The Shoplifters: return it
Morris Panych’s The Shoplifters is so slight that it almost doesn’t exist—although it does contain the beginning of an idea. That idea is that raw capitalism is unjust. Dom, a zealous security guard who’s training in a Superstore kind of place, apprehends a savvy old...
The Amish Project—without the Amish
The Amish Project is a sentimental fictionalization of a tragedy. In 2006, a shooter entered a school in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. He held ten girls hostage and shot eight of them, killing five. The Amish responded with forgiveness, reaching...
Revisor: conceptually seductive, emotionally not so much
I was dazzled by the skill, intellectually intrigued, and emotionally and viscerally removed. With Revisor, writer Jonathon Young and choreographer Crystal Pite sink deep into Nikolai Gogol’s play, which is best known as The Inspector General....
Yoga Play: steady that pose
If only it had a middle. Yoga Play has an enticing beginning and a meaningful conclusion. But, in between, it gets lost in low-stakes plotting. In Yoga Play, American writer Dipika Guha takes aim at the commercialization of an ancient ascetic practice. Think...
Much Ado About Nothing: It’s about more than this
A director needs to create a coherent world for a production. That’s their primary job. But Rebecca Patterson’s take on Much Ado About Nothing is all over the place. Much Ado is an interesting choice for Classic Chic Productions, which mounts all-female shows. The...
True Crime: whydoit whodunnit
The animating argument of True Crime is that audience members are complicit in a moral transgression. I don’t buy it. So, philosophically, the show is boring to me. But True Crime does deliver beautifully worked surfaces. Torquil Campbell, who performs...
Lawsuit Decision: $0.00
On Thursday, January 31, Judge Winston Lee released his decision regarding the lawsuit I filed in small claims court against The Georgia Straight. Judge Lee ruled that, in his view, I was not a dependent contractor at The Straight—which means that I was not in an...
Cabaret: so many spectacular elements
Although it doesn’t have enough emotional depth, this Cabaret is dazzling in many ways. Cabaret is about Clifford Bradshaw, a young American novelist who arrives in Berlin on New Year’s Eve, 1931. Although he’s had sex with men and is conflicted about his orientation,...
The Matchmaker: when it all lines up, it’s fantastic
I went from thinking, “This is going to be a very long night,” to laughing uncontrollably. That is an excellent trajectory. Thornton Wilder wrote his farce The Matchmaker in 1954. It’s probably best known today as the play that Hello, Dolly! is based on. Set in the...
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