Author: Capital Critics Circle

This section is reserved for Arts News that comes our way via press releases from theatres in the area, or newspaper articles about arts events that are not theatre reviews.
Forstner & Fillister: A Comedy of Sibling Rivalry and Woodworking

Forstner & Fillister: A Comedy of Sibling Rivalry and Woodworking

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Forstner-Fillister   Photo: Barbara Havrot

Reviewed by Natasha Lomonossoff on Sat. February 17

When a play has a very long title, one knows that some degree of comedy or meta-theatricality is involved. Forstner & Fillister Present: Forstner & Fillister In: Forstner & Fillister, directed by Madeleine Boyes-Manseau at the undercurrents festival at Arts Court, incorporates both. As the audience members enter, they are given credentials for a woodworking conference at which the play takes place. The two wood-working brothers, Forstner (Will Somers) and Fillister (David Benedict Brown) introduce themselves to the audience and give out their business cards. From there, the audience is thrust into the brother’s project of building a table, as well as their world of rivalry and pressure from an increasingly automated industry. …

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Undercurrents: The Pipeline Project – more polemics than understanding

Undercurrents: The Pipeline Project – more polemics than understanding

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The Pipeline Project

 

 

Reviewed on Saturday, February 10 by Natasha Lomonossoff

As political plays go, Savage Society and ITSAZOO Productions’ show The Pipeline Project, directed by Chelsea Haberlin, is one that doesn’t hide where its sympathies lie. The play, which just finished its run at the undercurrents festival held at Arts Court Theatre, comes out overtly against the building of new pipelines (including the currently controversial Trans Mountain line proposed in BC). In this way, The Pipeline Project is a play which seeks more to advocate and convince viewers of its own perspective rather than simply host a debate on pipelines which involves all parties. In this regard, the play is only partly successful. …

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Undercurrents: the Twilight Parade-an Imaginative lens for contemporary issues?

Undercurrents: the Twilight Parade-an Imaginative lens for contemporary issues?

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Undercurrents from the Twilight Parade

 

Reviewed on Saturday, February 10 by Natasha Lomonossoff

The use of puppets to tell stories which involve mature themes is one that is both risky and innovative; with an artistic object like a puppet, one would expect that such a story would be told in a way which makes the viewer think about these issues much differently. The Twilight Parade, a mixed media and puppet show that is part of the undercurrents theatre festival at Arts Court, is moderately successful in this regard. Created and directed by Nadia Ross of STO Union, the show takes on contemporary political and social issues in an uncommon fashion. The play begins with an introduction to a group of otherworldly creatures who maintain the threads of human love which hold society together. As these creatures discover, however, all in not well in the human world, as very real issues of racism, corporate greed and economic inequality are present. …

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La Otra Orilla, ou comment parler de mouvement et d’immobilité

La Otra Orilla, ou comment parler de mouvement et d’immobilité

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Fort de France. mai, 2017 Théâtre d,Aimé Césaire

— par Janine Bailly —

Mettre en scène, de façon ludique et vivante, La Otra Orilla, en français L’Autre Rive, du dramaturge cubain Ulises Cala, ne doit pas être chose facile, mais requiert plutôt une belle inventivité, tant le texte se plaît à défier les règles de la narration classique. Ce talent, Ricardo Miranda n’en est pas dépourvu, et une fois encore, c’est à un spectacle original et singulier qu’il nous convie, pour trois soirs seulement, au théâtre Aimé Césaire. …

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Undercurrents 2018: Little Boxes packs a powerful punch

Undercurrents 2018: Little Boxes packs a powerful punch

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Reviewed by Natasha Lomonossoff

Little Boxes Photo Pascal Huot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviewed on Thursday, February 8 by Natasha Lomonossoff

As the financial security of millennials is an oft-discussed problem, one would think that coming up with a way to present this topic in an original light would be a challenge. Yet Little Boxes, a production at the undercurrents theatre festival created by Gabrielle Lazarovitz and Brad Long, manages to do just that both ingeniously and meaningfully. The 65-minute play, skillfully directed by Adam Paolozza, asks tough questions about the situations we find ourselves in, as well as how much responsibility we have for the welfare of others. …

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Othello, a story worth telling again!

Othello, a story worth telling again!

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Othello   Photo Maria Vartanova

 

 

I arrived two or three minutes late to the Gladstone due to the parking issues and bad time management after my day of drudgery, so I was looking forward to an evening of interesting theatre. I slid into the back seats of the theatre while Iago was professing his hatred of the Moor to the audience. He is dressed as a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War. …

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Little Women: A heart-warming musical which hits the right notes.

Little Women: A heart-warming musical which hits the right notes.

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Little Women production
Photo courtesy of the production company

 

Reviewed by Natasha Lomonossoff

Performing a story onstage which originally came from a book is always a challenge of adaptation, even more so with one the scale of Louisa May Alcott’s two-volume classic Little Women. With a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, musical theatre company Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’s (ASNY) production of Little Women-The Broadway Musical at the Centrepointe Studio Theatre, directed by Jennifer Fontaine and Jacqueline Armstrong, successfully manages to present this story in a way that is not tiring. With a skilled cast and engaging musical numbers, one becomes easily attached to the March family through all of their trials and journeys. …

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Heavy Bell band and Kristina Watt: Feb 3 In Ottawa

Heavy Bell band and Kristina Watt: Feb 3 In Ottawa

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This Saturday the 3rd of February at Pressed Cafe, 8pm, I’ll be performing with a band called HEAVY BELL, led by Matt Peters and Tom Keenan of Winnipeg. The 8-piece musical ensemble are on tour with an album of songs based on the poetic novel by Elizabeth Smart (born in Ottawa), By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. I will be performing sections of the novel, set to music.