Capital Critics Circle, Author at Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

Laurie Steven wins OAC Chalmers Arts Fellowship! Odyssey Theatre’s Artistic Director to Smash Stereotypes

By Capital Critics Circle | December 8, 2016

photo: Laurie Stevan

OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 8, 2016—Odyssey Theatre is proud to announce that Artistic Director Laurie Steven is a recipient of the prestigious Chalmers Arts Fellowship.

Awarded by the Ontario Arts Council, this grant provides significant funding for senior professional artists to take time from their usual creative pursuits to investigate, explore and experiment with style, technique, method, content or an issue in their arts practice. Instead of supporting specific projects, the program allows artists to dedicate themselves to their art form and further develop their careers. …

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Welfarewell : Social Satire or Middle Class Indulgence?

By Capital Critics Circle | November 26, 2016

Guest reviewer, Jim Murchisson

Photo: Phoenix Players. IEllen Clare O’Gallagher in Welfarewell.

It was a cool, dank Friday evening as I headed into the warmth of the Gladstone Theatre to see the Phoenix Players production of Welfarewell. As I entered into the theatre I was greeted by a cozy, economical little set made up of three primary playing areas: stage left a table and chairs serve as various meeting areas (rehearsal hall, police station, holding room, etcetera) centre stage is used primarily as a jail cell but doubles as a courthouse with minor adjustments and the stage right space works well as a tiny basement apartment or bank teller’s area.

The premise of the play is pretty interesting as it goes. An aging actress can no longer make ends meet and strategizes to commit a crime, anticipating that she might enjoy a better quality of life in prison in her waning years. Playwright, Cat Delaney inserts Shakespeare, liberally ensuring that there are some great lines in this play, but she does not meet the challenge of matching the power of Shakespearean dialogue with her own.

The problem is that Cat Delaney’s characters are sadly stereotypical. You have the feeling that this was written by someone observing poor souls from a suburban window and dropping a loonie in their hat while looking the other way. The result is a play of middle class indulgence rather than social relevance.

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The Extremely Short Play Festival 2016 : At the Avalon watch for it.

By Capital Critics Circle | November 21, 2016

Programme:

War on Thugs by Brad Long
The Cold Blue Flame of Love by Brian K. Stewart
Anniversary by Ronit Rubinstein
The Paperboy Comes Before Dawn by Aaron Adair
B4U Know It by John Levine
Hitchers by Joe Purcell and Kate Danley
The Patient by James Belich
Blind Date by Christine Weems
Please Remain Seated by Gary Choy
Check-In by Ron Frankel
Necktie by John Minigan

THE ESNPF 2016 WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE AVALON STUDIO November 25, 26, 27 and December 2, 3, 4 @8 PM
Tickets $23

Cantata Singers of Ottawa’s Christmas concert Dec. 8 presents a varied programme – fun for the entire family.

By Capital Critics Circle | November 21, 2016

The Cantata Singers of Ottawa’s Christmas concert, “Family Christmas Spectacular”, takes place on December 18 at 3 pm in St. Joseph’s Church, 174 Wilbrod Street.

Artistic Director, Andrew McAnerney has designed a programme to put everyone in a Christmas mood for the week before Christmas. And audience participation will be encouraged! The programme is designed to appeal to people of all ages, children, seniors and family groups. It’s a perfect opportunity for grandparents, aunts, uncles to have that pre-Christmas outing with their grandchildren, nieces or nephews. (FYI: Children under 12 are free.)

The CSO season brochure describes it as “Favourite Christmas music old and new – including sing-alongs, fanfares, descants and more!” The concert programme will deliver on this promise.

Those attending will be hearing glorious Christmas music performed by the CSO and their guest artists: Ottawa Children’s Choir; harpist (and JUNO Award nominee) Caroline Léonardelli and the Cathedral Brass.

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The Addams Family: Orpheus Stars Shine Under a Supermoon

By Capital Critics Circle | November 19, 2016

Guest critic Jim Murchison

Photo, courtesy of Orpheus Musical Theatre

The original creator of The Addams Family, Charles Addams could likely not have imagined the long lasting effect he would have on popular culture when he inked his first drawing for the New Yorker in 1938. Countless reincarnations in TV, animation and film have allowed these characters to endure into the 21^st century.

The musical version written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa is a well crafted tale of love discovered, love lost and love regained that has been a favourite theme since civilization first picked up a pen, a quill or a rock and started writing. This isn’t heavy stuff. It is quintessential entertainment, the perfect antidote for the post election blues and although the play is about an eccentric, wealthy American family living in New York there are no other frightening similarities to the first family elect. They’re a little macabre to be sure, but generally loving.

The front curtain for this production is a drop of portraits of the Addams’ framed by cobwebs. When it lifts, it reveals a gnarly old tree stage right stretching its craggy limbs over a dark gated cemetery as if ready to pluck someone up and toss them towards the gorgeous full moon.

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Capital Critics Circle announces seventeenth annual theatre awards (2015-16 season)

By Capital Critics Circle | November 15, 2016

Seventeenth Annual Awards offered bya the Capital Critics circle 2015-16

The winners are:

Best professional production: Belles Soeurs: The Musical, based on the play by Michel Tremblay, book, lyrics and direction by René Richard Cyr, music by Daniel Bélanger, English book adapted by Brian Hill, English lyrics, musical adaptation and additional music by Neil Bartram, a Copa de Oro Productions Ltd. (Montreal) and the Segal Centre for Performing Arts (Montreal) production.

Best community theatre production: Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally, directed by Chantale Plante, with musical direction by Paul Legault and choreography by Jasmine Lee, TotoToo Theatre.

Best student production: Pool (No Water) by Mark Ravenhill, directed by Pamela Feghali, University of Ottawa, Department of Theatre

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Playwriting contest winners to appear in highly regarded reading series, The Pipeline

By Capital Critics Circle | November 9, 2016

Mark The Pipeline 2016 in your late fall calendar

Friday, December 2 – Sunday, December 4, 2016

Every year Infinithéâtre looks for innovative, challenging and exciting new works by dedicated Québec playwrights. Plays developed by Infinithéâtre have been performed all over the island of Montréal and beyond, in Stratford Ontario, Toronto, British Columbia, in Ottawa at the NAC, New York, Tokyo, Cairo and Edinburgh.

For the past eight years, Infinithéâtre’s annual Write-on-Q! Québec playwriting competition has been the major source of original plays for its seasons’ repertoire, including recent successes Battered by Arthur Holden; Michael Milech’s Honesty Rents by the Hour; Progress! and Trench Patterns by Alyson Grant; and Oren Safdie’s Unseamly. This year’s jury, chaired by Kent Stetson, with Gerry Lipnowski and Anana Rydvald, is excited to announce the 2016 winners, whose plays will be read in early December’s The Pipeline. Infinithéâtre offers the biggest English literary prize in Québec.

Write-On-Q! First Place, Pam Dunn Prize, $3000: The Nutritional Value of Anger by Michael Milech

From the Jury, “An accomplished and excellent play with characters that are grounded in reality; whose dialogue and interaction feel genuine and compelling. A chance encounter between a profoundly damaged homeless girl, a hard-working depaneur owner and a privileged millennial spotlights people that are overlooked and deemed insignificant in our society. Written with wit, compassion and an unwavering eye for the truth, The Nutritional Value of Anger is contemporary theatre at its best.” …

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Musical “You Are Here” Impressive at 1000 Islands Playhouse

By Capital Critics Circle | September 30, 2016

Linda Cash. Photo: Stephen Wild — Linda Kash.
Photo: Stephen Wild

The 1000 Islands Playhouse is closing out their season with an absorbing world premiere of “You Are Here,” a one-woman musical with music and lyrics by Neil Bartram and book by Brian Hill. It’s inaccurate in a way to call “You Are Here” one-woman, as Diana, in a splendid performance by Linda Kash, also has conversations with other people in her life such as a stoned Viet Nam vet and her friend Joan with her distinctively messy hair-do.

Diana’s story begins as she’s watching the first moon landing in 1969. Inspired by the adventurous astronauts, she decides to leave her home and explore the world outside her protective cocoon of habit and husband. As she says, “It’s amazing the years I spent teaching myself not to see.”

Dana Osborne’s simple and effective set has a low platform upstage for the musicians backed by a huge rising moon covered with draped and scrunched fabric. In front of the platform there’s a single park bench and a small moon is suspended over the audience. Jason Hand’s expert lighting takes full advantage of the moon backdrop and Miss Osborne’s costume for Diana is amazingly versatile. As for William Fallon’s sound, it’s first rate. …

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Confused “Das Ding” in Gananoque.

By Capital Critics Circle | September 16, 2016

Photo: Stephen Wild.

“Das Ding (The Thing)” by Philippe Lohle and translated from the German by Birgit Schreyer Duarte is billed as “a sharp-witted social comedy.” I can only think that something got lost in translation as I found precious little comedy in the evening. This production originated in Toronto and moved intact to the Firehall with only one cast change. Luckily the technical production, which is terrific, moved too. “Das Ding” purports to span today’s globalized world by following the journey of a cotton fiber. I got this from the press release – not from the play.

It opens with a petulant King Manoel I of Portugal, (Qasim Khan), seated on a giant white cotton ball speaking with Magellan, (Naomi Wright). Magellan, after explaining his broken leg, requests backing for an expedition to sail west to find a route to the Indian Ocean. King Manoel refuses. The scene is mildly amusing, but the play goes downhill from there.

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A Grand Time in the Rapds, Light-Hearted Farce et the 1000 Thousand Islands Playhouse

By Capital Critics Circle | August 25, 2016

Photo: Jay Kopinski

“A Grand Time in the Rapids” by award-winning Canadian playwright Stewart Lemoine is billed as “a frivolous fast-paced farce” and it certainly is. It features Thalia, (Tess Degenstein), newly arrived in Grand Rapids from England and Ted, (Paul Dunn), an etiquette expert who arrives to monitor and direct Thalia’s confession to her boyfriend Boyd, (Craig Pike), the details of her rather lurid past.

That’s all I’ll say, as I don’t want to reveal the surprising twists of this odd-ball plot. Suffice it to say there are lots of thrown drinks, wet clothes, quick changes, and slamming of doors in this unusual farce that for a change is not about sex.

The set, designed by Jung-Hye Kim, shows Thalia’s apartment with minimal furniture and a pile of trunks and suitcases framed by a brick proscenium. The wallpaper has a design of stylized waves and there are 3 good solid doors plus a swing door to the kitchen. Her costumes are also good, especially Thalia’s dresses which clearly set the play in the 50s. Rebecca Picherack’s lighting is fine, except that the table lamp needs to come up a couple of points when the stage lights come up.

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