Riffing off Shakespeare

Back to Summerworks on Wednesday night, this time at the Theatre Centre, to see a double bill of works derived (loosely) from Shakespeare plays.  Both works were experimental but in utterly different ways.  Lady M (Margaret) is 60 minutes of carefully crafted physical theatre intended for both Deaf and hearing audiences with great attention to detail and a minimalist aesthetic.  i am your spaniel, or, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare by Gislina Patterson is longer at around 90 minutes and is a mad cap series of vignettes exploring Shakespeare’s punctuation, patriarchy, capitalism, life as a trans person and yoghourt among other things.

01 Lady M (Margaret)_Photo by Dahlia Katz

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Mysterious Barricades

Today saw a dawn to dusk livestream of concerts from St. John’s to Victoria; presented as Mysterious Barricades, aimed at raising awareness about suicide, suicide prevention and mental health generally.  I doubt there’s anybody whose life has not been touched by this issue, certainly not mine.  Anyway I made it out to Walter Hall for Toronto’s sixty minute contribution organized by Monica Whicher.  It was heartening to see so many artists of the highest calibre making their talents available for the cause.  So, not a review but heartfelt thanks to John Gregg, Russell Braun, Carolyn Maule, Nathalie Paulin, Norine Burgess, Judy Loman, Marie Bédard, Steven Philcox, Turkwaz, Andrea Levinson and the Mysterious Barricades Toronto Chorale and, of course, Monica for organizing.  One day perhaps…