Natasha Mumba’s play Copperbelt which had its premiere at Soulpepper on Tuesday evening is a very interesting work. On one level it’s a tight, well crafted drama in the “dysfunctional family” genre so beloved by playwrights. Intergenerational and gender role conflicts abound. But beneath that there’s something much more interesting.
In 1621 one Elizabeth Sawyer, inevitably a poor, old woman, was hanged as a witch in London. A play, The Witch of Edmonton, loosely based on the trial and events leading up to it, hit the boards shortly after. It was a popular success. Now Jen Silverman has taken the framework of that Jacobean tragicomedy and grafted onto it a critique of late stage capitalism. The result is Witch, currently playing at Soulpepper in a production directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster.
Here’s a few things to look forward to next month. Weirdly everything I know about so far is in the first half of the month so I’ll maybe do a supplemental for the back half in a couple of weeks time. Continue reading
I’ve only just found out about a couple of events this week that may be of interest.
Soulpepper has a free showing of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 masterpiece The Seventh Seal. It’s on Wednesday, November 12th at 7pm and it’s free. If you have seen The Comeuppance and the movie you’ll get the connection! If you haven’t seen the movie I would say it’s one of the most important post war films. It has a fantastic performance by Max von Sydow as a world weary crusader and an equally fine one by Bengt Kerot as Death. The cinematography, by Gunnar Fischer is exceptional. No gimmicks. No special effects. Just a very beautiful and moving film.
Then on Sunday November 16th at 7.30pm at Arrayspace Lindsay McIntyre is performing and producing Morton Feldman’s Three Voices in which the live singer works with two pre-recorded vocal tracks. It’s a most interesting hour long piece. I recently reviewed a recording of it by Dory Hayley for La Scena Musicale. Tickets for that are “at the door” or here.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ The Comeuppance is playing at Soulpepper in a production directed by Frank Cox-O’Connell. It’s an enormously ambitious play. It takes the relatively banal setting of a pre-party for a high school 20th reunion and uses it to explore a wide range of issues concerning memory, personal growth (or not), what we keep and what we leave behind and, ultimately, our relationship with Death.
Here’s what’s coming up next month as best I know.
Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin is a rarity. It’s a serious play with an overwhelmingly female ensemble cast that looks at issues of class, gender, power and authority almost entirely through a female lens. It’s hard hitting, sometimes violent and often shocking which makes for compelling theatre. It opened on Thursday evening in the Baillie Theatre at Soulpepper in a co-pro by Soulpepper, Crow’s and the Howland Company, directed by Weyni Mengesha.
Life slowly returns to some version of normal.. Here’s what I’m seeing so far for Sptember.
Old Times by Harold Pinter is currently playing at Soulpepper in a production directed by Peter Pasyk. It premiered in 1971 in London and i’s very much an artefact of its time and place besides being decidedly weird in a Pinteresque way. A well off married couple living somewhere fairly remote on the English coast are being visited by the woman who, twenty years earlier, was the wife’s roommate when they were both young “secretaries” in London but who is now married to a Sicilian aristo.
After the relative busyness of July; Fringe, TSM, August really does look pretty quiet. There are a few things on though:
operaramblings 