King of the Yees is a muddled fairytale
Leave a Comment If you’re planning to attend King of the Yees, I suggest you arrive at intermission: in terms of the story, the first act is almost entirely irrelevant. In this new script, playwright Lauren Yee offers a playful, heartfelt—and metatheatrical—take on...
Elizabethan drag with a South Asian twist
A loud yes and a quieter no. In 2012, London’s Globe Theatre commissioned The Company Theatre of Mumbai to produce a desi (Indian or South Asian) version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Piya Behrupiya, which translates as “Lover Impersonator”, is the raucously...
Why is there a Terence Rattigan revival? Flare Path doesn’t provide easy answers
Watching this production of Flare Path is a bit like listening to an old vinyl record that’s being played on a faulty phonograph. For much of the first act, the needle keeps popping out of the groove. When the needle settles, in Act 2, there’s some beautiful music. In...
The Flick: time to watch
Look! Look how beautiful and complex human beings are! In Annie Baker’s gorgeous, Pulitzer Prize-winning script The Flick, three employees of a movie theatre hang around, clean up, and talk. It’s minimalist and it’s slow—it goes on for three hours including...
Fired from The Georgia Straight
I just got fired from the Georgia Straight. Thirty years*. No warning. No compensation. Last Tuesday, I emailed arts editor Janet Smith telling her what shows I thought I should review. Instead of the usual confirmation from Janet, I received an email from editor...
The innocence of Helen and Edgar
Its seams are showing. Helen & Edgar, which is raconteur Edgar Oliver’s account of the gothic Southern childhood he spent with his sister and their mentally ill mother, starts off spectacularly well. For one thing, there’s Oliver’s voice, which is simultaneously...
“A Good Way Out” is a good start
Leave a Comment Emerging playwright Cara Norrish has done a find job of crafting some of the basics in A Good Way Out, but there’s not enough there yet. It’s like she’s got the frame up, but there’s no cladding. In A Good Way Out, Joey is ensnared in gang life....
Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award: Vancouver Fringe (2016)
Leave a Comment We did it. Last night, Kathleen Oliver and I gave out the Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award at the wrap-up celebration of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. We had a great list of nominees: The After After Party, The Ballad of Frank Allen, Charlatan!,...
The Orbweaver casts its spell at the Vancouver Fringe (2016)
Leave a Comment The Orbweaver is so good that having seen it makes me feel better about being alive. Seriously. It’s fantastic. Written and directed by Paula Zelaya Cervantes, The Orbweaver tells the magical realist story of Elena and Quiron, starting when they’re...
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