Category: Theatre in Ottawa and the region

The Hockey Sweater: A Musical. An enjoyable and heart-felt celebration of Canada’s sport

The Hockey Sweater: A Musical. An enjoyable and heart-felt celebration of Canada’s sport

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Photo Leslie Schachter

Few sports are as definitively associated with Canada as hockey is, and fittingly, no other one comes close to the significance of the former in the lives of both big and small-town Canadians. While the Montreal-based Segal Centre’s production of The Hockey Sweater: A Musical, in turn adapted from the well-known short story by Roch Carrier, takes place in the small community of Sainte-Justine, Quebec, the passion for hockey displayed in this setting is, I suspect, eminently relatable for many viewers. It is particularly interesting that this production is the first in the NAC’s line-up of English theatre for the 2018-19 season. The announcement by artistic director Jillian Keiley noting how rare it is to have fully-produced homegrown musicals before the play began did much to situate the importance of the Segal Centre’s work in the Canadian theatre landscape. …

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The Hockey Sweater at the NAC is a Yuletide delight

The Hockey Sweater at the NAC is a Yuletide delight

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The Hockey Sweater   Photo Leslie Schachter

You can’t deny the warmth and love that infuse the exhilarating production of The Hockey Sweater now at the National Arts Centre.

Indeed, one of the strongest features of this new musical, based on a beloved Roch Carrier story, is the affection that underlies it. It’s reflected in the insightful approach of Stratford Festival stalwart Donna Feore whose lively  direction and choreography keep events in engaging over drive while also honouring the beating heart of Carrier’s evergreen memory piece about a young Quebecois boy (and devout Habs fan) whose world is shattered when the Eaton’s Catalogue people send him a Maple Leafs hockey sweater by mistake. …

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It’s a Wonderful Life: the Radio Show. From the Screen to the Stage, an Exciting Journey.

It’s a Wonderful Life: the Radio Show. From the Screen to the Stage, an Exciting Journey.

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poster, courtesy of the gladstone, Plosive theatre 2018

Perhaps you havent’t seen Frank Capra’s film with Jimmy Stewart in the rôle of George Bailey,! It appears regularly on Turner classic movies (TCM) these days, and provides an excellent background to this modern morality tale of raw capitalism where goodness and self sacrifice face off against greed, ruthlessness and pure evil in the town of Bedford Falls. Nevertheless, one might wonder how a film consisting of emotionally powerful images and good camera work could possibly be turned into a moving and amusing evening as an on stage radio drama based on the creative use of sound. But that is exactly what it was! …

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Bed and Breakfast a rom-com romp with a hint of reality at the GCTC

Bed and Breakfast a rom-com romp with a hint of reality at the GCTC

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Photo André Lanthier

Mark Crawford and Paul Dunn in a scene from Bed and Breakfast now running at the GCTC. Photo: Andrée Lanthier

The plot sounds formulaic as all get-out, doesn’t it?

Two gay guys, tired of big city Toronto, move to a small town and open a bed and breakfast in an old house. They encounter a mix of acceptance and hostility in their new surroundings, struggle with everything from an endless reno to guests from hell, and have to make a momentous decision a year after opening their business. …

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Le Cid à la Nouvelle scène: la résurgence d’un monde archaïqueue.

Le Cid à la Nouvelle scène: la résurgence d’un monde archaïqueue.

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Le Cid         Photo Hugo B. Lefort  

Les expériences de Théâtre-rituel réalisées en Europe, aux États-unis et en Grande Bretagne dans les années 1960-70 ont mené la création scénique très loin. Rappelons Marat Sade de Peter Brook , le Prince Constant de, Jerzy Grotowski, les expériences du Living Théâtre (Julian Beck) , et Richard Schechner. Le travail en laboratoire et le  processus de création elle-même dans le sillage des expériences psychophysiologiques des anthropologues ont permis de véritables transformations du corps humain alors que les conventions du théâtre explosaient. Ce joyeux chaos a éliminé les frontières entre toutes les pratiques artistiques que nous avions prises pour acquis.

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The Hockey Sweater: Building a better musical with a little help from the Creation Fund

The Hockey Sweater: Building a better musical with a little help from the Creation Fund

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Patrick Langston on artsfile.com

Photo Leslie Schechter

What happens when an existing show suddenly gets $200,000 in funding for expansion and fine-tuning? If it’s The Hockey Sweater: A Musical, very good things occur, according to the show’s co-writers Emil Sher and Jonathan Munro.  The musical is an adaptation of Roch Carrier’s beloved short story about young Roch, whose universe is knocked sideways when he mistakenly receives a Maple Leafs sweater from Eaton’s instead of a Habs No. 9 jersey, like Maurice Richard’s.

The show is a Segal Centre production. It premiered in Montreal last year and plays the National Arts Centre starting Dec. 5. Between the two runs, it got $200,000 from the NAC’s National Creation Fund, which was launched in 2017 to help develop ambitious new Canadian works. Over the next several years, the fund will invest up to $3 million annually in theatre, dance, music and other productions. …

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Wonderful Life Back for Retelling Again

Wonderful Life Back for Retelling Again

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Photo: Maria Vartanova

It’s a Wonderful Life
By Philip Grecian
Based on the film by Frank Capra
Ottawa Little Theatre
Directed by Josh Kemp

If there is anyone out there unfamiliar with the story of how second-class angel Clarence Oddbody finally earned his wings, there are plenty of opportunities to inhale a dose of sentimental goo this Christmas season. As well as the annual TV reruns of the 1946 Frank Capra movie, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, three Ottawa theatres have chosen to mount stage versions. …

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Le reste vous le connaissez par le cinéma : Une leçon mythologique

Le reste vous le connaissez par le cinéma : Une leçon mythologique

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Photo Yanick MacDonald

Le reste vous le connaissez par le cinéma  (The Rest Will be Familiar to You By Cinema) de Martin Crimp. Mise en scène et traduction vers le québécois par Christian Lapointe

Créé par Christian Lapointe,  à partir de sa traduction de l’œuvre intégrale de Crimp adaptée du texte d’Euripide, Les Phéniciennes,  ce spectacle est un délire de grande envergure.  Dès les premières minutes du prologue, les artifices théâtrales identifiées dans les séquences filmées de Pasolini (Œdipe ) empruntées par Lapointe mais évoquées déjà dans le texte de Crimp, sont projetées sur un écran au fond de la scène. Le meurtre de Laïos,  et surtout les deux frères nés de la relation incestueuse entre Œdipe et sa mère, la belle et glaciale Sylvana Mangano.  Elle observe le meurtre de son mari sans la moindre réaction et surtout sans se douter que l’assassin de  son propre mari qu’elle épousera, deviendra le père de ses fils Polynices et à Etéocle, dont la rivalité sera à l’origine du drame qui se déroulera bientôt devant nous! …

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Chasing Champions makes for potent theatre.

Chasing Champions makes for potent theatre.

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Photo Dave Risk.

Chasing Champions: The Sam Langford Story
By Jacob Sampson
A Ship’s Company (Parrsboro, NS) production in association with Eastern Front Theatre (Halifax) at the NAC Azrieli Studio
Directed by Ron Jenkins

He’s blind and impoverished, a forgotten figure in a Harlem care home. Yet there’s something resilient about him. An element of ruefulness may underly his stoicism, yet there’s an almost jaunty suggestion that he remains one of the undefeated — in his own mind anyway. …

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