Theatre in Ottawa and the region Archives - Page 63 of 92 - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

Tactics’ Programming at Arts Court

By Capital Critics Circle | September 9, 2015

2015-2016 TACTICS Programming

November 13-21, 2015      (off) Balance by Naomi Tessler
                                             & feelers by Amelia Griffin
January 22-30, 2016          A Little Fire by Megan Piercey Monafu
March 11-19, 2016             Perfect Pie by Judith Thompson
April 22-30, 2016               Woyzeck’s Head, produced by Third Wall Theatre

All events take place at the Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly Avenue, K1N 6E2
8pm performances Wednesday to Saturday
2pm matinees on the first Sunday and second Saturday of each run
Panel discussions and other community engagement events are scheduled for the Mondays or Tuesdays during the middle of the production runs.
2015-2016 Season Subscriptions are now on sale on ArtsCourt.ca/TACTICS at $85 for General Admission and $65 for Student/Senior/Artist. Single tickets for each production are on sale for $25 for General Admission and $20 for Student/Senior/Artist.

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Gladstone’s New Season Has A Super Launching With The Norman Conquests

By Jamie Portman | September 1, 2015

AL Connors as Norman and Margo MacDonald as Sarah Photo by David Whiteley — AL Connors as Norman and Margo MacDonald as Sarah
Photo by David Whiteley

There’s a moment in The Norman Conquests when actor Steve Martin shows up on the Gladstone Theatre stage carrying a wastebasket. The moment is amusing in itself, and it integrates neatly into John P. Kelly’s funny and perceptive production. But to discover the full story behind the arrival of that receptacle, you’ll have to pay a return visit to the Gladstone — and you’ll probably want to do so.

The reason is that what we’re seeing at the moment is a play called Table Manners, a single instalment of Alan Ayckbourn’s marvellous trilogy about a weekend of domestic chaos. In this one, we’re witnessing the events that occur in the dining room. Coming up in a couple of weeks is Living Together, which will introduce us to unspeakable occurrences during that same time period in the living room and also tell us more about that wastebasket. Finally we’ll be getting Round And Round the Garden, which takes us outdoors into the garden where the trilogy’s central character — a bearded womanizing librarian named Norman — will be wreaking further havoc on the lives of those about him. One hopes that the next two entries will match the quality of this opening production.

As a playwright, Ayckbourn has repeatedly been drawn to feats of structural juggling. Something unusual in his creative psyche has brought us items like How The Other Half Loves with its double image of two living rooms occupying the same space; Communicating Doors with its use of a hotel suite as a vehicle for time travel; and Absurd Person Singular which places the same group of couples in three separate kitchens on three consecutive Christmas eves. These and other plays testify to Acykbourn’s credentials as a restless experimenter. And the Norman Conquests trilogy is particularly audacious — a challenge for Ayckbourn in fitting the right pieces into the right place in his three-play jigsaw, a challenge as well to the director and actors in keeping everything working. …

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The Norman Conquests: Table Manners is an entertaining production due to Kelly’s attention to detail

By Iris Winston | August 30, 2015

Six characters. One weekend. Three views of the shifting perspectives of two unhappy married couples and two lonely singles reacting to each other in three different parts of the same property (the dining room, the living room and the backyard).

Alan Ayckbourn, who wrote the trilogy of comedies comprising The Norman Conquests in one week in May 1973, says that each of the group stands alone and may be seen in any order (though each of the three should be seen first!)

An ambitious project for playwright, director, cast and crew, The Norman Conquests has been well received almost every time it has been presented during the 40+ years since Ayckbourn wrote the three plays simultaneously and in parallel. By, for example, writing the second scene of each of the comedies at the same time, he could refer in the segment set in the dining room to the amount of alcohol being consumed in the living room and its effects on the title character.

Table Manners, which opens the Seven Thirty Productions/Plosive Productions co-pro of The Norman Conquests, heads towards a nightmarish family dinner delivering sniping and discontent as the main course. So horrible are the relationships that you have to laugh or be swept away with the underlying misery. …

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Puppet arts take center stage in this growing international puppet festival

By Kat Fournier | August 9, 2015

The Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival presents a compelling program this year, where an impressive number of troupes present 69 shows over 3 days. The annual festival in Almonte, Ontario is well-worth the short drive from Ottawa. Artistic Director Noreen Young has curated a festival with a number of impressive local and international puppeteers, featuring a plethora of styles of puppetry. Puppet arts are an important theatre tradition, with strong cultural roots across the globe. It is an important festival to the future of puppet arts in Canada.

Young has put together a festival that allows its audience to venture into traditional styles of puppetry, as well as modern performances. The festival truly has something for everyone, young or old. What’s more, the late night “adults only” cabaret ensures that adults are not alienated in a style that is often associated with theatre for young audiences.

Here are just a few highlights from this year’s festival. …

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Frantic but Funny “Don’t Dress for Dinner” in Gananoque

By Capital Critics Circle | August 7, 2015

Todd Thomson as Bernard & Kirk Smith as Robert. Photo: Mark Bergen — Todd Thomson as Bernard & Kirk Smith as Robert. Photo:
Mark Bergen

The 1000 Islands Playhouse has mounted an antic production of “Don’t Dress for Dinner.” The rollicking farce, by Marc Camoletti and adapted by Robin Hawdon, is a sequel of sorts to his earlier play, “Boeing Boeing,” in that it features the same male leads: Bernard, still having woman problems, in this case with his wife Jacqueline and mistress Suzanne, and Robert, his hapless friend. Through a series of mis-chances they all end up in Bernard’s country home for a disastrous dinner party along with a hired cook, Suzette.

Jung-Hye Kim’s set is good, with plenty of doors for slamming, a necessity for farce. The furniture is colorful and easily tips, another plus. The only flaw is the large mirror on the stage left wall which is very distracting. Oz Weaver’s lighting is good except for the last two scenes, which doesn’t make sense. As the actors leave they turn out the lights, but the stage lights immediately sneak up again to light the final scene. The costumes by Cindy Wiebe are fine and Suzette’s onstage change is very clever. The exception is Jacqueline’s very unflattering nightgown and odd slippers. Also, someone should remind Jacqueline and Suzette to make up their tan lines. …

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I’m Not Jewish But My Mother Is!: Trite, repetitive and clichéd production

By Patrick Langston | August 3, 2015

Something to remember: writing, producing, directing and acting in a play mounted in your own theatre is probably not a good idea. Case in point: I’m Not Jewish But My Mother Is! written, produced and so on by Steve Martin on his own stage. Trite, repetitive and clichéd with a predictably gooey centre, the comedy is a prime example of how being overly involved in something blinds you to its faults.

Not that Martin hasn’t shown talent in many things theatrical. As owner of The Gladstone, he’s produced some excellent shows. As a director, he did a bang-up job in 2009 with David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin, Jr.’s howlingly funny The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of A Christmas Carol. As an actor, he was first-rate, several years ago, in Stephen Mallatratt’s The Woman in Black at Ottawa Little Theatre, and has since held his own in Glengarry Glen Ross, Noises Off and other shows at The Gladstone.

But in those cases, he was wearing just one or two hats. With I’m Not Jewish …, he’s wearing them all so there’s no place for anyone with a dissenting view of Martin’s writing or staging decisions, no room for someone to suggest richer character development, no one to notice that maybe all that dancing (and Martin, a professional ballroom dancer, is undeniably fleet of foot) is overkill.

The play’s storyline is simple enough: successful bachelor lawyer Christopher Bloomfeld (Martin) has a stereotypical Jewish mother Rose Bloomfeld (Barbara Seabright-Moore) whose mouth pops into gear before her brain is fully engaged; lawyer also has a curvaceous girlfriend Felix (Bekah Fay) who arrives at his apartment while mouthy mother is visiting unannounced; sparks fly – though maybe not in the way you’d expect; heart-to-heart resolves all. …

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The Creation of the World and Other Business: 9th Hour Theatre saves Miller’s play

By Rajka Stefanovska | July 25, 2015

Sometimes, a director can ruin a perfectly good literary work. This time around, the opposite happened. Director Jonathan Harris and his stunning team save Arthur Miller’s The Creation of the World and Other Business!

When Arthur Miller wrote the play, he was already past his best creative years. Usually known for his obsession with guilt and responsibility, his characters are conscious to a fault of their social responsibilities. His recurring themes of self-purpose, life and death, choices made, and consequences are always depicted with intellectual bite and sharp, edgy confrontation by characters. Although The Creation of the World and Other Business is also a philosophical exploration of the human race – its morality, its purpose, and justice, Miller’s usual depth and sharpness are missing. His characters are lighter and the dialogue rarely goes below the the surface. Not quite the Miller one would expect. That’s why it was a failure critically and commercially when it debuted in the early 1970s .

In his play The Creation of the World and Other Business, Miller attempts to retell the Bible’s story of Genesis in a humorous way. It is divided into three sections: The first is life in the Garden of Eden, where every creature, from bees and elephants to angels and humans (Adam and Eve), live in a harmony and praise God. The only problem is that God is vain and not too intelligent. He needs the humans to multiply, but has no idea how to make that happen. His bright but fallen angel, Lucifer, has an idea to let humans taste the forbidden fruit (apple) so that they will know what to do. God absolutely forbids that, because he does not want his children to lose their innocence and gain knowledge of evil. In the second act, Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise, though both God and Lucifer watch them and battle to gain their admiration (or power over them). The last part deals with Kane, eaten by jealousy, killing his brother Abel. He has to face his punishment – being condemned to the life of a wanderer. …

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OLT’s Bedtime Stories: The Best and Worst of Norm Foster

By Jamie Portman | July 15, 2015

Norm Foster’s Bedtime Stories consists of six playlets, four of which should have been left to gather dust in the playwright’s bottom drawer.

There’s a variability in quality here. And that places a hard-working cast at something of a disadvantage in Ottawa Little Theatre’s current summer production of this frequently produced Foster piece.

But there remains enough here to show this prolific Canadian playwright’s genuine merits. He has a gift for funny, observant glimpses into contemporary life. He also — when he puts his mind to it — can examine human relationships with genuine poignancy. Both these qualities are on display in Bedtime Stories.

But Foster also has a weakness for the kind of sophomoric humour that can quickly wear out its welcome. In Bedtime Stories, the playlets are linked in three basic ways.

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Viol( Schändung) : a magnificently choreographed production of Bothos Strauss’ reworking of Titus Andronicus. A reminder of a great evening of student theatre.

By Alvina Ruprecht | July 13, 2015

Sixteen tableaux performed by a huge cast of students including a chorus that not only speaks but also transforms itself into parts of the set and integrated symbolic forms, reveals the enormous talents of Miriam Cusson who actually choreographs as much as directs this violent ritual of human degradation, pain, cruelty and ambition. The irony emerges through a string of sado masochistic rituals of martyrization, and frenzied physical desire set off by the site of the sacrificial victim – violated, slashed and mutilated. A contemporary playful mise en abyme of a contemporary horror show where the director brings in the voyeuristic faces of the chorus peering out from the back of the set. There is the lust, the exhibitionism, the penitence…some of the most violent human instincts come crashing down on the spectator in this captivating parade of ceremonies that holds our attention every second of the evening. . The thread that runs through the performance is inherited from the Elizabethan (or Jacobean) Vengeance tragedies of Thomas Kyd a contemporary of Shakespeare; however, it owes even more to the ultimate vengeance tragedy Thyeste by the roman playwright Seneca that so intrigued Artaud

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Shadows: Margo Macdonald reviewed at an earlier Fringe in Ottawa

By Alvina Ruprecht | July 13, 2015

Shadows at the Fringe

Shadows at the Ottawa Fringe Written and acted by Margo MacDonald, Shadows is a glimpse into the life of Eva Le Gallienne, the famous British actress producer and director who made her professional life in United States. We see the important periods of her life in rapid flashbacks: her work with her repertory company, her roles in Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland as well as Hamlet and Hedda Gabler, Mainly we have an intimate look at her stormy lesbian relationship with Jo, another actress who was dedicated to Eva but Eva’s own demons get the better of both of them. . Two excellent performances by Sarah Finn as the beautiful Joe and Margo MacDonald as the tortured Eva. The play pinpoints the fact that living as a lesbian, even as a famous actress, was not easy during the first half of the 20th Century.. . MacDonald is captivating and utterly convincing as we watch her live her passion for her work and for Joe and we see her slow degeneration into alcoholism and depression. A plum role for an actress which Ms MacDonald played most beautifully.
Director Diana Fajrajsl created flashsbacks that made the shifts in time very clear, transforming a gas explosion into what looked like a theatrical stage effect so the whole play became a performance within a performance, pinpointing the very nature of Le Gallienne’s life. This is very intelligent and sensitive directing on Fajrajsl’s part. Good set by Lynn Cox and a haunting musical background.
Shadows is the best show Ive seen yet in the Fringe. Be warned. This is not a comedy. Its serious theatre..Plays at the Leonard Beaulne Studio
Alvina Ruprecht Ottawa, June 2010