Ooga Chaka, written by Ethan Zuchkan, directed by Steven Hao and presented by Pucker’s at the Fringe might be described as a screwball comedy; if balls or screws had been available in the stone age. It’s fast paced and funny and surprisingly affecting.
A version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters opened last night in a collaboration between Hart House Theatre and the Howland Company. It’s described as “Adapted and directed by Paolo Santalucia after Chekhov” . What this means is that is given a contemporary Canadian setting with changed character names and so forth. The structural purpose of each scene, pretty much each speech, remains the same but the words are not a literal translation. And, Alex Vershinin is a woman lieutenant colonel in the RCAF which gives a very different spin to her “affair” with Masha.
operaramblings 