Rajka Stefanovska was a radio journalist and arts reviewer in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as on Radio Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Serbia for 20 years. When the war in Former Yugoslavia started she moved to Ottawa, where she joined the Parliamentary Press Gallery as a correspondent for several media, and was a contributor to the Canadian news agency “Issues Network.” At the moment, she works as a federal public servant and still lives in Ottawa.
Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell is a great story that suffers from overproduction
Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell NAC English Theatre Presentation By Trina Davies Directed byPeter Hinton
Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell is a story about love between two geniuses – the famous inventor of the telephone and a woman of exceptional intellect and strength.
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard (later Bell), who lost hearing to scarlet fever when she was five years old, coped with a world of silence with enormous willpower. Thanks to her curiosity, intellect and love for life, she achieved what a woman of her time would rarely dream of. …
Lucid Dreams
Production: Once Upon a Kingdom Theatre, Ottawa
Director: Ekaterina Vetrov
What an exciting piece of news for the Ottawa theatre community: Once Upon a Kingdom Theatre will be representing North America at the 15th World Festival of Children’s Theatre in Lingen, Germany in June 2018. As over 80 theatres all over the world competed for a chance to participate and only 18 were selected, this surely calls for a celebration! Let me introduce you to this extraordinary children’s theatre group.
Founded by director Ekaterina Vetrov in 2008, they have been producing highly imaginative and artistic programs which attract children and adults alike. It combines diverse cultural backgrounds and artistic experiences into unique performances. Of course, such a success is not possible without hard work and a cohesive vision. These young and talented artists are truly hard workers, and Ms. Vetrov, the artistic director, manages to bring her very ambitious vision to life through educating young talents in all aspects of theatre: kids learn acting, dance, music, set design, costume design, make-up design, lighting design, stage management and theatre criticism. The results are nothing short of miraculous, which is also the best word to describe their latest show, “Lucid Dreams,” which is the one that will represent North America in Europe. …
La Cérisaie, Jolente De Keersmaeker as Luybov, Frank Vercruyssen as Lopakhin
The Cherry Orchard
A TG Stan production, NAC French theatre
There are probably few plays as challenging, thrilling and intriguing for
artists as The Cherry Orchard. It’s been a little over a century that theater directors have been trying to decide whether it is a tragedy, comedy, or something in between. Anton Chekhov himself intended to write a comedy, but Konstantin Stanislavski, who was the first director to put the play on stage in 1904 in Moscow believed it to be a tragedy. So, it’s been more than 100 years that one of the greatest dramas by one of the greatest playwrights of all time keeps changing genre and mood, and being interpreted and reinvented by numerous theater artists all over the world. …
Godspell is a musical about faith in the real world. How do words of wisdom and kindness said millennia ago resonate with us today? The social picture has changed significantly since the time of Jesus and we are engaged in different battles. Or, are we? 9th Hour Theatre’s words shows us what happens when those ancient thoughts are put in a contemporary environment. …
Kraken Theatre Production: Othello: A Civil War Tale
Shakespeare has always been a challenge for artists, but giving his plays a modern twist proves to be unachievable task for many. Theatre Kraken is not the first that failed to rise to the occasion. The reason for that is simple: while Shakespeare is timeless in his ideas, he is very much a man of his own time when it comes to the events he describes. That is to say, he recognizes that all people are led by the same instincts in their actions, which makes him relevant to any place or time. On the other hand, events and relationships that take place in his plays might have been natural in 16th century, while in our time they may look ridiculous.…
Basket of Deplorables By Tom Rachman at Gladstone Theatre
If the definition of satire is: “ the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and critisize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issures” Tom rachman definitely hit t he mark with his latest book “Basket of Deploraples.” In this series of short stories , he explores the Trump era with an open eye , leaving no room for sympathy for the culture of his own time. Of course, his lont journalistic career made him a knowable observer of our reality. …
What is good about 9th Hour Theatre Company is their unflinching courage to tackle bold and often sensitive subjects. What is great about them is their consistently challenging and artistic story telling that manages to hold up a mirror to its audience, no matter the topic. Their new production, Prodigal Son by Shawn MacDonald, is inspired by the suffering of LGBTQ people of faith, but in director Jonathan Harris’ interpretation, the story becomes universal – it is about our imperfect world where individuals struggle with preconceived notions, embedded deeply through their upbringing. Unable to fight society’s rigid rules, carved in stone by prejudice and a blind faith in authority, they lash out on those close to them and end up losing themselves. …
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. …
In his play “Les Passants,” Luc Moquen is, to put it simply, presenting us to us. This play has no classic storyline – there is no beginning or end, nothing develops and nothing happens in succession. It has no real solution – only a hint that maybe love, a simple hug can help us – but nobody seems to see it. The play implies many things, and one of them is the fact that we do not want to listen to reason or to nature. “Les Passants’ is a series of vignettes from average people’s lives. The author observes them, captures their thoughts, misadventures, anxiety, and confusion. Although these sketches seem to be random when taken out of context, put together they make a powerful testimony by capturing the essence of today’s life, which is filled with crazy rush through a myriad of meaningless tasks causing a detachment from everything and everyone around us. The leitmotif of the play is death – not so much physical, but a death inside us, caused by total alienation. Dante’s Inferno, killings on the streets, or killing the human inside of us – all these deaths have the same root – displaced values as the result of a disconnect from our true, natural existence. …
In the Playwright’s Notes, the playwright, Robert Chafe, writes: “The history buff will have no trouble calling me out. But I made my primary task to reflect the spirit and heart of this magnificent book within the often-confining demands of a stage play.” That is exactly what he does. Hard, cold facts about Newfoundland’s first premier Joey Smallwood, and the role he played in bringing the Dominion of Newfoundland into Canada’s confederation can be found in any number of books. Chafe’s adaptation of Wayne Johnston novel Colony of Unrequited Dreams brings much more to the stage than that. It brings back the time, the place and people during a time of great change in Newfoundland. …
