Author: Alvina Ruprecht

Alvina Ruprecht is professor emerita from Carleton University. She is currently adjunct professor in the Theatre Department of the University of Ottawa.She has published extensively on francophone theatres in the Caribbean and elsewhere. She was the regular theatre critic for CBC Ottawa for 30 years. She contributes regularly to www.capitalcriticscircle.com, www.scenechanges.com, www.criticalstages.org, theatredublog.unblog.fr and www.madinin-art.net.
L’Amour médecin. Molière fait un joyeux retour au parc de la Gatineau

L’Amour médecin. Molière fait un joyeux retour au parc de la Gatineau

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photo Fâcheux théâtre.
Sylvain Sabatié – en Faux médecin.

 

 

L’Amour Médecin  de Molière, Mise en scène de Sariana Monette-Saillant. Ce nouveau volet de « Molière estival » est une production du Fâcheux Théâtre  présenté au parc Sainte-Thérèse à Gatineau.

L’Amour Médecin,  une comédie ballet  de Molière très populaire à la cours mais Molière s’inspire surtout des  types  qui sont représentés par les masques de la  Commedia dell’arte. Cette production date  de 1695.  Représentée pour la première fois par la  Troupe du roi à  Versailles, elle fut  reprise souvent depuis et ce soir à Gatineau, la troupe des « Fâcheux »   joue avec un   merveilleux sens de fantaisie, de liberté corporelle et  de fraîcheur ,  grâce aux quatre comédiens et à une mise en scène débridée de la très douée Sariana Monette-Saillant. …

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the Company of Fools misses its mark in the park!!

the Company of Fools misses its mark in the park!!

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Photo. Andrew Alexander. Kate McArthur, Mary Ellis.

Twelfth Night based on Shakespeare. A production of the Company of Fools directed by Bronwyn Steinberg.

No  need to  outline the plot here for this  pleasant evening in Strathcona Park played out on Brian Smith’s  colourful set  glowing with contemporary forms but perfectly adapted to this fantasy of overseas voyages, shipwrecks, disguises, impersonation,  and  shifting genders.  It prepares us  for a rollicking adventure in an imaginary land where strange puppets speak their mind or   pop out from behind the greenery with their funny screechy little voices.

…

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the Cirque du Soleil redefines its space and becomes contemporary theatre!

the Cirque du Soleil redefines its space and becomes contemporary theatre!

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Corteo. Photo courtesy of the Cirque du Soleil.

 

Le Cirque du Soleil is back in Ottawa, this time with a show called Corteo already seen by 8 million people,  this time not in a tent but remounted in the huge arena of the Canadian Tire Centre a space which entirely changes the typical circus format, one of the trademarks of the Cirque.

The arena with sweeping richly decorated curtains and dazzling chandeliers (not all theatrical illusions of course) that slice the arena in half and create a two sided proscenium arch with audience sitting on both sides, is  transformed into several extraordinary landmarks of European performance. …

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25 1919 France: Pure performance cycle that continues through eternity !

25 1919 France: Pure performance cycle that continues through eternity !

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Photo Dahlia Katz
25 in the Odd Box

 25 – 1919 Paris France is billed as a “performance event  ”- even a play if you wish,   by Elliot Delage . It can only be called a work in progress,  far from even  seeking some sort of  ending  (ateleological!) because although the movements are absolutely precise, the  structure flounders all over  space and time.   Barely  going beyond  brief encounters  or   fleeting dialogues between two actors  who change  their emotional interaction,  exchange each others clothes (no this is not Brechtian at all) flip from actors  to those who are pretending to be someone else or trying to be an existing being. …

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“quatre heures du matin”: Théâtre martiniquais au Tarmac

“quatre heures du matin”: Théâtre martiniquais au Tarmac

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 Quatre heures du matin », adaptation et mise en scène de Hassane Kassi Kouyaté 

Présenté au Tarmac du 23 au 24 mai, 2017

Cette adaptation par Hassane Kouyaté,  du roman d’Ernest J. Gaines  (nommé aux Prix Pulitzer et Prix Nobel de littérature), est une  production de Tropiques Atrium ( Fort de France) oὺ Kouyaté dirige  la scène nationale. Cette saison, deux créations de l’ Atrium  ont été intégrées à la programmation du Tarmac :  Le But de Roberto Carlos  (mise en scène et scénographie de Kouyaté ), une coproduction du Tarmac et de la Scène nationale de Martinique,  est une réflexion sur la migration recréée par un acteur, un chanteur et un musicien. Ensuite, Paris a reçu  Quatre heures du matin, adapté du roman de l’Américain Ernest Gaines et mis en scène par Kouyate. …

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Josephine Baker: an uplifting, engaging, and inspiring performance.

Josephine Baker: an uplifting, engaging, and inspiring performance.

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Josephine Baker (Tymisha Harris)  Photo thanks to the Ottawa Fringe

 

They bill this as a burlesque cabaret but it goes far beyond that form because it actually tells us of  the entire life of this remarkable Afro-American woman, played by Tymisha Harris.  Harris does not really imitate Josephine but rather captures her multiple styles of dance and singing, various forms of theatricality and  the different  creative moments  in her life as she evolves from the poor areas of  St Louis Missouri  through several  marriages until she  finally accepts an invitation to Paris to perform in the” Revue Nègre”  in 1925.  That move to France will change her life. …

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Dr Faustus meets cyberspace: the past and the future collide in perfect harmony!!

Dr Faustus meets cyberspace: the past and the future collide in perfect harmony!!

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Mephistopheles  arrives.    Photo Andrew Alexander  #Faustus

 

In a small empty space illuminated by several enlarged computer screens, a shadowy figure sits contemplating the lists of glowing symbols, mathematical signs, and strange calculations whizzing along in front of us. This is the current knowledge of the world enticing the ambitious Faustus who wants to meet Mephistopheles  as he vows  to give his soul to the devil. …

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Mamma Mia: ABBA’s music soars into the Mediterranean sky.

Mamma Mia: ABBA’s music soars into the Mediterranean sky.

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Photo Alain Dean
Pierre Sirois as Pepper and Stefania Wheelhouse as Tanya

As the orchestra under the direction of Chris Santillán pumped out the first ringing notes , the first pounding   beats of the overture performed by the electronic keyboards, acoustic instruments, percussions and other sounds of the time,  Mamma Mía, left us with   powerful memories of Orpheus Musical Theatre  that will certainly carry us through the summer. It included a packed house at the Centrepointe, an audience barely able to contain itself, trembling with excitement and shrieking with joy after almost every musical number. It all exploded like a huge love in- style 1970s- of proportions that I have never seen before in that theatre. …

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15th Annual Israeli Film Festival continues until June 10:

15th Annual Israeli Film Festival continues until June 10:

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The 15th  annual Israeli Film Festival opened on May 24 in the brand new Alma Duncan Salon  in  the Ottawa Art Gallery ,  a space of brilliant light and wondrous  new urban perspectives that project us way above  downtown Ottawa making us  feel as though  we were  floating somewhere between New York and another huge capital in a completely unknown space! . Presented by the Canadian Film Institute and the Embassy of Israel this particular  festival runs from May 24 to June 10  and judging by the opening work, The Cakemaker (of Berlin), Israeli filmmakers are dealing in a most delicate way with  all the  contemporary artistic and sociopolitical debates,  that are fuelling discussion in our  contemporary world. …

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Cry-Baby the Musical: a rollicking show that goes beyond the box!!

Cry-Baby the Musical: a rollicking show that goes beyond the box!!

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Photo Maria Vartanova
Emma Woodhouse (Allison) Nicholas Dave Amott (Cry-Baby) with   Abbey Flockton (Pepper) in between.

 

Cry Baby  The musical  A Theatre Kraken Production adapted from  the film written and directed by John Waters , the book by  Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, songs/music    by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger,  incidental music by Lynne Shankel

 

Not since Tim Oberholzer* and his merry band of performers let loose at the Gladstone  with their cult rock musical productions (The Rocky Horror Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch),   has the Gladstone theatre housed  such an exuberant cult classic event . However, this one had a different twist  and that is what brought the show up a notch . Pianist and artistic director Chris Lucas signaled to his six piece band  and off went the overture  making fun of the way those numbers end, by endless endings that always restart, signaling the beginning of this huge send-up  that already had us  giggling. …

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