The Neverending Story is a testament to the importance of imagination and the power of stories. When life seems to be closing in around us, the story reminds us that imagination can be the force needed to start anew and lift ourselves up. It makes sense, then, that director Jillian Keiley’s production for the National Arts Centre – adapted by David S. Craig from Michael Ende’s popular novel – uses a number of different techniques to showcase imagination on stage, almost all of them visual. It’s clear that no expense was spared in creating the visually slick world, filled with magical creatures and highlighter-toned colours. It’s certainly visually striking. Unfortunately, the core story often feels forgotten at the service of the visuals, making the emotional impact of its message fall flat. …
There’s a danger to hasty reaction. To act on instinct is to perhaps ignore a bigger contextual picture; a gut-reaction, after all, is only as informed as its bearer. Sometimes that initial shock needs to be bottled – fermented within the larger scope of discourse, self-education, and reflection.
The National Arts Centre’s website calls Jivesh Parasram’s Take d Milk, Nah? a “highly-hyphenated story about the search for identity.” This is certainly the case: Parasram’s burst onto the national scene is a not-quite identity play, an Indo-Caribbean-Hindu-Canadian hour-and-a-half of reconciling experience and impact, and a nearly-incredible solo show. Take d Milk, Nah?, in its insistence on the in-between, is a landmark piece of theatre for the NAC – if not for dramaturgical finesse, then for unmistakable, commendable certainty in itself and in its own importance. …
From the pre-show announcement, we know we won’t catch all that is said onstage during Unikkaaqtuat; in being honest, we won’t have to. In freeing ourselves from the tethers of language-anchored “theatre,” we give ourselves over to a looser, more vibrant performance – one not without flaws, but one with absolute power to inspire and captivate its all-ages audience.
Unikkaaqtuat’s storytelling is a blend all its own of dance, circus, music, and pure athleticism, accompanied by untranslated Inuit language. This joint collaboration between NAC Indigenous Theatre, The 7 Fingers/Les 7 doigts de la main, Artcirq, and Taqqut Productions offers to us an impressive collective of artists capable of astonishing physical feats; what lingers beyond the piece’s final (melancholy, beautiful) chord, though, is not these artists’ physical capabilities, but indeed, what seems to be their ability to transcend the laws of gravity, recovering even from evident missteps or mistakes. Performers navigate complicated choreography through masks and stilts – they are evident masters of humour and grace, surprise and fluidity. They become rabbits, polar bears, glaciers, hunters, the unborn – vibrant symbols of Inuit culture, often accompanied by throat singing and guitar. …
An unexpected pleasure this year. The panto seems to be geared for adults as much as for young ones with nasty jabs at Doug Ford, at Brexit, at Ottawa’s problematic light rail and much more to titillate the adults .There was also an extremely naughty Nanny Annie, the ‘dame’ played by the irreplaceable Constant Bernard who is supposed to be Maid Marion’s nursemaid while flirting outrageously with certain males in the audience and launching jokes meant for fun-loving adults only!. The Brilliant panto dame, our Ninny Nanny is back in Ottawa now after an absence of 2 years. It is such a pleasure to find her still sporting that great voice which takes over the whole theatre, a stage presence that crushes everyone else and a magic that turns her whacky costume into a chef d’oeuvre of grotesque pop art à la Cirque du Soleil thanks to costume designer Lu-Anne Connell’s magical sense of humour . …
Photo Teri Loretto, cast of Casablanca. Reviewed by Kennedy Fiorella, .
Gone are the days when, on a cold winter night, the family gathered around a fire to listen to the new radio play, gracing the airwaves at seven o’clock. In the Golden Age of Radio, this is what brought families together, listening to a new story, performed live on air, filled with sound effects, music and dramatic dialogue.
This December, audiences in Ottawa relived the magic of the radio through Plosive Production’s presentation of Casablanca: The Radio Show at The Gladstone. The radio Show has become a time-honored tradition for the theatre, performed every December and this year was no exception, as Casablanca graced the stage from December 6th to 14th, immersing audiences in its classic tale of intrigue, lost love, and resistance. …
Courtesy of the National Arts Centre,. Marc Collin and Soleil Launière
Sometimes it’s only by seeing a new production of a show that you realize what was lacking in an earlier version. That’s the case with Where the Blood Mixes by actor/playwright/director Kevin Loring, now artistic director of NAC Indigenous Theatre.
A searing, often funny and ultimately semi-hopeful exploration of the intergenerational legacy of residential schools, the play was performed at the National Arts Centrein 2010, a year after winning the Governor-General’s Literary Award for Drama. Directed by GlynisLeyshon, the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre/Belfry Theatre productionwas vivid, with an on-stage musician and an evocative design that included projections.
Then along came director/translator Charles Bender, who re–imagined the play in both official languages, stripping it to its essentials and presenting it in the round. Bender’s version, performed in both English and French, was part of Mòshkamo: Indigenous Arts Rising, the two-week festival that rang in the inaugural season of NAC Indigenous Theatrein September.
Bender’s production, practically devoid of set or props, is immediate and raw in ways the earlier production wasn’t. The intermingled story of the two central characters, Floyd (Marco Collin) and Mooch (Charles Bender)— their denial of the damage inflicted by residential schools, their inability to connect with those most important to them, their eviscerating loneliness — leaps unmediated from stage to audience and back to the stage in a kind of dramatic loop that underscores the multiple circles of the play itself, including the hoopsof pain, hopelessness and potential healing that help defineFloyd and Mooch and the sharing circle that ended each performance. …
Mama Mia!, the well-loved jukebox musical featuring ABBA’s greatest hits leads the audience on a romp through a sun-drenched Greek island and fills them with a heady combination of romantic, carefree, and nostalgic sentiment. In order for this to really work, a production needs to match the light and energetic pace. Suzart’s well-directed production of the musical has potential, but ends up feeling sluggish and uneven. There are many moments, particularly when the ensemble is involved, that sparkle with energy and fun, but most of the solo acts could have benefitted from an injection of energy befitting the heart of the story to boost the production up to its potential. …
Photo Andrew Alexander, Herbie Barnes and Phillippa Domville,
The split is clear upon first glance.
He wears muddy jeans and rain boots, while she dons pristine khakis and purple Crocs. His space boasts shoots of wild rice, while hers stands testament to an outdoor grill. Between our two figures lies a shoreline, a dock, and a bright green Astroturf divide.
Drew Hayden Taylor’s Cottagers and Indians, directed by Richard Rose (Artistic Director of Tarragon Theatre), is an empathetically-sharp look into the strident echoes of Canadian colonisation. Over the course of eighty minutes, we as an audience become acquainted with the Indigenous communities fighting to take up space in the ways they deem urgent, while also listening to those whose purchased, lakefront property has become implicated in this attempt at cultural reclaim. Taylor’s artistic voice is refreshing in its generosity to its audience; it does not take sides, and does not favour one character over the other in its navigation of difficult social issues. Taylor guides his listeners without preaching to them; as such, his points speak for themselves in a way that is oh-so-powerful. …
Written by Kennedy Fiorella, in Yana Meerzon’s theatre criticism class at the U of Ottawa
The story of familial sacrifice is one that runs through Canadian identity. In Jeff Ho’s Trace, he masterfully “traces” his family history through the three generations of women who came before him. As he physically embodies the characters of his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Ho reveals not only his own family secrets, but completely immerses his audience through the music of their pasts. Through expert direction and captivating acting, Factory Theatre’s production of Trace at the National Arts Centre delivers a powerful evening of emotionally harrowing experiences which gives new life to Ho’s ancestors with every note played.…
