Theatre in Ottawa and the region Archives - Page 68 of 92 - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

The Tale of a Town: the Ottawa portion of the show reveals disparate stories that remind us we are still one community

By Patrick Langston | December 7, 2014

Toronto’s FIXT POINT theatre company is on a three-year, nationwide mission. Its goal: to remind us who we are by interviewing residents of cities and towns across Canada about their memories of their main street areas and then presenting the highlights of those interviews in mixed-media shows collectively called The Tale of a Town. FIXT POINT creates a new show for every city or town, drawing on local and other actors as collaborators and performers.

When The Tale of a Town Storymobile, a small, round-shouldered trailer outfitted with benches and audio equipment, arrived in Ottawa in mid-November, residents from Orleans, downtown and Wellington West contributed their memories inside it as well as online and by telephone. The FIXT POINT team quickly put together and rehearsed the show and this week performed it over three nights in those same three areas of the city. We attended the Friday night show at the in-the-round venue in Orleans – an empty retail site adjacent to the Shenkman Arts Centre. On stage performing multiple roles, singing and playing musical instruments: Ottawa performers Emily Pearlman, Patrick Gauthier and Katie Swift as well as visiting artists Adam Paolozza and Norah Sadava. Behind the scenes: FIXT POINT’s co-founders/play creators/directors Lisa Marie DiLiberto and Charles Ketchabaw.

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The Extremely Short New Play Festival: An event that opens the stage for new writers.

By Alvina Ruprecht | November 30, 2014

Photo. Andrew Alexander. Brad Long and Gabrielle Lazarovitz (Ex Libris by Yohanan Kaldi)

Ten short plays directed by John Koensgen, presented in rapid sequence but set in spaces that are similarly designed so that there is almost no visual distinction among the works. Also the same four actors return in various roles so the performances are not as highlighted as the texts themselves. That is no doubt the reasoning behind this form of staging: It draws our attention to the writing and less to the staging. An important experiment that gives younger playwrights, as well as some seasoned ones, a chance to have their work shown in public.

I liked Pierre Brault’s Quartet because it was a playful meeting of four voices that appeared to be written as a musical score, rather than a dialogue. Very good. He used extra linguistic means (rhythm, pauses, and quality of sound, accent, rhyme, intonation and all such things) as the four voices wove their way around each other and eventually ended in a duo that matched beautifully. Michel Tremblay did this a lot in Les Belles –Soeurs and in other works…it’s a technique that highlights language and Brault with Koensgen directing captured the flow very well.

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Fidler on the Roof: This Production is a Splendid Anniversary gift.

By Iris Winston | November 22, 2014

Orpheus Musical Theatre Society has given Fidler on the Roof a splendid 50^th anniversary gift with its current production.

One of the best loved musicals of all time, Fidler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick is based on the stories about Tevye the milkman by Sholem Aleichem, first published in 1894. The focus of the stories, the musical and the 1971 movie is on Tevye’s vain attempt to maintain Jewish tradition in a changing world. In addition to dealing with each of his three oldest daughters moving further away from the accepted custom of their father selecting appropriate husbands for them, he and his fellow villagers face expulsion from their home during a pogrom.

As directed by Michael Gareau, the Orpheus production is particularly noteworthy for its clarity, attention to detail and respect for the traditions that are Fiddler’s raison d’être. From the simplicity of the opening and the purity of the sound from Danny Albert’s violin through strong characterizations, fine ensemble work, assorted musical highlights and spectacular visuals, this Fiddler has a magical quality.

While the heaviest responsibility falls on the lead character — and Christopher Mallory brings a fine singing voice and a robust characterization to his Tevye — this production is marked by a number of high quality dramatic and musical performances, as well as by an interesting and suitably spare set design from Cindy Bindhardt and fine lighting effects from David Magladry.

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Extremely Short Play Festival: Smooth Direction and Some Sensitive Performances Highlight This 95-minute Collection of Short Plays.

By Iris Winston | November 22, 2014

Creating a satisfying dramatic whole in a few minutes is often more challenging than writing a much longer piece. (Remember the adage: “Had to write a long letter. Didn’t have time to write a short one.”?)

Yet, at least three of the plays in this year’s edition of The Extremely Short New Play Festival are dramatically complete and consistently interesting.

Of particular note is Blue Fluted Plain by Adam Meisner, a wrenching tale of family tragedy that tackles the question of the impact on those involved by family connection. Quartet, Pierre Brault’s delightful, tongue-in-cheek look at speed dating, also makes a lasting impact.

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Extremely Short Play Festival: Short, Sweet and not so sweet. Festival lives up to its name.

By Patrick Langston | November 22, 2014

John Koensgen's New Theatre of Ottawa, has put on three short play festivals.

Photo. Caroline Philips. John Koensgen’s New Theatre of Ottawa, has put on three short play festivals.

The third edition of The Extremely Short New Play Festival lives up to its name with at least one of the plays ringing in at around two minutes, the longest running maybe five times that, and the whole collection – 10 shows in all – clocking in at about 90 minutes including intermission.

The shows, some good, some not so much, are mostly by local or Canadian playwrights. Mary Ellis, Gabrielle Lazarovitz, Brad Long and John Muggleton handle all the acting, and New Theatre of Ottawa’s John Koensgen directs.

Israel’s Yohanan Kaldi has contributed two very short pieces about the soulless absurdity of institutions. In one, a prison warden (Long, too flip in the role) orders the extermination of fleas that a prisoner (Muggleton) has been training. In the other, a would-be library user (Long again, this time bang on) wreaks a tasty revenge on two control-freak librarians played by Lazarovitz and Ellis. Kaldi’s tiny, well-built plays zip by but leave an unexpected and disquieting echo.

Mikaela Asfour’s Rasha, about two young siblings and violence, comes and goes making little impression. Muggleton is menacing as the brother, but having Ellis, good as she is, play a young girl is ill-advised.

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Some Solid Theatre At This Year’s Extremely Short Play Festival

By Jamie Portman | November 22, 2014

Photo.Andrew Alexander. Mary Ellis and John Muggleton.

Ottawa’s Extremely Short New Play Festival can always be depended on to yield surprises. To be sure, some entries may prove profoundly uninvolving even even though they mercifully last only a few minutes. But there are always others that yield rich dividends.

Such is the case with the 2014 edition, which continues at the Arts Court Theatre until Nov. 30. As always, director John Koensgen and his actors use a bare stage and the simplest of props. As always, there’s a professional flow to the evening, with one play giving way to the next with a minimum of fuss. And most importantly, the playbill again features a quartet of solid actors — Mary Ellis, Gabrielle Lazarovitz, Brad Long and John Muggleton — giving their all to the material and, in the process, demonstrating their versatility.

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Ashes to Ashes: Unicorn Theatre does justice to the haunting work

By Maja Stefanovska | November 12, 2014

On particularly dark days when I have binged too long on depressing world news or, as I am wont to do, taken a tumble down the darker holes of historical reading, a rather grim mood settles over me. In such cheerless moments, optimism becomes harder to summon and thoughts about the way we live and our never-ending ability to hurt one another start spinning. At first glance, Harold Pinter’s Ashes to Ashes seems like the wrong play for me. A layered, disturbing work that touches obliquely on the Holocaust and, by extension, all of human history, it seems downright depressing. However, as horrifying as references to “babies being ripped out of their mother’s hands” by one of the main characters are, plays like Ashes to Ashes are a secret weapon against depression and pessimism. This is because Ashes to Ashes, while touching on the horrors of history, is at its core a play about our ability, whether innate or through an artistic medium such as theater, to empathize with our fellow humans, even if we haven’t suffered as they have. The more ability we have to understand others, the less of a chance there is that we will continue being the victims of history. Directed by University of Ottawa MFA Directing Candidate James Richardson and supervised by Dragana Varagić, Unicorn Theater’s production is haunting and stays with you long after you’ve left the theater.

Two characters, Rebecca and Devlin, confront each other in a lamp lit room. Their relationship is intentionally murky (is he a lover? therapist?) as he interrogates her about a violent, sexually dominant past lover. Rebecca’s answers are elliptical and often seem meandering. She answers his questions with more questions or non-sequiturs. Of course, when critiquing a production of Ashes to Ashes, it is imperative to remember that this isn’t a play about characters, but about ideas. Devlin and Rebecca are concrete entities which serve to house abstract ideas. Devlin, as mannered as he is, represents the aggressor through his relentless questioning. History for him is something entirely separate from himself, something to be compartmentalized, academically understood, and dragged from Rebecca if necessary. Rebecca, on the other hand, represents history’s empathetic subject. She identifies with both its victims and aggressors through her empathy, becoming an echo for its horrors as she slips in and out of memories that strongly suggest the deportation and interning of Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Rebecca’s experience culminates as she is transformed into one of the women whose children are torn away on the train platform, while Devlin’s aggression grows until his apex echoes the violent actions of her former lover. …

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The Dixie Swim Club: A show with heart and humour

By Iris Winston | November 9, 2014

Photo for Phoenix Players — Poster for Phoenix Players

Swim together and stay close for the rest of your lives. This is the theme of The Dixie Swim Club by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, an ode to lifelong friendship in the vein of Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling and Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley. And the many comic one-liners through the script give a nod to television’s Golden Girls (not surprisingly, as Wooten was one of the screenwriters for the show).

In The Dixie Swim Club, five Southern U.S. women, members of the same college swimming team, meet each year at the same beach cottage in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Through their annual two-week vacation each August, they recharge their friendship and support each other through assorted life crises. …

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The Importance Of Being Earnest. A cringe-inducing production that is trivial and insulting!

By Jamie Portman | October 27, 2014

Photo: Andrée Lanthier

The National Arts Centre’s English theatre division has proudly unveiled its 2014-15 acting ensemble — and one can only feel embarrassed.

The rationale for a permanent acting company is a sound one. It’s to elevate the play-going experience by assembling a gifted team of artists versatile enough to tackle all types of theatre with confidence and understanding. Possibly the prime example in Canada exists at the Shaw Festival where its company has been hailed as the best in the western hemisphere.

That said, any acting company worth its salt should be able to meet the demands of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest, a staple of the basic repertoire. Unfortunately, the NAC’s much vaunted new ensemble fails the test lamentably.

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The Hunchbacks of Notre Dame Misses the Mark

By Maja Stefanovska | October 25, 2014

The idea of a play within a play, like Under the Table’s The Hunchbacks of Notre Dame, is not a new concept. Neither is the concept of artistic awkwardness in order to make a point. Indeed, we see this latter technique in almost every commercial these days. All this to say that, in order for these elements to work well and seem fresh, they really have to come together in a natural and artistic way. Under the Table’s performance of The Hunchback’s of Notre Dame missed the mark. Instead of being funny and provocative, it ended up just being awkward and tiring, despite the three actors’ abilities, which were considerable.

The Hunchbacks of Notre Dame, created and performed by Matt Chapman, Josh Matthews, and Sarah Petersiel is the story of the Hunchinson Family Players, a theatre troupe of hunchbacked siblings trying to make it big with their misguided adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. No matter that neither Johann (Matt Chapman) or Hilda (Sarah Petersiel) can remember the author’s name, or that Johann is more focused on selling merchandise than anything else. Poor Paul’s (Josh Matthews) vision, such as it is, keeps getting crumbling until it finally explodes in an epic way. …

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