Category: All the world’s a stage

Festival Quatre Chemins Entretien avec Guy Régis Jr.

Festival Quatre Chemins Entretien avec Guy Régis Jr.

 

guy régisGuy Régis Jr. a pris la direction artistique de ce festival en 2014, à la suite  de la Fokal, qui l’avait fondé à la demande d’artistes haïtiens: comédiens, musiciens, plasticiens, réunis en collectif, sous la houlette de Daniel Marcelin, metteur en scène et directeur du Petit Conservatoire jusqu’à sa fermeture en 2014. Le jeune artiste revenait d’un séjour de six ans en France. « J’ai quitté Haïti, dit-il pour croiser mon travail avec d’autres artistes, ici, je continue ».

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L-E-V OCD : Dancing the Pain Away

L-E-V OCD : Dancing the Pain Away

Emily Blake,  November 26th 2017

In Patrick Langston’s criticism class.  

 

Silence speaks louder than words, and in that silence is all the meaning in the world. LEV’s OCD Love is a powerful commentary on what it like to be plagued by OCD, shedding light on the realities of those who are faced with this disorder every day. LEV is an Israeli dance company founded by choreographer Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar. They are joined by techno musician Ori Lichtik, working together to create this hypnotic masterpiece.

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Student Review: Dense but Rewarding: The Metropolitan Opera’s The Exterminating Angel

Student Review: Dense but Rewarding: The Metropolitan Opera’s The Exterminating Angel

Photo Emon Hassan
The Exterminating Angel

Kellie MacDonald from the Theatre Criticism course of Patrick Langston, U of Ottawa

Widely considered the opera event of the season, this is the North American premiere of acclaimed British composer-conductor Thomas Adès’s newest work. With direction and libretto by Tom Cairns, The Exterminating Angel draws inspiration from the 1962 Luis Buñuel film of the same name. It is, at the same time, thrilling and torturously slow, depicting the descent into madness of a Sartrean dinner party nobody can leave.

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The State of Siege (l’état de siège): A political warning

The State of Siege (l’état de siège): A political warning

État de siège
État de siège, Photo de Jean Louis Fernandez

Albert Camus’ 1948 play The State of Siege (L’État de Siège) is presently touring the U.S. in a production by Paris’ celebrated Théâtre de la Ville. This is the company’s third visit to this country, but its first to Boston where it opened on November 9 at ArtEmerson’s Majestic Theatre.

Camus was invited to write the play by the actor and mime Jean-Louis Barrault then also France’s leading director. As early as the late 1930s, Barrault began developing ideas for a drama based on the plague. At first, he collaborated with Antonin Artaud whose interest lay not in dialogue, but in creating a powerful theatre of ritual, imagery, and movement which ultimately through assaulting the audience’s senses would have a cathartic effect. The two men split up because Artaud’s ideas were too extreme for Barrault and the converse was true for Artaud.

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The Revolutionists: How far have we come?

The Revolutionists: How far have we come?

The Revolutionists. Photo A. R. Sinclair

The Revolutionists Photo A. R. Sinclair

The Nora Theatre Company at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, MA is currently presenting The Revolutionists, a work by Lauren Gunderson that takes place in Paris during the Reign of Terror (1792-1793), a period of the French Revolution during which the leaders of the new government took revenge against those viewed as anti-revolutionists. The situation worsened when the government split into two factions, the Jacobins and Girondins. Of the two the Jacobins were the more vicious. Arrests, quick trials, and the guillotine were the order of the day.

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: An Intense and Moving Theatrical Experience

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: An Intense and Moving Theatrical Experience

photo: Nile Hawver-Nile Scott Shots

The 2015 Tony Award winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time now playing at Boston’s SpeakEasy Company was adapted by Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon’s bestseller of the same name. It is a very imaginative theatrical play where what is seen is as important as the words heard.

It revolves around Christopher Boone, a high functioning mathematically gifted autistic fifteen year old boy who lives in Swindon, England. Although the word autism is never mentioned, his behavior and the production make his problems clear. Given that he prefers his own company he does not socialize with people. As a result, he is extremely naïve about the way the world functions. He cannot bear physical contact with people. Even his parents are allowed only to reach out a hand and touch Christopher’s hand while he stands at a distance. However he has a pet rat he cares for tenderly. He dreams of becoming an astronaut, a profession where he could be alone and fly towards the planets.

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« Ovando », ou comment revisiter l’histoire

« Ovando », ou comment revisiter l’histoire

Janine Bailly  paru sur Madinin-art  22 octobre, 2017

Lors de ce moment ultime d’une représentation, nommé « bord de scène », l’un des comédiens nous dira, de la présence anachronique du magicien Volvéro auprès du gouverneur Ovando, — volver, revenir ? ici, revenir dans le passé, revenir sur le passé historique ? — qu’elle est destinée à nous rappeler, dans de constants aller-retours, la ressemblance entre autrefois et aujourd’hui, la similitude entre la colonisation par les puissances européennes au temps des “grandes découvertes”, la colonisation sous forme plus récente de territoires d’outre-mer, et l’aliénation qui d’une autre façon perdure.

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Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster: A Sad, Mad, and Yes Funny Play

Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster: A Sad, Mad, and Yes Funny Play

Souvenir. A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins
Photo Mark S.Howard

Ten years after staging Stephen Temperley’s two-hander Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins Spiro Veloudos, the artistic director of Boston’s Lyric Stage, has revived it with the same cast. Not having seen the earlier production, I am unable to compare the two. However, both talented performers Will McGarrahan and Leigh Barrett are comfortable and believable in their roles.

Since Souvenir’s Broadway début in 2005, Florence Foster Jenkins has become considerably better known. Coincidently, Peter Quilter’s British iteration with an even longer title: Glorious!: The True Story of Florence Foster the Worst Singer in the World opened the same year. 

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La Fuite de Mikhail Boulgakov. mise en scène de Macha Makeïeff.

La Fuite de Mikhail Boulgakov. mise en scène de Macha Makeïeff.

— Par Michèle Bigot  pour Madinin-art   16 octobre 2017

Comédie fantastique en 8 songe.  Un spectacle de Macha Makeïeff,
La Criée, Marseille, création 2017, 6>20 octobre

Aucun spectacle créé par Macha Makeïeff ne témoigne autant que celui-ci de son double talent de metteure en scène et de plasticienne. La musique (avec une prééminence de l’accordéon) la lumière, les couleurs et les costumes ont fait l’objet d’une attention toute particulière. La scénographie digne d’un opéra, les lumières dont le jeu a été confié à Jean Bellorini, les évolutions chorégraphiques, dessinées avec la complicité d’Angelin Preljocaj, l’ensemble contribue à faire de cette comédie fantastique un spectacle total.

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WARHOLCAPOTE: Their World of Celebrity, Competition, Conversation, Art, and Friendship

WARHOLCAPOTE: Their World of Celebrity, Competition, Conversation, Art, and Friendship

Warholcapote
Photo Gretjen Helene

As its title seems to indicate,Warholcapote , a two character play revolves around a relationship so close that both characters are in some way indistinguishable. Both were honored as avant-garde artists of the mid-twentieth century and both were celebrity hounds. Much of Warhol’s art consists of paintings of beautiful and famous actresses, most notably Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, the most prominent movie stars of their time. Nonetheless, he is perhaps most renowned for his pop art paintings of Campbell soup cans and other consumer goods of the middle class of the period.

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