July 2017 - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

Molière dans le parc » : Le Fâcheux théâtre impose son style et amuse le public de tous âges. !

By Alvina Ruprecht | July 30, 2017

Sasha Dominique (le Docteur), Sylvain Sabatié (le Barbouillé). Photos: © Martin Cadieux

Sylvain Sabatié et toute son équipe de professionnels bien connus dans la région nous plongent dans un des moments les plus marquants de l’histoire théâtrale française : la rencontre entre Molière et les comédiens italiens avant même que Scaramouche et la commedia dell’ arte trouvent leur place à la cour de France. Les Italiens avaient déjà laissé des traces importantes sur le jeu de Molière en Europe, lorsqu’ils jouaient sur la place publique. Ce modèle du jeu grotesque et vulgaire, l’essence même du théâtre populaire, du théâtre de la foire et tout ce qu’il y avait de plus divertissant et attirant des spectacles de la rue …

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Classic Theatre Festival delivers a worthy Candida

By Jamie Portman | July 29, 2017

Candida By George Bernard Shaw, A Perth Classic Theatre Festival production directed by Laurel Smith

PERTH, Ontario — One of the pleasures of an Ottawa Valley summer is Perth’s Classic Theatre Festival, which has an impressive track record for mounting quality fare.

Its current production of Candida, Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play about turmoil within the household of an Anglican vicar, is no exception.

On the surface, this may seem no more than a comedy about the unsettling impact of a romantic young poet named Eugene Marchbanks when he enters the lives of James Morell, a cleric whose Socialist convictions and gift for rhetoric have won him public prominence, and Morell’s beguiling wife, Candida. But Laurel Smith’s discerning production finds deeper currents in the central situation — which involves the youthful Eugene’s infatuation with Candida, an infatuation so intense and so openly critical of Morell that it leaves the latter increasingly insecure about her love.

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Avignon. Dance poem by Radhouane El Meddeb: Face à la mer, pour que les larmes deviennent des éclats de rire.

By Yana Meerzon | July 28, 2017

Concept, dramaturgy, choreography Radhouane El Meddeb; Artistic collaboration Moustapha Ziane; Stage design Annie Tolleter; Music Jihed Khmiri, Production: La Compagnie de SOI; Tunis – Paris

A reflection on movement, music and chanting, this performance is about the pain of exile, the impossibility of return or of changing history. Radhouane El Meddeb, a Tunisian-French dancer and choreographer, dedicates his work to the people of Tunis, those who left and those who stayed behind. The central image is the sea towards which all the dancers’ gazes are directed. They come onstage, one by one, moving past each other, looking intensely at the audience, or rather at the sea.

In the first part of this one-hour show, there is not much action but rather tension and mistrust. The dancers move across the stage, stiffen their bodies, afraid to brush by each other, avoiding eye-contact. Their only point of connection is that sea, the gaze they cast towards the spectators. This sense of discomfort is transmitted to the audience as well: how do you react to action that is devoid of any internal movement?

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Motown, the Musical allows these hits to shine once more!

By Iris Winston | July 26, 2017

Motown, the Musical. Performing the Jackson 5. Photo: Joan Marcus

Motown, the Musical. Book by Berry Gordy; music and lyrics from the legendary Motown catalog . Broadway Across Canada in association with Work Light Productions. Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright/ Plays Southam Hall, National Arts Centre

The musical legacy of the remarkable growth of Motown speaks for itself through this jukebox musical — which is just as well because the book by Motown founder Berry Gordy is nothing to write home about. …

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This Amorous Servant seduces her audience.

By Patrick Langston | July 25, 2017

A word of advice: If your plans ever conflict with those of Corallina, you may as well just give way because she’ll best you every time.

Corallina — a firecracker with an intense sense of honour, an estimable loyalty to those who merit it and an ingrained understanding that women’s second-class citizenry needs to be rooted out like a nasty bit of poison ivy — is the glue who holds together Carlo Goldoni’s rarely produced 1752 commedia dell’arte creation The Amorous Servant. …

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Avignon Festival. Kalakuta Republik: An exploration of music, space and movement based on the life of Fela Kuti.

By Yana Meerzon | July 25, 2017

Choreography Serge Aimé Coulibaly; music Yvan Talbot; inspired by the political thought of Fela Kuti ; A production of the Faso Danse Théâtre, Halles de Schaerbeek (Bruxelles)

Born in Burkina Faso, Serge Aimé Coulibaly established his professional career in Africa. He moved to Europe in the early 2000s to re-invent himself as a European dancer and choreographer, now working in Brussels and Bobo-Dioulasso at the same time. In his subject matter and artistic devices, Coulibaly remains the patriot of his native country; he believes that an artist must remain the servant to his/her community. In his criticism of contemporary Africa, Coulibaly tirelessly asks one question – what role should or can play an artist in today’s charged world? His choreography, his dance, his personal presence on stage is Coulibaly’s response to this question.

This response transforms Coulibaly’s politics into poetry and philosophy, it brings to focus the divided self of an artist whose life style and whose audiences have become international.

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The Amorous Servant: A new contemporary vision of masked theatre comes to light!

By Alvina Ruprecht | July 25, 2017

The Amorous Servant by Carlo Goldoni , directed by Attila Clemann, translated by John Van Burek. A production of the Odyssey Theatre.

The Odyssey Theatre is back in the park again this summer, braving the rain and the bad weather . Luckily it was beautiful the night we saw it, the mosquitoes were gone, the new cushions were comfortable and all was perfect.

A simple but functional set designed by John D oucet set the space for the dashing about the house that keeps the eight actors moving in this 18^th Century comedy by Carlo Goldoni , rarely performed, created in French in 1993 at the Comédie française and only recently translated into English by John Van Burek, better known in Canada for his translations of Quebec playwright Michel Tremblay! …

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Candida: breezy and fast-moving at the Perth Classic Theatre Festival..

By Iris Winston | July 23, 2017

Candida, at the Perth Classic theatre. : Photo Jean-Denis Labelle.

By George Bernard Shaw, Classic Theatre Festival.Directed by Laurel Smith

George Bernard Shaw considered his 1895 domestic comedy Candida one of his Plays Pleasant. In part an ironic antidote to A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 drama about a woman’s fate in a male-dominated society, Candida also offers an indirect reference to Shaw’s own background. (His mother left his father for her musician friend.) …

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Kiviuq returns: poetry, story telling, music, performance, the makings of an epic in inuktitut.

By Alvina Ruprecht | July 22, 2017

kiviuq Returns: photo national Arts Centre English language theatre

Kiviuq Returns is a collective work produced by Quaggiavuut, a Nunavut-based arts organization that has also worked in Banff with dancers, choreographers and technical staff. Singers, musicians, story tellers, dancers, actors, painters, set and costume designers, and all manner of artists interested in exploring the re-imagined journey of the legendary Kiviuq , the great northern figure who represents all life as he returns through the whole Arctic territory, have come together to share each other’s artistic talents and create an extraordinary event that is danced, spoken and sung, mostly in Inuktikut. …

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Grensgeval (Borderline) A theatrical exploration of the refugee crisis.

By Yana Meerzon | July 20, 2017

GRENSGEVAL – 71e FESTIVAL D’AVIGNON –
Texte : Elfriede JELINEK –
Traduction Tom KLEIJN –
Mise en scène : Guy CASSIERS –
Chorégraphie : Maud LE PLADEC –
Scénographie, costumes : Tim VAN STEENBERGEN –
Lumière : Fabiana PICCIOLI –
Vidéo : Frederik JASSOGNE –
Son : Diederik DE COCK –
Dans le cadre du 71e Festival d’Avignon –
Lieu : Parc des Expositions –
Ville : Avignon –
Photo : Christophe RAYNAUD DE LAGE –

Grensgeval (Borderline).Based on Les Suppliants by Elfriede Jelinek.
Directed by Guy Cassiers, choreography by Maud Le Pladec, A Toneelhuis, Antwerp production.

Migration, refugee crisis and crossing borders are among the most pressing political, social and economic issues of today’s Europe. The situation is alarming and confusing both on the level of everyday life and politically, with many people in power trying to manipulate public opinion against refugees. Politically aware artists are actively engaged in searching to contribute to their audiences’ better understanding of the new world. They seek appropriate artistic language to discuss atrocities that refugees experience and to speak to their spectators’ compassion.
Guy Cassiers is one of these engaged artists. An artistic director of the Toneelhuis in Antwerp, Cassiers has been looking into the issues of migration for the past several seasons. He not only focusses his programing on this topic but also creates events aimed at educating the subscribers to his theatre about the new European conditions, seeking to engage refugees to be more actively involved in the cultural life of Antwerp. …

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