The Enemy…is too easy to spot
God save good art from simplistic politics. Donna Spencer has adapted Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, which premiered in 1882, to create The Enemy—and by “adapted” I mean “shrunk”. In Ibsen’s story, Dr. Stockmann, the medical officer for a new spa in southern...
Beautiful: the Carole King Musical is solid jukebox—and that’s okay by me
There are only about fifteen minutes of plot in Beautiful: the Carole King Musical: it’s more of a themed concert than a musical play. And the rotation of hits is relentless. But the songs are fantastic and the production is as slick as can be. The set-up is simple....
Bacio Rosso: what price entertainment?
There’s some good fun to be had at Bacio Rosso, the cabaret circus that’s playing in a tent in Queen Elizabeth Park. But you have to pay for your fun in more ways than one. I’ve never been to an event like Bacio Rosso before. It’s more intimate than some circus-style...
Three Winters: my chilly response
There seem to be at least a couple of good stories in the source material for Three Winters, but writer and director Amiel Gladstone hasn’t figured out how to tell them. Gladstone based Three Winters on his grandfather’s memories of being a prisoner of war in Stalag...
SmallWaR: sustained passages of theatrical brilliance
Check out the texture of this piece. (In Vancouver, SmallWaR is being performed in English). There are passages in SmallWaR that are as exquisite as anything I’ve seen. The opening is a stunner. Valentijn Dhaenens, the Belgian artist who created SmallWaR, also...
David Petersen’s memorial
Here’s some information about David Petersen’s memorial that I didn't get in time to include in this morning's FRESH SHEET. It will be held on Sunday, November 25, at PAL (581 Cardero Street) starting at 4:00 p.m. David’s family is asking folks, if they’re able, to...
Red Birds: twitter-brained
Aaron Bushkowsky’s new script Red Birds is flat-out dumb and—very occasionally—funny. It’s tricky to talk about this play without giving away major plot points, but I’ll do my best. In Red Birds, Carol, who has just turned 50, contacts her birth mother Hannah for the...
The Believers Are But Brothers: See it, believe it, and think really hard
The Believers Are But Brothers is about the internet and it’s like the internet: it’s bursting with information and I’m not sure how to make sense of it, but I find it really fucking stimulating. In The Believers Are But Brothers—the title comes from the Quran—writer...
Backbone: this show has plenty of it
Backbone made me really, really happy in my body. Another way of saying that is that, for about the first ten minutes of the show, I was moaning and gasping and—let’s face it—talking as if I was having sex with the entire company of ten acrobats and two musicians....
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