David Jenniss et Frédérique Thérrien …

Photo: Théâtre de l’Ile

Il est difficile d’associer le nom de Michel Marc Bouchard (auteur québécois d’œuvres aussi recherchéess que Les Feluettes)  à cette soirée de folie furieuse trempée dans le burlesque kitsch inspiré du cinéma comique hollywoodien. Mais, voilà ce à quoi Bouchard, le maître de l’écriture théâtrale, se dédie depuis un certain temps.

…

Read More Read More

The setting is dark, the smell of beer wafts into the audience. This is naturalism at its miserably best. Set in a pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the 1970s where war between the Irish and the English, the Catholics and the Protestants is waging. Lives are torn apart, families are destroyed, young men become killers and women are accustomed to blood and violence. It has become second nature. The place smells like death and this production captures that feeling, enhanced by the presence of three characters. An IRA activist (Fionn) and the son of an English landowner (William), are seeing the same girl, Aislin. “Why not” she quips, with a knowing grin,” I don’t want to get involved in politics so I’m on both sides” and so far it works. However life is not that simple and when the situation comes to a violent head, and decisions must be made, Aislin decides to come clean. And later, when Fionn comes into the pub with a bag under his arm, we know what is about to happen. At that point we even wondered if the last scene following the one just mentioned, was even necessary! The play is beautifully constructed, the characters are believable. The three of them create perfect dramatic balance in that situation where a terrible malaise haunts us right up to the final moment and our attention never falters.

…

Read More Read More

Written and performed by Jeff Leard, directed by James Leard.

A surprising epic, the initiatic journey of a young actor whose experiences as part of a cross Canada tour with a company performing children’s theatre, transforms him into someone who sees sense in this life, someone who loves to do theatre for children. An intelligent, well-constructed and very theatrical savvy show by a strong young actor who keeps us glued to the trials and tribulations of this character: an actor who performs Rumpelstiltskin across the country. Much originality, much performance virtuosity by a young man who is on the way to becoming a serious actor. One suspects there is a portion of autobiography here but so much the better. A pleasure to watch because it comes from deep down inside and that, I like!

Sappho in 9 fragments by Jane Montgomery Griffiths, performed by  Victoria Grove

The public has to realize that this is a theatrical adaptation of Sappho’s poetic fragments so don’t expect to hear a reproduction of her writings. If that is clear at the outset, it is much easier to appreciate the show. A poetic transgression produced by multiple voices, gives new meaning to Sappho’s writings in today’s world. This performance within a performance, spoken by the silken and sensual voice(s) of Victoria Grove, incarnates two couples, whose poetic expressions of desire and beauty produce a portrait of the writer, so misunderstood over the centuries. Through these voices who relate their own passionate encounters with a blinding object of desire, we move between Ancient Greece and the modern world, to the point where space, time, voices and the original texts blend and Sappho the legend emerges as an eternal force of enormous power. Some of the language is magnificent. The staging is striking, even hypnotic as the poet/goddess, first appears as a fluttering shadow, murmuring her incantations in Greek, seemingly a return to the platonic vision of reality as it is reflected on the wall of that cave. Plato is immediately transgressed as Sappho removes the curtains and reveals her physical presence to all, thus imposing her own revised image of reality, which is what we then see as the actress twists herself around the lengths of twine, as she moves between those imaginary spaces in time. Greatly enhanced by the set, by the lighting and by the sound design that brings us back to the origins of time, the sensual voice of this superb actress, becomes a presence that goes far beyond the text.

See it in the Arts court Library.

Directed by Jessica Ruano

Set design, Ana Ines Jabares

Lighting, Sarah Crocker

Sound, Luca Romagnoli

This is an amazing show! I was immediately seduced by the tightly choreographed physical comedy that director Tracey Guptill imposed on her troops, whipping them into some of the best ensemble shape I have seen at the festival. Most of the material is exceedingly clever (the founding story of the ecological movement ) which goes back to Adam and Eve’s real reason for leaving the garden of Eden: an ideological split of a special sort forced them to go their separate ways. The result, Eve travels the world to create a community of green conscious members who don’t always live up to her expectations, while Adam pops up at the most unexpected moments. Its wild and woolly, it explodes into hysterics, it satirizes the fanatics, it harnesses energy and produces tribal dancing and the musical accompaniment which also works as sound effects , created and performed by Scott Irving is perfectly suited to the action. It is an amazing flight of imagination where an uneven text is given an extremely exciting reading by this young director who shows enormous promise. Note that super Ottawa based performer Jen Vallence whom we rarely see in our city.  This “Eve” , when not preventing global warming, must be hiding out in New York doing Broadway shows or something? And of course William Beddoes is his excellent self. This show reveals a ton of talent that I never suspected. Go see this one.

Emissions. A climate comedy written by Ann Cavlovic, directed by Tracey Guptill.

This performance is clearly conceived as a piece of very important personal therapy where a cancer survivor is celebrating the joy of life! He dances, he goes berserk on the public transit system, he infuses his frightening medical experiences (radiation treatments, operations etc ) with a sense of theatrical humour that makes it all bearable (for the audience and for himself) and he sustains an hour of movement, clever lighting effects and an excellent rapport with the audience. This young man is a very talented performer who uses his instruments (his body and his voice) with great inventiveness. The material is uneven but that is not the point here. He has survived,  and it’s his personal journey that he wants to tell us, avoiding any pathos, which is also what I appreciated. It all took a lot of guts. A big hug to this lovely fellow and fine actor.

Noah Spitzer performs at Arts Court.