Category: Theatre in Ottawa and the region

L’Amour médecin. Molière fait un joyeux retour au parc de la Gatineau

L’Amour médecin. Molière fait un joyeux retour au parc de la Gatineau

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photo Fâcheux théâtre.
Sylvain Sabatié – en Faux médecin.

 

 

L’Amour Médecin  de Molière, Mise en scène de Sariana Monette-Saillant. Ce nouveau volet de « Molière estival » est une production du Fâcheux Théâtre  présenté au parc Sainte-Thérèse à Gatineau.

L’Amour Médecin,  une comédie ballet  de Molière très populaire à la cours mais Molière s’inspire surtout des  types  qui sont représentés par les masques de la  Commedia dell’arte. Cette production date  de 1695.  Représentée pour la première fois par la  Troupe du roi à  Versailles, elle fut  reprise souvent depuis et ce soir à Gatineau, la troupe des « Fâcheux »   joue avec un   merveilleux sens de fantaisie, de liberté corporelle et  de fraîcheur ,  grâce aux quatre comédiens et à une mise en scène débridée de la très douée Sariana Monette-Saillant. …

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Actress Catherine McNallly Triumphs in once-controversial Shaw play

Actress Catherine McNallly Triumphs in once-controversial Shaw play

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Photo Jean-Denis Labelle  Mrs Warren’s Profession

Mrs. Warren’s Profession
By Bernard Shaw
Perth Classic Theatre Festival to August 12

On the surface, Mrs. Warren’s Profession may simply seem to be a late Victorian shocker about a wealthy female brothel-keeper who eventually gets her comeuppance from the daughter she has carefully reared in a cocooned world of privilege and propriety.
But the play has more on its mind than tabloid sensationalism There is no denying the dramatic power of those closing scenes when Vivie Warren, the secrets of her family history finally laid bare, confronts her mother with her knowledge of the truth and brutally seizes control of her own destiny. …

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Mrs Warren’s Profession: a beautifully rounded and entirely believable characterization

Mrs Warren’s Profession: a beautifully rounded and entirely believable characterization

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Photo: Jean-Denis Labelle
Perth Classic Festival

 

Mrs. Warren’s Profession By George Bernard Shaw at the Classic Theatre Festival.   Director: Laurel Smith

The world’s oldest profession, though ubiquitous then and now, was apparently unmentionable on stage. This is why Mrs. Warren’s Profession, though ready for production in 1894, was banned for several years in Great Britain and first performed in New York in 1905 for one night only, followed by arrest warrants for several of those involved with the production. …

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The Company of Fools takes a tepid turn…..

The Company of Fools takes a tepid turn…..

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photo Andrew Alexandre
Twelfth Night.

Small wonder Twelfth Night is considered one of Shakespeare’s best comedies.

Its plot-line of love, gender confusion and general chaos, which is kicked off when Viola, shipwrecked, washes up on the shores of Illyria and disguises herself as a man named Cesario, is superbly comic and deliciously self-aware.

The play’s depiction of love – its uncontrollable nature, its inevitable complications, and its power to enrich whoever it touches – is timeless and true as Shakespeare pulls Viola, Illyria’s Countess Olivia and Duke Orsino, and others into the mix of romance and passion.
…

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the Company of Fools misses its mark in the park!!

the Company of Fools misses its mark in the park!!

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Photo. Andrew Alexander. Kate McArthur, Mary Ellis.

Twelfth Night based on Shakespeare. A production of the Company of Fools directed by Bronwyn Steinberg.

No  need to  outline the plot here for this  pleasant evening in Strathcona Park played out on Brian Smith’s  colourful set  glowing with contemporary forms but perfectly adapted to this fantasy of overseas voyages, shipwrecks, disguises, impersonation,  and  shifting genders.  It prepares us  for a rollicking adventure in an imaginary land where strange puppets speak their mind or   pop out from behind the greenery with their funny screechy little voices.

…

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Time for a dead script to be laid to rest

Time for a dead script to be laid to rest

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Photo Maria Vartanova  An Unexpected Guest

 

The Unexpected Guest By Agatha Christie, Ottawa Little Theatre. Directed by Alain Chamsi

The script of The Unexpected Guest is almost as dead as the body on stage for most of the first act.

The 60-year-old whodunit by Agatha Christie has many of the usual ingredients: a dark and stormy night; a limited number of suspects; several apparent reasons for killing the very nasty victim; a little intrigue; one surprise and a smattering of sex.

The other ingredient is the extreme wordiness of the script, as various combinations of two of the characters spell out the puzzle. On paper, The Unexpected Guest might seem an interesting jigsaw. On stage, it limps along, despite Ottawa Little Theatre’s attempt to deliver a solid tribute to Christie as a playwright. The problem is The Unexpected Guest is no Witness for the Prosecution or Mousetrap (still continuing its legendary run in London’s West End). …

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OLT’s Unexpected Guest: troublesome script, good performances

OLT’s Unexpected Guest: troublesome script, good performances

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Photo Maria Vartanova

The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie, Ottawa Little Theatre, directed by Alain Chamsi

There’s no denying that Agatha Christie brings off a  stunning surprise at the very end of The Unexpected Guest.

It’s a pity, therefore, that elsewhere the play is often bogged down  in verbosity.

The current Ottawa Little Theatre production is sustained by some solid performances, but the fact remains that this 1958 thriller, the last to achieve box-office success for its author, seems excessively wordy. It also strains the credulity of even the most avid Christie admirer. …

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Bear & Company’s Cymbeline in the park is an hilarious, fully enjoyable show for a nice summer night

Bear & Company’s Cymbeline in the park is an hilarious, fully enjoyable show for a nice summer night

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Poster, courtesy of the Bear and Co.

While Shakespeare’s company probably never performed his plays in a park, Jacobean theatres were open-air, lit only by sunlight, and had no fancy lighting, sound, and set designs like modern theatre. Bear and Company’s performance of Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare’s later plays, does a lot to recreate that original Jacobean feel by staging an open-air show in various parks across the city. .

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s crazier plays, with a convoluted plot that’s hard to follow, and hard to believe could ever happen in real life. The plot is a grab-bag of earlier Shakespeare tropes. Kooky king a la King Lear? Check. Star-crossed lovers? Of course. Running off into the forest disguised as a boy? Yep. A conniving queen? Uh-huh. A lecherous womanizer? Certainly. The Roman army invades and are defeated a scene later. The plot is so absurd, in fact, that Cymbeline fell out of favour for centuries, and many critics still think that Shakespeare had just gotten bored. It is one of his final plays, after all. …

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the Cirque du Soleil redefines its space and becomes contemporary theatre!

the Cirque du Soleil redefines its space and becomes contemporary theatre!

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Corteo. Photo courtesy of the Cirque du Soleil.

 

Le Cirque du Soleil is back in Ottawa, this time with a show called Corteo already seen by 8 million people,  this time not in a tent but remounted in the huge arena of the Canadian Tire Centre a space which entirely changes the typical circus format, one of the trademarks of the Cirque.

The arena with sweeping richly decorated curtains and dazzling chandeliers (not all theatrical illusions of course) that slice the arena in half and create a two sided proscenium arch with audience sitting on both sides, is  transformed into several extraordinary landmarks of European performance. …

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Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, a fun, toe-tapping experience

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, a fun, toe-tapping experience

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Buddy. The Buddy Holly Story . Photo Randy deKleine-Stimpson

Any rock musical that’s worth its salt needs catchy tunes that will engage and excite the audience. Buddy: the Buddy Holly Story, the musical created by Alan Janes that’s based on the life of American rock pioneer Buddy Holly, is certainly no exception to this; it’s jam-packed with many hit songs from Holly and other major singers of the 1950s. With this repertoire, the rendition of this musical produced jointly by 1000 Islands Playhouse and Western Canada Theatre (from Kamloops, BC) and directed by James MacDonald is nothing short of impressive. …

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