Tag: Great Canadian Theatre Company

Matchstick. A pair of winning stage presences but the aura of spontaneity diminishes as the material progresses

Matchstick. A pair of winning stage presences but the aura of spontaneity diminishes as the material progresses

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Photo: Barb Gray

The first point to be made about Matchstick, GCTC’s new winter offering, is that it Nathan Howe and Lauren Holfeuer are a pair of winning stage presences.

The second is that Howe, wearing his creator’s hat, has attempted a genuinely original script — one which, in its fusion of word and often delightful music, tells the story of a young girl named Matchstick whose yearning for a better life leads to a calamitous relationship.

The third point is that the material is delivered in a visually imaginative and often enchanting production package. Director Kristen Holfeuer’s excellent collaborators include David Granger (set), Bill McDermott (lighting) and Jessica Gabriel and Chloe Ziner (projections). Particularly, in the first part of the evening, with bold and colourful fairy-tale images on a scrim and arresting puppet silhouettes that are not quite of this world, this is a show that repeatedly seduces us into its magic.

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Production and performance light Matchstick’s fire at the GCTC.

Production and performance light Matchstick’s fire at the GCTC.

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Photo: Electric Umbrella Images

The first incarnation of this fairytale with a difference was primarily a love story that turned into a depiction of wife abuse. The picture of the initially charming and caring suitor becoming the controller and removing his victim from familiar territory, friends and family to gain greater control by isolating her was clear.

That was the version of Matchstick presented at the Ottawa Fringe in 2013. The current expanded version shifts focus from being the fictionalized story of “the life of the wife of one of the most hated men in the world” to become steadily darker and far more direct about its historical context.

Matchstick begins as a rustic fairy story about a young girl living in “an undesirable country.” Cast out by her father and courted by assorted suitors, she is swept off her feet by a charmer from the “land of freedom and opportunity.”

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The Burden of Self Awareness: A world premiere of George Walker that turns his own theatre on its head.

The Burden of Self Awareness: A world premiere of George Walker that turns his own theatre on its head.

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Photo. Andrew Alexander

George Walker is one of Canada’s most important, most pleasing, most talented and most versatile playwrights. He changes styles, he changes forms he has delved into all manner of writing for the stage, but his fantasies always show a predilection for veiled anger, repressed violence , grade B movies, dysfunctional families and all the stereotypical characters that populate this world. In The Burden of Self Awareness, he has taken the most stereotypical characters of his past detective style theatre- the filthy rich couple, the private eye, the psychiatrist and the call girl – stripped them of all their social and psychological veneer that they must transport with them in order to function in society. Curiously enough, Martin Conboy’s set while elegant and slick did not get that sense of double performance which is put in place, but his lighting was beautiful as always.

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ERIC COATES is the new Artistic Director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company

ERIC COATES is the new Artistic Director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company

CoatesEric-300x254 Great Canadian Theatre Company announces new Artistic Director
GCTC Board Chair, Nhanci Wright announced today that Eric Coates will be the next Artistic Director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company. "GCTC is thrilled to have such an experienced and respected member of the arts community joining us as our new Artistic Director. Eric is an excellent choice to lead GCTC into the future," says Chair Nhanci Wright.

Mr. Coates will be stepping down from his current position as the Artistic Director of the Blyth Festival, where he has worked in a variety of disciplines since 1995 and joining the GCTC team in September.

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