#presentationhouse Archives -

The Magic Hour: It really is

August 4, 2021 by Colin Thomas Leave a Comment

promotional image for The Magic Hour at Presentation House

The library is just one of the trippy sites in The Magic Hour. (Photo by Clayton Baraniuk)

The Magic Hour opened me up and rearranged me. It was extraordinary.

The Magic Hour offers an immersive experience that audience members go through one at a time — or in pairs if you need to. The idea is that you’re finishing a dog walk and re-entering your home during the Covid pandemic. But, when you pass through the first door, you find out that your home is an extraordinary maze of interconnected installations — the entire interior of Presentation House has been repurposed — and every installation offers opportunities to reflect on Covid and climate change.

This isn’t grim; in fact, it’s often transcendentally poetic. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #ElectricCompany, #presentationhouse, #TheMagicHour

The House at Pooh Corner: a cosy address in the Hundred Acre Wood

March 1, 2020 by Colin Thomas Leave a Comment

Carousel Theatre is presenting House at Pooh Corner at the Waterfront Theatre.

Piglet (Victor Mariano), Pooh (Tom Pickett), Roo (Advah Soudack), and Tigger confer. (Photo by Tim Matheson)

My date for The House at Pooh Corner was a four-year-old whose primary language is Turkish. Just before I picked Eren up, along with his dad, he’d had a meltdown. And, despite these challenges he liked the show, which makes my review more or less irrelevant, but I enjoyed it too. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #CarouselTheatre, #presentationhouse, TheHouseatPoohCorner

God’s Lake: Go there

February 21, 2020 by Colin Thomas Leave a Comment

God's Lake is at Presentation House in North Vancouver.

The location stills for God’s Lake give a better sense of the show than the productions stills do.
(Photo by Ziibiwan Mahgagahbow)

It’s a tribute to the power of God’s Lake that, after the applause had died down, the audience sat quietly in the theatre for so long that stage manager Jethelo Espaldon Cabilete felt compelled to tell us that the show was over. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #castlereigh, #godslake, #presentationhouse

Reverberations: intermittent seismic activity

March 9, 2019 by Colin Thomas 1 Comment

Reverberations, a site-specific work by Brian Linds, is playing at Presentation House.

In Reverberations, Brian Linds explores his family history.

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 up in their own spaces in Presentation House. Every unit has a significant sound component. Groups of up to 20 audience members each start in different rooms and move from space to space. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #presentationhouse, #reverberations

Holiday Baking Time: sweet treat for little ones

December 7, 2018 by Colin Thomas Leave a Comment

I haven’t been able to find production photos for this year’s iteration of Holiday Baking Time, but this image kind of captures the tone.

Holiday Baking Time is designed for little kids—I’d say three to six is the core audience—and the only evening shows are on Thursdays, which are billed as “pyjama nights”. So the audience is insanely cute. I particularly liked the little girl in the giraffe onesie who worked her way down the aisle to get closer to the action, then happily frog-hopped her way back up the steps. Two stairs at a time. It was impressive.

There’s plenty of room for that kind of looseness in Presentation House Theatre’s generous production and Holiday Baking Time is an excellent fit for littles and their grown-ups.

It’s a show about—you guessed it—baking. And play. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #HolidayBakingTime, #presentationhouse

Sleeping Beauty Dreams is a bit of a snooze—for this adult at least

January 27, 2018 by Colin Thomas Leave a Comment

Marionetas de la Esquina is collaborating with Presentation House to produce Sleeping Beauty Dreams.

In Sleeping Beauty Dreams, the Princess isn’t allowed outside. For a long time, she doesn’t even have a name.

The best fairytales don’t explain themselves or make arguments. They speak the more compelling and flexible language of symbolism. Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty Dreams reinvents the Sleeping Beauty story as a rational thesis.

In Amaranta Leyva’s version of the tale, Sleeping Beauty is the victim of overprotective parenting. Because the Queen’s daughter, the Princess, has been cursed by a frog, the Queen fears for her child’s life and refuses to let the Princess go outside the castle walls. And she invents a dragon outside those walls to keep the Princess compliant.

For reasons that are less clear, the Queen’s overworked servant Octavia conjures a dragon inside the walls to prevent her son Mateo from following her to her job. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #presentationhouse, #sleepingbeautydreams

The New Conformity: juggling as an exploration of bullying—and, compellingly—physics

November 23, 2017 by Colin Thomas Leave a Comment

Cause & Effect Circus is performing The New Conformity at Presentation House.

The New Conformity tells a story. It’s also about the wonder of the physical world.

There is so much physical beauty in The New Conformity that, watching the show, I found myself moaning.

To be clear, I’m not talking about the three jugglers who perform The New Conformity—although Chris Murdoch, Ryan Mellors, and Yuki Ueda are all handsome, which doesn’t hurt. I’m talking about sculptural beauty. These guys don’t just juggle, they virtually dance. And when they manipulate objects—balls, clubs, and hoops—there’s something profoundly pleasing about the physics. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Theatre Picks Tagged With: #cause&effecttheatre, #presentationhouse, #thenewconformity