La Résistible Ascension d’Arturo UI, à la Comédie française

By Capital Critics Circle | April 19, 2017

12 avril 2017— Par Jean-Pierre Han —

La Résistible Ascension d’Arturo Ui, de Bertolt Brecht. Mise en scène de Katharina Thalbach. Comédie-Française, Place Colette, Paris 1er, à 20 h 30, en alternance. Jusqu’au 30 juin. Tél. : 01 44 58 15 15.

En décidant de faire entrer la Résistible Ascension d’Arturo Ui au répertoire de la Comédie-Française, Éric Ruf se doutait-il que les représentations commenceraient à peine un mois avant les élections présidentielles qui voient la menace de ce que dénonce Brecht (la peste brune) se faire de plus en plus précise ? Si hasard il y a, il est forcément objectif ! La pièce écrite par Brecht en 1941 faisait directement référence au nazisme qui l’avait contraint à s’exiler, en Finlande d’abord où il rédigea son texte en trois semaines, aux États-Unis ensuite. La fable qu’il invente décalque très exactement les faits et gestes qui menèrent Hitler et ses sbires au pouvoir……

Voir www.facebook.com/capitalcriticscircle pour la suite ou consulter Les Lettres françaises ou madinin-art.net.

Jean-Pierre Han dans les Lettres françaises du 12/04/2017

Little Shop of Horrors: Show explores the darker side of the human condition.

By Iris Winston | April 16, 2017

Little Shop of Horrors
Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman
Music by Alan Menken
Theatre Kraken
Directed by Don Fex

Frequently referred to as a cult musical, Little Shop of Horrors delivers as much blood and gore and almost as many bodies as Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Funny but too frightening for the younger set to be called family entertainment, the book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, with music by Alan Menken (the team responsible for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin) combines a tentative romance, an abusive relationship and a dictatorial blood-sucking plant in a somewhat unpleasant morality tale. (Be careful what you wish for. The end does not justify the means. Even bad guys deserve fair treatment. Take your pick.) …

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1979: An amusing play, not a satire

By Rajka Stefanovska | April 16, 2017

The year is 1979 and the Canadian political scene is in upheaval. The Conservative government has just replaced Trudeau’s Liberals, and the new Prime Minister, Joe Clark, is trying to govern the country on the principles of honesty, truthfulness, and adherence to his high ideals. During his short period in the cabinet, he meets with much stronger adversaries than the opposition party – human greed and corrupt nature. While he stays true to himself and to Canadians, he, as a political misfit, ultimately looses the battle. …

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1979: A clear demonstration of the entertainment value of Canadian politics

By Iris Winston | April 15, 2017

1979 by Michael Healey GCTC/Shaw Festival co-production Directed by Eric Coates

Principles are just part of the equation on the road to success in political life. Also pertinent are viable policies, cunning, surface charm and a willingness to change course, step away from principles, promises and even integrity to stay in power. (The old dictum of the Ins wanting to stay in and the Outs wanting to get in by almost any means has not changed much over the centuries.)

But, to Joe Clark, Canada’s 16^th and youngest Prime Minister, principle and integrity were more important than power. Therefore, he remained in the PM’s chair for just nine months. …

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Little Shop of Horrors – a first-rate performance of this grotesque campy musical!! Theatre Kraken is back on track!!

By Alvina Ruprecht | April 14, 2017

Theatre Kraken has never been my favourite Community Theatre but this new production of Little Shop of Horrors just changed all that. The show began with a surge of vocal and musical energy blasting from the five piece stage band under the direction of Chris Lucas. There was also the impeccable precision of director Don Fex and choreographer Brenda Solman whose efforts were right on the mark.

This story of Mr. Mushnik,(with the ever powerful and oh so versatile Lawrence Evenchick ) owner of a flower shop in the skid row district of New York, becomes the site of a strange event that suggests the War of the Worlds except that it is a hillarious drama and love story, peppered with Jewish jokes and Yiddish expressions and an underlying tragic history of the second world war. Something that Mel Brooks himself could have created but this musical was adapted from the film by Alan Menken- music, and Howard Ashman-, book and lyrics. With strong musicians (the keybords were particularly noteworthy), director Don Fex’s captured the underlying seriousness of these campy characters with great style to produce a very strong show.

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Barbecue: A Bizarre Family Story

By Jane Baldwin | April 14, 2017

Robert O’Hara’s play Barbecue is funny, thought provoking, filled with surprises and at times structurally confusing. It is the surprises, particularly one in the second act that make it difficult to write about since to reveal much is to act as a spoiler, but to remain unforthcoming does not allow the reviewer to do justice to the work. Boston’s Lyric Stage, where Barbecue is currently playing, carries secrecy to an unnecessary extreme refusing the audience programs until the end of the first act. …

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Canada Dance Festival /Festival Danse Canada

By Capital Critics Circle | April 12, 2017

Welcome to the 2017 Canada Dance Festival

New Dance from Canada’s best

The Canada Dance Festival in partnership with the National Arts Centre’s Canada Scene celebrates 2017 with a diverse program of new Canadian Dance. Following the successful CDF 2016 and building toward our next full festival in 2018, this year’s edition will showcase powerful movement and beautiful movers – all telling uniquely Canadian stories through dance.

From July 2nd to 16th, the CDF, with Canada Scene, will present a series of contemporary dance works in unique spaces and non-traditional venues. Our 2017 activities will once again be taking dance off of the stage and into the outpouring of arts activities throughout our nation’s capital during this summer’s Canada 150 celebrations.
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From Paris to Broadway: Pops Concert at the NAC

By Iris Winston | April 9, 2017

Pops Concert, National Arts Centre, Conductor: Jack Everly

In introducing From Paris to Broadway, principal Pops conductor Jack Everly said that the aim of the French-themed concert, which had been two years in the making, was to create the spirit or feeling of Paris.

And this is exactly what happened in a joyous collection of music, song and dance that evoked visions of the Folies Begères — the famous cabaret musical founded in Paris in 1869 — (think rhinestones and feathers, Everly advised) such singers as Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf, and composers closely associated with the glitter of French entertainment, such as the German-born Jacques Offenbach (think Cancan). Music from the musical Gigi and the delicate rendition of the Moulin Rouge Waltz added a further dimension to visions of Paris. …

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Vigilante at the NAC. Mythology trumps history in this outstanding production

By Jamie Portman | April 6, 2017

Jan Alexandra Smith and the Donnelly brothers
GP Photography

It’s not just that the figures come out of the darkness. It’s rather
that they are marching in deadly and ritualized rhythm from some
hellish void, with a few musicians, mistily visible in the murky
backwaters of the NAC Theatre stage, eerily urging them along.
You’re gripped immediately by the beginning of Vigilante. And this
enthralling production from Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre continues to
hold you like a vice through to its powerful climax. But you soon
realize that there will be no real light at the end of this tunnel.
The 19th Century saga of Southern Ontario’s turbulent Donnelly family
can hold no promise of cathartic release. Indeed, well over a century
later, this bloody tragedy continues to cast a shadow over Biddulph
township and its people, many of whom reportedly refuse to discuss it
even now. …

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Vigilante cast keeps powerful Donnellys saga all in the familly

By Patrick Langston | April 3, 2017

They may sing tunefully and love their ma like crazy, but you wouldn’t want to mess with the Donnelly boys. They’re a potentially dangerous crew with a vigorous sense of survival, and in southern Ontario’s Biddulph Township circa the mid-19^th century, that means one for all and all for one.

That spirit of family – especially a family under siege through no real fault of its own – is one of many themes raging like a river of blood through Vigilante, the extraordinarily powerful rock-opera by Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre now playing the NAC. Catalyst Theatre’s Jonathan Christenson wrote, composed and directed Vigilante, a dark, swaggering and occasionally vulnerable show that spirits the Black Donnellys and their fight for survival to the level of the epic without once losing sight of the fact that these are real people in a real world.

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