Transposée dans l’Afrique du Sud post-apartheid, Mademoiselle Julie de Strindberg prend un incroyable coup de jeune.
Ce qu’ont dit les critiques :
Photo:Telegraph.co.uk Bongile Mantsai and Hilda Cronje.
Yael Farber is an extraordinary artist of the stage! Recognizing how Strindberg’s Miss Julie has established a brilliant framework for all forms of power relations, Farber transforms the play into a metaphor of contemporary post-apartheid South Africa where class, land rights, sexual tension, ethnic, social, political and cultural differences clash head on in a context of raging anger and lust, setting the background for a drama of tragic self-destruction.
The site of Farber’s version of the play, is the kitchen of a Boer homestead, located in the desert region of Karoo, where generations of racial and class struggle have not yet come to an end , in spite of the new political situation in the country. On this farm, where Julie (Hilda Cronje) lives with her father, the master of this land, she and John (Bongile Mantsai) the son of the master’s housekeeper, perform an intense and sexually charged death ritual which tears apart any form of “truth and reconciliation” that one might hope for.
Handout photo: Broadway Across America. Jillian Mueller as Alex in “Flashdance”.
The show’s big number is What a Feeling, but What Feeling? might better describe the touring version of Flashdance: The Musical which arrived in town Tuesday. A stage remake of the hit 1983 film Flashdance, the live version is written by Canadian Tom Hedley who created the original story and most of the screenplay, and Robert Cary. Music is by Robbie Roth who also wrote the lyrics with Cary. The film, a commercial success although generally mauled by the critics, catapulted Jennifer Beals in the main role of Alex from obscurity to stardom.
Hedley hopes to take his stage version – it’s not the one that played in England a few years ago – to Broadway after touring it for the next several months. Unfortunately, while there’s ample dance there’s little flash, at least in this production. Granted, the company was operating at a disadvantage because a badly balanced sound system left performers overwhelmed by the orchestra (Nicholas Williams conducts) and rendered their voices unpleasantly reedy…….read more…
The late-Victorian world of Oscar Wilde gets a dazzling rebirth. An award-winning Calgary playwright brings Hitler and Mussolini to the bar of justice. And the dust is blown off two forgotten playlets by major American dramatists.
In brief, the Shaw Festival’s fondness for the eclectic is in full bloom in its latest round of openings.
Most gloriously, director Peter Hinton, until recently head of English Theatre at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, has come up with an exquisitely realized production of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan.
On the surface, Wilde’s 1892 success might seem no more than his own characteristically witty take on the eternal triangle.
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Photo: Festival TransAmérique
What makes this production of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People so refreshing is the relaxed, hyper realistic presence of these excellent young actors, whose characters have been reconfigured in a contemporary urban space. Jan Pappelbaum’s modern loft-like set, where Dr. Thomas Stockmann lives with his wife and baby, and receives his friends, seemed to be constantly shifting like a flashing video creation. Thoma Ostermeier’s reading of the play is fresh, bright, contemporary and ear-splitting; the characters are also part of a rock band that roars over the sound system as soon as one of the members puts on the earphones.
Photo: Festival TransAmérique
The Motus theatre was founded in 1991 by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò Francesconi in the Italian town of Rimini. It took them only five years to achieve international recognition and to earn the name of the Romagna felix of experimental theatre for their innovative approach to theatre. Consisting of big projects encompassing a few shows each, Enrico Casagrande describes it as a form of theatre that aims to be an instrument of investigation, knowledge and action.
An international programme of theatre and dance. Shows have English and French subtitles
http://www.fta.qc.ca/fr/spectacles/2013
Continues until June 8
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1-866-984-3822 Birds with Skymirrors ..from Samoa
Du 22 mai au 8 juin 2013, Montréal sera de nouveau le territoire de prédilection des artistes de danse et de théâtre qui donneront vie et sens à la 7e édition du Festival TransAmériques. Dans leur désir de changer le réel, de faire entendre, sous le fracas de la pensée dominante, la voix de la différence, les artistes d’ici et d’ailleurs réunis cette année au FTA créent un théâtre, une danse qui portent notre espoir d’un monde meilleur. Ils appellent au dialogue avec 22 spectacles – dont huit coproductions du Festival, six créations mondiales et trois grands événements gratuits –, ainsi que de multiples soirées spéciales, rencontres et films.
Call Info Festival for tickets and information.
INFO-FESTIVAL
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1-866-984-3822
FTA.QC.CA
DE GRANDS RETOURS
ESPÉRÉS ET ATTENDUS
Ils ont bousculé, marqué, enchanté le public de Montréal, et c’est avec un réel enthousiasme qu’ils le retrouveront bientôt à l’occasion du Festival TransAmériques.
Chef de file de la nouvelle danse européenne, Boris Charmatz est de retour dans la métropole après 10 ans d’absence pour une fascinante Levée des conflits qui réunit 24 danseurs. Transportée par l’effervescence qu’elle a connue l’an dernier, la compagnie italienne MOTUS a choisi Montréal pour la création mondiale de Nella tempesta. Marie Brassard confie elle aussi au public du Festival la découverte d’un nouveau spectacle envoûtant, Trieste. Après l’ébranlement de Tempest en 2011, le chorégraphe samoan Lemi Ponifasio revient en force avec une œuvre essentielle : Birds with Skymirrors. Ginette Laurin poursuit l’Onde de choc de 2010 avec KHAOS qui souligne près de trente ans de belle création d’O Vertigo. Enfin, l’inépuisable Louise Lecavalier se réinvente chorégraphe dansSo Blue.
Autant d’artistes – et bien d’autres – avec lesquels renouer dans un mois…
Billy Elliot The Musical
Broadway Across Canada
National Arts Centre Southam Hall
Reviewed Tuesday, Jan. 1
OTTAWA — The story of Billy Elliot should clutch your imagination and never let go.
After all, it’s about underdogs – and who doesn’t cheer for an underdog?- including young Billy who’s born into a coal mining family but who wants to be a ballet dancer, and miners who aspire to a better life but, trapped in the corrosive economic cauldron of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, have no choice but to strike.
The multi award-winning musical also spotlights those ever-precious themes of individuality, persistence, family and community.
Just the kind of ingredients that you’d think would make your blood boil when the good guys are ill-treated and warm the cockles of your heart when they luck out.
What’s more, the touring production currently at the NAC features some solid performances including, on opening night, the talented Ben Cook as young, motherless Billy (Cook shares the role with three other actors) and Craig Bennett as Billy’s burly dad who’s initially horrified that his son wants to join the ballet but eventually comes round.
Also on board: Patti Perkins as Billy’s feisty, albeit caricatured, Grandma, Janet Dickinson as Mrs. Wilkinson, the rough-and-tumble dance teacher who spots and nurtures Billy’s potential, and a raft of other capable performers.
Heck, there’s even music by Elton John – although that doesn’t automatically make it memorable music – to accompany Lee Hall’s book and lyrics and Peter Darling’s choreography (Hall also wrote the screenplay for the original 2000 movie while Stephen Daldry directed both the movie and the musical).
Despite all this, the current production of the inspirational show is less than inspirational.
