New Societies: fresh theatre
As I’m writing this, Re:Current Theatre’s New Societies is finishing up the last matinée of its run at Vancouver’s rEvolver Festival. The good news is that it’s going to be touring in Ontario this summer. I knew when I booked this show that its short Vancouver run was...
Vietgone: Wait for it
Stylistically, Vietgone is a huge mountain to climb. This production only gets part way up. But it’s an interesting evening — and provocative in productive ways. Off the top, an actor impersonating the play’s author Qui Nguyen tells us that this script is definitely...
Yellow Fever: oddly conceived, well performed
There’s some very nice work in the Firehall Art Centre’s production of Yellow Fever, but, under Donna Spencer’s direction, the production always feels slightly out of focus. Rick Shiomi’s film-noir style script is about Sam Shikaze, a classically hardboiled detective...
The Mountaintop: thrilling peaks (and some valleys)
For me, the doorway to this production didn’t open until about halfway through. At that point, it became transcendent — intermittently. By the end, I was moved. In Katori Hall’s 2009 script, she imagines Martin Luther King Jr. in his motel room on April 3, 1968, the...
Lampedusa: More realistic hope might be more robust
This isn’t going to be a popular opinion, but I think Lampedusa is naïve. That said, it’s about important things and it’s getting a handsome production from Pi Theatre. In his script, playwright Anders Lustgarten weaves together two narratively unrelated monologues....
Himmat: compassionate storytelling — that could go deeper
There are significant successes in Gavan Cheema’s Himmat — and there’s room for improvement as this young playwright moves forward. So, yeah, this review is going to be celebratory — and a little teachy. You’ve been warned. The script’s greatest gift is compassion....
Invisible: Or just empty?
Get a writer already. Jesus. The Invisible: Agents of Ungentlemanly Warfare is gobsmackingly well designed by Brette Gerecke and you could hardly ask for a more talented or committed cast. But Jonathan Christensen’s script for this musical is a disaster. Virtually...
White Noise: my contribution
White Noise is just another pop culture, truth-and-reconciliation comedy: same old, same old ... I’m kidding! How many of those have you seen? Taran Kootenhayoo’s White Noise is completely frickin’ original. It has a vision. And it comes with the slap of urgency. When...
‘da Kink in my Hair: admittedly, not MY hair
There are reviews I’ve been more eager to write. ‘Da Kink in my Hair is almost entirely about the experience of Black Canadian women. I’m a white guy — and I don’t think this musical is well constructed. So boo hoo me; or shut up me: I get the legitimacy of both...
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