Chimerica: how many hours do you have to spare?
I thought it was never going to end. Then, after two hours, the lights finally came up—but it was only intermission. We had another hour and a half to go. Playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica is about the current murky codependence between China and the States. To...
The Orchard (After Chekhov): hobbled by imitation
There are good bits, but overall it’s a mess. And the primary faults are in the writing and direction. In The Orchard (After Chekhov), Sarena Parmar, who grew up in Kelowna, resets Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in the Okanagan in 1974. The central...
A Vista: a trip
Hunker down because this is going to sound dull at first, but it's not; I rarely experience such aesthetic exhilaration at the theatre. A Vista consists of three parts: “Full Drops”, which I saw last night; “Portals”, which is playing tonight (March 21), and...
Marine Life: a bit watered down
Guest review by David Johnston There are several plays inside Ruby Slippers Theatre's production of Marine Life. I even enjoyed one of them. My favorite Marine Life is the screwball romantic comedy. Here, lawyer Rupert (Sebastien Archibald) and activist Sylvia...
Gross Misconduct: the writer overplays her hand
This play could have been more than it is. In Meghan Gardiner’s Gross Misconduct, Deke, who’s been in jail for a long time—and who, incredibly, seems to have had a two-bunk cell to himself for years—finds out that he’s got a cellmate all of a sudden: a young guy named...
Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. Why?
There’s nothing seriously wrong with Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. And there are some things that are majorly right. I’m just not super clear on why it exists. In this hour-long show, writers Ryan Gladstone, Katherine Sanders, and Bruce Horak imagine what Jesus might...
Reverberations: intermittent seismic activity
One of the sections in Reverberations, an installation/performance piece by Brian Linds, knocked me out. In Reverberations, Linds, who has worked primarily as a sound designer for the past several years, explores his family history through five pieces that are all set...
Jesus Freak (or Atheists are Assholes)
There are several plays going on at once in Jesus Freak. One of them is good. In the story, a liberal family gathers for Easter weekend in their getaway home on one of the Gulf Islands. Susan and Alan’s adult daughter Clara, who is pursuing post-graduate studies in...
The Good Bride: not so good
I took little naps in the blackouts between scenes: when the lights went down, so did my eyelids. That’s because sweet nothing happens for at least the first 85 minutes of The Good Bride’s 100-minute runtime. And I’m not just talking about the dearth of plot; there is...
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