Category: All the world’s a stage

Come From Away – New Canadian Musical on Broadway

Come From Away – New Canadian Musical on Broadway

“Come From Away” – New Canadian Musical on Broadway

Come From Away, a relentlessly peppy new musical by the Canadian husband-wife team David Hein and Irene Sankoff, tells the story of how the remote town of Gander, Newfoundland (pop. 9000), welcomed more than 6000 stranded airline passengers from 38 grounded planes when the FAA closed American air space on 9/11.

It is a worthy story on its face. The real Ganderites certainly behaved magnanimously. As we learn in the course of this show’s 100 hectic minutes of thumping group numbers, performed by a cast of 12 shifting among dozens of roles, the locals acted with extraordinary selflessness. They served food they cooked themselves, volunteered store-stocks, prepared public buildings, hotels, even their own homes for shelter: unflinching generosity and humble hospitality that deserves honor and praise.

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la Conférence des Oiseaux présenté au Centre dramatique de l’Océan Indien (Saint Denis de la Réunion)

la Conférence des Oiseaux présenté au Centre dramatique de l’Océan Indien (Saint Denis de la Réunion)

La conférence des oiseaux

Les 11 et 12 avril La conférence des oiseaux   de Jean-Claude Carrière inspiré par Farid Uddin Attar

mise en scène Guy Pierre Couleau  Comédie de l’Est – CDN de Colmar     Présentation de “La conférence des oiseaux” par Guy Pierre Couleau

Porté à la scène pour la première fois en 1979 par Peter Brook, le conte soufi de Farid Uddin Attar, adapté par Jean-Claude Carrière, retrouve toute sa force intemporelle par la grâce d’une mise en scène sobre et délicate signée Guy Pierre Couleau.

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An Inspector Calls: A Study of Greed

An Inspector Calls: A Study of Greed

Liam Brennan, Jeff Harmer, Hamish Riddle, Andrew Macklin  Photo by Mark Douet

The National Theatre’s production of J.B. Priestley’s 1945 “An Inspector Calls” now playing at ArtsEmerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, MA remains a fascinating political theatre piece. When first completed, there was no theatre available in London so Priestly offered it to Russia where it played successfully in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) and Moscow. Its 1946 London début was at the Old Vic with Ralph Richardson – one of England’s greatest actors – as the inspector. The work remained popular for quite a few years and was translated into a number of languages, shown on television in 1948, again in 1961, and turned into a film that appeared in 1954.

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Birdy: A Test of Loyalty

Birdy: A Test of Loyalty

 

Photo Evgenia Eliseeva

“Birdy,” an adaptation by Naomi Wallace of William Wharton’s once renowned 1978 novel is now playing at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the winter home of the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. (In summer the company performs Shakespeare outdoors on the Boston Common.) Wharton’s best seller about a close, but unusual friendship between two boys, Birdy and Al,  who came from a poor neighborhood in the suburbs of Philadelphia won the US National Book Award and was translated into twenty languages. A 1984 film version set during the Vietnam War directed by Alan Parker and starring Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine received the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury at Cannes. 

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Kanata- Episode 1-La Controverse, mise en scène de Robert Lapage

Kanata- Episode 1-La Controverse, mise en scène de Robert Lapage

Mireille Davidovici . Posté le 24 décembre, 2018 sur  www.theatredublog.unblog.fr Mise en scène de Robert Lepage

kanata

Kanata la controverse. photo Théâtre du Soleil

«Il y a tellement de vents contraires», dit Miranda. La jeune artiste française, installée à   Vancouver ou  elle prépare une exposition:  des portraits de femmes autochtones assassinées par un tueur en série canadien. Son projet aura-t-il lieu ?  Prise en étau entre son désir de témoigner au nom de ces victimes, et l’opposition d’associations autochtones, une non native peut-elle légitimement s’exprimer en nom et place des Premières Nations ?

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l’Impossible procès : Le devoir d’Histoire en Guadeloupe

l’Impossible procès : Le devoir d’Histoire en Guadeloupe

 

Présentation a l’Artchipel, à Basse-Terre
Photo: Yvor Lapinard

Texte de Guy Lafages,  adaptation et mise en scène de Luc Saint-Eloy

En 1967, un événement presque anodin a eu lieu à Basse Terre, la capitale administrative du Département (D.O.M).   Le romancier Max Jeanne s’est inspiré  de cette rencontre  fortuite entre le propriétaire d’un magasin de chaussures et un cordonnier,  pour fabriquer un roman poético-réaliste (La chasse au Racoon) ponctué d’humour rabelaisien, une symbolisation de ce réel  qui avait inspiré  des réactions  violentes dans la région de Basse-terre et transformé cette confrontation en légende.  Le propriétaire du magasin avait renvoyé son chien  contre le cordonnier assis  devant son établissement et ce geste était l’étincelle qui avait  allumé  la rage  qui s’est étendu à l’ensemble du département.    

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L’impossible procès :

L’impossible procès :

 

Février est, pour certains une période où, par l’intermédiaire du Carnaval, l’on se doit de tout oublier.
Mais d’autres, au contraire, ont choisi de faire de février est un mois de recueillement, consacré à la mémoire des événements tragiques de 1967 et au procès des 18 Guadeloupéens qui s’ensuivit, en février-mars 1968, pour « atteinte à l’intégrité du territoire français ».
Car de février 1968 à février 2009, date à laquelle la population de la Guadeloupe se trouvera à nouveau engagée dans un mouvement social de 44 jours, ce mois marque la résistance d’un peuple qui n’a de cesse de se battre pour sa liberté. 

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SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO IN THE TRAPPINGS OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA

SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO IN THE TRAPPINGS OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA

Photo: Natasha Moustach

An updated version of Othello now playing at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge originated at the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Director Bill Rauch was interested in exploring the similarities that that he believes underlie the play with the problems and politics of today’s U.S. where prejudice against people of color, ethnic minorities, and immigrants looms large. The tragedy’s misogyny is still with us today although attempts are being made to eliminate it. Rauch’s cast was chosen in part to make the play match the U.S.’s society more closely. In a cast of twelve there are only four white actors. Half the actors play a second role.

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The End of TV: Manual Cinema Presents Another Unusual And Stunning Work

The End of TV: Manual Cinema Presents Another Unusual And Stunning Work

Photo Judy Sirota Rosenthal

Manual Cinema has returned to Boston’s ArtsEmerson with their latest work The End of TV just a year after their delightful showing of Ada/Ava. The company was set up in 2010 as a collaborative of three men and two women dedicated to modernizing shadow puppetry through combining theatre and film. Nonetheless, as with Ada/Ava, there are no words spoken by the characters. The only dialogue presented is taken from old television commercials that are dubbed by the puppeteers. Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman are responsible for the script.

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Small Mouth Sounds and Not Much Dialogue Either

Small Mouth Sounds and Not Much Dialogue Either

 

Photo Nile Scott Studios

Small Mouth Sounds now playing at Boston’s SpeakEasy is influenced by the personal experience of its playwright Bess Wohl who underwent the rigors of a silent retreat. The six characters that arrive at the retreat mostly alone seem to be there to change and better their lives during their five day stay. Since speech plays a relatively small role, the actors often use a form of mime to make themselves clear and the audience often needs to use guesswork to follow the action. Though the characters’ names appear in the program, they are not spoken.

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