Month: March 2016

“Ca ira (1) Fin de Louis”, une bombe politico-historique au Centre des Arts.

“Ca ira (1) Fin de Louis”, une bombe politico-historique au Centre des Arts.

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Photo. Elizabeth Carecchio

Ça ira (1), Fin de Louis   est une « fiction politique »  allant de 1787 (la crise financière en France) jusqu’à  1789, la prise de la Bastille. (Programme du Centre national des arts, Ottawa, hiver, 2016, p.5). 

La pièce 1789 de Mnouchkine, qui a transformé le soulèvement populaire de mai ‘68 en métaphore historique nous revient  à l’esprit mais si la conception scénique du Théâtre du Soleil s’inspire des documents de l’époque et situe le public au milieu de l’action comme le fait Pommerat,  les ressemblances s’arrêtent là.

Pour le spectateur canadien, Ça ira (1), fin de Louis, qui dure quatre heures et demie, est  avant tout une  expérience physique et intellectuelle dont nous sortons vidés par   cette succession rapide de débats, de bousculades, de confrontations violentes entre  des idées-choque, et références politico- historiques  qui mettent en jeu l’avenir de la France. Surtout,  nous sommes plongés dans un « monde parallèle » où le passé et le présent se fondent,  comme le titre nous fait basculer entre Edith Piaf et la Terreur.  Les  costumes et le décor dépouillé évoquent le présent alors que le déroulement des événements nous renvoie à la crise financière du XVIIIe siècle,  la confrontation entre les classes sociales et la multiplicité d’opinions qui mettent en relief la prise de conscience du peuple lors du passage du Tiers état à l’Assemblée nationale.  Nous nous croyons entendre des débats des comités du quartier face à l’attitude récalcitrante de la noblesse et du clergé alors que soudain, grâce aux phrases qui sonnent plus contemporaines, nous voilà  en pleine Assemblée nationale de la France actuelle ou même dans la Chambre des Communes du Canada où les députés hurlent, se contredisent, s’interrompent,  applaudissent , insultent leurs collègues, s’interpellent malgré le désarroi du président de la chambre qui a du mal à contrôler la discussion.

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Perfect Pie: disturbing drama which might have benefitted from a more thoughtful staging.

Perfect Pie: disturbing drama which might have benefitted from a more thoughtful staging.

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Photo:   Andrew Alexander

Perfect Pie by Judith Thompson is the troubling portrait of a young woman Patsy trying to find herself after suffering the traumatic experience of a catastrophic train crash which involved her friend Marie and which changed both their lives dramatically. The play pieces together the memories  of events leading up to the horrendous crash, by going back to their childhood, by following the evolution of their friendship. Flashbacks whizz by as memories of childhood are played out between the two young girls and as the two close friends meet in a more recent time frame, the past and the present converge at the height of that traumatic accident, after which Marie mysteriously disappeared. What happened really?   What was the nature of their relationship?  How is Patsy supposed to piece together all the strange events that seem to reveal multiple layers of a deeply ambiguous identity that evolve from the image of an epileptic childhood?

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Through clever staging “Tuesdays With Morrie” becomes a heady meditation on death

Through clever staging “Tuesdays With Morrie” becomes a heady meditation on death

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Photo: director John P. Kelly

In a sense, Tuesdays With Morrie is a “prodigical son” story but from the eyes of the son. Based on the New York Times bestselling book by the same title, this is the theatrical adaptation penned by original author Mitch Albom along with Jeffrey Hatcher. After Albom leaves college and his beloved teacher, Morrie Schwartz, he falls into a pace of life that conflicts with the spirited world-view that Schwartz embodied. Sixteen years later, Albom chances on his former mentor by chance and learns that he has been diagnosed with ALS. Albom starts a reluctant pilgrimage to Schwartz’s house for a series of fourteen Tuesdays that end up being a catalyst for Albom’s own personal transformation.

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TACTICS – Perfect Pie: A treat for theatre goers

TACTICS – Perfect Pie: A treat for theatre goers

Photo courtesy of TACTICS
Photo courtesy of TACTICS

Marie, a newcomer to the village, has epilepsy, which makes her different from everybody else. Village children do not understand her problem, so she is an object of ridicule and utmost disrespect. The only friend who accepts her and always stays by her side is Patsy. After a high school dance one night, Marie disappears. After 16 years, they reunite. On her way to Montreal, Marie, now a celebrity who goes under the name Francesca, stops at her friend’s home in the village of their childhood. Talking about those days, they take the audience to an extraordinarily painful journey involving life filled with sickness, poverty, rejection, abuse and rape.  

 The narrative develops at a perfectly natural pace, gradually adding dramatic elements and building the story about the people on stage and their imperfect world. Every new scene draws the audience deeper into a darkness of ignorance and cruelty that affect the lives of the protagonists. Told in a simple but powerful way, the story has an aura of truth and the power to get emotions boiling over injustices committed in the name of stupidity and prejudice. It knowingly rips apart sensitive issues and slowly analyzes them by adding a building block with each sentence. This beautiful story will not leave anybody indifferent. More likely, after seeing it, you will go to sleep thinking about it, wake up still angry and go through your day with heavy emotions.

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Tuesdays with Morrie at The Gladstone is Emotional, Poignant

Tuesdays with Morrie at The Gladstone is Emotional, Poignant

Photo courtesy of The Gladstone
Photo courtesy of The Gladstone

Director John P. Kelly has built something of a reputation for himself in Ottawa as a master of comedy. His take on a more serious production, Tuesdays with Morrie is thought-provoking, engaging and emotional. Cast and crew come together for a rich production that does credit to the heart warming, true story.

Originally written as a memoir by Detroit sports journalist Mitch Albom, Albom later adapted the play for the stage with co-playwright Jeffrey Hatcher. In it, he narrates his reconnection with Morrie Schwartz, his college sociology professor and friend. They lose touch after Albom graduates and goes on to become an extremely successful sports journalist. He spends his life running from one sports event to another, one deadline to the next. That is, until he sees his old professor as a guest on Nightline. The now 78-year-old has Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) and Albion goes to see him to pay his respects. The two start talking and, little by little, that visit turns into 14 consecutive Tuesdays of sitting and talking with Morrie.

Director Kelly captures the essence of the beautifully simple text down to every last detail. Under his hand, a play that ostensibly talks about death brims with life, joy, and laughter. From the first moment Mitch introduces Morrie on the minimalist stage, the audience feels an instant connection with him. A sense of warmth permeates the entire production, as Kelly lets the sentimentality of the subject speak for itself, but never lets it become overwhelming or cheesy. David Magladry’s simple, but symbolic set and lighting compliment Kelly’s direction, as he helps set the atmosphere perfectly.

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Tuesdays with Morrie: JP Kelly’s finely-tuned production is respectful of both characters and the human condition

Tuesdays with Morrie: JP Kelly’s finely-tuned production is respectful of both characters and the human condition

A quick glance at the storyline might suggest that Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher’s Tuesdays with Morrie is cornier than Kansas in mid-July: Young man strikes up friendship with a professor; young man lets the friendship slide when he ventures out into the big world; no-longer-young man, now a career-obsessed sports journalist, reunites with terminally ill professor and learns life-altering lessons.

That the play is based on Albom’s own story – first released as a memoir of the same name and then as a television movie starring Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria before finally coming to the stage in 2002 – may do little to change cynical first impressions.

But to reduce the play and its current, finely tuned production at The Gladstone to a saccharine-sounding summary would be doing both a serious disservice.

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Tuesdays with Morrie: a strong reading of a work that helps us understand Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Tuesdays with Morrie: a strong reading of a work that helps us understand Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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Photo. Barry Caplan

Director John P. Kelly’s experiment with stage effects brings about a new relationship between Morrie and the theatre. The play is based on the  memoir Tuesdays with Morrie by the newspaper columnist, radio host, television commentator and sports journalist Mitch Albom who lives and works in Detroit.  He and Jeffrey Hatcher adapted Albom’s  book  into a hit play  of the same title, which opened off-Broadway in 2002 and has since been performed in regional theatres across Canada and the USA.  It was performed in French at the Théâtre de l’Ile (Gatineau)  several years ago with Gilles Provost as Morrie and  more recently it became a highly praised performance at the 1000 Islands Playhouse last summer in Gananoque.  

The important thing is that this show is not based on a work of fiction.  It is a true experience of memory, adapted into a play which takes us on a  journey through the final months in the life of Morrie Schwartz, a sociology professor at Brandeis University whom Mitch Albom  knew and admired when he studied at that institution.  Schwartz knew Angela  Davis, Jerry Rubin and all the important protesters during the 1960s neo-romantic revolution.  Morrie also introduced Albom to the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s epitomized by  R.D.  Laing’s book The Divided Self which questioned all the principles of modern psychiatry and the notion of madness based on the traditional views of the family. Schwarz was a product of that period, the thinking that is no longer in vogue these days which is why the teachings and aphorisms of the dying sociologist seem so amazingly open and revolutionary and have given rise to such successful discussion on the stage.

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Le théâtre du Trillium (“On verra”) inaugure la Nouvelle Scène: une beauté architecturale qui va rayonner sur toute la région de l’outaouais.

Le théâtre du Trillium (“On verra”) inaugure la Nouvelle Scène: une beauté architecturale qui va rayonner sur toute la région de l’outaouais.

Photo. Marianne Duval                                  

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On verra est une création de Philippe Landry (auteur) et d’Eric Perron (metteur-en-scène), des artistes francophones émergeants de la région.  Un spectacle composé de fragments, de bouts de dialogues, de rencontres momentanées, de réactions  apparemment spontanées, d’une foule d’éléments qui indiquent un voyeurisme gentil et le tout début d’une réflexion dramaturgique accompagnée d’un travail scénographique minimaliste.   Des tranches de vie  qui révèlent la banalité de la vie d’un jeune couple: leurs conflits, leurs désaccords, les tensions qui les animent, les passions qui les excitent.  À un moment donné il est question d’un enfant mais voilà encore un projet qu’il faudrait définir.

Les deux  comédiens, Gabrielle Lalonde et Maxime Lavoie, incarnent  cette rencontre comme il le faut, surtout Mme Lalonde, en passe de devenir une comédienne hautement intéressante.  On note un début de  réflexion du  metteur en scène sur la manière  la plus efficace d’occuper l’espace de jeu, en faisant intervenir des moments de chorégraphie qui sont encore plus puissants  que la parole de l’auteur.  Le tout continue jusqu’à ce que l’équipe ait compris qu’il fallait s’arrêter pour éviter l’ennui. Pour le reste, “on verra”. Voilà que le titre annonce la suite de cette aventure intime qui va certainement évoluer…..

On verra continue à la Nouvelle Scène jusqu’au samedi, le 12 mars  à 19h30.

Pour information, téléphoner à  613- 789-7643  et consulter le site de la Nouvelle Scène. http://nouvellescene.com/

Upcoming performances at THE GLADSTONE

Upcoming performances at THE GLADSTONE

Tuesdays with Morrie by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom, from the best selling memoir by Mitch Albom March 10-19

Will Somers new solo show written and performed by Pierre Brault, March 24-April 2

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf legendary drama by Edward Albee, April 7-16

Staff Room award-winning Canadian play by Joan Burrows, April 21-30  My Fair Zombie live staging of local musical feature film by Brett Kelly and Trevor Payer

The Marvelous Wonderettes award-winning jukebox musical by Roger Bean, May 11-14

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, award-sweeping Broadway megahit
by Christopher Durang, May 20-28

Orpheus Shines With A Chorus Line

Orpheus Shines With A Chorus Line

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Photo. Alexander Vlad for Alan Dean

In a theatre community where claims to professionalism are sometimes  suspect, Orpheus stands out like shining beacon. It wears its  community-theatre label proudly and without pretension. And it often  puts to shame some of the tacky touring productions that have lumbered   across Canada (and into the NAC) in recent years.
All of which is a preamble to declaring that this organization’s new  production of A Chorus Line is another worthy achievement. It remains  true to the sensibility of the legendary Broadway original, which was  conceived by its first director, the late Michael Bennett, as a   bittersweet valentine to the kids in the chorus line, the ones we tend
to take for granted when we watch a stage musical, but who supply the  essential support system for any successful show.

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