Archives for September 2018

In Les Belles-soeurs, Germaine (France Perras) clings to the dream of material safety. (Photo by Tim Matheson)

As I was watching this production of Les Belles-soeurs, I kept trying to fill in the holes. There are a lot of them, especially in Act 1.

In Michel Tremblay’s 50-year-old play, Germaine Lauzon has just won a million trading stamps. (Stamps like these were part of an early customer-loyalty scheme: you could redeem booklets of them for prizes.) Germaine figures she has enough stamps to refurnish her run-down house and she has her eye on exotic items such as Chinese velvet paintings and ashtray lamps. But the labour involved in sticking a million stamps into booklets is daunting, so Germaine invites over a gang of her female friends and relatives, who are all at least as poor as she is, to help her out—and, perhaps, so that she can gloat. [Read more…]

> David Johnston *

Five actors are arrayed behind a microphone/sound effects table, while a sixth directs from a tech booth. We’re watching a live improvised taping of a detective radio serial that is equal partsnoirand sci-fi. In reality, it is equal parts tentative and awkward.

Noir and sci-fi are such impressively deep genres. Why, oh why would you combine them without a working knowledge of either?

I suppose it’s possible I saw Dyck Spacee on an off night and the basic, uninspired improv was not representative of the show’s potential. But between the scripted and unfunny setup, the inconsistent plotting, and the dozens of thudding jokes, I doubt it.

I did laugh occasionally, in the same way that hurling a jar of marmalade at a ceiling fan would occasionally get some on my toast. Dyck Spacee aims very high and almost nothing sticks.

Remaining performances at the Improv Comedy Institute on September 14 (6 p.m. and 8 p.m.), and 15 (6 p.m. and 8 p.m.)

Tickets

* This is a guest review.

David Johnston is a Vancouver-based actor, aerialist, and writer, not in that order. He recently hailed from the Edmonton Fringe, where he saw many excellent shows and also ate a green onion cake. The green onion cake got three-and-a-half stars. David is a recent graduate of Studio 58, and is currently writing a script about reviews, so this should be a rather meta experience. He’s delighted to join FRESH SHEET for the Vancouver Fringe.

Sign up—free!—for Colin Thomas’s FRESH SHEET and get daily reviews for the first week of the Vancouver Fringe.  

And, if you want to support informed, independent criticism—you know you do—check out Colin’s Patreon campaign.

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> David Johnston

This show is spectacular, by the strictest definition: a spectacle, and not much else.

There’s nothing in the way of plot. This story fragments in this 20-minute-long acrobatics recital range from simplistic (a man watches anime…and then fights an anime character!) to ludicrously insane (so the insurance salesman climbs onto the zombiecoaster…) and it’s unmemorable.

There’s nothing in the way of acting. Every line delivery from this eight-member cast has a rough, stilted feel rarely found outside of fabric softener commercials or porn.

So we’re left with the spectacle, which is unquestionably impressive and beautiful, with backflips and balances and body tosses. Is that enough? Well, there’s a tentativeness to some of the setups and they biffed the timing on a few of the complicated tricks. I’m hypercritical here because when the acrobatics is all there is, it sort of has to be perfect. Which this was not quite.

There’s a way to marry circus and theatre in a wondrous combination. This is not it.

Remaining performances at the Waterfront Theatre on September 15 (10:10 p.m.) and September 16 (5:15p.m.)

Tickets

* This is a guest review.

David Johnston is a Vancouver-based actor, aerialist, and writer, not in that order. He recently hailed from the Edmonton Fringe, where he saw many excellent shows and also ate a green onion cake. The green onion cake got three-and-a-half stars. David is a recent graduate of Studio 58, and is currently writing a script about reviews, so this should be a rather meta experience. He’s delighted to join FRESH SHEET for the Vancouver Fringe.

Sign up—free!—for Colin Thomas’s FRESH SHEET and get daily reviews for the first week of the Vancouver Fringe.

And, if you want to support informed, independent criticism—you know you do—check out Colin’s Patreon campaign.

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