Soulpepper opened a run of a revival of their 2019 production of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire at the Young Centre on Tuesday evening. It’s a terrific production and performance but, as usually happens to me with Mr. Williams’ plays, I found myself admiring it more than enjoying it. Showcasing dishonest, violent people living lives of noisy despair without any form of redemption, however brilliantly portrayed, leaves me wondering what the point of it all is.
The Wrong Bashir by Zahida Rahemtulla is currently playing at Crow’s Theatre in a production directed by Paolo Santalucia. The story is set in the Isma’ili community in Toronto and all the families concerned were among those kicked out of Uganda by Idi Amin. Quite a lot of the story concerns Isma’ili religious institutions and practices about which I am woefully ignorant. Not knowing doesn’t detract from the experience of seeing the play and I have used circumlocutions below rather than try and figure out the technical terms used in the play
New, written by Pamela Mala Sinha and directed by Alan Dilworth, is a production by Necessary Angel Theatre Company in association with Canadian Stage and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. It’s currently playing until May 14th at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Now deals with the lives of Bengali immigrants in Winnipeg in 1970/1. The lives of three very different couples are turned upside down by the arrival of the young bride arranged for one of the men by his mother in India.
operaramblings 