Alvina Ruprecht

The Secret Life of Emily / Frances

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 27, 2015

Laurie Fyffe and Michelle Leblanc. Photo: Annette Hegel.

The Bytown Museum, with its historical atmosphere, physical references to the founding of Ottawa and the life of the early settlers in the area, provides the most perfect set one could imagine for this performance. It takes place between 1764 and 1769 between London England and Quebec City, several years after the battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759) when France lost its most important colony in North America. Laurie Fyffe incarnates the British playwright/novelist/essayist and translator, Frances Brooke (1724-89) annoyed by the male dominated theatre milieu in London, after her last play, Victoria was rejected by the reading committee. Her husbad is pastor in the the new British Colony in Quebec, “ that orphaned colony of French peasants” and she is rushing out to join him where she hopes to discover a new land, and revive her work as a writer. She arrives accompanied by her French maid Manon (Michelle LeBlanc) and the story explains how they pass those three years in Quebec City, discovering the history of the country, the elegant social and cultural life of the new British colony with all its military personal, and trying to adapt to Canadian winters which are unbearable.

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“Three Men in a Boat”: A delightful and thoroughly professional show that carries the audience away on a hillarious theatrical adventure!

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 26, 2015

Photo. Courtesy Ottawa Fringe.

Such a delightful , refreshing, witty, beautifully performed, impeccably choreographed show was truly an astonishing discovery at this Fringe. Scott Garland, Matt Pilipiak, and Victor Pokinko breezed through this Jerome K Jerome adaptation as though they really belonged in that world of middle class English snobbery (with accents and all) seeking a rousing experience in contact with true, unadulterated nature. Mark Borwnell’s adaptation respects the spirit of the story to the letter but it’s these three young men, deftly directed by Sue Miner, who create magic in the Leonard Beaulne Studio.

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Two Girls, One Corpse.

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 25, 2015

Photo, Monique Elliot

Two friends, have gone to a wedding, they wake up the next day and discover a corpse in their apartment. Two legs sticking out from the wings could be the beginning of a sit-com version of Antonioni’s Blow Up which might have lead to a more non-traditional investigation of the presence of the corpse. However, still in TV mode, the writers have chosen Murder She Wrote as their mystery solving model which transforms the corpse into a bit of a sterotype , especially at the end. Instead there are hysterics, jumpy nervous flippant tv-style dialogue, a perfectly good sit-com style relationship between the two friends who insert Jessica Fletcher into the mix as part of their playing at being sleuths.

The show is rather well layered as far as the characters and their situation are concerned, Good directing by Dave Dawson whose work is always very competent and fitting performances by the two young women concerned who really seem to be having a great time on stage. This is a perfect example of the way TV is having a deep deep influence on the style and narratives of a certain kind of popular theatre these days. Its not a bad thing. It is just very revealing and no doubt inevitable.

Two Girls, One Corpse at Academic Hall. .

Two Girls One Corpse

Created and performed by Marissa Caldwell and Michelle Blanchard

Directed by Dave Dawson

Production of Lazy Sunday Theatre

This Prison or He Came Through the Floor.

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 24, 2015

By Johnny Wideman (Theatre of the Beat, Stouffville, Ontario). Performers are Johnny Wideman as the prisoner, writer and director. Benjamin Wert is his astonished interlocutor who pops up through the floor to rescue him, except that Wideman does not want to be rescued. This begins an amusing fantasy where a longtime prisoner, on death row, has obviously become out of touch with the outside reality, while turning into an obsessive compulsive creature in relation to his prison routines and cannot imagine another kind of life away from this cell, even though it means he will soon be executed.

What can the new arrival who just bursts through the floor, do to convince this Johnny to leave? A frustrating piece of writing because although Johnny is strong and amusimg and Benjamin tries to clarify everything for him, Johnny cannot be penetrated by any kind of logic as to his situation. He is about to die and he does not seem to care. The point of this is not particularly clear. Is it the dehumanizing force of long term prison? is it a dialogue between two realities trying to grasp the superiority of one or the other whereas nothing really changes? after about 30 minutes I felt i would have liked to hear more intervention by the new intruder. Johnny’s banter became tiring and kept turning in on itself. Playful preciosity, talking to hear himself toss words about, spouting a logic that did not exist. Even the ending when he suddently breaks into tears made no sense at all since he kept insisting he wants to die.

This Prison or He Came Through the Floor was not particularly satisfying although there will soon be a full fledged performance of this show with the dialogue worked out to a more satisftying stage.

Venue Studio Léonard Beaulne.

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Celebrity Exception

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 24, 2015

A Black Sheep Theatre Production, written by Katherine Glover who won the critic’s award for her monologue Dead Wrong in 2012. It is directed by Dave Dawson whose work in Community theatre in Ottawa has also been recognized.

The story unfolds quickly as a young couple, the fellow’s sister and a movie star launch the dynamic of the “celebrity exception. Everyone has the right to a single exception in their lives where they can transgress the pact made with the partner and try some exciting new adventure. Mark is horrified by the idea but Kayley is excited and confesses she dreams of spending the night with a famous actor known for his vampire and cheap movie hero roles. There is a twist of fate, the actor mysteriously appears and things work out in a most unexpected way and the actors pull it off most convincingly.

The story is a bit silly, it smacks of childish games, although the young people do seem to be comfortable in these roles, and the audience follows it all along. At one point near the end, the movie star is on the phone but we are not sure to whom he is talking, that is a hole that needs some clarification. . Nevetheless, this nonsense allowed the young performers to get on stage but the play was not nearly the level of writing that Glover gave us with her monologue Dead Wrong, in 2012, which was a winner from the very first moment. Lets hope she goes back to that kind of writing which was exceptional. At least the names of the actors were mentioned which is a good thing since they do deserve recognition: Mike Kosowan, Robin Hodge, Jonah Lerner and Alexis Scott.

–Celebrity Exception em> in the Court room of Arts Court.

The Inventor of All Things. The true story of Leo Szilard. A Gem of a performance!
The Inventor of All Things. The true story of Leo Szilard. A Gem of a performance!

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 23, 2015

Physicist Leo Szilard. (1898-1864)

Jem Rolls becomes a professor of history who spews out in a most exciting way, the trials, and tribulations, the evolution and astounding feats of a certain Leo Szilard, for whom the actor/writer has a deeply passionate interest. This is a true story. It can all be verified on line and elsewhere. Szilard was a Hungarian-American physicist responsible for the development of nuclear fission as well as the idea of the American Manhatten project, a close friend of Einstein and who in the end was against the Atomic bomb and nuclear weapons because he realized the horrors they could produce. But Jem Rolls turns the life story of this incredible human being, who escaped the Nazis, into the masterful adventure of a superhero: Inventor of a long line of products, fighter for the survival of the world, against human stupidity and the initiator of the peace movement. Jem Rolls performs the story on stage as though it were a musical score, respecting the rhythms, the pauses, the crescendos, the staccatos, the adagios, and all the musical possibility of human speech. The range of his delivery is enormous and it is this playful delivery as well as his almost surrealist way his written text connects accomplishments that don’t always connect logically that stimulate our attention and keep us glued to this history lesson for a whole hour.

Jem Rolls is a gem of a performer. Definitely worth seeing.

The Inventor or All Things plays in the Arts Court Library.

The Inventor of All Things, the true story of Leo Szilard. Written and performed by Jem Rolls.

Threads:
Threads:

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 22, 2015

Photo: threads1_cred_reneferrer.jpg

Tonya Jone Miller,tells us the story of her mother who after many personal adventures, travelling around the USA and living in Hawaii, decided to go to Viet Nam to teach English, during the war. She tells of her husband who was posted overseas, how she survived while he was away, how she cared for a young vietnamese child, how she fell in love, how she became pregnant and eventually had to return to the USA and leave her vietnamese child in Saigon. Tonya Miller said she barely knew her Vietnamese father because her American Mother&#160 barely spoke of him. I admit that the threads of the story line were not always clear and I had trouble following who the people where and where they went and why they disappeared. However there are traumatic events that take place when the young woman is in Saigon, the most difficult of all was her escape from the city as she was on the point of giving birth. It was a heroic feat that made the audience gasp.

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The Black and the Jew Go Buddhist
The Black and the Jew Go Buddhist

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 22, 2015

A collective therapy event which might not interest people who feel that discussing intimate questions of sex is not their cup of tea. However this is a fairly serious discussion full of fun and live interaction with the public who are free to answer or not answer. It all depends on you the spectator. Its as simple as that. Epstein and Hassan are a mixed race couple and they give us clues to the success of their relationship during a laboratory where they discuss and show their very own “black-jew love teaching technology!! rather unorthodox, and perhaps even “unKosher” but they both get into it with lots of real commitment, a good sense of fun. Hassan has a lovely singing and speaking voice, Epstein is pushy and very much in love with his wife.

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Hannah and George
Hannah and George

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 21, 2015

Photo courtesy of Strange Visitations.

A heartwarming fantasy that unfolds on the set of a silent film with written signs telling where we are what time it is, when all this is happening. A contemporary fairy tale with bright colours, an imaginary space where a timid and introverted man grasping at this youth, cohabits with a flitting fairy-like creature who is always trying to catch his attention and show him that she has feelings for him.

Madeleine Hall is the fairy with the many faces in what is essentially a mime show of a personal sort, where Kevin Reid’s long lanky body, his malaise out in the world, his mythical props – raincoat, umbrella and hat, his slightly awkward demeanor, all suggest the work of French mime star Jacques Tati, the creator of the wondrous M. Hulot on the screen . The resemblance is almost uncanny. Hulot’s space was small French towns where he, as a perfect but always awkward gentleman, walked (or biked) around tipping his hat and doing good deeds for all. He never encountered fairy tale creatures because he was squarely anchored in the reality of the “la France profonde”. Reid twists the Tati style (unwittingly so it seems) into his own imaginary world and that is what makes this so charming and endearing. More work on the physical precision of his performance and more clarity in the middle portion, would give the show more strength. Also instead of an intermission, shorten the show by 5 minutes. But as it is, it’s a delightful surprise for the young at heart.

Hannah and George presented by Strange Visitation. Performed by Kevin Reid and Madeleine Hall. Directed by Rebecca Laviolette. Plays in the Studio Léonard Beaulne

Sh!t. I`m in love with you again!
Sh!t. I`m in love with you again!

By Alvina Ruprecht | June 21, 2015

Rachelle Elie is the consummate performer. Her light hearted singing sparkles with dramatic energy. She puts her face, her body her hands and even her shiny blond hair to work as she peels off her outer costume to reveal a new costume for every change of scene and then moves on to the next challenge.

Accompanied on the guitar by Luke Jackson, Elie actually tells us her life story through musical theatre (and the lyrics ar witty and captivating) especially the evolution of her experiences with love and sex. . Beginning as a wide eyed , innocent young girls kept in tow by a very strict catholic franco-haitian father she moves through all the nuances of her relationships with men. Even the most scrungy parts that evolve into the disillusion and bitterness of the later years, are all filtered through the lovely glow of Disney-like musical theatre for adults, full of fun and joyous, or not so joyous sex, and lyrics that always find the humour in the most despairing moments.

Elie is a very talented performer. She has a great gift for accents and a greater gift for bringing to life a story that is not always pleasant but that always finds gentle humour in human relations. The raunchy explicit becomes natural human behaviour the gives us a jolt. A darling of a show, a show that will make you giggle a lot and you will leave feeling good and loving the performer.

Sh!t I’m in love with you again in the Courtroom (Arts Court)

Sh!t. I’m in love with you again! , lyrics and interpretation by Rachelle Elie, directed by Rachelle Elie, Music and lyrics by Luke Jackson,

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