Slug Meal

Slug Meal by Phil LatourSlug Meal, part of Summerworks, is a one woman show presented by Camille Huang at Theatre Passe Muraille.  It’s a sort of dance X performance art piece inspired by unfortunate childhood memories of her mother’s eggplant dish, Western ideas of immigrant food and the idea of “dirt” as “matter out of place”

The highly athletic Huang performs an hour long routine, occasionally talking to herself in (I guess) Chinese and accompanied by a soundtrack that ranges from body noises to a kind of Chinese muzak.  Along the way she: Continue reading

McGill interns Turn the Screw

The second performance of Opera 5’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw on Thursday night was sung by the “apprentice” cast drawn from Opera McGill.  Curiously, it was an all female cast with women singing both Miles and Peter Quint.

Opera 5, The Turn of the Screw, Emily Ding Photography (Patricia Yates_ Peter Quint, Bri Jones_ Miss Jessel)

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A cunning Turn of the Screw

It’s always been a bit of a mystery to me why Britten’s chamber operas are not done more often by smaller opera companies.  They use a modest orchestra (13 players for The Turn of the Screw), have equally modest sized casts, no chorus and they are in English.  They offer the chance to perform a work as written at much lower cost than grand opera and without the compromises inherent in downscaling works written on a larger scale.

Opera 5, The Turn of the Screw, Emily Ding Photography (Asitha Tennekoon_ Peter Quint_Prologue)

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Iron Chef d’Orchestre

The second Tapestry show this week which played Wednesday night at Theatre Passe Muraille was Jennifer Tung’s Iron Chef d’Orchestre.  Knowing Jennifer’s kitchen prowess I expected this to be at least as food inspired as the previous night’s Le Kitchen Party but it wasn’t.

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Le Kitchen Party

On Tuesday night Theatre Passe Muraille hosted the first of two “music and food” shows curated by members of the Women in Musical Leadership programme under the auspices of Tapestry Opera.  Juliane Gallant trawled her Acadian roots to create Le Kitchen Party.fun.

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Woking Phoenix

Woking Phoenix is a play developed and performed by Silk Bath Collective.  It opened at Theatre Passe Muraille on Thursday night.  It deals with that perennial Canadian issue; the immigrant experience.  In this case it’s essentially a single Chinese mother with three children running a Chinese restaurant in small town Ontario.  So one has the usual dynamics of kids growing up coupled with being “different” in a very homogenous community.  It’s a co-creation of Aaron Jan and Gloria Mok , who also co-directed, and Besse Cheng who appears in the play as the elder daughter.

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April preview

april24Here are some upcoming shows for April:

Music

  • First, a late March Show.  Yu Dun and Royce Vavrek’s Pulitzer winning opera Angel’s Bone, about human trafficking, comes to Harbourfront Centre Theatre March 22nd to 24th.  More information here.
  • On the 6th the Happenstancers have a concert; Being Pascal Dusapin, at Redeemer Lutheran.  We are promised a “a portrait concert in palindromic form” featuring music by Dusapin, Kaija Saariaho and Samy Moussa.

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No One’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart

Charlie Petch’s No One’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart is a one man show about his experiences as a hot dog vendor in Toronto and his subsequent life working as a 911 dispatcher, on the front desk of an ER and as a hospital bed allocator.  It’s currently being presented by Theatre Passe Muraille and Erroneous Productions.

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Collage and poster design by Emily Jung | Pictured: Charlie Petch

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Indie Operas

angelsboneComing up later this month is Angel’s Bone; an opera with music by Du Yun and a libretto by the amazing Royce Vavrek.  It’s a chamber opera for amplified voices and small ensemble.  The plot concerns two angels who fall to earth and are ruthlessly exploited by otherwise unremarkable people.  It’s a commentary on human trafficking and the exploitation of youth.  There’s a really good looking cast and it will play at Harbourfront Centre March 22nd to 24th.  It’s already attracted largely positive reviews in New York and Vancouver.  More details including casting and ticketing here. Continue reading

Migraaaants

Migraaaants is a theatre piece by Matei Visniec translated by Nick Awde and currently playing at Theatre Passe Muraille in a production directed by Siavash Shabanpour.  The programme describes it as a “dark comedy”.  I’m not so sure.  It certainly has absurdist elements and is occasionally funny in a very uncomfortable way but “comedy” I’m not so sure.  Besides, the subject matter; forced migration and people trafficking into and around the EU, is seriously grim.  The “dark” part is on the money.

Migraaaants promo photo by Zahra Salecki

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