Archives for January 2020

Gardens Speak: Listen

PuSh is presenting Tanya El Khoury's Gardens Speak at the Roundhouse.

In Gardens Speak, participants negotiate their own relationships to the text. (Photo by Jessie Hunniford)

A handful of times during Tanya El Khoury’s sound installation Gardens Speak, I had to slow myself down, to stop, to let the gravity of the information I was receiving land, and to honestly consider my response to it.

That means that Gardens Speak was doing its job.   [Read more…]

Noises Off: Right On

 

The Arts Club is producing David Frayn's Noises Off at the Stanley Theatre.

Actors appalled by escalating calamity. (Photo of Emma Slipp, Jovanni Sy, Tess Degenstein, Colleen Winton, and Charlie Gallant by David Cooper)

There’s something sublime about farce when it’s well done and this Arts Club production of Noises Off is very well done. [Read more…]

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story – hilarious, devastating, political

2b theatre, Touchshtone and the Freddy Wood are co-presenting Old Stock at the PuSh Festival.

Ben Caplan summons superhuman energy in Old Stock (Photo by Fadi Acra)

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story is equal parts outraged and outrageous, compassionate and hilarious — klezmer concert and play. [Read more…]

Unikkaaqtuat: a gift from the North

The Cultch and DanceHouse are presenting Unkkaaqtuat at the Vancouver Playhouse.

This raft doesn’t always stay afloat. (Photo by Alexandre Galliez)

Unikkaaqtuat, which is billed as a circus, is a sincere and generous gift from the rich traditions of several northern peoples. From my southern settler perspective, some of the show is gorgeous and some of it is boring. [Read more…]

House and Home: a recommended short-term rental

The Firehall Arts Centre is presenting Jenn Griffin's House and Home.

Jillian Fargey and Andrew Wheeler both rock in House and Home (Photo by Reznek Creative)

It’s kind of a shapeless bag of jewels, but it’s still a bag of jewels. [Read more…]

Gramma: this 75 minutes could age you

Pacific Theatre is presenting Maki Yi's play Gramma.

(Photo of Maki Yi by Emily Cooper)

Playwright and solo performer Maki Yi means well with Gramma and it starts off promisingly, but it quickly becomes very boring. [Read more…]

Infinity: actually 90 (very mixed) minutes

Infinity by Hannah Moscovitch is at The Cultch

Annoyingly, this isn’t a production photo, but it does show you Amy Rutherford and Jonathon Young.
(Photo by Dhalia Katz)

Two of the three characters in Infinity claim that they can hear time. I listened very closely, but I couldn’t hear the play’s heartbeat. Hannah Moscovitch’s script is emotionally alienating and its ambitious themes are underdeveloped. But I enjoyed it — because the character voices are fantastic and, under Ross Manson’s direction, this production is exquisitely tailored. [Read more…]

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