what its subtitle suggests : "The Living Archives" of this time and place so its memory does not fade forever from us. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">The script is culled from more than 70 hours of interviews with 20 Nisei from across the land. They act it out through the voices and stories of these elders : their memories as kids in Tashme; what detention looked and sounded and smelled and felt like; what life was like after war's end and the Tashme people's next diaspora to the Prairies and Toronto. That occurred as a result of the efforts of a certain Ian Mackenzie, federal Minister of Pensions, who proudly announced his post-war slogan and <i>diktat</i> : "No Japs from the Rockies to the seas."</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">[<i>sic</i>]</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-mQGTjXuAMoS4x_2HIIFhgI7QgC-ngwyZvvOozC7dH01JH89KV4yT6RDCyiTZonkP2FWYDeld7_qCwlGWtiyqkb-jjmmF07I50vtAsdtYFaJHrvv17DleodKfOiYKM3nD2gMSKAMcxG8/s1600/Tashme+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="178" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-mQGTjXuAMoS4x_2HIIFhgI7QgC-ngwyZvvOozC7dH01JH89KV4yT6RDCyiTZonkP2FWYDeld7_qCwlGWtiyqkb-jjmmF07I50vtAsdtYFaJHrvv17DleodKfOiYKM3nD2gMSKAMcxG8/s400/Tashme+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The James Lavoie set and George Allister projections render the memories a mix of <i>f.</i>1.4 intimacy and blurred detail from the times spent at Tashme and after for Japanese-Canadians during World War II. </span></div>
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Albeit a somewhat sullied expression these days, "truth and reconciliation" are always admirable goals -- whether among siblings, spouses, or society's various races and strata. And because truths are elusive and personal, what better way to approach them among Nisei than in sharing stories around a kitchen table made by Julie's grandpa. Backed up by simple opaque screens upon which images of people and sites at Tashme are flashed, including the shot immediately below:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgBRsozvXbCh7gHxnpY5uv5xEqxsxlEvM_jpHuhUk4h2zFCmT9fAexK563eRbYMjTnAd6hreZUzwaC5J7M60ncnl7bg_Hit0nTl9u_O_KuFzdB9elhhlln47yNoZh2esnoiTowe-_OWUd/s1600/Tashme+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1200" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgBRsozvXbCh7gHxnpY5uv5xEqxsxlEvM_jpHuhUk4h2zFCmT9fAexK563eRbYMjTnAd6hreZUzwaC5J7M60ncnl7bg_Hit0nTl9u_O_KuFzdB9elhhlln47yNoZh2esnoiTowe-_OWUd/s400/Tashme+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A farm truck loaded with "dispersed" Japanese-Canadians freshly released from the cattle barns at Hastings Park PNE grounds in Vancouver arrives in Tashme. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit UBC Archives / Wikipedia</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The script put together by Manning and Miwa is a rainbow of colours, of intensities, of emotional hues. Indeed, what strikes the viewer perhaps most of all is the stoicism of most of the Nisei when remembering all the thunderclouds from those days. In Japanese the expression is <i>Shikata ga nai</i>, meaning "it cannot be helped". </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One would expect, probably, considerable anger at the whites, the <i>Haku-jin</i>, who subjected their fellow citizens to these indignities. Whites who wrested all men from 18-45 from their families and sent them out to build BC's highways as gang labour, such as one of myriad Yellowhead Highway crews pictured below put together from the 21,000 individuals chased away from the Pacific shores. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_M2QEtUZbtPwC0w6cn_OqwuAya7QDwlXBJbkw9lZXBg7CCi1WFBDT2OGFCez3EQL999bNL3YvBe1Mo-0F8k2QqWI5y4lWXJJZmUBlRPcvItjeqtgJAiSM3Devng6Mahw5_O31IMYsy4J/s1600/Tashme+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="180" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_M2QEtUZbtPwC0w6cn_OqwuAya7QDwlXBJbkw9lZXBg7CCi1WFBDT2OGFCez3EQL999bNL3YvBe1Mo-0F8k2QqWI5y4lWXJJZmUBlRPcvItjeqtgJAiSM3Devng6Mahw5_O31IMYsy4J/s400/Tashme+4.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Bitterness writ large from some -- a grandpa who sizzled angrily about a teacher in Toronto calling him and a buddy "Japs". But others remembered folks in BC's Slocan valley -- where eco-hero David Suzuki and his family were sent -- talking about how "the Japs planted that tree" : but <i>their</i> memories now claiming the <i>Haku-jin</i> said it "not in a derogatory way, just normal talk from them."</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Even the creators / interviewers Manning and Miwa came away somewhat bemused and in wonder : "I'm shocked by all the things they told us but never asked us to ask them : who are <i>we</i> to <i>them</i> after all?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This show is a prime example of how powerful oral history can be when dialogue is stitched together to tell a tale from numerous elders' perspectives and memories. How some remember the fun and play they enjoyed as kids just being kids at Tashme, the breathtaking beauty of the Coastal mountain range whose sparkling rivers the Skagit and the Fraser are the flowing parentheses that bracket it all. Others recall more the hardships, the ice on the floor of their shacks in winter, the wrenching separation from their families, the wanton theft of their homes and fishboats and cars and artworks, the burning of their kids' toys. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Both actors emote forcefully and faithfully. Mr. Miwa works hard to re-create the broken cadences of Nisei English from the crippled old men he was interviewing. Ms. Manning provides most of the show's warmth and comedy and forgiving sentiments. He perhaps represents the harder "truth" of the time, while she the one more "reconciled" to the <i>Shikata ga nai</i> impulse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Fittingly, the West Coast premiere of the show takes place in Vancouver's former Japanese neighbourhood. Just up the block on Alexandra Street the Japanese Hall last year celebrated its 90th anniversary. The Firehall Theatre itself was Vancouver's original fire house from 1906 and also witnessed all this history first-hand. </span></div>
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Across from Oppenheimer Park in what used to be called "Little Tokyo", Tamura House pictured below has been restored and renovated and is now run by the Lookout Society to provide housing for people in challenged personal and social circumstances.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">People with a yearning to fill in some important gaps in their knowledge of where this country is -- and where it has come from -- will find the experience richly rewarding through the many poignant insights it brings to life.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i style="color: #0a5394;">On at</i><span style="color: #0a5394;"> the Firehall Arts Centre, Cordova at Gore in DTES. </span><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">On </span></i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">until</span></i><span style="color: #454545;"> April 13, 2019</span></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms";">. <i>Schedule and ticket information</i> via phone @ </span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "trebuchet ms";">604.689.0926</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms";">or at</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">the internet site </span><a href="http://firehallartscentre.ca/" style="color: #990000;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #551a8b;">firehallartscentre.ca</span></a><span style="color: #990000;">.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Creation & Performance by: </span><b style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Julie Tamiko Manning & Matt Miwa</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Direction by: <b>Mike Payette</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Video Design by: <b>George Allister</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Movement Dramaturgy by: <b>Rebecca Harper</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><u style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Addenda</u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> : <u>From</u> Ann Sunahara's </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The Politics of Racism : the </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Uprooting</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i> of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War</i>, Toronto, J. </span></span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Larimer, (1981) as reported by <i>Wiki</i> :</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On January 14, 1942, the federal government passed an order calling for the removal of male Japanese nationals between 18 to 45 years of age from a designated protected area of 100 miles inland from the British Columbia coast. The federal government also enacted a ban against Japanese-Canadian fishing during the war, impounded 1,200 fishing vessels, banned short-wave radios, and controlled the sale of gasoline and dynamite to Japanese-Canadians. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>From</u> a September 24, 1988 interview in the </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Toronto Star</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">with</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Ken Adachi as reported by </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Wiki</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> :</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Born in Canada, brought up on big-band jazz, Fred Astaire and the novels of Henry Rider Haggard, I had perceived myself to be as Canadian as the beaver. I hated rice. I had committed no crime. I was never charged, tried or convicted of anything. Yet I was fingerprinted and interned."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u><span style="color: #0b5394;">Tashme, the name</span></u><span style="color: #b45f06;"> : Not of Japanese origin in the least. Originally the B.C. Securities Commission wanted to name the internment camp "Hope Mile 14 Ranch", but the Royal Mail bureaucracy for some reason would have none of it (despite having approved "100 Mile House" in the Cariboo and "Six Mile Ranch" on Kamloops Lake). So BCSC members Austin Taylor (Vancouver businessman), John Shirra (B.C. Provincial Police) and Fred John Mead (RCMP) took the first two letters of each of their surnames and created "Tashme" -- as reported on the </span><a href="http://www.tashme.ca/" style="color: #990000;">Tashme</a><span style="color: #990000;"> </span><span style="color: #b45f06;">website.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Tamura House at Powell and Dunlevy was a "Little Tokyo" rooming house fully restored that Lookout <br />Society now provides homes for the hard-to-house folks in Vancouver's Downton East Side. </span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-20446792290921686272019-03-30T11:39:00.001-07:002019-03-30T20:31:53.862-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 48px;">The Orchard </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">seek</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">s to reconcile B.C. racial history with politics and the marketplace</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Ambitious. That is the salient, compelling quality behind Sarena Parmar’s script <i>The Orchard (After Chekhov)</i>. With a panoply of characters as diverse as OK's countless fruits, Parmar harvests decades of Canadian immigrant history to tell her tale. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Timely, it's another cut at Eurocentric patriarchy, greed, eco-villainy, racism -- but also good intentions that sometimes will only rot on the vine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The scene is set in the OK Valley of B.C. around the time of Premier Dave Barrett’s Agricultural Land Freeze. A 3rd generation of the Basran family is struggling to make their hardscrabble orchard turn a decent profit for once. Its modest yield of cherries and peaches are dependent on bees and Spring blossoms -- which are currently frost-bitten. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Eldest daughter Loveleen (Laara Sadiq) has just returned from a five year escapist junket back to India after the drowning death of her 7-year-old son Griesha and her husband's passing shortly thereafter. She abandoned 12-year-old daughter Annie (Risha Nanda) to be fetched up by brother Gurjit (Munish Sharma) and cousin Barminder (Adele Noronha) plus her dad, Baba-ji (Parm Soor).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Sister Loveleen (Lara Sadiq) returns from self-sought exile in India after five years to mediate between brother Gus (Munish Sharma) who is a die-hard dirt farmer and childhood chum Michael (Andrew Cownden) who's become a wealthy if shady land speculator in the Okanagan Valley. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now she's returned after daughter chased her down in Mumbai. She'd been shacked up with a Russian hustler who since has taken sick. Now from him she escapes, too, trying to make sense of her world(s), her gods, her karma.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The stage is a ginormous OK farmhouse (Marshall McMahen, set designer) where everyone seems to have a room, and all the rooms have ghosts after 50 years of Basran blood, sweat and tears. Enter a childhood chum, Michael (Andrew Cownden), a nerdy overachiever.</span></div>
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Michael hustles real estate and has googly eyes plus a puffy red face. He slavers over Loveleen, urging her to convert the orchard into an RV park, ALR be damned. Fruit farming is poor business, he argues. His big worry is that the Pandosy brothers will snatch up the land if it goes to auction in four months — which it will if the Basrans have a krappy harvest and must forfeit title to the bank.</div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Loveleen (Lara Sadiq) is close to her cousin Bartender (Adele Noronha) who is the family's true grit -- chief homemaker as well as mentor for Loveleen's daughter Annie. Loveleen for her part is happier in silks than denims and that drives her to make sketchy and dubious choices on behalf of the family. </span></div>
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There is, of course, a waft of inevitability that blows through the house this breezy Spring. Loveleen has come home to run the farm business but she's enjoying socializing with friends and parading about in her glittery lehengas and saris.</div>
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Other alienated outsiders playwright Parmar pops into view : an indigenous rodeo cowgirl named Charlie (Andrea Menard), a Japanese gofer named Yebi (Kai Bradbury) who's all thumbs and klutz plus his sister? cousin? friend? Donna (Yoshie Bancroft) who is trying to suppress her history and dress up like Little Orphan Annie. She spends most of her time flirting with boy toy Yash (Praneet Akilla) whom Loveleen brought back from India. Best character bit of all is aging longtime farmer friend Paul : Tom McBeath's narcoleptic turn in omnipresent bib overalls is pure delight. </div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As noted up top, this is ambitious drama that tries to give outsiders a glimpse of what challenges non-whites faced both before and after Trudeau <i>pere</i> cranked open the country's immigration flood-gates back in the 70's. Are Loveleen's roots truly back in India after all? Is love of dirt enough to hold a family together when filthy lucre looms ever larger on the OK real estate horizon? Nadeem Phillip as the communist dreamer poet aching to take everyone back to the "new world" of modern India focuses the issues at play with <i>f </i>1.4 acuity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The Orchard</i> is Chekhovian for certain in its detailing of life's characters and in stitching together the intricate interconnected webs that come with them. Playwright Parmar will no doubt have many more stories to tell us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Despite her 13 characters on stage, meanwhile, most of the audience at the final preview performance Wednesday afternoon found the script demanded a tighter, more intimate room : horseshoe staging at the BMO <i>a la</i> the <i>Onegin</i> show would have worked better. As well, probably 15-20 minutes of staging and dialogue could be cut, particularly in the painful partings brought on in the closing scenes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Those reservations aside, some of Vancouver's best South Asian acting talent populates this performance. Each delivers their characters' idiosyncrasies with energy and insight. As a somewhat-too-long trip down memory lane, <i>The Orchard</i> is nevertheless filled with empathy and intuition that touch the heart. Its set and lights and soundscape enhance the show's moods richly.</span></div>
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><i>Particulars :</i></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><b>Produced by</b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Arts Club Theatre. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><b>At</b><i> </i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><b>On until</b><i> </i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">April 21</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">, 2019. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><b>Run-time</b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> 130 minutes including intermission. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><b>Tickets & schedule information</b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> via </span><a href="http://www.artsclub.com/" style="color: #888888; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;">www.artsclub.com</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> or by phoning 604.687.1644. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Performers :</i></b> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Praneet Akillia</b> (Yash), <b>Yoshié Bancroft</b> (Donna/Boy), <b>Kai Bradbury</b> (Yebi), <b>Andrew Cownden</b> (Michael), <b>Tom McBeath</b> (Paul), <b>Andrea Menard</b> (Charlie), <b>Risha Nanda</b> (Annie), <b>Adele Noronha</b> (Barminder), <b>Nadeem Phillip</b> (Peter),<b>Laara Sadiq</b> (Loveleen), <b>Munish Sharma</b> (Gurjit), <b>Parm Soor</b> (Baba-ji Kesur)</span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-5081214828330884012019-03-19T20:21:00.004-07:002019-03-20T21:38:14.626-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 48px;">Gross Misconduct </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">is an apt descriptor of men's sexual predator tendencies</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Not everyone buys in to the feminist assertion that the West, particularly, is a "rape culture". Or that the heart of our troubles is a "patriarchal" system of men always on top, women beneath. Or believes the glib metric that men think of sex once every seven seconds.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: 17pt;">Meghan Gardiner's script <i>Gross Misconduct</i> lays these precepts down as the <i>sine qua non</i> starting point for her taut and timely take on what she calls sexual assault. ("Assault" implies physical attack : assault can, however, be but a look, a whistle, a snort.) Her plot line is contrived and coincidental. Almost closing in on a kind of cognitive coercion. Still, the play <i>qua</i> play is brilliant in its impact. Its character(s). Its staging & blocking. Its themes.</span></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Set in Canada's most notorious max. security prison -- Millhaven -- it ravels the lives and tales of seven people, only four of whom are on stage. Two rapes in "polite society" bring the four stage folk together. Then there are the acts of sexual assault and rape inside Millhaven. Then two revenge murders, each by plastic toothbrush, just to round it all out. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The biggest victim of all is not the murdered rapist or his murderer, but rape victim Abigail / "Shorty" (Sereana Malani) whose PTSD from the summertime Halliburton Beach attack by her "Crush" Kevin has scarred her for life.</span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span></div>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit David Cooper</span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17pt;">The staging is a style too seldom seen. Actual full-on theatre-in-the-round : not a horseshoe arrangement, not Havana Theatre bleacher intimacy inches from the stage -- no, a boxing ring -- this time a prison cell, smack dab in the centre of Gateway's Studio B blackbox room surrounded on every side by viewers. As blocked by Director Kayvon Khoshkam, the play pierces the fourth wall </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">continually.</span><span style="font-size: 17pt;"> Particularly rape victim Abby (Sereana Malani).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17pt;">She circles </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">and cycles and surrounds the </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">centre</span><span style="font-size: 23px;"> stage prison cell continuously. Even plunked herself down next to this reviewer and handed me her empty 16 oz. Coors Light can. By play's end her agony and the echo of the <i>No! No! No! No! </i>she<i> </i>yelled dozens of times as she is being raped envelop both </span><span style="font-size: 17pt;">brain and heart. She induces an empathy unimaginable were this staged on a typical proscenium deck. When she describes how ten years later she can remember "every bit of sweat that landed in my eye, my ear, on my hair", the impact is breathtakingly chilling and sad. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17pt;">Speaking to her unseen brother, prisoner John (Ian Butcher) with whom she has a spiritual relationship, she shrieks the </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">true</span><span style="font-size: 17pt;"> essence of her pain when referring to her rapist : "</span><i style="font-size: 17pt;">He</i><span style="font-size: 17pt;"> became a victim, </span><i style="font-size: 17pt;">you </i><span style="font-size: 17pt;">became a hero, and I just </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">disap<i>pear</i>ed</span><i style="font-size: 17pt;">!" </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 23px;">The two other main characters are Gareth (Scott Bellis) as the scarred and sorry prison guard and wannabe warden -- enabler of sexual coercion in Millhaven's exercise yard. Not surprisingly he is a predator himself of all the vulnerable needy newbie young prisoners who come into his grip. He variously calls them goldfish, guppy, tadpole, puffer fish, little clamshell, angel fish, flounder. Chief flounder in the piece is Corey (Mike Gill), an Ivy League smart-mouth who is an accused child rapist. His dad -- whom he says he hates -- is nevertheless a wealthy and powerful fixer who will get him set free, he thinks. Spring him loose, maybe, but never again to be "free". </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Lifer John [Ian Butcher] has been given a "celly" [cell-mate] after years of isolation. Young Corey [Mike Gill] is a chippy Ivy Leaguer who lips off the guard Gareth [Scott Bellis] and seemingly "begs" for physical retaliation from his sadistic sexual tormentor guard. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit David Cooperl</span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17pt;">This is first-rate drama. Playwright Gardiner, herself a victim of sexual assault, lays out her aim clearly : "Calling sexual assault a woman's issue has taken the responsibility right off of men's shoulders." For his part, Artistic Director of SpeakEasy Theatre Kayvon Khoshkam said this resulting from his directing the play : "We are </span><i style="font-size: 17pt;">un</i><span style="font-size: 17pt;">learning. </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">For</span><span style="font-size: 17pt;"> many men it is the environment we grew up in, the culture that encouraged us, and the media that built our perceptions of manhood."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17pt;">Only four characters, this is perhaps the tightest casting and individual stage performance I have witnessed so far this year. Agnes Opel's valedictory song "Familiar" strikes up as lights snap off : "This love is gonna be the death of me... / We took a walk to </span><span style="font-size: 23px;">the summit</span><span style="font-size: 17pt;"> at night, you and I / To burn a hole in the old grip of the familiar true to life." </span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17pt;">Burn a hole indeed -- this script, this performance, these actors together do it all with searing, blistering, incandescent insight. I would go again with nary a blink of hesitation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>Particulars</u> </i>: </b></span></span><i style="color: #454545;">Produced by</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"> SpeakEasy Theatre, Kayvon Khoshkam, Artistic Director. </span></span><i style="color: #454545;">On at</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Richmond's Gateway Theatre in Minoru Park next to RGH. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Runs </i><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/3005" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;"><i style="color: #454545;">until</i><span style="color: #454545;"> March 23, 2019</span></span></a><span style="color: #454545;">. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Tickets & schedule information</i><span style="color: #454545;"> by phoning Gateway at </span><a href="tel:604.270.1812" style="color: #454545;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.270.1812</span></a><span style="color: #454545;"> or on-line @ </span><a href="http://www.gatewaytheatre.com/" style="color: #454545;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.gatewaytheatre.com</span></a><span style="color: #454545;">. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Show-time</i><span style="color: #454545;"> 80 compelling minutes, no intermission.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-size: 17px;"><u><i style="color: #454545;">Production</i><span style="color: #454545;"> </span><i style="color: #454545;">team</i></u></b><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;"> : </span><i style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;">Director</i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;"> Kayvon Khoshkam. </span><i style="color: #454545;"><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Producer & Set Designer</span></span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;"> Markian Tarasiuk. </span><i style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;">Costume Designer & Stage Manager </i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;">Victoria </span><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Snashall. </span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;"> </span><i style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;">Lighting Designer </i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px;">Jillian White.</span></span></span></span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-32446139717011029382019-03-16T09:32:00.003-07:002019-03-16T15:36:26.893-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-style: italic;">Hot</span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i> Brown Honey </i>is a hip-hop </span><span style="font-family: "georgia";">pitch to pump up the world's matriarchs </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Start with six women of colour from various offshore indigenous cultures -- Oz, Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Indonesian and South African. Dress them up in burlesque mode and get them to strut their stuff vaudeville-style. All to an omnipresent pounding hip-hop back beat. What better combination to capture sexism, racism, and patriarchal repression than a theatrical format with a title that is both self-descriptive and self-satire : hot, brown, honey's.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Hot Brown Honey troupe is nothing if not a cheeky look at aboriginal women's power with tongues hissing forth sarcastic barbs even as they bury themselves deep in the actors' cheeks at the same time.</span></div>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Chrissie Hall</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"><span class="s1" style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">The brainchild of Kim "Busty Beatz" Bowers and Lisa Fa'alafi, HBH uses a giant honeycomb of whirring, whizzing coloured lights to help pound out a show that is at once dance hall delirious and town hall serious in its intent. If you can't hustle folks with ear-crashing song-&-dance, you'll never seduce their brains to reflect honestly on their oppressive privilege, HBH suggests. "Make some </span><span class="s2" style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-italic"; font-size: 17pt; font-style: italic;">noise</span><span class="s1" style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">!" Queen Bee Beatz repeatedly cajoles the crowd from her perch as cheer squad coach and pontificator from on high.</span> </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"><i>Wiki</i> tells us "hivemind" is shared or swarm intelligence, a kind of collective consciousness. Bowers liked linking the concept of matriarchal wisdom and order via the honeycomb stage set but at the same time get the place buzzing by doing burlesque, doing circus, doing a tonne of hip-hop kramping. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Taken together the aim is to tickle and sting both the ego and the conscience of the ticket-buyers. "It's all about decolonization -- from structural oppression, racism, stereotpyes and micro-agressions that follow us -- that, and moisturizing -- because self-care is key," a winking Bowers told </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-italic"; font-size: 17pt; font-style: italic;">The Courier</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"> two years back. (The silver confetti bits to signal orgasms were just choice.)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Sexy is as sexy does, but, um, "Don't touch my hair!" the women cry out in a vaudeville revue format. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Lots of historical send-up at play here, starting with a feathery circular strip-tease sequence (old wax 33 1/3 LP's hold the feathers together). But costumes are soon flung off and the cast all pop out in maids' clothes as Beatz intones : "The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, it is that they are incomplete. You are <i>not</i> the maid!" she shouts at each of them, one-by-one : "You, <i>we!</i> are the new matriarchs -- matriarchs-in-the-<i>mak</i>ing!" is the reigning refrain.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;"> The audience is quickly brought into play through traditional call-&-response : "When I say <i>Rise!</i> you say <i>Up!</i> When I say <i>Stand!</i> you say <i>Up!</i> When I say <i>Wake!</i> you say <i>Up!"</i> Indeed, for viewers of every age and gender, to be woke is the primary goal the script drives at. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Co-writer / director / designer Lisa Fa'alafi is chief choreographer of the troupe and uses her mischievous eyes to beguile and tease : "You can't have a revolution without child care!" she says, promising her phantom babysitters she'll be home soon. Later she does a wild woman dance with tropical fronds that she refers to as a tribute to "dusky maiden phantasies". The crowd cheered their acclaim at her trad goddess <i>schtick</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">But it was performer Crystal Stacey who truly wow'd the house. First with her take-off on an Oz tourist in Bali in a flag bikini who chugs 2 L. plastic jugs of sugary all-inclusive booze. Five, six, seven hula hoops she flings and twirls about symmetrically to the whoops of delight from the audience. There's a parallel to the Harlem Globetrotters here, not sure we're to laugh at or with or in spite of.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Later she does a Cirque du Soleil soliloquy on silk ropes depicting a rape scene. The backdrop is a 9-1-1 dispatcher trying to figure out why she can't answer his blueprint of scripted questions. A breathtaking, teary sequence whose length and power never let us loose. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Ever heard of a "beatboxer"? Hope Haami has some moments of sheer inventiveness as she makes rhythmic beats with her mouth that are imperative and commanding. (She and Inuit throat singer Janet Aglukkaq could do beautiful music together -- even better if the ageless Buffy Ste. Marie were along to tunesmith their percussion.)</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Who gonna like all this, you ask? A septuagenarian friend always open to change and new cultural experiences chimed at show's end : "This is aimed at the over-16, under-40 crowd...!" It certainly targets the "Make some <i>noise</i>!" fans who crowd into DJ clubs and scream themselves hoarse into the wee hours making small talk. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext-regular"; font-size: 17pt;">Can change come from 75 minutes of sarcastic shout-outs played against deafening hip-hop drumbeats ? The show ends by quoting feminist elder Audre Lorde, a matron saint of matriarchs. She famously said "We are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't." <i>Hot Brown Honey</i> is a roomful of noise that wants to prove that Lorde's time has come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Particulars</span><span class="s1"> : </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Presented by </span><span class="s1">The Cultch in collaboration with Australia's Briefs Factory theatre in partnership with Kim "Busty Beatz" Bowers and Lisa Fa'alafi</span><span class="s1">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Produced at </span><span class="s1">the York Theatre, 639 Commercial Drive. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">On <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/1224"><span class="s3" style="color: #e4af0a;">until </span><span class="s4" style="color: #e4af0a; font-style: normal;">March 30, 2019</span></a></span><span class="s1">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Tickets & schedule information</span><span class="s1"> by phone at <a href="tel:604.251.1363"><span class="s4" style="color: #e4af0a;">604.251.1363</span></a> or hit <a href="http://tickets.thecultch.com/">The Cultch</a>. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Run-time</span><span class="s1"> 75 minutes, no intermission or respite.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Production team </span><span class="s1">: </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Director </span><span class="s1">Lisa Fa'alafi. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Musical Direction </span><span class="s1">Kim "Busty Beatz" Bowers. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Production Design / Costume Design </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Lisa Fa'alafi</span><span class="s1">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Original Composition & Sound Design </span><span class="s1">Kim "Busty Beatz" Bowers. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Choreography </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Lisa Fa'alafi.</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> Additional Choreography </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">in 'The Privilege Test' by Samantha Williams</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">.</span><span class="s1"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Lighting Designer</span><span class="s1"> Paul Lim. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Set Designer </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Tristan Shelly</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Graffiti Art </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Libby Harward</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> <i style="font-style: italic;">a.k.a. </i>Mz. Murray Cod.</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Technical Manager </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Jake Jobling</span><span class="s1">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Company Manager </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Colleen Sutherland.</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Performers :</span><span class="s1"> Lisa Fa'alafi (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">The Game Changer</span><span class="s1">). Ofa Fotu (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">The Myth Slayer</span><span class="s1">). Hope Haami (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">The Beat Boxer</span><span class="s1">). Elena Wangurra (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">The Truth Sayer</span><span class="s1">). Crystal Stacey (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">The Peace Maker</span><span class="s1">). Busty Beatz (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">The Queen Bee</span><span class="s1">). </span></span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-64256186284353825202019-03-13T19:30:00.001-07:002019-03-13T20:53:45.043-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>Redpatch = </i>dance, poetry, native legend in WWI fatigues</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One doesn't expect magic to be sad & melancholy. But such is <i>Redpatch</i>. Its final preview performance this afternoon left us almost breathless with marvel and hope and wonder at the unique slice of Canadiana from WWI that is on show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Told through an indigenous perspective (Indian; first nation; aboriginal; native) by a character named Half-Blood, it portrays Canada's contributions in Europe during The Great War. And does so through dance and poetry and native legend that are brought to life through constant hazer smoke, tom-toms and criss-crossing spotlights on the intimate BMO stage. Together it all dazzles and sparks with ingenious impact.</span></div>
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The play is wrought by Hardline Productions, ACT's first-ever resident theatre company for the season. Its principals, Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver, evolved their performance art / play script across a half-dozen years : Calvert is the lead -- Rock Head, as his Nana lovingly calls him -- while Oliver is the show's director.</div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Co-creator and lead, Raes Calvert as Half-Blood / Rock Head is surrounded by gas masks that serve dual purpose as native ceremonial masques to celebrate the role indigenous Canadians made to the WWI war effort.. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Ian Jackson (Epic Photography)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 23px;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">The all-indigenous cast of six play not just native persona but also soldiers having French Canadian, Anglo, and Scots-Irish roots. The playwrights openly acknowledged during talkback the debt they owe to Joseph Boyden's first novel </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Three Day Road </i><span style="font-size: 24px;">for the show's inspiration. </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;">Fact is championing the contributions of the indigenous warriors is foremost in their minds : "By the end of The Great War, many First Nations soldiers had achieved near-legendary status as scouts, trench-raiders, and snipers, drawing on their pre-wartime experience in hunting and wilderness survival," Hardline's show notes tell us. Some 4,000 of their brethren joined up and faced the same kinds of discrimination that remain at play today given the myriad unresolved issues still quite alive between Canada's 630 bands </span><i style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;">vis-a-vis</i><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;"> ROK [rest of Kanata]. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;">The intrigue of this play about war's horrors occurs on many levels. The best bit is the recurring flashbacks between Half-Blood and his Naniqsu or grandma (Odessa Shuquaya). She tells him time and again about the legend of the blackfish Kaka'win who is harpoon-hunted by a young man who wants to become a warrior. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;">When Kaka'win drags hunter under water until he nearly drowns, the raven Qu?usin tells him he must "Let go!" to be free and find his true self. To become the warrior within he must first be a <i>mensch</i>. Ms. Shuquaya does repeated swoops and turns as Qu?usin the raven, while the rest of the troupe are often an accompanying murder of crows.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> Half Blood \ Rock Head (Raes Calvert) is comforted by his nana Naniqsu (Odessa Shuquaya) when he returns from Vimy Ridge suffering serious neurasthenia -- shellshock -- from months as a No Man's Land hunter and killer of German youth who were also dragged into the trench horrors of World War I. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Ian Jackson (Epic Photography)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">That legend underscores the whole show. From there it is the interplay of the ballet / choreography; the omnipresent drumming; the hazer smoke; the costuming; the lights; the movable rocks; the rifle props; the masques; and last but not least the acting of each cast member -- all of these elements are central to a performance that is mesmerizing.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-size: 24px;">Many Vancouver shows are noteworthy and exciting and memorable and what one is sure to mention to one's friends. This is performance art that transcends that norm by a significant margin. This show should somehow be mandatory viewing for every secondary school every November 11th every year. It is truth, it is reconciliation, it is simply stunning. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The ensemble cast of Redpatch goes through its paces in one of myriad dance sequences depicting the chlorine and mustard gas attacks of the World War i European "theatre" as that ironic expression has it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Ian Jackson (Epic Photography)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>Particulars</i> : <i>Co-produced by</i> the Arts Club Theatre -and- Edmonton's Citadel Theatre with theatre-in-residence Hardline Productions. <i>On at</i> ACT's BMO stage on 1st Avenue. <i>Runs </i><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/3437"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;"><i>until</i> March 31, 2019</span></a>. <i>Tickets & schedule information</i> by phone at <a href="tel:604.687.1644"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.687.1644</span></a> or <a href="http://www.artsclub.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.artsclub.com</span></a>. <i>Show-time</i> 86 minutes, no intermission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i style="color: #454545;">Creative </i><span style="color: #454545;"> </span><i style="color: #454545;">team</i><span style="color: #454545;"> : </span><i style="color: #454545;">Director</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Sean Harris Oliver. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Set Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Pam Johnson. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Costume Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Christopher David Gauthier. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Sound Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Mary Jane Paquette. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Lighting Designer </i><span style="color: #454545;">Brad Trenaman. </span><i><span style="color: #454545;">Masque</span><span style="color: #454545;"> Designer </span></i><span style="color: #454545;">Jenn Stewart. </span><i style="color: #454545;"> Stage Manager </i><span style="color: #454545;">Lois Dawson. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Assistant Stage Manager</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Anthony Liam Kearns. <i>Assistant Director</i> Genevieve Fleming. <i>Associate Sound Designer</i> Owen Hutchinson. </span></span><br />
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<i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Starring :</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Raes Calvert (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Half-Blood / Rock Head</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Jenny Daigle (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Bam-Bam</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">)</span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Taran Kootenhayoo (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">Howard</span><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span>Thomas</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Joel Montgrand (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jonathon</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Chelsea Rose (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dickie</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Odessa Shuquaya (</span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She Rides Between / Raven / Sgt. MacGuinty</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">).</span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-30073014910825505862019-02-23T21:13:00.001-08:002019-02-24T11:13:36.726-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">The current news and controversy surrounding hereditary Kwakwaka-wakw MP Jody Wilson-Raybould has once more catapulted indigenous (Indian; first nation; aboriginal; native) issues onto the national stage. As did Gord Downie's 2016 concept album "Secret Path" about residential school runaway 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack. In October 1966 he died from exposure and malnutrition while trying desperately to trek the 600 kms. from his Kenora "prison" back to the family's Ojibwe home on a reserve in north central Ontario.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Try to imagine blending such tales as Chanie's into a musical. Telling stories of the horrors and abuses and the traumas of the residential school system that for 150 years tried to colonialize and assimilate this country's native school children. The whippings. Water hosing. Rapes. Abortions. Suicides. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Corey Payette's dramatic and powerful music script is an attempt to seek rapprochement and <i>entente</i> from this tragic chapter in Canada's history. But not, importantly, just by reaching out to the country's white churches to flagellate themselves anew with collective guilt. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: 17pt;">Also to speak truths to the native communities that continue to suffer cultural confusion, discrimination, and denial. Speak to them, too, about how compulsory it is for <i>everyone</i> to embrace Robert Frost's forest dictum : "The only way out is through." Himself of Cree-Ojibwe blood, Payette felt he needed to strike a unique pathway into, and out of, this tortuous thicket.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">To demonstrate how serious he is about the need for truce and harmony, playwright Corey Payette closes his remarkable show with both native victims and churchy oppressors joining voice to sing of hope for a new future for all. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Emily Cooper</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">While the original 2017 version of <i>God</i> was by-&-large a blow-up of its original workshop version, the 2019 show now on at the York Theatre is, simply, stupendous. A visual and audial spiritual ceremony that is as much an expiation ritual as it is a stage musical with obvious roots that dig back dramatically and indebtedly to the likes of <i>Jesus Christ Superstar</i> and <i>Jacques Brel</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: 17pt;">The storyline is fundamentally simple. Local RCMP across the land rounded up native children with the persuasion of their sidearms and wrested them from their families. In Payette's version, mom tries to visit daughter-&-son at their segregated encampment, only to be turned away at the playground gate. The priest and the nun running the school never once tell the kids mom had come, time and again, to see them in the decade or more they were held there. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">The kids thus felt they'd been abandoned by everyone other than themselves who surreptitiously cling together by sneaking out after curfew. In the adjacent field they laugh and cavort and picnic with scraps from the dormitory cafeteria plus fresh apples from the school orchard. Also plan, again and again, how they'd escape. Become "runners" as Fr. Christopher calls them. And speak in what the Bible calls "tongues", only this time not just nonsense words but syllables scrounged from memory of their homegrown Ojibwe. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">And such is what sustained them : their acts of rebellion, acts of truth, acts of reconciliation with their gruesome plight that Payette refers to repeatedly as "settler colonialism" [but, curiously, doesn't once mention <i>its</i> core vice : patriarchy.] </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">So somehow all of this in a <i>musical</i> ? Payette explains about the "weird pairing" of residential school trauma stories with a songfest of choreography : "For indigenous people, that's the way we have always told stories. It's always been the case that musicals have a close link to indigenous culture, where you cannot share a story without a song, you cannot share a song without a dance, or with that dance telling a story. That beautiful circle is the same thing that's experienced in musical theatre."</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Judging from earlier reviews from the Vancouver and Ottawa 2017 shows, the current mount has gone through remarkable transformations. This is now a blend of ballads redolent of Ann Mortifee in <i>Jacques Brel</i> to the soliloquy laments and torments of Jesus in <i>Superstar</i>. Also embracing all-group choral numbers, particularly the closing anthem that finds actors, stage crew and audience all holding hands singing Hi Yeah Hi Yeah Hi Yah Yah Yah together, an <i>ersatz</i> Ojibwe chant modernized and harmonized by Mr. Payette. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">As noted, there is power galore in this piece. As Mom Rita, Michelle St. John evinces both guilt and its <i>alter ego</i> dominance in her dealings with son Tom (Dillan Chiblow). He is now an adult back living at home, jobless, a drunk estranged from his wife and two sons. St. John's singing authority was compelling, particularly in the lengthy duet with Tom to lift up sister Julia's spirit at show's end. Altogether first-rate vocal choreography by the entire cast the night through.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Speaking of fancy footwork, there is a circle theme repeated centre stage throughout with all the actors doing whirligig twirls around one another. Often this scenario is used for costume switches between the epochs being acted out, also to demonstrate how we all must come full circle on our respective identities and join in the dance together if Canada (Kanata) is to survive as one, holistically, an amalgam of settlers and natives -- both -- whatever our true colours.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Production designer Marshall McMahen's backdrop scrim was a sculptural delight, morphing from moody black mountains and mists to bright orange sunrises. His visuals blended seamlessly with orchestrator Elliot Vaughan's direction of Mr. Payette's mostly minor-key moodiness of cello, viola, piano and guitar that underscored the stage action. Built upon native original music tropes, the score is harmonized to fall more gently on the suburban ear than the often high-pitched atonal choruses featured in many aboriginal arrangements. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">To single out excellence in the actors' performances would be superfluous and redundant. Sharp turns for each and every character both singly and in their joint routines (the Lone Ranger sequence to kick off Act 2 by the men of particular note).</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Many remarked at the talk-back after the show how "the first step is to be witness" to this dark time stretching back since before Confederation, this misguided social engineering exercise to annul 10, 000 years and more of native tradition. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">The experience is not just Canadian. Whether it's the Rohingya in Myanmar or the Uyghur in China or name-any-other, whenever attempts are made to annul ethnic-cultural identities, particularly by conscription and detention, the results are grim and ugly.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17pt;">Go see <i>Children of God</i> to witness how music weaves a tapestry of interconnectedness that words alone simply cannot. As noted above, it's as much a ceremony and a ritual cleansing as it is authentic musical drama of the first magnitude. This show is one that gives up a wallop of dramatic impact & musical variety & character nuance borne of abject pain. But ultimately it signals hope and healing and heartfelt intercultural union among all of Canada's myriad colours and voices whatever their origin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Particulars</span><span class="s1"> : </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Presented by </span><span class="s1">The Cultch as part of the Talking Stick Fesitval, in collaboration with Urban Ink (Vancouver) theatre and the Segal Centre (Montreal).</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;"> Book, Musioc, Lyrics and Director:</span><span class="s1"> Corey Payette. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Produced at </span><span class="s1">the York Theatre, 639 Commercial Drive. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">On <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/1224"><span class="s3" style="color: #e4af0a;">until</span><span class="s4" style="color: #e4af0a; font-style: normal;">March 10, 2019</span></a></span><span class="s1">. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Tickets & schedule information</span><span class="s1"> by phone at <a href="tel:604.251.1363"><span class="s4" style="color: #e4af0a;">604.251.1363</span></a> or hit <a href="http://tickets.thecultch.com/">The Cultch</a>. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Run-time</span><span class="s1"> two-and-a-half hours, including intermission.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Production team </span><span class="s1">: </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Production Designer </span><span class="s1">Marshall McMahen. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Original Music Director</span><span class="s1"> Alan Cole. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Production Musical Director </span><span class="s1">David Terriault. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Orchestrator </span><span class="s1">Elliot Vaughan. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Associate Director </span><span class="s1">Julie McIsaac. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Lighting Designer</span><span class="s1"> Jeff Harrison. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Associate Lighting Designer </span><span class="s1">Bryan Kenney. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Original Sound Designer</span><span class="s1"> Kris Boyd. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Projection Sound Designer</span><span class="s1"> Kyra Soko. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Stage Manager </span><span class="s1">Chantal Hayman. </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Assistant Stage Manager</span><span class="s1"> Jethelo E. Cabilete. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Production Fight Director </span><span class="s1">Mike Kovac. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Performers :</span><span class="s1"> Michelle Bardach (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Joanna/Secretary</span><span class="s1">). Sarah Carle (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Sister Bernadette</span><span class="s1">). Dillan Chiblow (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Tom/Tommy</span><span class="s1">). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>David Keeley (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Father Christopher</span><span class="s1">). Jacob MacInnes (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Vincent</span><span class="s1">). Cheyenne Scott (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Julia</span><span class="s1">). Michelle St. John <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Rita</span><span class="s1">). Aaron M. Wells (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Wilson</span><span class="s1">). Kaitlyn Yott (</span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Elizabeth / Fight captain</span><span class="s1">). </span></span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Orchestra :</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Piano / Music Director </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">David Terriault.</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Cello </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Doug Gorkoff</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Viola </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Elliot Vaughan. </i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Guitar </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Martin Reisle.</i></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-48642972542105709542019-02-10T20:54:00.001-08:002019-02-13T19:53:58.044-08:00<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-size: 48px;">Much </i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 48px;">Ado About Nothing </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 48px;">rings out in classic, clever Classic Chic style</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Whether as in Billy Bard's time men play women or in 2019 women play men, certain tell-tale Shakespearean <i>memes</i> are an "evermore, evermore" proposition : Trickery. Knavery. Mistaken identity. Scheming. Masques and miscues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And whether done razzle-dazzle in an <i>ersatz</i> Frederico Fellini set (Bard, 2017) or stripped to the bare essentials as Classic Chic does in 2019, the storyline changes not : men are fickle souls, their prospective spouses victims of whim, instant jealousy and rage. Soldiers they may be, but their tough hides mask skin that is thin indeed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On view is the fourth production by this troupe of women whose tag-line is "<i>Chicks bringing class to the classics</i>." Now that slogan may not meet 3rd gen. feminist standards, but its tongue-in-cheekiness reflects why they are one of my local favourites. </span></div>
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Director Rebecca Patterson's largely barefoot version at The Cultch Historic Theatre accomplishes lots with little : virtually no set at all other than scalloped floor-to-ceiling curtains and an Ikea coffee table. That's it. (So little not even a Set Designer credit in the program.)<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlAty3X3PjpLbz2eu3x34X5T9rzZCZVOeKqFm3m5NlV3fgrE0X1Gn-ZbO_mwFzF6lwdJzpJ87r9-jX5SyhSesHHHKGz4A5lYk2xrwa7K3OcDV5F67YhqJEVSbCZg86hKcJ2DMqFDqPEt2/s1600/MAAN+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlAty3X3PjpLbz2eu3x34X5T9rzZCZVOeKqFm3m5NlV3fgrE0X1Gn-ZbO_mwFzF6lwdJzpJ87r9-jX5SyhSesHHHKGz4A5lYk2xrwa7K3OcDV5F67YhqJEVSbCZg86hKcJ2DMqFDqPEt2/s400/MAAN+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Cousins Beatrice (Christina Wells Campbell) and Hero (Sereana Malanai) do a whirligig garden caper as the men who will chase them till the women catch them come home from war and have their eyes on a lasting peace. </span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit from CC files</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What strikes one instantly is how having such limited visuals to distract (amuse, engage, catch) the eye allows, nay, <i>Demands! </i>that the viewer pay particular attention to the dialogue and all its 17th century intrigue & playfulness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Parallel love stories unfold. Teen-age chums who survived on sarcastic spittle back and forth -- Benedick and Beatrice -- are now 20-somethings orbiting anew around one another. They still mock and tease and jibe back and forth ceaselessly. Until they run so fast away from one another they crash together on the roundabout. As <i>BLR</i> has noted previously of these two characters, it is classic Liz Taylor meets Richard Burton stuff. </span></div>
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Co-founders of Classic Chic, Christine Wells Campbell and Corina Akeson, are Beatrice and Benedick. What struck this viewer particularly in CC's version is how more-than-equal Beatrice is in wit and cunning and verbal swordplay to the macho and vain Benedick. (His Latin-root name was surely not chosen by that clever scamp BillyB by accident.) <span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijocObvc4PIIN7hwbdSMSAzc4PY6VD5ObTtInfbek9ekDf7_g66SvEyDc2f8BgVozGvwpnd_eYh_Qo75L3-vkRph85UUN_jZfN6VTnxPWR5PVTCMjgo_Z6nrSJAbeNXllvhj7vwZybSny_/s1600/MAAN+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="696" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijocObvc4PIIN7hwbdSMSAzc4PY6VD5ObTtInfbek9ekDf7_g66SvEyDc2f8BgVozGvwpnd_eYh_Qo75L3-vkRph85UUN_jZfN6VTnxPWR5PVTCMjgo_Z6nrSJAbeNXllvhj7vwZybSny_/s400/MAAN+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Don Pedro (Kayla Deorksen), dad Leonato (Barbara Pollard) and Claudio (Adele Noronha) conspire to get Benedick to believe the elusive Beatrice has the hots for him.</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit from CC files</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">They have a "merry war" between them. He predicts that <i>should</i> he ever fall he will be "horribly in love". By play's end he says "I suffer love in spite of my heart." And Beatrice responds : "You and I are too wise to woo peaceably." They wind up dragged to the altar still hissing their charmed reluctance that presages a life of endless spicy dialogue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The core of the plot, however, involves wartime buddy Claudio (Adele Noronha) who falls instantly arse-over-elbow for Beatrice's cousin Hero (Sereana Malani) upon returning from the wars with battalion chief Don Pedro (Kayla Deorksen). They are so smitten they are to be married in a heartbeat. But Don Pedro's bastard brother Don John (Sara Vickruck) is wracked by bile, poison and vengeance. Anything remotely happy he feels an obligation to spoil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And spoil he does with malevolent chicanery and deceit : soon Claudio and Don Pedro think she's a cheap tramp. Her dad Leonato (Barbara Pollard) wishes her dead. But at the urging of the kindly Friar Francis (Bronwen Smith), her death is faked until Hero's trumped-up infidelity can be found out. Soon she is "redeemed" and resurrected just in time for her and her cousin to dance down the aisle with their men in a double wedding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">An interesting wee twist at show's end : Billy cuts it all quick with a messenger announcing how the treacherous Don John has been captured. Don Pedro moves instinctively to intercept his judas brother. Benedick restrains him : "Think not of him till tomorrow, I'll devise thee brave punishments for him." As the pipers pipe and the wedding parade proceeds to the wings, director Patterson's version, however, has Don Pedro and Don John share a substantial and forgiving hug downstage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So. Two primary takeaways at least from this CC production. Beatrice is no flippant glib lighthead in the least -- as her part is often directed to be -- and revenge is not high virtue, rather forgiveness is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Perhaps most fun <i>schtick</i> in Patterson's staging is having Benedick crawl up the aisles and across three rows of seats as he listens to Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato scheme with a tale they know he hears hiding in the garden. They succeed : albeit somewhat quizzically, he now is led to believe Beatrice actually loves him. Which is a classic <i>factoid</i> : it stands a 50% chance of being, or not being, true.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But equally fun is when Beatrice squirms squeezing and squinched under the Ikea bench in the garden while Hero and maidservant Ursula (CK Kaur) sit on it and blithely spin a tale about how crazy and bewitched Benedick has become for her in recent daze. Turnabout is fair play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As Leonato, Pollard delivers a powerful performance, while Kayla Deorksen's Don Pedro was across the night a delight of facial gesticulation. Ever-expressive and slick in delivery, both Akeson and Campbell impressed their ample talents on the crowd. Sara Vickruck's twin turns as the craven and pusillanimous Don John -- plus her priceless delivery of constable Dogberry with his endless thesaurus of malapropisms -- were each notable for her precise and clipped projection. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On the production side of the ledger, special mention to costume designer Sherry Randall's inspired choice of Nova Scotia sou-wester gear for Insp. Dogberry's night watch crew. As perfect as it was surprising<i>!</i> For her part, CJ McGillivray chose "world music" numbers that were fresh, accessible and various in style. A more unique cover of The Animals' 1965 classic </span>"Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" [see <i>Addendum</i>] cannot exist anywhere. And what an understatement for the <i>MAAN</i> script to boot.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">That I am an unapologetic and shameless fan of the Classic Chic clique is obvious. They always deliver their stuff with pizazz and punch and poignance. If Billy B. had men do women, these women do men even badder than him. This show I would go see again with neither tittle nor jot of hesitation. <i>Brava!</i> all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Particulars :</b> Written by </i>Bill. <i>Adapted by</i> Rebecca Patterson. <i>Produced by</i> the Classic Chic theatre troupe. <i>Performed at </i>The Cultch. <i>Through </i>February 16th, 2019. <i>Run-time</i> two hours -<i>plus</i>- intermission. <i>Tickets </i>by phone <i>@ </i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323;">604.251.1363 </span><i style="color: #232323;">-or-</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323;"> via the internet at the </span><a href="http://tickets.thecultch.com/" style="font-size: 15px;">Cultch</a><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323;">.</span><i> </i><i>CC's website</i> https:www.classicchic.ca. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">Production crew :</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Director</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Rebecca Patterson. </span><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Composer</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> and Sound Designer</span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> CJ McGillivray. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Lighting Designer</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Jillian White. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Scenic Painter</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Omanie Elias. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Costume Designer</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Sherry Randall</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Fight Director</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Rachel Scott. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Choreographer</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Lisa Goebel. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Stage Manager </i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ingrid Turk. <i>Assistant Stage Manager</i> Victoria Snashall. <i>Technical Director </i>Nicole </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Weissmuller. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Performers :</i> Corina Akeson (<i>Benedick, Verges</i>). Christina Wells Campbell (<i>Beatrice, George Seacoal</i>). Kayla Deorksen (<i>Don Pedro</i>). CK Kaur (<i>Conrade; Balthasar; Ursula</i>); Nancy Kerr (<i>Antonio, Hugh Oatcake, Sexton</i>). Serena Malani (<i>Hero, First Watchman</i>). Adele Noronha (<i>Claudio</i>). Barbara Pollard (<i>Leonato</i>). Bronwen Smith (<i>Borachio, Friar Francis</i>). Victoria Snashall (<i>Boy</i>). Sarah Vickruck (<i>DonJohn, Dogberry</i>)<i>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ddendum : </span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Queried by <i>BLR</i> on the subject, Composer & Sound Designer CJ McGillivray had this to say about the musical backdrop to CC's version of <i>MAAN </i>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">These songs were our starting inspiration point for some of the music as they were sourced from Rebecca's immense collection of world music. I then sourced a mix of contemporary music across a broad range of cultures and contrasting genres to flesh out the overall sound design. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Opening Number:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>Ya Gle Bey </i>by Dania Khatib</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">(a Lebanese singer)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">Cover of Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>Lolole</i> by Radio Tarifa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">(a Spanish world music ensemble combining Flamenco, Arab-Andalusian, Arabian, Moorish and Mediterranean music.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">The Haunting Ballad:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>Shir Ha’keshet</i> by Alabina</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;">(a French group that performs a mix of world music including Middle Eastern, Arabic, French, Hebrew and Spanish music)</span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-4950536680734528972019-02-09T14:19:00.003-08:002019-02-09T17:10:53.113-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-size: 48px;">Yoga Play </i><span style="font-size: 48px;">plays on heart, soul, money themes</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Anyone who has done a community centre class in yoga or pilates or yolates or spynga (spinning & yoga succotash) will find much to laugh about, self-consciously, in <i>Yoga Play</i>. Always in such classes there's a host of outfits made of spandex and lycra and cotton and nylon. Always in various colours atop variously shaped bodies in various states of fitness. Cut-off jeans and Belichek hoodies and worn-out Wigwam sox are nowhere, because who would dare be seen on the scene stitched out like that ?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">But cult clothing is only part of the marketing magnetism that reaches powerfully into the pockets of devotees : then there's the mats; the water bottles; the gym bags; the headbands and on-&-on.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2FDzezi-DvqDVszUO35LvTUFRhhmCJO5sjmrnG759g0O03ncJVKKfzM2ys4ik-QDL5bR231cTsfTmIO4lwf5lD__4anzb5td3HgG5KPjkyA92M2xQQp8y516HKlbGJlK0-Om1fa1KK7nF/s1600/Yoga2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1119" data-original-width="1600" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2FDzezi-DvqDVszUO35LvTUFRhhmCJO5sjmrnG759g0O03ncJVKKfzM2ys4ik-QDL5bR231cTsfTmIO4lwf5lD__4anzb5td3HgG5KPjkyA92M2xQQp8y516HKlbGJlK0-Om1fa1KK7nF/s400/Yoga2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Newcomer COO Joan (Lois Anderson) challenges her hot-shot marketing Ivy Leaguers Fred (Derek Chan) and Raj (Chirag Naik) to come up with a marketing scheme to launch some new threads called Joyon. Both Fred and Raj hail from Delaware but rely on their ethnic roots for speedball comic effect.</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Tim Matheson</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">All this to serve the main master : a hydra with heads of hope and guilt and fear and belief and doubt and desire -- desire to be, as Dipika Guha puts it, more "authentic". I want a me that that I like better physically, and maybe a piece or two of personal peace in my noisy head and troubled heart. When the Buddha-pose hands-together valediction comes that closes each class -- <i>"Namaste!"</i> -- when we chime it back, reverently, I want to feel "truth" in that moment.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>Yoga Play</i> riffs on these social constructs that are central to our age. Its conceit or hook is to filter all of this through the lens of shamelessly grasping corporate greed and its bottom line, its shareholders, its price-to-earnings ratios, its marketing and public relations ploys.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gT71nBKT10_cMS0ScRX5Elafjs4J9xcrzDWorTiDNJGtv-hKaFV54O6VkZG2v9WHr_XhsBQNwCqV03uZoDOdLZcJd28B2Cl6EyTiDOE2Wnaw0m-N0eatFURgjFoWME2DSFAhtT9iHYPo/s1600/yoga1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1222" data-original-width="1600" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gT71nBKT10_cMS0ScRX5Elafjs4J9xcrzDWorTiDNJGtv-hKaFV54O6VkZG2v9WHr_XhsBQNwCqV03uZoDOdLZcJd28B2Cl6EyTiDOE2Wnaw0m-N0eatFURgjFoWME2DSFAhtT9iHYPo/s400/yoga1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When the pressure mounts, Joan tries to remember some yoga breathing techniques that she drags Raj and Fred into practicing with her as she threatens Raj with dismissal if he doesn't fake some authenticity and truth as a phoney guru. </span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit Tim Matheson</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But first, a wee history lesson. Vancouver's Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, went on Bloomberg TV, a business channel, in the Fall of 2013. At issue was the quality of luon, they key fabric in LL's yoga clothing line. People that year complained that the fabric soon became see-through. "It's really about the rubbing through the thighs -- some women's bodies just don't work for it," Wilson remarked with nary a wink or hint of irony. As the expression has it, fat-shaming, size XXL.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">In her script, meanwhile, Guha centres the action around a company called JoJomon that also manufactures what the buzzword merchants call "athleisure" clothing. They, too, have had a public relations implosion when their former COO named Brad was quoted widely saying "It was the size of women's thighs that were making the Kayala fabric transparent, not the fabric itself." Scripted 3-4 years after real-life Wilson's gaffe, make-believe Brad's comment was perhaps just artistic coincidence. At worst, <i>faux</i>-plagiarism. Whatever : it is what it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">The purpose of <i>Yoga Play</i> is more "play" as in riffing and laughing at ourselves over life's myriad ironies than "play" as a dramatic event to be taken seriously. It is satire, slapstick, silliness run riot with a wee hint that a "piece of peace" can be had, too. With a couple of throwaway shout-outs for feminism along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Albeit the cast is four men and two women, it is the women who do the heavy lifting most of the night. As the new JoJomon COO, Joan (Lois Anderson) is an MBA whiz-kid with a head that buzzes from data overload, growth schemes, and hypoventilation that brings on fainting and panic attacks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Early on we learn of a BBC expose that the Bangladeshi factories used to manufacture its new miracle fabric Joyon are a sea of child labourers, girls aged 9-12 who are little more than slaves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Product chief Fred (Derek Chan) screeches to JoJomon's brand rep in Dhaka, Lucy, that "BBC has proof that a lot of those women are twelve, did they look twelve to you? <i>Lucy?!?". </i>Her response made the whole house feel guilty even as we laughed : "I mean, every one here is quite small...and they cover their heads, a lot of them!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Soon Joan and her other product marketer Raj (Chirak Naik) are off to L.A. to find a genuine yoga person to become JoJomon's public face. They find 25-year-old Romola (Christine Quintana) who is all effervescence and chipper confidence but just doesn't click with Joan. As Joan stomps out of her studio, Romola loses her cool and spits out "<i>Namaste!</i> you bitch" as the crowd roars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Shortly the play takes a turn -- a slow, painfully slow turn -- as Guha sends her troupe to India to find a real Yoga master. They find one, a 15-year ascetic bivouac'd on a mountaintop. Turns out he's a Yankee pilgrim from Santa Monica formerly known as Bernard Brown (Shawn Macdonald).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Raj, all Hindu DNA but fetched up in Delaware, is frog-marched into the "real" Yoga master role instead, while Fred feeds him pidgin Hindi. It's all quite a mish-mash of antic nonsense. Best line of the night comes from Raj : "Is there a special place in Hell for those who appropriate their own culture?" he asks rhetorically. "Authenticity" and "truth" for JoJomon are threadbare, it turns out. Regardless, their stocks shoot up. Joan can b-r-e-a-t-h-e <i>!</i> at last.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: 23px;">Lois Anderson dives headlong into her role as Joan with rapid-fire neurosis at the ready. As Raj, Chirag Naik demonstrates an ever-more-skilled comic presence each Vancouver stage outing, while Christine Quintana as the wannabe enlightened yoga entrepreneur from L.A. was sheer hoot. Shawn Macdonald's video clip of JoJomon president John Dale came close to stealing the show. Throughout, all the cast's footwork and verbal shenanigans were richly supported by </span></span><span style="font-size: 23px;">Chengyan Boon's lighting and screen projections : his work certainly helped bring together the otherwise almost-too-wide Gateway proscenium stage for this production. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 23px;">This mix of corporate promotion of yoga "class", lit. & fig., blends ironically with people's genuine desire to be more nimble and fit physically and spiritually. It's a paradox that plays itself out through well-threaded gag lines and byplay. While not standing-o fare and a middle that sags, athleisure types of every persuasion will surely jiggle their giggle over <i>Yoga Play.</i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>Particulars</u> </i>: </b></span></span><i style="color: #454545;">Produced by</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"> Gateway Theatre, Jovanni Sy, outgoing Artistic Director. </span></span><i style="color: #454545;">On at</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Richmond's Gateway Theatre in Minoru Park next to RGH. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Runs </i><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/3005" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;"><i style="color: #454545;">until</i><span style="color: #454545;"> </span>February<span style="color: #454545;"> 16, 2019</span></span></a><span style="color: #454545;">. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Tickets & schedule information</i><span style="color: #454545;"> by phoning Gateway at </span><a href="tel:604.270.1812" style="color: #454545;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.270.1812</span></a><span style="color: #454545;"> or on-line @ </span><a href="http://www.gatewaytheatre.com/" style="color: #454545;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.gatewaytheatre.com</span></a><span style="color: #454545;">. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Show-time</i><span style="color: #454545;"> 125 minutes, one intermission.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><u><i style="color: #454545;">Production</i><span style="color: #454545;"> </span><i style="color: #454545;">team</i></u></b><span style="color: #454545;"> : </span><i style="color: #454545;">Director</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Jovanni Sy. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Set Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Sophie Tang. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Costume Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Amy McDougall. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Sound Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Mishelle Cuttler. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Lighting / Video Designer </i><span style="color: #454545;">Chengyan Boon. </span><i><span style="color: #454545;">Yoga Consultant </span></i><span style="color: #454545;">Scheherazaad Cooper.</span><i style="color: #454545;"> Technical Director </i><span style="color: #454545;">Mac Macleod. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Technical Director </i><span style="color: #454545;">Theodore Sherman.</span><i><span style="color: #454545;"> Production Manager </span></i><span style="color: #454545;">Joseph Chung. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Stage Manager</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Susan Miyagishima. <i>Assistant Costume Designer </i>Melissa McCowell<i>. Assistant Sound Designer </i>Sara </span></span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Rickrack<i>. Production Assistant </i>Madelaine Walker. <i>Props Master</i> Carol Macdonald.<i> Assistant Stage Manager</i> Koh Lauren Quan<i>. Wig Designer</i> Marie Le Bihan.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><u>Performers</u></b> :</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Lois Anderson (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Joan</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Harundi V. Bakshi (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Guruji</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Derek Chan (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Fred</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Shawn Macdonald (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">John Dale / Bernard Brown</span></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Chirag Naik (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Raj</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). Christine Quintana (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Romola</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">). </span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-90373715821507010102019-01-31T00:36:00.002-08:002019-01-31T00:59:04.690-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">The Matchmaker</i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;"> is <i>Hello, </i></span></span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">Dolly's</i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;"> pre-music script</span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;"> </i></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">New York City erupted from a mere 1.2 million souls in 1880 up to 3.4 million by 1900. That salient fact underlies Thornton Wilder's <i>The Matchmaker</i>. A time Mark Twain referred to as "the gilded age". Hustlers. Schemers. Connivers. They all abound. Enter the enterprising and clever widow Dolly Gallagher Levi, self-appointed marriage arranger from Yonkers, Westchester County -- NYC's so-called "6th borough". </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Dolly meets up with the gentrifying widower Horace Vandergelder (his name parses literally as "a timekeeper who's awash in wealth"). Horace is worth a hefty stash, no question, but he's looking for a last fling at love in all the wrong places. So he contracts with Dolly to find him a dolly of his own. She thinks her very name answers that question right smartly. But she will need all the myriad bluffs and feints of a card shark to get her man who has eyes set on another catch. Fact is his heart is about as cheap as his wallet in this quest.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24px;">Add in a couple of scheming shop stewards from Heer Vandergelder's department store who are young and horny and steal away from work for a dirty week-end adventure. And some tarts who mistake them for </span></span><span style="font-size: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-style: italic;">nouveau riche</span><i> </i>young men on the make</span><span style="font-family: "georgia";">.</span></span><span style="font-size: 24px;"> And then the boss catches them after a madcap Keystone Cops caper. Oh. N</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">ot to leave out some cross-dressing. All-in-all no end of screens and masques and mistaken identities. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i style="font-size: 24px;">This</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> is the stuff of </span><i style="font-size: 24px;"> Matchmaker. </i><span style="font-size: 24px;">Pure goofy farce that is a rich and resonant cacophony of classic theatre riffs. Forms re-imagined by Wilder in 1954 to reflect the foibles of a wild and crazy late-19th century moment when the USA was robust-&-daring-&-hopeful. </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Pre</i><span style="font-size: 24px;">-Norman Rockwell's comfy couch sentimental version, no question. And certainly not the out-of-sync </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Brave New World</i><span style="font-size: 24px;"> we find ourselves stuck in today. A "gilded age" quite like no other.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Wannabe opera diva Miss Flora Van Huysen (Nora McLellan) exuberates in front of all the mismatched characters who have recombobulated in <i>The Matchmaker</i> now on show at The Stanley. Somehow all the right folks end up in the right arms at the end of this timepiece drama about moneylender and class.</span><br />
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 helvetica neue\22 " , "\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit David Cooper</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 23px;">Some of the pizazz and energy of USA's late 19th century <i>zeitgeist</i> caught folks' imaginations when Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart teamed up to make merry music of <i>The Matchmaker</i> in their 1964 hit <i>Hello, Dolly</i> (Louis Armstrong's gravelly version of its theme song is 100% earworm).</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So can the resurrected stage script "low-brow farce" that birthed <i>Dolly</i> still do the magic tricks Thornton Wilder wanted from it in 2019? Wilder wanted to transcend the art form, make the show more carnival than traditional comic slapstick. Invite the audience into the characters' hearts and minds partly through their soliloquies -- that common Shakespearean tactic that always pierces the fourth wall between stage and audience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">No critic I've read from performances over the years nails an obvious <i>leitmotif</i> of Wilder that comes through those soliloquies. Money. Power. Social and economic disequilibrium that are always at the heart of "free enterprise", whether of the North American variety or Chinese or South Asian or Middle Eastern.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In <i>The Matchmaker</i> those themes emit most often from the dipsomaniac Irish drifter Malachi Stack (Scott Bellis) who is a go-fer for Vandergelder : "Being employed is like being in love -- you know that someone's thinking about you all the time!" -and- "He's no friend, just an employer that I'm trying out for a few days." Laugh-lines that but thinly masque some serious social commentary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Common knowledge that the first act in many mysteries and spoofs is often filled with plot and character exposition that can be a bit laborious. E'en so with Mr. Wilder's script. But so it must be to position all the moving parts so the Rube Goldberg contraption that results can spin and buzz and cavort with riotous vaudeville precision come Act 2.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Directed by ACT's resident Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran, the show evinces her pedigree in large-scale tales (14 actors in this) as well as opera with its requisite hyperventilations. Some of her blocking sequences and choreography and stage business gesticulations for the cast are simply superb, the Horace / Malachi spinnerama to kick off Act 2 a prime example. And the cast's pantomime'd train and carriage meanders across the stage during scene changes were utterly clever laugh moments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: 23px;">This gang is richly appointed, to a person, large parts and bit parts all. Funny to think of a farce having actual "clown" parts for "comic relief", but both Mr. Bellis's eye-popping impishness and Nora McLellan's operatic histrionics as Aunt Flora were near show-stealers.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 \\22 helvetica neue\\22 \22 " , "\22 \\22 arial\\22 \22 " , "\22 \\22 helvetica\\22 \22 " , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">"She chased him so long he finally caught her!" is how The Matchmaker comes to a close with Nicola Lipman as Dolly and Ric Read as Horace Vandergelder, who in the process finds himself gelded as both patriarch and oligarch. </span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "\22 \\22 helvetica neue\\22 \22 " , "\22 \\22 arial\\22 \22 " , "\22 \\22 helvetica\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit David Cooper</span></td></tr>
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Ric Read gives Horace a nifty contemporary turn to Ebenezer Scrooge, while his chief clerk Cornelius Hackl by Tyrone Savage sustains a risible naive energy the night through. As the pawky, crafty manipulator Dolly, Nicola Lipman for her part was unfaltering and steadfast. She reminded this viewer of a Hollywood trinity always enjoyed over the years : a bit of Carole Burnett, Audrey Meadows and Jean Stapleton all-in-one.</div>
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Possibly the "first star of the game" award, however, has to be handed out to set and costume designer Drew Facey. Stylized baroque wrought iron archways softened by floral bursts floor-to-ceiling -- perhaps the most ambitious and artful schematic scene yet seen from him whose Jessie Award prominence year after year testifies to what a unique and special talent Vancouver is proud to claim here.<br />
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Folks wanting a flavour of farce traditions as filtered through the 1950's eye of the gentle, ironic social balladeer Thornton Wilder will be inclined to stand and clap as most did on opening night. And just as Billy Bard's <i>Taming of the Shrew</i> remains ever-popular fare despite its hopeless antiquarian attitudes around women and their domestic "role", same with <i>The Matchmaker</i>. A compleat performance overall, this is a show whose second act could be put on a YouTube loop set on Repeat for days on end. </div>
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<b style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><i>Particulars :</i></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Produced by</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Arts Club Theatre. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">At </i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">On until </i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">February 24, 2019. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Run-time</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> 130 minutes plus intermission. </span><i style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">Tickets & schedule information</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> via </span><a href="http://www.artsclub.com/" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;">www.artsclub.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> or by phoning 604.687.1644. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Production team :</i></b> Ashlie Corcoran, <i>Director. </i>Mishelle Cuttler, <i>Composer and Sound Designer. </i>Drew Facey, <i>Set & Costume Designer. </i>John Webber, <i>Lighting Designer.</i> Shelley Stewart Hunt, <i>Choreographer. </i>Pamela Jakobs, <i>Stage Manager. </i>Genevieve Fleming, <i>Assistant Director. </i>Angela<i> </i>Beaulieu<i>, Assistant Stage Manager.</i> Adam Henderson, <i>Dialect Coach. </i>Sara Vickruck, <i>Assistant Sound Designer. </i>Karen Ydenberg, <i>Production Dramaturg.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Performers :</i></b> Georgia Beaty (<i>Minnie Fay</i>). Scott Bellis (<i>Malachi Stack</i>). Daniel Doheny (<i>Barnaby Tucker</i>). Julie Leung (<i>Ermengarde</i>). Nicola Lipman (<i>Mrs. Dolly Levi</i>). Nora McLellan (<i>Miss Flora Van Huysen</i>). Nadeem Phillip (<i>Ambrose Kemper</i>). Tom Pickett (<i>Joe Scanlon / Rudolph</i>). Ric Reid (<i>Horace Vandergelder</i>). Jason Sakaki (<i>August</i>). Tyrone Savage (<i>Cornelius Hackl</i>). Munish Sharma (<i>Cabman</i>). Deborah Williams (<i>Cook / Gertrude</i>). Naomi Wright (<i>Mrs. Irene Molloy</i>). </span></span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-91089676811643087332019-01-20T18:30:00.002-08:002019-01-20T20:01:36.497-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">Mrs. Krishnan's Party </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">is like none you've ever seen</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">Ever have a hankering to be right in the middle of a riotous Indian party? That's what awaits you at the Culture Lab where you've been invited to Zina Krishnan's little shop in New Zealand to join in celebrating Onam. It's a Hindu harvest festival that champions the circle of life, death and rebirth. Typically Zina and architect son Apu spend the time reflecting on the death of family patriarch Gobi who 20 years back was killed during a night-time burglary in the shop's larder.</span><span style="font-size: 24px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">No quiet reflective seance this year, however. Zina's university boarder James (Justin Rogers) is a wannabe DJ and partyboy with a flair. He dresses up as King Mahabali -- patron saint of Onam -- and invites the whole neighbourhood (us, the audience) to Mrs. Krishnan's "dairy", as Kiwis call corner convenience stores. At first a bit hesitant at our <i>Surprise!</i>, Zina shortly immerses herself (and us) in prepping the biggest Onam feast imaginable.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mrs. Krishnan (Kalyani Nagarjan) is shocked to find the back room of her corner store filled with partygoers (the audience), all bedecked with garlands and flowers by her boarder "DJ Jimmy" (Justin Rogers).It won't take her long to get into the flavour(s) of it all, however, with a little help from the dozens of ticket-buying invited guests crowding into her space. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Seventy-five minutes of remixed Indian hip-hoppy music, laughter, improvisation and spicy South Asian food are what's on this Cultch menu. Brought to Vancouver by the Kiwi troupe Indian Ink Theatre Company, here's what their website says about them :</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Indian Ink Theatre Company is one of New Zealand’s most successful theatre companies with a reputation for “total theatre which offers humanity and psychological insight in a package of good plain laughs, luminous performances and brilliant staging” (<i>Dominion Post</i>, NZ).</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For almost two decades Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis have pursued their idea of the ‘Serious Laugh’- opening mouths with laughter in order to slip something serious in along with a love of mask and story. The company blends western theatrical traditions with eastern flavours and has been critically acclaimed for its use of live music, heightened theatricality, humour, pathos and great storytelling.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">The dramatic hook of the piece is that both "DJ Jimmy" and Mrs. Krishnan have challenges they're facing : she is thinking of selling off the "dairy" and heading back to India, while he confronts some personal demons of his own. But not so much, not now, not before we set up to celebrate Onam and Apu coming home, thanks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mrs. Krishnan takes a wee bite of her kitchen creation of traditional dhal while "DJ Jimmy" watches in horror at what it all is going to taste like because of a special spice he inadvertently added to the mix. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">And while Jimmy and Zina engage in charming banter, they engage the audience, too : first by asking folks to distribute colourful garlands and scarves and balloons; then by having to respond to questions about where they're from -- single, married, been-to-India type questions. Next with a bit of spontaneous and fun browbeating by Mrs. Krishnan -- feeding an Onam meal to 100 neighbours ain't easy! -- we join in to help out in the kitchen; offer up a bit of spontaneous shout-outs and chitty-chat; answer one of the actor's ubiquitous cellphones that keep tootling off. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Co-writer / director Justin Lewis was on hand Sunday afternoon for a talkback. He calls the show "immersion" theatre. Because the audience is immersed in and an integral part of the dramatic action. Its purpose is connectedness, involvement & engagement to amuse and entertain, yes, but also share a bit of Indian <i>mythos</i> and history -- to tell a tale of "seeing the characters deal with pain and loss" even as they chop onions and fill up an industrial rice cooker. Not to mention the spilled rice, water, flower petals and DJ dancing that all find a way to bring the stage floor into the action, too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Eight of the audience sit 'round the kitchen table that also serves as Zina's traditional dance platform, ultimately. The rest are in rows of "Inner Circle" seats that line both sides of the Cultch Lab black box room. None are safe from in-your-face questions from Zina, chummy high-fives from Jimmy or barked-out "orders" from the two of them to help make the party go. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">As Zina Krishnan -- with a masque of ginormous false teeth and false glasses -- Kalyani Nagarajan is a wholly engaging presence whose intense eyes and provocative voice will linger in memory for many joyous moments to come. Justin Rogers as James -- a magician in real life -- pulls off some acting magic as he befriends everyone who enters the theatre, calls them by name, seats them with playful gibes and welcomes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">Enchanting. Captivating. Enticing. Inventive. Ingenious. The list could go on. Oh yes : and the <i>dhal</i> was scrumptious for those with a palate for Indian spice. (Ever been fed, on-stage, at the end of a show before? I didn't think so.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none;">If theatre-in-the-round took giant steps to break down the traditional fourth wall, immersion theatre is baptismal involvement on a whole new break-the-plane level for sure.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just a delight to share this space and this time with 100 BFF strangers and these ever-so-clever actors with an ever-so-clever script of learned lines spiced up with improv. Just. Plain. Fun <span style="color: red;"><b>:</b></span> Do. Not. Miss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"><i>Particulars :</i></b><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> </span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">Produced by</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> Indian Ink Theatre of New Zealand </span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">[<i>Artistic Directors </i>Justin Lewis & Jacob Rajan</span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">]</span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> </i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">in collaboration with The Cultch. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">At</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> the Culture Lab. 1895 Venables. </span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> </span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">On</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> thru February 3, 2019. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">Run-time</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> some 75 minutes, no intermission. </span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">Box office</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> 604.251.1363 </span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">-or-</i><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> via the internet at the </span><a href="http://tickets.thecultch.com/" style="font-size: 15px;">Cultch</a><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Production team :</i></b> <i>Playwrights</i> Justin Lewis and Jacob Rajan. <i>Director</i> Justin Lewis. <i>Set & Poperties Designer</i> John Verryt. <i>Costume Designer </i>Fiona Nichols. <i>Lighting Designer</i> Jane Hakaraia.<i> Sound Designer</i> Liam Kelly. <i>Dramaturge</i> Murray Edmond. <i>Production & Stage Manager </i>D. Andrew Potvin. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;">Performers :</i><span style="color: #232323;"><b style="font-size: 15px;"> </b><span style="font-size: 15px;">Kalyani Nagarajan</span><b style="font-size: 15px;"> (</b><i style="font-size: 15px;">Zina </i><span style="font-size: 15px;"><i>Krishnan</i>).</span></span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-size: 15px;"> Justin Rogers (<i>James, a.k.a. DJ Jimmy</i>) </span></span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-50887140545378699772019-01-13T19:49:00.001-08:002019-01-13T20:14:06.532-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">Blind Date </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">is crowd-sourced comic titillation</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10px;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rebecca Northan is an award-winning improv actor, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">writer, producer.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> She tells how the conceit for </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;">Blind Date</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> arrived in her head with a </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;">Thunk!</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> one night a decade back. How real-life blind dates are awkward & tricky. So why not fake one on stage in front of an audience?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Canvass the show-goers ahead-of-time. Find someone willing to be pulled out of the audience and "do" a blind date with you -- what she calls "spontaneous theatre" -- without rehearsal or any pre-show clues about how it will all play out. (A few stage directions are provided behind-the-scenes to Volunteer to ensure some intentional humorous bits scripted by Northan aren't overlooked, but not many.)</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tess Degenstein is one of three improv artists to play Mimi, a clown who's been stood up from a pre-arranged blind date at a French cafe. Solution? Commandeer another cafe patron and thus have your blind date, spontaneously, just with them instead of goof-who-stood-you-up. A new blind date up close and personal. On stage before a live audience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Northan won TO's version of a Jessie for her doing her own Mimi in 2016. She insists the stage actor opposite is not a "plant", just a volunteer. "There is only truth, breathing, profound listening coupled with open-heartedness and a playful spirit." Toronto's <i>NOW</i> called it a "...single clown act [that] is the perfect marriage of theatre and comedy", while the <i>NY Daily News</i> chortled "Couples therapy should be so much fun."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The key to making it work theatrically is for Mimi to take charge and tease out of her stage-date real and honest answers but control the timing and the drift of the subject matter and the characters' crescendos. The goal is laughing-with not laughing-at to accompany even any serious, intimate bits of her date's life story that might come out. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mimi's challenge is how to creatively mingle anything / everything she hears with her own improv'd comic strip of life, too. Volunteer's challenge is to not try to be an actor and completely fake his presence on stage by being too artsy or cute. Meanwhile to also suppress <i>some</i> of his real self and just play along as if he's a 20-something single on the hustle. (<i>N.B.</i> Asked on Saturday in the lobby if I would consider being the day's Volunteer, I hid behind my critic's notepad and told Lili Beaudoin "Not if my life de<i>pen</i>ded on it...<i>!</i>")</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To emphasize how the show must remain just make believe <i>badinage,</i> Northan includes three reminders. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(1) The fake clown nose. No aging lothario is going to get horny gazing at this protuberance. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(2) The <i>faux</i> French accent of "Mimi from Avignon" : this persona lets Mimi be forgiven instantly because "bullshit" and "asshole" are cute coming from her lips. Or even any tongue-in-cheek put-downs that may spring forth : "Surrey has a lot of men -- a lot of bright ones in bulk!" Ali Froggatt ad-lib'd Saturday. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(3) A downstage time-out box with a barstool : if anything happening on stage has Volunteer confused or if they have a question or if they're uncomfortable or just at a loss for words, off they go to the time-out box to sort it out by breaking out-of-character. And an imaginary time-out box in the audience for Volunteer's wife to pipe in when she wants to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Neither "Robert" on Saturday afternoon (50-ish looking) or "Bob" on Sunday afternoon (more 65-ish) revealed any tricky info that their Mimi had to masque over or manoeuvre around. But no worry. Repeatedly they were told how Mimi-<i>&</i>-Co's primary objective is to "take very good care of you and make sure you have a good time and to make sure you have a pleasant ride home". A lot of pumping up their tires with the audience encouraged to cheer them on. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Two alternative endings are provided by playwright Northan depending on the style and personality of any show's Volunteer. Mimi told Robert there's "a peephole in your eye, a lot of wit, a little sarcasm", and with that she propelled the story forward five years to after they're married. The scene that then pushed forth erupted with hilarity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Comments overheard from each day included "I've never laughed so hard in my life!" <i>-and-</i> "This is nothing like I've ever seen before anywhere!" When Centaur Theatre performed it they described it as a "fast and funny fusion of clown, improvisation and social experiment". </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And that it is. In spades. As in Ace-of-spades in the game of hearts. Perfectly controlled spontaneous nonsense that charms. For all ages of folk who either remember -- or can imagine -- the fraught panic a blind date can bring forth and want to laugh their pants wet watching one play out spontaneously in front of them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>Particulars</u> : </span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i> </i></span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Spontaneous Theatre's creation </span></span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">by Rebecca Northan. </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Produced by</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> Arts Club Theatre for its Winter, 2019 On Tour <i>chatauqua</i> through February 3rd. </span></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>Venues, dates</u> &<u> phone ticket office contact numbers </u>:</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Surrey, <i>Surrey Arts Centre,</i> January 9-19. 604.501.5566</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Coquitlam, <i>Evergreen Cultural Centre</i>, January 22-26. 604.927.6555</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">New Westminster, <i>Anvil Centre</i>, January 29. 604.521.5050</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Chilliwack, <i>Chilliwack Cultural Centre,</i> January 30. 604.391.7469.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Maple Ridge, <i>The ACT Arts Centre</i>, January 31 & February 1. 604.476.2787</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Burnaby, <i>Shadbolt Centre for the Arts</i>, February 2-3. 604.205.3000 </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><u><i style="color: #454545;">Creative team </i></u></b><span style="color: #454545;">: </span><i style="color: #454545;">Producer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Rebecca Northan. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Associate Producer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Marcie Januska. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Associate</i> <i style="color: #454545;">Producer </i><span style="color: #454545;">Christopher Oldfield.</span><i style="color: #454545;"> Stage Manager & Sound Improviser </i><span style="color: #454545;">Meredith Johnson. </span></span></span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-35790974278162505062019-01-13T12:21:00.002-08:002019-01-13T13:30:05.313-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Joni's classic discs spin fun in <i>Circle Game</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night &</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee;">those costumes & the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #232323; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director (<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee;"><span class="s3" style="color: #990000; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i>N.B. </i></b>The following is an updated </span><span class="s1" style="color: #990000; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">redux</span><span class="s4" style="color: #990000; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif; text-align: center;"> of </span><span class="s1" style="color: #990000; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">BLR</span><span class="s4" style="color: #990000; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif; text-align: center;">'s May</span><span class="s4" style="color: #990000; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif; text-align: center;">, 2017 review of this show that I am unable to attend this year. Only two of the actors / performers have changed, but the production team is identical thus the show's inherent excellence and creativity will no doubt reoccur without missing a beat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18px;">Joni Mitchell has always challenged us from the get-go of her professional career to re-imagine ourselves and our messages. Thus the winking irony of "Big Yellow Taxi", for example, on 2-3 levels. Such seems, too, to have been a kernel of the thought behind co-creators Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman for their unique show </span><i style="color: black; font-family: georgia; font-size: 18px;">Circle Game : Re-imagining the Music of Joni Mitchell</i><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18px;"> that opened last night and runs at the Firehall through February 9, 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Six musicians, 18 instruments, 28 Mitchell songs, over 100 minutes of millennial out-takes on Mitchell's singular music and lyrics. Begs the question what a cigarette-smoking flower child of the hippie 60's with her acoustic guitar and odd free-form chord-licks has to tell contemporary audiences raised on hip-hop / electro-pop and Facebook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Mitchell's "Circle Game" ["We're captive on the carousel of time"] was and will always be a popular theme among Boomers. But, again, what's the hook today? </span>The intent of <i>Re-Imagining </i>is just that : to try to wrest from Mitchell's music and her lyrics a way to cycle back to 60's and 70's themes -- eco-<i>angst</i>, feminist-&-personal liberation, love<i>-&-</i>loss, the joys of village and the magnetism of community -- in a way that contemporary audiences can relate to. </div>
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Huge social concerns back in the day to Mitchell's generation, many of these issues were pushed aside as Boomers became co-opted by the pursuit of personal wealth, family, security. </div>
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More recently the "pussy power" protest march in Washington, DC and elsewhere after the inauguration of the current Occupant of the White House is a sign of renewed, if belated, political interest by progressives emerging from the Millennial ranks. </div>
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And thus the hook of her music. In a 1994 <i>Mojo</i> interview, Mitchell observed without false modesty or irony : "What I realize now is that songs like 'Circle Game' and 'Big Yellow Taxi' have become almost nursery rhymes, they've become part of the culture." Quite so.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqR_-K4-hG8HndXKQ1s50p3HErY12x2Iqkb4PMuXmKvCDYzhjy7aRS3h9opn8USa8BtELl8Y_M2IKfcQJEMW792MtqcmTnl4BkGmJpn1qIyQXFe7QYibuHzmZ3Wnldpbw-YJz1sTF5Csgg/s1600/Circle+Game+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="178" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqR_-K4-hG8HndXKQ1s50p3HErY12x2Iqkb4PMuXmKvCDYzhjy7aRS3h9opn8USa8BtELl8Y_M2IKfcQJEMW792MtqcmTnl4BkGmJpn1qIyQXFe7QYibuHzmZ3Wnldpbw-YJz1sTF5Csgg/s400/Circle+Game+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Newcomer this time out Samantha Bourque belts out a classic while returnees Adriana Ravalli and David Z. Cohen rock the beat along with her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : Stephen Rutherford</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18px;">Firehall's supplied photos reveal once more how "every picture tells a story". In design </span><i style="font-size: 18px;">Circle Game</i><span style="font-size: 18px;"> is a cabaret show / garage band / college theatre buddies jam session. There is no true dramatic narrative thread or arc or plot, rather a series of musical snippets and stanzas and whole songs mostly from Mitchell's early </span><i style="font-size: 18px;">oeuvre</i><span style="font-size: 18px;"> that are stitched together to please eye & ear & mind. Fully two hours of visual and audial juice that endear and excite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">The first three numbers, interleafed, are "Free Man In Paris", "Help Me" and "Both Sides Now", all of which reflect the ever-recurrent Mitchell themes of personal freedom <i>-vs-</i> commitment<i> -vs-</i> life's illusions / heartbreaks. Is there a better lyric on the subject of freedom than the feisty young independent souls who find themselves "unfettered and alive"? I think not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Functional hanging-spots for the show's myriad instruments, overstuffed armchairs and piano furniture align the 30-foot deep, 65-foot proscenium. Perpendicular performance platforms mid-stage, strings of Xmas lights, even the requisite <i>faux</i>-Victorian / Tiffany glass lampshade so popular back in the day. The swack of Persian-<i>cum</i>-paisley throw rugs are just like I remember them <i>circa</i> Kalamazoo, 1968. Set designer Carolyn Rapanos must have consulted countless family photograph albums to create such verisimilitude.</span><br />
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Considerable imagination by lighting designer Ian Schimpf to re-create ("re-imagine") what the 60's-70's youthful digs and garage hang-outs would produce by way of rheostat controls. Longtime Arts Club sound designer Geoff Hollingshead brings his rock experiences from staging <i>Buddy : The Buddy Holly Story</i> into effective use in <i>Circle Game</i>, no question. The mixes of electric and acoustic and electrified acoustic pick-up guitar were choice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSYDce-vrmjh02Lzp-vmbzG_WV3M843vfbWKyWYSnIO6VeRVyBlS-CeilgUJsf9UYMjEWYy78lb7uJww4Pnx0aOPHzzIQYXpwkWiu2WNdpdyLXxphSuV-smaOFQ0gg2iz5RXmqX8Yo5fky/s1600/Circle+Game+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="178" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSYDce-vrmjh02Lzp-vmbzG_WV3M843vfbWKyWYSnIO6VeRVyBlS-CeilgUJsf9UYMjEWYy78lb7uJww4Pnx0aOPHzzIQYXpwkWiu2WNdpdyLXxphSuV-smaOFQ0gg2iz5RXmqX8Yo5fky/s400/Circle+Game+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Second newcomer for the show Benjamin Millman does some mean bottle blowing to one of the cuts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Particular numbers stand out. Ravalli and Cohen's duet of "Case of You" with a guitar perched horizontally across their knees almost made me forget Dianna Krall's signature version from her album <i>Live in Paris.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Scott Perrie's lengthy moody version of "Free Man in Paris" to start Act 2 was by itself reason to go see this show. The duet mix of "The River" with "Both Sides Now" was transcendent. </span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">And the trio cut of "Big Yellow Taxi" with all the harmonized atonal riffs to make it 2019-<i>y</i> was the 3rd major hi-lite of the night for me two years back. </span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">For their parts directors & creators Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman are utterly synergistic in their creativity. Cohen's brilliance deconstructing and reconstructing Mitchell's musical lines was matched every step of the way, <i>lit.& fig.</i>, by Kuman's blocking and choreography and stage business. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While a couple of numbers struck my ear as longish, by and large this was seldom-witnessed dramatic inspiration. Mostly in how <i>a</i>-sequential the music was -- how un-hitched & re-hitched & repeated & hinted-at & revived <i>contrapuntally</i> Mitchell's music and lyrics became over the night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As noted up top, Mitchell has produced "nursery rhymes" for nigh unto 50 years. While maybe not a Leonard Cohen versifier, she brings her painter's eye to her musician's ear and the results are often just stunning. The skill of Andrew Cohen to pick her music apart verse-by-verse and song-by-song and stitch it all back together in a whole new whimsical tapestry is to marvel at. </span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">The talent on display at Firehall's production, many of them in the early stages of their professional careers, will no doubt add you to the <i>standing-o</i> squad that surrounded me two years back. This show will thrill folks for all the talent they see & hear & feel & clap to. </span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">It all sings sweetly of age-old themes and anxieties and hopes. I'd go again in a heartbeat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Particulars :</i></b> <i>Co-creators, conspirators, directors (and spouses) </i>: Andrew Cohen & Anna Kuman. <i>Produced by</i> the Firehall Arts Centre. <i>At </i>the FAC, Gore @ Cordova. <i>On until </i>February 9th. <i>Run-time</i> 90 minutes including intermission. <i>Tickets and schedule info</i> @ <a href="http://firehallartscentre.ca/">Firehall</a> or FACBO 604.689.0926.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Production team :</i></b> <i>Directors</i> Andrew Cohen & Anna Kuman. <i>Musical Director & Arranger</i> Andrew Cohen. <i>Set Designer </i>Carolyn Rapanos. <i>Costume Designer</i> Jessie Van Rijn. <i>Lighting Designer </i>Ian Schimpf. <i>Sound Designer </i>Geoff Hollingshead. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Performers / musicians :</i></b> Samantha Bourque Kimmy Choi. David Z. Cohen. Benjamin Millman. Scott Perrie. Adriana Ravalli.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>Venues, dates</u> &<u> phone ticket office contact numbers for the joint venture Firehall Theatre / Arts Club Theatre on tour shows</u>:</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">North Vancouver, <i>The BlueShore @ CapU, </i>February 14. 604.990.7810</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">West Vancouver, <i>Kay Meek Arts Centre</i>, February 15-16. 604.981.6335</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mission, <i>Clarke Theatre, </i>February 17. 604.629.8849</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Surrey, <i>Surrey Arts Centre,</i> February 20 - March 2. 604.501.5566</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Coquitlam, <i>Evergreen Cultural Centre</i>, March 5-9. 604.927.6555</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">New Westminster, <i>Anvil Centre</i>, March 12. 604.521.5050</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Chilliwack, <i>Chilliwack Cultural Centre,</i> March 14. 604.391.7469.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Maple Ridge, <i>The ACT Arts Centre</i>, March 15. 604.476.2787</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Burnaby, <i>Shadbolt Centre for the Arts</i>, March 16-17. 604.205.3000 </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Nanaimo, <i>Port Theatre</i>, March 22. 250.754.8550</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Duncan, <i>Cowichan Performing Arts Centre, </i>March 23. 250.748.7529</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Courtenay, <i>Sid Williams Theatre</i>, March 26<i>. </i>250.338.2430, ext. 1</span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-50688745589368560402018-12-11T20:55:00.001-08:002019-01-12T13:23:19.254-08:00<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">It's A Wonderful Life </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">set to song<i>-&-</i>dance wins cheers</span><br />
<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24px;">Morphing the iconic Frank Capra film into a sunny stage musical is, simply, an inspired artistic innovation. Like the advent of in-line hockey skates, the only question is "How come it took so <i>long</i>...?" And as if on cue, Peter Jorgensen's adaptation wow'd the pants off the matinee crowd of mainly blue-rinsers + prep school teens, no question. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">[See <i>Plot Quicky</i> in <i>Addendum.</i>]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The original movie script is almost never referred to for what it really is as sociopolitical commentary -- a confrontation between Marx's humanist dictum and the social darwinist ethos of free markets. George Bailey espouses and lives out existentially as well a simple precept : "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His building-&-loan association is akin to today's credit unions : the borrowers are its shareholders, not the stock marketeers who manipulate the strings. That bunch of God-fearing churchgoers is represented by Harry F. Potter's banker/gangster cadre in the show -- the powers-that-be <i>klepto'</i>s who make up but one per cent [1%] of the world's population but control 80% of its wealth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">George </span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bailey and family consider the </span><i style="color: #181818; font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Huck Finn</i><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> novel gifted them by Angel 2nd Class Clarence, up on the scaffold, when all the melodrama of the Frank Capra script adapted as a musical by Peter Jorgensen has, at last, passed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A rough-&-tumble fisherman friend hauls out Capra's 1946 RKO Studios classic each Christmas for his family to embrace and enjoy anew both <i>for</i> and <i>in spite of</i> its lines they've all memorized. They are the joy that they are. But what makes the Jorgensen adaptation so special is the music that hi-lites those lines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As director, Jorgensen hand-picked the actors to populate his cast. 100% <i>fair dinkum! </i>job as the Oz would say. George, played by Nick Fontaine, replicates the crescendos, the emotive whines & the <i>sotte voce </i>snivels that any fan of Jimmy Stewart in the movie can do take-offs on after a <i>glasso vino</i> or two. (My ear caught a mix : Jimmy Stewart as filtered through Stephen Colbert.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Two others were utter crowd favourites. Jim Hibbard as the whisky-flask-fan Uncle Billy had his most hilarious moments in Act I. Angel 2nd Class Clarence by Greg Armstrong-Morris had a second act outing of sheer energy and wit and giggly-fit hilarity that followed a nuanced 1st act where he was mostly quiet but facially animated as The Observer of George Bailey's life-to-date.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSiRQ889PvqUbqXcmhGc78qGryaxhmuv7HUg0ScKTcdyAL_Kz4ILtSPcln2g-jOxcfYse2Vx6rxfPuIcJaJfcRtvlgGCLda4NKLFA1x3RSAMeEh6-tQ7tDv6SBPVylnFIzwHPOohmg9NwT/s1600/IAWL+-+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="178" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSiRQ889PvqUbqXcmhGc78qGryaxhmuv7HUg0ScKTcdyAL_Kz4ILtSPcln2g-jOxcfYse2Vx6rxfPuIcJaJfcRtvlgGCLda4NKLFA1x3RSAMeEh6-tQ7tDv6SBPVylnFIzwHPOohmg9NwT/s400/IAWL+-+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Uncle Billy (Jim Hibbard) and nephew </span><span style="color: #181818; font-size: 12px;">George (Nick Fontaine) do a tipsy-doodle stumble home after enjoying an outing that included more than a few nips of night </span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">air.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Sound, steady, sure acting by each of the others in the cast. Their blocking / footwork / choreography and facial expressions as directed by Mr. Jorgensen and Ms. Dunbar gave an altogether MGM feel to the show. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Who suffers, ever, from a swack of the Gershwin Bros. music as backdrop <i>intermezzos</i> to the traditional Christmas carols? The repeated, lyrical and haunting renditions of "Keep The Home Fires Burning" war anthem and the superb reprise, <i>a cappella, </i>of "Heaven on Earth" at show's end were off-set deliciously by G.G's <i>Rhapsody in Blue</i> riffs that rhymed off musically throughout.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Often costuming is either a front-&-centre feature of a major production -- think <i>Beauty and the Beast</i> here -- or just somewhat taken for granted. But in this play Christian David Gauthier's selections for each character and the <i>post</i>-WWII epoch being portrayed were notable for how they stood out, understatedly, throughout the show. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For his part, set designer Brian Ball executed a crisp and efficient and visually engaging set of scaffolding and doorways that were tricked out cleverly by Chris Hall's property designs that the cast manipulated cleanly. Nice twofer effort here.</span></div>
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As with most storybook episodic literature -- whether novels or movies or play scripts -- the opening exposition of character and backdrop events and dramatic build-up to the eventual climax and <i>denouement </i>can be a bit taxing on the butt-ism factor for any sitting audience. </div>
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But the slick delivery and quickness of Act II events in this show made one forget the earlier drag-factor almost completely. A hearty cheering <i>Huzzah!</i> from the house for this oh-so-ingenious and smart and quick-witted new take on an old master. I joined in eagerly and joyfully<i>!</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>Particulars</u> : </i> </b></span></span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">New Musical Adaptation</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> by Peter Jorgensen. <i>Based on</i> the 1946 Frank Capra film [derived from the original story by Philip Van Doren Stern]. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Orchestrations & Arrangements</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> by Nico Rhodes. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Produced by</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Gateway Theatre with the support of Patrick Street Productions. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On at</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Richmond's Gateway Theatre in Minoru Park. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Runs </i><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://embedded-result/3005" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;"><i>until</i> December 31, 2018</span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Tickets & schedule information</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> by phoning Gateway at </span><a href="tel:604.270.1812" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.270.1812</span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> or on-line @ </span><a href="http://www.gatewaytheatre.com/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.gatewaytheatre.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Show-time</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> 150 minutes, one intermission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><u><i style="color: #454545;">Production</i><span style="color: #454545;"> </span><i style="color: #454545;">team</i></u></b><span style="color: #454545;"> : </span><i style="color: #454545;">Director</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Peter Jorgensen. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Associate</i> <i style="color: #454545;">Director</i> <span style="color: #454545;">Kayla Dunbar.</span><i style="color: #454545;"> Music Director </i><span style="color: #454545;">Angus Kellett</span><i style="color: #454545;">. </i><span style="color: #454545;">Lighting</span><i style="color: #454545;"> Designer </i><span style="color: #454545;">Craig Alfredson. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Set Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Brian Ball. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Sound Designer</i><span style="color: #454545;"> Bradley Danyluk. </span><i style="color: #454545;">Costume Designer </i><span style="color: #454545;">Christopher David Gauthier. </span><span style="color: #454545;"><i> Assistant Costume Designer</i> Julianna Franchini. <i>Properties Designer </i>Chris Hall. <i>Technical Director</i> Theodore Sherman. <i>Apprentice Technical Director </i>Evan Ren. <i>Production Manager</i> Josef Chung. <i>Production Assistant</i> Madelaine Walker. <i>Apprentice Production Assistant</i> Kate Chubbs. <i>Stage Manager </i>Yvonne Yip. <i>Assistant Stage Manager</i> Michelle Harrison. <i>Apprentice Stage Manager </i>Duston Baranow-Watts. <i>Apprentice Stage Manager </i>Ashley Vucko. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #454545;"><b><u>Performers</u> :</b></i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b> Greg Armstrong-Morris (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Clarence - Angel 2nd Class</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Dave Campbell (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Gower; Dr. Campbell</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Michelle Collier (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Ma Bailey; Mrs. Thompson</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Nathan Cottell (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Marty; Bert; Nick</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Cameron Dunster (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Ernie; Goon; Angel</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Nick Fontaine (</span><i style="color: #454545;">George Bailey</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Kenzie Fraser (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Young Mary; ZuZu</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Imelda Gaborno (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Violet; Angel</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Jim Hibbard (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Uncle Billy</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Vanessa Merenda (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Ruth; Mrs. Martini, &c.</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Erin Palm (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Mary Hatch</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Nick Preston (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Harry Bailey</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Braden Saucy (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Sam; Martini &c.</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Alexander Sheppard-Reid (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Young George; Pete Bailey</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Jovanni Sy (</span><i style="color: #454545;">Potter; Peter Bailey &c.</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Orchestra</u> :</i> Derry Byrne (<i>Trumpet</i>). Gregory Farrugla (<i>Trumpet </i>). Mark Haney (<i>Bass</i>). Sarah Ho (<i>Violin</i>). Graham Howell (<i>Reeds</i>). Angus Kellet (<i>Conductor; Piano</i>). Laine Longton (<i>Cello</i>). Alicia Murray (<i>Percussion</i>). Tawnya Popoff (<i>Viola</i>). Chris Startup (<i>Reeds</i>). </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Addendum</u> </i> <i>Plot-quicky</i> refresher for the forgetful : </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">George Bailey from youth forward has been a do-gooder. Saves his kid brother Harry from drowning. Stops the grieving widower druggist Gower from accidentally poisoning a child who has diphtheria. Suppreses all his nascent adult desires to travel and go to university and have a lavish honeymoon -- because others' needs are greater than his own. Carries on Pop's sketchy building and loan association despite the Depression. Makes loans to blue collar day-jobbers. He's the ultimate altruist. Then his dipsomaniac uncle loses the Bailey business kitty. Bankruptcy, scandal, even jail face him he fears. He freaks out. Contemplates a jump off the Bedford Falls bridge.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-kerning: none;"><i>Entre</i> Clarence, Angel 2nd Class (after 298 years he has yet to earn his wings). Clarence tricks George into saving <i>him</i> from drowning, just like Harry 25 years before. But still George frets and broods. All right, says Clarence : <i>Presto change-o!</i> you're here in Bedford Falls, but I'll walk you through a day or two as if George Bailey had never been born. None of the good deeds you've done or the friends you've made or the family you love ever occurred. Seeing his community in complete tatters, George has an epiphany thanks to Clarence and realizes how "it's a wonderful life" he lives despite its disappointment and setbacks. A final chorus of good cheer, then <i>Curtain!</i></span></span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-85854218225723586272018-12-09T18:08:00.000-08:002018-12-09T21:32:25.967-08:00<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">Beauty & the Beast </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">returns for 6th holiday visit to ACT</span><br />
<span style="color: #0a5394; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 13px;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s3"><b><i>N.B. </i></b>The following is an updated </span><span class="s1" style="font-style: italic;">redux</span><span class="s4"> of </span><span class="s1" style="font-style: italic;">BLR</span><span class="s4">'s </span><span class="s5" style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span class="s4">December, 2018 review of this show that I am unable to attend this year. Many of the actors have changed, but the production team is identical and its excellence will no doubt reoccur without missing a beat.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i><b>From the footlights</b></i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> <i>:</i></b> Likely no question my wife and I were the only viewers at the Stanley last December who had never seen Disney's iconic Oscar-winning 1991 cartoon flik. Neither any of ACT's four previous mounts of this show, the 2019 version makes six. Thus except for the movie duet with Peebo Bryson<i>-&-</i>Celine Dion, until last year its music was as foreign to us as its Grimm-like plot line.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;">For others equally dim about all this, a </span><i style="font-size: 24px;">Plot Quicky</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"> helps and won't be too hairy to sum up : Snotty prince disses a witch. She curses him. Makes him into a bearded Minotaur. Gives him a magic rose whose petals will all fall off and petrify him forever in his beastliness. Unless he finds a way to give someone love and be loved in return. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Michelle Bardache (<i>Belle</i>) and Jonathan Winsby (<i>Beast</i>) make googly-eyes at one another just before the transformation occurs not a moment too soon before the last rose petal drops off. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The prince's household staff are cursed, too : in the ten years since the witch's visit they are all slowly being transmogrified into household objects like a teapot, a featherduster, a wind-up clock. Like Beast, their fate threatens to be permanent. <i>Entre</i> Belle, a beauty who gets caught up in palace politics saving her eccentric Dad from attacking wolves. Will she learn to love the Beast, and he her before the last petal drops?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>What the show brings to the stage</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> : </i></b>Fact is the premise of <i>La Belle et la Bete</i> (as originally scripted in 1740 by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve) is downright off-putting to literalists. Princeton University's WordNet dictionary links two definitions associated with <i>la Bete</i> : "the stupid brutal quality of a beast" and "unnatural attraction, including sexual, to a beast". So p.c. trigger warning called for : viewers have to overcome innate prejudicial distate for beastly conduct. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The way to sidestep one's anti-beastie bias, however? Not hard at all with this theatre production. It'll happen just like magic through this magnificent Arts Club show, no question. Make the beast look less like a Frankenstein character and more like your hippie uncle Herbie who lives in the wilds outside Nelson. Put a suit on him and the possibility of true love flowering between him and Belle (<i>syn</i> : goddess, enchantress) soon takes root. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Beast tries to "normalize" the relationship with Belle to woo her over by having her read to him. It just might work -- his Harry Rosen threads are trick, but he still needs to consult with his barber.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>Production values that shine through</i></b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i> :</i></b> Spectacle is what the stage show is all about, and spectacle the Arts Club production delivers in spades. It's a roundhouse flurry of costumes, music, lights, sets, staging and absolutely eye-popping choreography.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alison Green's set with its numerous fly's and scrims and scenery wagons results in a compleat envelopment of the sumptuous Stanley stage. Coupled with Gerald King's richly inventive lighting design the effects are dazzling and enchanting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then there's Barbara Clayden's captivating and bewitching costumes dozens and dozens over for the 20 characters who roam and romp and rollick up, down, over-&-around the kinetic sets from castle to townsite to woods for two mesmerizing hours.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gaston leads the local pub-rabble through a hearty beer-toast as they party it up hoisting brewskis in hopes the arrogant, tumescent hunter will win the intellectual Belle's heart instead of that ugly mortal Beast. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : David Cooper</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mesmerizing in large measure because of choreographer Scott Augustine's re-do for the show of local wizard Valerie Easton's 2008 fancy footwork. First there's Gaston's beer stein swillery antics pictured above. Then comes the "Be Our Guest" caper of the troupe with knives & forks & plates & platters busting out of them all over not to mention their <i>folies bergere</i> kick-up that was clockwork perfect. Truly a hoodoo of wonder and amazement to watch and cheer to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Absolutely terrific co-ordination of the off-stage orchestra with the on-stage action. Of the band, Henry Christian's trumpet, once again, proves how crisp and heavenly that horn can be.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And speaking of sound, Chris Daniels' sound design was not just notable but embracing. Never in any ACT performance has the amplification of singers' voices with live orchestra been more stunning on the ears : every lyric and word heard perfectly, no drowning out by the band. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>Acting pin-spots</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> :</i></b> Fewer "pin spots" to note than full-on kliegs and floods for the whole ensemble. As the muscly bully Gaston, Kamyar Pazamdeh does a reprise of the role this year. No doubt his acting will once more be buff writ large in a role made the more spoofy his sidekick LaFou, played this season by Ali Watson. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Those characters are magnified deliciously by the skippery scantering Shawn Macdonald who appears this year once again as chief-of-staff Cogsworth. His riffs are pure hoot and hilarity. Bernard Cuffling as Maurice, well, septuagenarian Bernard Cuffling could don the greasepaint and play Othello and the crowd would giggle-&-cheer-&-stomp their approval of him, no question.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>Who gonna like</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> :</i></b> Must say I don't believe up to December 2018 I had ever heard an opening night audience so robust and spontaneous and eager in their joy<i>!</i> at what they saw unfold as musical comedy theatrics in front of them. And while a <i>Standing O</i>! is commonplace among Vancouver audiences -- too often knee-jerk -- on last year's opening night it was well<i>! </i>well<i>!</i> well<i>!</i> deserved. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s8" style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;">Faithful readers of <i>BLR </i>know that personally I tend toward the intense and gritty small-stage stuff of a David Mamet</span><span style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;">or Anosh Irani or John Patrick Shanley more than I do big-stage musical theatrics. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="s8" style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;">But this, </span><span style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;">this<i>!</i></span><span style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;"><i> </i>was a night to remember. Truly a spectacle that treats eye-&-ear-&-funny-bone-&-heart in equal measure. This is a romantic comic circus of fun that every generation will get a seasonal buzz from without any doubt. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Particulars</i> </b>: <i>Original Disney Theatrical Productions </i>(1994)<i> :</i> <i>Music </i>by<i> </i>Alan Menken. <i>Lyrics</i> by Howard Ashman-&-Tim Rice. <i>Book</i> by Linda Woolverton. <i>Produced by</i> Arts Club Theatre at its Stanley stage. <i>On </i></span><span style="color: #e4af09; font-kerning: none;"><i>until</i> January 6, 2019</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">. <i>Tickets & schedule information</i> by phone at </span><span style="color: #e4af09; font-kerning: none;">604.687.1644</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">or <a href="http://www.artsclub.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.artsclub.com</span></a>. <i>Run-time</i> two-and-a-half hours, including intermission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><b>Production team</b> </i>: <i>Director</i> Bill Millerd. <i>Musical Director</i> Ken Cormier. <i>Original Choreographer</i> Valerie Easton. <i>Production Choreographer </i>Scott Augustine. <i>Set Designer</i> Alison Green. <i>Costume Designer</i> Barbara Clayden. <i>Lighting Designer</i> Gerald King. <i>Sound Designer</i> Chris Daniels. <i>Projection Designer</i> Joel Grinke. <i>Stage Manager </i>Caryn Fehr. <i>Assistant Stage Manager</i> April Starr Land. <i>Apprentice Stage Manager</i> Koh Lauren Quan. <i>Fight Directors</i> Mike Kovac with Ryan McNeill Bolton. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><b>Orchestra </b>:</i> Ken Cormier (<i>Director; Keyboard</i>). Henry Christian (<i>Trumpet</i>). Martin Fisk (<i>Drums, Percussion</i>). Sean Bayntun (<i>Keyboard</i>). Sasha Niechoda (<i>Keyboard</i>). Andrew Poirier (<i>Trombone</i>).</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><i>Performers </i></b><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">:</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> Susan Anderson (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Mrs. Potts</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Michelle Bardache (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Belle</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Keiran Bohay (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Sierra Brewerton (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble, Dance Captain</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Graham Coffeng (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Lumiere</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Bernard Cuffling (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Maurice</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Caleb Di Pomponio (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Austin Eckert (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Elizabeth Ford (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Chip</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Meghan Gardiner (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Madame de la Grande Bouche</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Erik Gow (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Monsieur D'Arque</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Shannon Hanbury (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Babette</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Caleb Lagayan (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Jennifer Lynch (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Shawn Macdonald (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Cogsworth</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Makayla Moore (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Kamyar Pazandeh (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Gaston</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Ali Watson (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">LeFou</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Jonathan Winsby (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Beast</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">). Synthia Yusuf (</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Ensemble</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">).</span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-79915323307402198192018-12-07T10:03:00.001-08:002018-12-07T10:37:44.395-08:00<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: 48px;"> </span></span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 48px;">Bombay Black </i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 48px;">is a dark tale of cultural cruelties</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">No question the movie <i>Slumdog Millionaire </i>was many people's introduction to contemporary India as viewed through a Bollywood lens. Not so Anosh Irani's 12-year-old script <i>Bombay Black</i>. The story is a tale of flawed, disfigured victims of cultural compulsions and energies that populate the sub-continent. It is a metaphor wrapt in a myth, a fable, a legend, a Freudian fairy story, a concise epic of life as it may once have been, perhaps still is, in vast complex India.</span></div>
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Start with an exploitive, vengeful money-mad mom who forces her teen daughter to dance privately for men. For 3,000 rupees (Cdn$60 today) on the condition the men do not touch her. Now enter a blind man. His tale from an Indian village from 15 years past unearths secrets that not only scare the women but cause their lives to trip, punishingly, into and over one another. It is as if Shiva's wrath has been unsheathed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Munish Sharma as the mysterious blind villager Kamal breaks all the rules with dancer Apsara (Arshdeep Purba) when she allows him to touch her, contrary to her controlling, rapacious mother's rules of engagement. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : Raymond Kam</span></div>
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There are fundamentally three aspects of Iranian-Canadian Anosh Irani's play that magnetize the viewer in Diwali Artistic Director Rohit Chokhani's clever re-imagining of the script. Light/dark and chiaroscuro visuals. Terrific soundscape. And the acting. Oh the acting.</div>
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Rarely on a regional stage like Vancouver's Firehall is one treated to such commanding and captivating performances by each of the three principals. Of Nimet Kanji's mother, Padma, an acquaintance put her forceful nuanced expressionism succinctly : "She could be brushing her teeth on stage and I would be mesmerized." Her facial contortions match Padma's loving, treacherous soul with this daughter she loves and despises both.</div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nimet Kanji as her daughter's "promoter" and jailer tries to tell Aspara (Arshdeep Purba) the "truth" about why her daughter must dance enticingly for men to appease the gods as well as earn rupees so she can buy meet to feed the Bombay eagles out of her hand off the studio balcony. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "\22 \\22 trebuchet ms\\22 \22 " , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit : Raymond Kam</span></div>
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Perhaps not enough can be stated without abject hyperbole about Munish Sharma's turn as a blind man on a mission, Kamal. For 90 minutes he captured stunningly both the inward and outward essence of being blind, or "always in black" as he put it. Eyes half shut the entire time, his gentle persistent phantasy-weave in efforts to find and win back his child bride was hypnotic. He spins a dizzying tale again and again about warring gods, a dancer and a lotus flower -- a story he wants to make real.</div>
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Daughter Apsara -- named for a Hindu goddess / temptress / assassin -- was given a bold and embracing turn by Arshdeep Purba. Her Bhangra/Bollywood-inspired dance techniques that she started learning as a grammar school kid were spellbinding : not just charming but bewitching. The story of how and why she was afraid even as a late-term teen to venture out into the local neighbourhood market without clutching mom's sari makes for a breath-taking bio-sketch involving her never-seen priest of a father who banished her and her mother from their village of Badu for being demons. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;">Sound Designer Rup Sidhu faces the prospect of Jessie Award inevitability for his </span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px;">tour de force</i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;"> production. He starts with 120 decibel soundscape of Bombay street scenes with their incessant horn toots, scooter exhausts, random voices and bells and dogs and general din. The audience is invited to wear a scarf over their eyes to imagine Kamal's world prior to the show starting. And start it does -- with a percussive bang</span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px;">!</i><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;"> of light and sound : absolutely astonishing music to open the show, a trad seductive wedding dance serenade called "In Aankhon Ki Masti" by Asha Bhosle.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px;"> </span>[See <a href="https://goo.gl/zMzTXL">goo.gl/zMzTXL</a>]<span style="font-size: large;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Similarly, Chengyan Boon's lighting composition was a lyrical mix of starburst explosions mixed with oblique half-lights and purposeful all-dark moments to reflect freshman Director Chokhani's totality of vision.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Irani's script reflects Canada's intercultural, raw-cut sights and sounds and flavours that are thrown together <i>mulligatawny</i>-style across the land. Almost impossible to imagine this piece attracting much notice in USA, by contrast, except among the most earthy Greenwich Village or Berkeley bunch. The story told is lyrical and horrifying and uplifting, literally, at the end. For its composite strengths in acting, sound, light, dance, & <i>mythos</i> it surely is a not-to-be-missed event of stage imagination cut loose and set free that utterly and wholly engages both brain and heart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #232323;"><u>Particulars</u></span><i style="color: #232323;"> </i><span style="color: #232323;">:</span><i style="color: #232323;"> Script by</i></span><span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Anosh Irani (that won a Dora Moore Award in Toronto for Outstanding New Play, 2008). <i>Produced by</i> Firehall Arts Centre, Donna Spencer, Artistic Producer. <i>At </i>the Firehall Arts Centre, Gore at Pender. <i>On until</i> December 15, 2018. <i>Run-time</i> 120 minutes, one intermission. <i>Tickets & schedule</i> information @</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjmgerBo47fAhVzKH0KHbLWDWgQFjAAegQIChAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffirehallartscentre.ca%2Fget-tickets%2F&usg=AOvVaw0yJ3HUzRq9XucwOgTMCkWD" style="font-family: '"trebuchet ms"', sans-serif;">Firehall</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u style="color: black; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Production team</u><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> : </span></span><i style="color: black; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Director</i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> <i>and Producer </i>Rohit Chokhani. </span></span><i style="color: black; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Set and Costume Designers</i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> Tanya Schwaerzle & Rohit Chokhani. </span></span><i style="color: black; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Sound Designer</i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> Rup Sidhu. </span></span><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Lighting</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 17px;"> Designer </i><span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Chengyan Boon. <i>Dance Coach</i> Gunjan Kundhal. <i>Voice Coach</i> Alana Hawley.</span></span><span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> </span></span><i style="color: #232323; font-size: 17px;">Stage Managers </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Tanya Schwaerzle & Emma Hammond. </span></span><i style="color: black; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Publicist</i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> Teresa Trovato. </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Associate</span></span><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"><i> Producer</i> Shanae Sodhi. <i>Production Associates </i>Ayush Kathuria & Ashley Rose.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #232323; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"><u>Performers</u> : Nimet Kanji (<i>Padma</i>). Arshdeep Purba (<i>Apsara</i>). Munish Sharma (<i>Kamal</i>).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-71170955102348960632018-12-01T20:38:00.001-08:002018-12-02T16:47:26.415-08:00<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: x-large;"><i style="font-size: 48px;">Doubt, A Parable </i><span style="font-size: 48px;">is a lesson about populist black-white ideas </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Deny doubt. Project certainty. Berate unbelievers as <i>infidels</i>. Such is the nature of populist trends world-wide. Whether in America, Hungary, the UK, Saudi Arabia or in German districts formerly under the Soviet thumb. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Interestingly, however, this life-view as created by John Patrick Shanley's 2004 script heralds the Pope Pius XII epoch of WWII. It is <i>not </i>a reaction against 21st century democratic liberal thought that populism these days hisses at. No question. What goes around comes around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The source is a self-righteous nun who heads a grade school in Kennedy-epoch Bronx of the early 60's. Pope John XXIII's Vatican II loosening of the church's strictures is apostasy to her. She is a traditional Bible thumper. Terror grips her students and her soul as she espouses conformist, prescriptive doctrines of good-&-evil. They reel off her lips like epigrams. </span></div>
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Sister Aloysius kicks off the show's action by insisting to a <i>naif </i>junior nun at her school that another teacher, Father Flynn, is molesting the only black student in their ranks. Why have doubt when you know -- and it's all you <i>need</i> to know, you believe -- that the student emerged from the priest's office with wine on his breath and a wrinkle across his brow. "I think it -- thus its truth must be a certainty<i>!</i>" is the drift of her solitary, cloistered brainwave.</div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Talulah Winkelman portrays Sister Aloysius who has all the certainty and confidence of moral rectitude that the traditional church was able to drive into her over the years. No need to harbour doubts when truths are self-obvious, she believes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This is not, however, a monochromatic bit of characterization by Mr. Shanley. Stage sophomore Olivia Lang as Sr. James projects a sympathetic and empathy-wrapt new Grade 8 teacher. Her joyful lack of artificiality is in studied contrast to the smug-seeming Sr. Aloysius (Talulah Winkelman), the school principal. Speaking of one oft-truant student Sr. Aloysius says "He has a restless mind." "But that's good!" Sr. James proclaims. "No, it isn't," retorts Sr. Aloysius. "Boys are made of gravel, soot and tarpaper. Don't be charmed by competence, because satisfaction is a vice. Innocence is a form of laziness," she coaches her junior colleague.</span></div>
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One could not help but think of Maggie Thatcher as a role model for the principal. Hard-edged decisiveness is the only antidote to moral relativism she suggests over-&-over. </span></div>
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The primary doubt in the piece comes from Sr. Aloysius's belief, based on circumstantial 2nd-hand evidence, that Fr. Branden Flynn (David Thomas Newham) -- the boys' basketball coach -- has seduced the school's only black student, 12-year-old Donny Muller, after plying him with sacramental wine. When confronted, Fr. Flynn denies denies denies. Of course. Set in 1964 in the Bronx, the "old boys club" in the church will have half-a-century to go before they start looking at the man in the mirror and seeing their true skin, not make-up. </span></div>
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The play starts and ends with examination of doubt, first by Fr. Flynn recalling "the secret of alienating sorrow" of folks upon JFK's assassination a year back. Sr. Aloysius calls his sermon "poetic", but she is 100% put off by community outreach efforts and his palsy-walsy coziness that are all the rage under Pope John. She instructs Sr. James : "I want to see the starch in your character being cultivated. You must be the students' fierce moral guardian. Stand at the door, you are the gatekeeper : they should be uncomfortable in your presence." </span></div>
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In the end -- in Mr. Shanley's worst line of the play -- Sr. Aloysius echoes the doubt motif. Expressly. More effective had she said through her tears, "I feel adrift here; I only wish God would speak to me more plainly." </span></div>
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The words "sexual politics" and "patriarchy" were virtually unknown expressions in 1964. But in Sr. Aloysius's realm they are raised pointedly, if obliquely. Fr. Flynn challenges her to "out" him if she dares : she will lose her prestigious job in the bargain, he declares. Later, young Donny's mother (Liza Huget) is summoned to the principal's office to be cross-examined about her son's relationship with Fr. Flynn. She tells of her son being beaten regularly by her husband because Donny "is that way" and Dad is apoplectic to learn this as the boy hits puberty. But, defiantly, Mom insists : "You can't hold my boy responsible for what God made him. Sometimes things are not black and white!" she shouts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br />Ultimately Sr. Aloysius seems to get her way. Fr. Flynn's chummy pulpit parables lose out when she tricks him into requesting a transfer to another parish. Earlier he explains his story-telling sermon technique to Sr. James by saying "The truth makes for a bad sermon. It tends to be confusing and have no clear conclusion." To Sr. Aloyisius, however, suspicion is less confusing. By directing how it will run its course, she brings about a clear conclusion even though it is based on a fairy tale she made up for the occasion.</span></div>
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<i>Doubt, A Parable</i> is black box theatre finely wrought by Seven Tyrants and its remarkable production crew. How a 450 square foot stage on the top floor of the Filipponi's notorious Penthouse strip club can embrace an audience so grippingly is a tribute to all concerned. Terrific delivery by all four actors amidst a compelling minimalist set by Lynda and Gary Chu lit "spot on" by Philip Schulz. </span></div>
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Playwright Shanley states "Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite; it is a passionate exercise." </span></div>
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The truth of his observation is being played out not just in The Vatican, but around the world on so many political stages. For a dramatic foray through dialogue about where the truth lies in today's world, this show is designed and delivered with precise, passionate performances that will deserve more than just one nod at next year's Jessie Awards.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #232323;"><u>Particulars</u></span><i style="color: #232323;"> </i><span style="color: #232323;">:</span><i style="color: #232323;"> Script by</i><span style="color: #232323;"> John Patrick Shanley. <i>Produced by</i> Seven Tyrants Theatre. <i>At </i>the Tyrants Studio stage, top floor, The Penthouse Club on Seymour @ Nelson. <i>On until</i> December 14, 2018. <i>Run-time</i> 90 minutes, one intermission. <i>Tickets & schedule</i> information @ <a href="http://tickets.tyrantstudios.com/">Tyrants</a>. </span></span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192738681088034607.post-34365989720961613992018-11-12T14:29:00.005-08:002018-11-12T16:46:16.256-08:00<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All the basic condition theatre requires is that fire last night & those costumes </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">& the human voice & people gathered together.</span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sir Trevor Nunn, Director </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">(<i>Cats</i>, 1981 \ <i>Les Miserables</i>, 1985)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>From the footlights</i></b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><i> :</i></b> Autobiographical shows that involve dying or dead parents are extremely difficult to pull off. Simply because the playwright is so close to their material. Thus being able to make their story come alive in some sort of universal sense without being mawkish or slightly irrelevant is truly a challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Tetsuro Shigematsu's diary <i>Empire of the Son </i>is his ironic title about Shigematsu's Japan-born father, Akira. Not only did Akira not cry sentimentally over his son, he never found a way to tell Tetsuro outright that he loved him. Or his son him. This even though Akira had been a radio personality on both the BBC and the CBC in his time. And the fact Tetsuro was a CBC voice for a bit, too. <i>Son's</i> subtitle is : "Two generations of broadcasters and the radio silence between them." </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In a word, <i>Son</i> is Tetsuro's solo attempt to make sense of his childhood in the final year of his dad's life (Akira died September 18, 2015.) In the writing and performing of his material, Tetsuro hopes to overcome his own learned inability to cry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>How it's all put together</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> :</i></b> </span>Dad Akira was a youth who witnessed his neighbourhood in Kagoshima incinerated by Allied incendiary bombs in June, 1945. Later he would witness the aftermath of the horror of Hiroshima while passing through on a train. (Modestly, he occasioned his ensuing nausea to be from food poisoning, not atomic radiation sickness.) Emigrating to England, Tetsuro was born there before further migration to Canada for the family. </div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tetsuro Shigematsu uses a beaker of water to demonstrate a truth about relations between himself and his father -- all sons with all fathers -- how fluid and changeable they are constantly. </span></div>
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It is stories that tell the story in <i>Son</i>. A granddaughter's apocalytpic phantasy nightmare woven into a grammar school story. A grandson's easy flippancy with Tetsuro that would have been utterly unimaginable with Akira. A camera focuses on miniature toys and other memory pieces and blows them up to assist in the telling of this tale -- a compelling visual effect.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>What the show brings to the stage</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> :</i></b> Pauses, silences, word-gaps -- "Shiggy" as his website nicknames him -- employs these techniques both as dramatic Pinteresque style but also to give the audience pause. Pause to grasp that each of us has a personal and family apocalypse in our hearts that we need deal with, for better or worse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Not all men probably suffer the extent of estrangement and distance young Tetsuro the lippy skateboarder did with his dad. His estrangement was only overcome when Dad's Parkinson's and diabetes and strokes rendered him a 100 pound invalid whom his son would carry like a puppy to the loo for b.m.'s. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While thankful, Dad all the while would protest "<i>Gomen-nasai</i>!" -- I am sorry, I am sorry! This is regret suffered in Japanese culture when an obligation is placed on others. Particularly an obligation occasioned by "<i>mendo--naa</i>" -- one's needy situation. Japanese suffer pain if they feel they are being troublesome or a bother to one's family or neighbours.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Best symbol of the show was the headset of hazard-yellow noise-canceling earphones Akira wore when he was demoted by the CBC due to program funding cuts by Brian Mulroney. From his prestigious announcer's job at CBC Montreal, his union seniority meant he would drift down to a lowly mail room clerk position. "Do not call me '<i>Akira!'" </i>he shouted randomly at folks greeting him during his daily rounds lugging the mail cart. The miniature toy captured by camera depicting this fall from grace was the show's most poignant moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>Who gonna like</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> :</i></b> </span>Regularly punching through the 4th wall to interact with the audience, Tetsuro makes this material engaging no question. Him sitting on the St. Paul's bed patting Dad's knee -- after his sisters had all-three actually climbed into bed together and caressed their ailing father -- this anecdote just about said it <i>all </i>about us men and our intimacy issues.</div>
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Meanwhile the central conceit the playwright focuses on is the question of whether he will actually cry when Dad's ashes finally come home. The question is, at end, irrelevant. Carrying Dad to the loo hour-by-hour for weeks on end says more than a mere tear -- or even a total sobbing catharsis -- ever could, should, might or would.<br />
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Love is doing. Love is now. Love as memory is a sad second best.<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Particulars :</i></b> <i>A remount </i>of its successful 2015-2016 runs at The Cultch, once again <i>Produced by </i>Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (Vancouver) in collaboration with Richmond's Gateway Theatre<i>. </i><i>At </i>Gateway's Studio B. <i>Until</i> November 17. <i>Run-time </i>75 minutes without intermission. <i style="color: #454545; font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Tickets & schedule information</i><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> by phoning Gateway at </span><a href="tel:604.270.1812" style="color: #454545; font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">604.270.1812</span></a><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> or on-line @ </span><a href="http://www.gatewaytheatre.com/" style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #e4af09;">www.gatewaytheatre.com</span></a><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Production crew :</i></b> <i>Writer / Performer</i> Tetsuro Shigematsu. <i>Artistic Producer </i>Donna Yamamoto. <i>Director / Original Concept Dramaturgy</i> Richard Wolfe. <i>Dramaturge </i>Heidi Taylor. <i>Set Design </i>Pam Johnson. <i>Lighting Design </i>Gerald King. <i>Costume Design</i> Barbara Clayden. <i>Sound Design </i>Steve Charles. <i>Audio Dramaturge</i> Yvonne Gall. <i>Technical Director </i>Andrew Pye. <i>Props Master </i>Carole Macdonald. <i>Video Design </i>Remy Siu. <i>Production Manager </i>Adrian Muir. <i>Stage Manager</i> Susan Miyagishima. <i>Documentary Audio </i>Yoshiko & Akira Shigematsu.</span></span></div>
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Baird Blackstonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15139593138482491201noreply@blogger.com0