Month: September 2014

Tosca: A Captivating Performance

Tosca: A Captivating Performance

Photo credit: Opera Lyra/Andrew Alexander
Photo credit: Opera Lyra/Andrew Alexander

Though Puccini’s Tosca,  an opera based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 play, La Tosca,  was first performed at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900, it holds a timeless relevance. The opera lays bare themes of abuse of power, questions religious institution, and effectively explores the reaches human passion. Here, under the stage direction of Guy Montavon and with a powerful operatic trio at its helm, Tosca is highly dramatic, visually stunning, and a thoroughly beautiful showcase of this classic opera. It is playing at the NAC until September 13.

Tosca is set in Rome, against the turbulent political backdrop of the French Revolutionary Wars. Opera singer Tosca and her lover Mario Cavaradossi, an artist, are caught in the web of the cruel chief of secret police, Baron Scarpia. Driven by insatiable lust and want of power, Scarpia locks his sights on Tosca and begins a ruthless game of manipulation.

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The Lights of Shangri-La. Well written play brought to life by strong direction.

The Lights of Shangri-La. Well written play brought to life by strong direction.

Returning to an uncomplicated childhood is a way of dealing with present crises and clarifying the future. Because the family cottage was a special place for siblings Crockett and Pen Sumner when they were young, revisiting it seems the right place to complete the circle of life. This is the premise behind The Lights of Shangri-La by David Whilteman, a new work that focuses on various facets of love.

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Shaun Toohey and Cathy Nobleman

The two particularly well-drawn characters at the centre of the drama give Shaun Toohey as Crockett and Cathy Nobleman as Pen numerous ways to connect — and they do. Toohey is first class in presenting Crockett as a man submerging his insecurities and loneliness beneath a glaze of preening performance, while Nobleman gives Pen a motherly tenderness in caring for her brother, marred only by an occasionally irritating whine, while she tries to tidy up the loose ends of her life and ensure the safety of her family.

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The Lights of Shangri-La. Outstanding Performances Highlight New Play.

The Lights of Shangri-La. Outstanding Performances Highlight New Play.

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Ottawa dramatist David Whiteman has created a trio of beautifully-drawn characters in his new play, The Lights Of Shangri-La. Thematically, this piece may have little new to say: its main narrative thrust stems from the fact that its two principals are gearing up to make painful revelations about themselves to others, and have trouble doing so — and really, that’s a pretty ho-hum device these days. Nevertheless, when it comes to character and dialogue, the play shows real strengths, and these are well-served in director Sarah Hearn’s discerning production.

The evening is highlighted by a terrific performance from Shaun Toohey, as Crockett Sumner, a guy who may have given up his acting career but who still feels compelled to make every moment of his waking life a performance. Crockett is gay, somewhat estranged from his male lover, a policeman named Ilya, and still in denial when it comes to admitting that he’s now HIV positive. Toohey’s Crockett is sharp-tongued, self-admiring and often insufferable, but the performance also offers glimpses of a tormented narcissist unable to drop the mask.

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Tosca: Opera Lyra continues in the right direction

Tosca: Opera Lyra continues in the right direction

Photo credit: Opera Lyra/Andrew Alexander
Photo credit: Opera Lyra/Andrew Alexander

One of my all-time favorite operas, Puccini’s Tosca, speaks to us, not only through some of Puccini’s most beautiful music and memorable arias, but also through the tale of tyranny and unrestrained lust in a turbulent time, which is so familiar to all generations. Based on Victorien Sardou’s dramatic play La Tosca, this timeless piece of art deals with the lowest and the highest aspects of human nature. Time-wise it takes less than two days – according to Sardou just between the afternoon of June17th and early morning of 18 June 1800. When the Kingdom of Naples’s control of Rome is threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy, love, courage and political repression intertwine in 24 hours of harsh reality.

The historical background coupled with the fact that the action is set in three still existing Roman locales – act one is set in the Church of Sant’Andrea delle Valle, act two in the Palazzo Farnese, and act three in the Castel Sant’Angelo – bring this opera closer to reality than any other operatic work. Of course, the very contemporary construction of the story helps, as well. It has a movie-like flow: romantic introduction (Tosca’s entrance in the church in the moment when Mario Cavaradossi is helping a runaway political prisoner); thriller-like development (Tosca spots a knife and kills Baron Scarpia); and a tragic culmination (the betrayed promise of false execution and free passage out of Rome, which brings the death of two lovers).

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Kathi Langston won the prize for best female performance at the Atlantic Fringe!

Kathi Langston won the prize for best female performance at the Atlantic Fringe!

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Photo Julie Laurin.

Kathi Langston and Megan Piercey Monafu (the playwright) took their show “Mabel,s Last Performance” to the Halifax Fringe where Kathi was just declared  best female performer

Congratulations Kathi!

Mabel’s Last performance with Kathi Langston. Photo: Julie Laurin.

Reviewed by Kate Watson at the Fringe

Kathi Langston gives a riveting performance as an aging actor facing the descent into the depths of dementia. Her face is a canvas that displays the most subtle shifts of emotion, from the utter elation that happy memories bring, to the clouds of confusion and doubt that scuttle across her mind. Her physicality shows Mabel’s state of mind in the bend of her spine or the skip in her step. The subject matter of the play is somber, but there are lovely moments of lightness and humour. An amazing performance in a play that beautifully explores a difficult subject.

Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax.

Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax.

Notes by Patrick Langston.  Running Aug. 28-Sept 7, this year’s Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax features about 60 companies and 300 shows. Most of the companies seem to be from Nova Scotia although the program fails to identify the origin or, frequently, even the name of the company (the website appears to have most of the missing information but is cumbersome).

Ottawa shows include Kavalier’s Kuriosities (Dead Unicorn Ink) and Mabel’s Last Performance (written by Megan Piercey Monafu and performed by Kathi Langston).

Unlike the centralized Ottawa Fringe Festival, venues in Halifax are widely disbursed. That’s a plus in that the city’s attractiveness makes the travelling around a pleasure but a minus in that the festival has no physical focus or, as far as I could determine, anywhere that artists and audiences can readily gather – somewhere like, say, the Ottawa fringe’s popular courtyard.

That absence of a physical centre also militates against the excitement that typifies a centralized festival where attendees constantly bump into each other and talk about shows. You can always text, of course, but that’s no match for face-to-face chatter.

Even so, the 24-year-old festival pulls in over 10,000 patrons annually and, with admission to shows costing as little as $3, it’s eminently affordable.

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“Waiting for the Parade” at 1000 Islands Playhouse

“Waiting for the Parade” at 1000 Islands Playhouse

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Photo. Barbara Zimonick.

“Waiting for the Parade” by John Murrell has become a Canadian classic. First produced in Calgary in 1977, the play looks at WWII through the eyes of five women on the home front, their relationships with each other and with their families. The play’s structure is flowing and cinematic, consisting of slice of life vignettes and presentational monologues. These are connected by songs and sometimes dances of the period that also allow for minimal costume changes and changes of mood.

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Stratford Ends Its Season On A High Note with The Beaux Stratagem:

Stratford Ends Its Season On A High Note with The Beaux Stratagem:

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Photo: Michael Cooper

STRATFORD — We’re only minutes into the Stratford Festival’s splendid revival of George Farquhar’s 1707 comedy, The Beaux Stratagem when we’re presented with the first of many sublimely funny moments.

Mike Shara (extreme right of the photo)  one of those rare actors who can wear fancy dress with confidence, is an amiable opportunist named Aimwell whose mission in life is to find and marry a wealthy heiress. At this moment, he’s in an inn and brooking danger to his health by sampling a flagon of the local ale. Shara’s reaction to his first taste of this lethal brew is all flaying limbs and gasping, gulping horror — yet it’s carried out with the kind of spontaneity that underlines this fine actor’s mastery of physical comedy.

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