BETWEEN BREATHS: WAITING TO EXHALE
It takes too long to land but this production does, finally, make it home. Robert Chafe’s script, Between Breaths, is a meditation on death and joy, confinement and freedom, as embodied in the experience of real-life academic and conservationist Jon Lien. Lien, who...
THE EFFECT: A CONTAMINATED STUDY
I admire so much about this production and many things about the text. That discussion starts in the paragraph that begins “In other ways…” But first I’m going to talk about elements that kept me from fully investing in the script, including what I perceive as the...
DISNEY’S FROZEN, THE BROADWAY MUSICAL: FREEZE-DRIED
Disney’s Frozen, The Broadway Musical is as commercial and superficial as it sounds. It’s also incoherent, which is worth talking about. Because the show’s symbolism is a mess, it doesn’t make sense thematically. Jennifer Lee based her book for the musical on the...
WOMEN OF THE FUR TRADE: Not This Time Either
One of these days, I hope to see a fully realized production of playwright Fraces Končan’s Women of the Fur Trade, a production that might allow me to see the script’s true potential — or lack thereof. This remount of the National Art’s Centre’s interpretation is not...
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM: BEASTLY GOOD
For the second time in 48 hours, I’ve seen a show in which performers previously unknown to me have floored me with their talent. I encourage agents, directors, and everybody who loves good theatre to do their best to see both Rent and now The Animal Kingdom. Glenn...
RENT: VIVA!
Such an extraordinary production! In the lead roles, wildly talented performers —most of whom I’ve never seen before. Such strength and depth in the ensemble. Everybody on the Metro Theatre stage is givin’ ‘er — and they have the chops to deliver. Just wait till you...
A DOLL’S HOUSE: ODDLY CONSTRUCTED
I could not get a bead on Act 1, but I found Act 2 rewarding, which sucks, I guess, for the people who left at intermission. In the theatre, style is often the trickiest thing to get right, and this script exists in a stylistic hall of mirrors. Henrik Ibsen, who wrote...
NEO SOUL TIES (Vancouver Fringe)
You know how, when you go swimming, your body remembers the water for a long time? After I watched the tap-dance show Neo Soul Ties, my body kept thrumming with rhythmic excitement. Neo Soul Ties is exhilarating! And, choreographed by Toronto artist Victoria Miller,...
GOD THE DAUGHTER (Vancouver Fringe)
In her monologue, Patricia van der Meer reveals that, when she was five or six, she believed she was the second coming of Jesus Christ. Then she got a pair of red Buster Brown shoes and loved them so much she realized she was vain — not holy. That’s about it. There’s...
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