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

Teamwork from Stadium Lights to the Stage: The Wolves at The Gladstone

By Capital Critics Circle | February 15, 2020

Wolves photo Andrew Alexander. Reviewed by Kennedy Fiorella

Sport is the world’s greatest connector. People from all over the world tune in to watch their country face off during the FIFA World Cup, the Winter Olympics, and more international sporting events. On the ice, field, or pitch –a team can come together, or fall apart, making for dramatic highs and even lower lows.

As my high school drama teacher, Mr. Scott Sprague, once said, “Sport in itself is the truest form of performance.”And that is exactly what is seen onstage at Theatre Kraken’s production of The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe. The Wolves follows a soccer team of the same name, made up of nine sixteen to seventeen-year-oldgirls, as they navigate not only the pitch, but their personal development, complicated social lives and future ambitions. Led by #25 on defense, the Captain (Meg Sutton), acts as the replacement Coach (as he’s always hungover, as discussed by the girls) and tries to hustle her teammates to compete at their best. #2 (Chelsey Cowan) and #8 (Jordan Quayle) make up the defense, a charming yet innocent pair of sixteen-year olds who are less “mature” then their highly developed teammates. #13 (Olivia Piercey) and #11 (Kelsey Rideout) cover the midfield, girls who are striving to be more advanced then they truly are. …

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Work of Quebec playwright Claude Gauvreau given high recognition in the Juno nomination for The Bounds of our Dreams.

By Capital Critics Circle | January 29, 2020

Artsfile. ca

CANADA’S NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ORCHESTRA& MUSIC DIRECTOR ALEXANDER SHELLEY RECEIVE JUNO NOMINATION FOR THE BOUNDS OF OUR DREAMS.

One of the works on the album, a world premiere recording, is Le Concerto de l’asile, which was born from a shortwaltz that Walter Boudreau wrotefor a staged production of Claude Gauvreau’s L’Asile de la pureté. JUNO Week 2020willbe hosted in Saskatoon, SKand the 2020JUNO Awards will be broadcast live on Sunday, March 15, 2020.This is the NAC Orchestra’s fourth nomination in this category, the most recent having been in2019 for New Worlds, and including Angela Hewitt’s 2015 win.Recordings of its commissions won Classical Composition of the Year in 2018 and 2019 for Jocelyn Morlock and Ana Sokolović

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Casablanca: we’ll always have the radio !!!

By Capital Critics Circle | December 16, 2019

Photo Teri Loretto, cast of Casablanca. Reviewed by Kennedy Fiorella, .

Gone are the days when, on a cold winter night, the family gathered around a fire to listen to the new radio play, gracing the airwaves at seven o’clock. In the Golden Age of Radio, this is what brought families together, listening to a new story, performed live on air, filled with sound effects, music and dramatic dialogue.

This December, audiences in Ottawa relived the magic of the radio through Plosive Production’s presentation of Casablanca: The Radio Show at The Gladstone. The radio Show has become a time-honored tradition for the theatre, performed every December and this year was no exception, as Casablanca graced the stage from December 6th to 14th, immersing audiences in its classic tale of intrigue, lost love, and resistance. …

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Tribalism, Tragedy and Torment: Yaël Farber’s “Blood Wedding” at the Young Vic

By Capital Critics Circle | November 24, 2019

Posted by Maria Delgado | 10th Oct 2019 | Review, Spain, Translation, United Kingdom

Olwen Fouére (foreground) as the Mother in “Blood Wedding”. Photo: Marc Brenner. A Production posted on thetheatretimes.com. Yael Farber is an extraordinarily talented director of South African origin who presented her version of Mies Julie in Montreal in 2014.

Mies Julie in the Karoo: a stunning metaphore captures the difficult transformation to Post Apartheid society

Blood Wedding. Federico García Lorca’s rural trilogy, written in the period between 1932 and 1936 as social unrest increasing polarised Spain, canonised him as a dramatist outside his native country. But these three plays—Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba—merging the symbolic, the lyrical, and the realistic often pose significant challenges both to the translator and director in their striking shifts of dramatic register. Blood Wedding, the first of this trio of plays creates a modern Greek tragedy from the 1928 newspaper story of a pair of cousins—here the Bride and Leonardo—eloping on the eve of the bride-to-be’s wedding. First staged in Madrid in 1933, it is a play where the lean storyline and economical writing avoid easy exposition, allowing the narrative’s ambiguities to remain up to the play’s tragic end. …

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Trace: Powerful Potrayal of Duty, Sacrifice and Strength through the Keys of a Piano

By Capital Critics Circle | November 22, 2019

Written by Kennedy Fiorella, in Yana Meerzon’s theatre criticism class at the U of Ottawa

The story of familial sacrifice is one that runs through Canadian identity. In Jeff Ho’s Trace, he masterfully “traces” his family history through the three generations of women who came before him. As he physically embodies the characters of his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Ho reveals not only his own family secrets, but completely immerses his audience through the music of their pasts. Through expert direction and captivating acting, Factory Theatre’s production of Trace at the National Arts Centre delivers a powerful evening of emotionally harrowing experiences which gives new life to Ho’s ancestors with every note played. …

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Festival Kanoas…la compagnie l’Autre souffle: Hommage à Jean-Michel Martial. 23 octobre 2019

By Capital Critics Circle | November 19, 2019

https://www.compagnie-lautresouffle.com/

DÉCOUVRIR

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Old Stock: a Refugee Love Story, an Exploration of Resilience.

By Capital Critics Circle | November 7, 2019

Photo: Stoo Metz Photography. Old Stock with Ben Caplan

By Kennedy Fiorella, a student in the theatre criticism class of Yana Meerzon

Lived experiences provide a foundation for the creation of theatre which is deeply personal, and far-reaching, allowing all types of audiences some ability to connect with what is onstage. In Hannah Moscovitch’s Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, she carefully examines her own family’s history of immigration while creating an inclusive story of fear, acceptance, and hope. Through intricate weaving of emotionally harrowing scenes and energetic, enchanting musical performances, Old Stockdelivers an evening of captivating exploration that encapsulates the resilience of the settler experience in Canada while shedding light on the horrors of the past.

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, is more then meets the title. Based on the true story of Moscovitch’s paternal great-grandparents, the play centers on Jewish-Romanian immigrants, Chaya(Mary Fay Coady), who travels with her family, and Chaim(Eric Da Costa), who travels alone, as they each flee their native Romania to escape the pogroms and meet in Halifax in 1908. They meet again once settled in Montreal, where Chaim proposes that they pursue a happy life together, a difficult task, due to each of them holding onto traumatic memories and snapshots of their former homeland. …

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The Ugly One: An Appealing Play but Unattractive Production

By Capital Critics Circle | October 25, 2019

By: Irene Blainey , a student in Yana Meerzon’s theatre criticism class.

Imagine a world so ashamed of imperfection, craving the pristine, yet ugly in nature. This is the captivating and eye-opening world presented in Marius von Mayenburg’s play The Ugly One. However, the plays transfer to the stage at The Gladstone was anything but captivating. The production, directed by Peter Haworth, found itself incoherent, theatrically drained and in need of plastic surgery.The play, which was translated from German, follows Lette (David Whiteley), a businessman who is suddenly awoken to the fact that he is ugly. With the loss of new job opportunities and a confrontation with his wife (Julie Le Gal), he seeks a solution to his appearance. …