Category: All the world’s a stage

La Cerisaie: bits and pieces of pathos and ferocious humour are all that remain of the tragic content !

La Cerisaie: bits and pieces of pathos and ferocious humour are all that remain of the tragic content !

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photo. Theatre TG Stan. Lopakhin, Firs, Lyubov

La Cérisaie (The Cherry Tree/the Cherry Orchard) presented by the Belgian company TG  STAN (i.e. Stop Thinking About Names)

The Flemish  TG Stan collective from Antwerp  chose to perform their version of Chekhov’s last play (1903-04), as a comedy where the tragedy was reduced to moments of pure pathos as  the actors free themselves from the  constraints of Chekhov’s  theatrical conventions.  The enclosed space of a dying society has flung open the windows and let fresh air flood into the theatre to produce  a counter discourse that brought this performance beyond  what we might expect.  This reading  was at times intriguing but at times disturbing because we seemed to lose something. …

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La Cérisaie: a performance that feels like a workshop might need a director!

La Cérisaie: a performance that feels like a workshop might need a director!

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La Cérisaie,  Jolente De Keersmaeker as Luybov, Frank Vercruyssen as Lopakhin
Betroffenheit :Corporeal exchange as innovative now as the work of Pina Bausch in the 1970’s

Betroffenheit :Corporeal exchange as innovative now as the work of Pina Bausch in the 1970’s

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Betroffenheit.
PhotoMichael Slobodian

Betroffenheit (consternation, a state of shock, dismay) a coproduction by  Kidd Pivot Company and the Electric Company Theatre. Written by Jonathan Young, Choreographed and Directed by Crystal Pite.

Here Betroffenheit  indicates very quickly,  a state of trauma, set off by a personal crisis that the individual, a lone young man enclosed in a hospital room, has experienced but , cannot get out of his mind. In spite of the presence of a psychiatrist, and of  individuals who seem to want to help him, the grief and the personal tragedy have possessed him deeply and we see how he can never escape their consequences no matter how hard all those around him appear to be helping  him. …

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Parfois le vide : Jean-Luc Raharimanana refait le monde.

Parfois le vide : Jean-Luc Raharimanana refait le monde.

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Parfois le vide. Photo : Grâce au théâtre d’Ivry et le Tarmac. Jean-Luc Raharimanana et Géraldine Keller.

 

Après  une première lecture de  son  poème Parfois le vide  en Avignon  (juillet 2016), suivie d’une nouvelle étape  de   ce « processus de travail » poético-scénique ,   réalisée au Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (Paris, 2016) accompagnée  de Géraldine Keller (voix, chant, flûte) , Tao Ravao (cordes)  et Jean-Christophe  Feldhandler (cymbales et percussions) ,   Jean-Luc Raharimanana,  poète,  auteur , metteur en scène,  chantre malgache de ce « putain de mondialisation », continue ses recherches sur les plateaux   du Théâtre d’Ivry et du Tarmac (2018).  Son spectacle le  plus récent est un quintette de voix, humaines et musicales.   Celles-ci  passant des tonalités les plus aigües  aux cordes les plus sombres, portent  l’auteur-acteur au comble de l’expression d’une « rage bestiale »! …

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Epilogue d’une Trottoire d’Alain-Kamal Martial: drame en Madegascar

Epilogue d’une Trottoire d’Alain-Kamal Martial: drame en Madegascar

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epilogue d’une trottoire,  2008
Photo grâce à la compagnie Nôtoire

Texte d’Alain-Kamal Martial, Saint Denis de la Reunion

Le Théâtre du Grand Marché qui a la mission du Centre dramatique de l’Océan indien, se trouve tout au fond du pavillon du « grand marché », comme un bijou qu’on cache pour éviter que les indésirables ne le subtilisent. Pourtant, ce bijou de création scénique ouvre grand ses portes à tous les publics de Saint-Denis de la Réunion, en leur offrant une programmation des plus stimulantes et un lieu de rencontre agréable où artistes et grand public prennent un verre, se côtoient, et échangent des idées. Ce théâtre reçoit souvent les productions d’outre-mer pour alimenter le dialogue artistique au grand plaisir des habitants de la région. C’est dans le contexte de cette programmation ouverte qu’un texte intitulé Épilogue d’une trottoire, œuvre jouée dans le « cycle de l’Étranger(s) » au theatre Notoire (le CDR d’Annecy), a été donné au Théâtre du Grand Marché cette saison. …

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The White Card: An Attempt to Communicate

The White Card: An Attempt to Communicate

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The White Card 
photo Gretjen Helene

 

 

The White Card, Claudia Rankine’s play on racism is having its world premiere at Boston’s Paramount Theatre as a coproduction with Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre. Rankine, a celebrated modernist poet, created the drama to bring the ideas of her prize winning Citizen, An American Lyric to a medium where dialogue is most often the means of communication.

 

As is frequently the case in plays that involve disagreement between characters, a dinner party plays a prominent role in The White Card. At the opening of this two scene piece, Virginia (Patricia Kalember) and Charles (Daniel Gerroll), a wealthy white middle-aged married couple who live in a luxurious New York apartment, are talking with Eric (Jim Poulos), a white art agent as they await Charlotte, an African American artist. Charles and Virginia want to purchase one of Charlotte’s works. …

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Rude Mechs’ Experiment with Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov

Rude Mechs’ Experiment with Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov

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Rude Mechs,  Photo:Joan Marcus

Rude Mechs, an Austin-based ensemble in their twenty-first year of collective creation, recently appeared at the Yale Repertory Theatre.  As is their  wont,  Rude Mechs’  production is a reshaping of a work whose ideas, characters, potential for humor and updating appealed to the group. Consensus is de rigueur in the running of this company. …

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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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On Words in Motion: Brodsky / Baryshnikov

On Words in Motion: Brodsky / Baryshnikov

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On Words in Motion: Brodsky / Baryshnikov. Photo: Janis Deinats

In scholarly debates on contemporary theatre, the question about language has primary importance. Critics as well as scholars, interested in diversity on stage, often discuss the advantages and the limitations of using two or more languages, the working of surtitles, and the rules of hospitality when a producing company decides not to translate their productions to the host audience. …

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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.