Tag Archives: the theatre centre

Versus

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Versus-PresentationVersus is a one man show (more or less) by Adam Lazarus about a day in the life of the rather unfortunate (if distressingly normal) Gerald Bloom and worse the day is his birthday.  It’s part of Summerworks and playing at the Theatre Centre.  While it is mostly a monologue, Lazarus gets assistance from Nicholas Eddie and Irene Ly who do rather more than shift props.  He also ropes in audience members, from time to time, to, for example, make him a smoothie or clean up dog poo.  If being acutely embarassed is not your thing then don’t sit in the front row! Continue reading →

Mad Madge

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How different were sensibilities in seventeenth century England (at least after the Restoration) to contemporary mores?  Perhaps less than one might think.  Unless you are a woman.  And you want to be famous.  And you aren’t a queen.  All of which presents a problem for young Margaret who leaves her dull, impoverished, gentry family to try her luck at court just as Cromwell and co finally get around to giving Charles I a rather drastic haircut.

1 Rose Napoli in Mad Madge - Photo by Dahlia Katz

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As sketchy as it gets

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desktop_small_fwah_Lou_Laurence_-_9_16_-_Photo_by_Zoe_Brisson_TsavoussisYou might have noticed I’ve been expanding my horizons a bit recently.  Saturday night was no exception.  I was at The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival at the Theatre Centre for a double bill of sketch comedy.  I don’t think I’ve seen sketch comedy live since university so I really didn’t know what to expect.

We were in the BMO Incubator which sounds like the sort of place one would clone investment bankers rather than see a show but whatever.  The first shock/surprise was the MC for the evening.  He was trying so hard to create “atmosphere”.  It was weirdly like a concert at the Zoomerplex only more so.  You know like when some hapless stage manager comes out and does a sort of Kermit impersonation… “Let’s hear it for Mozart’s Piano Sonata No.16 in C major, K.545.. YEAH”…CLAP, CLAP, CLAP.  It was like that but with dancing and more clapping. Continue reading →

On the Other Side of the Sea

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Aluna Theatre’s production of Jorgelina Cerritos’ On the Other Side of the Sea (translated from Spanish by Dr. Margaret Stanton and Anna Donko) opened at The Theatre Centre last night.  Cerritos is from El Salvador and the play is set on a beach somewhere in that part of the world.  There are two characters (three if you count the sea).  Dorothea is a no longer young civil servant sent from the capital to a remote fishing village to issue birth certificates, ID cards and the like.  Every day she sets up her desk on the beach but she has no clients until the Fisherman arrives.  He has come from the Other Side of the Sea in his rowing boat.  He needs a birth certificate; “something that shows who he is”,  but has none of the information needed for Dorothea to issue one.  She gets angry at his bugging her day after day; especially as he is her only client and she can’t do anything for him. They quibble about the possibility of names (he wants his ID to read “Fisherman OftheSea”) and argue the finer points of grammar concerning what may, or may not be, possible.  This is often very funny but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Bea Pizano and Carlos Gonzalez-Vio in The Other Side of The Sea_photo by Jeremy Mimnaugh_4808

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February 2024 – mostly theatre

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feb2024theatreHere’s a round up of February shows not previously mentioned; mostly straight theatre.

  • Factory Theatre has two shows.  Rockabye by Joanna Murray-Smith deals with the travails of a female rock star who must reinvent herself before age pushes her onto the casino circuit.  That’s on the Main Stage from January 26th to February 11th.  Then on the 23rd and 24th illusionist Nick Wallace has a one man show in the Studio Theatre.

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Letters from Max

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Necessary Angel Theatre Company’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s Letters From Max, a ritual opened at The Theatre Centre on Wednesday night.  It’s based on the correspondence and relationship between Sara Ruhl; a middle aged academic, mother of three, and Max Ritvo; her student and aspiring poet/playwright, 20s with a persistent and very nasty cancer.  For almost two hours the characters exchange poems, thoughts, philosophy and more while Max tries to fulfil those dreams we all have when we are young against the backdrop of knowing he probably won’t live to, while Sara gets on with being a middle class mom.

LETTERS FROM MAX, A RITUALPerformed by Maev Beaty and Jesse LaVercombe Photos by Dahlia Katz Set _ Costume Design by Michelle Tracey Lighting Design by Rebecca Picherack Sound Design by Debashis Sinha_(5)

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work.txt

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work.txt by Nathan Ellis is an interactive, participatory theatre piece that explores work. art and the end of the world.  There are no actors, except for the audience and whoever is pushing the buttons that move things along.  There’s a computer screen.  It instructs the audience what to do, what to say, what to sing.  It asks for volunteers.  But the volunteers don’t know whether they will be given a task that lasts seconds or whether they will play a major role in the unfolding drama.  One volunteer becomes the principal protagonist of the show.  They alone have a name.  But I’m jumping ahead.  First we must create the city where millions go to places called “workplaces” to do stuff called “work”.  We do this with Jenga blocks.  It’s fun and looks cool.  But back to our protagonist.

building

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Riffing off Shakespeare

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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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L-E-A-K

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_ 2 legs en l_aire“An absurdist erotic lesbian love letter to the ocean” is how the programme describes Sara Porter’s show which opened last night at The Theatre Centre.  It sums it up pretty well.  Geographically it takes from a cow pond in Albertas to the Bay of Fundy and temporally from the creation of the Earth and the Moon to the present.  And there’s lots of water. Continue reading →

Prophecy Fog

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Jani Lauzon’s new piece Prophecy Fog at the Theatre Centre is a fascinating and very personal piece.  I write “very personal” because it’s obviously very personal to her but also because I experienced it in a way that I’m sure was not the same as any one else in the room and I suspect that will be true for many people, perhaps most, perhaps all.

ProphecyFog-photobyDahliaKatz-1483

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