Photo of Cliff Cardinal courtesy of NAC English Theatre

An extremely talented young performance artist, Cliff Cardinal, a true theatre warrior, is clearly committed to an art form that makes a difference, an art that builds social relevance and social awareness. In his own words, he is exploring a world that has been neglected by theatre practitioners in Canada, one that addresses “Canada’s most taboo subculture: First Nations youth abusing solvents, at high risk of suicide.”

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Playwright-actor Cliff Cardinal’s one man show, huff, has received rave reviews practically everywhere it has appeared. That’s a lot to live up to. Cardinal and director Karin Randoja’s opening night performance at the NAC started off a bit shaky, but ended with such a powerful bang that I’m sure many of us in the audience will be carrying the events of the play and its message for days, if not weeks, to come.

In this one man show, set on a First Nations reserve, Cardinal combines mythic storytelling and a dark, twisted sense of humour to portray over 20 characters surrounding three brothers as they cope with the harsh realities of their lives and the one year anniversary of their mother’s death. Backdropped against a tall, plastic drapery on which they project patterns and images corresponding to the mood, Cardinal and his team have created a world somewhere between harsh reality and gas-induced hallucination. The subject matter is very dark and the team certainly doesn’t shy away from showing the depths of its pain and destruction. There were a couple of scenes that had me writhing in my seat with discomfort and disgust. …

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Reviewed by Jeniva Berger for her site www.scenechanges.com

You might call Beatrice & Virgil a play about a writer getting caught up in things beyond his understanding. At least Lindsay Cochrane’s adaptation of the central part of Yann Martel’s fourth book points in that direction. Not having read Martel’s novel, which apparently turned out to be a particular disappointment after the astounding literary and film success of The Life of Pi, I can understand the quandary that readers had. Part fantasy and part allegory with a realistic setting and a theme that isn’t pleasant, Ms. Cochrane apparently found something that was stage worthy in adapting his book. Her faith is admirable.
You can’t fault the director Sarah Garton Stanley who has given us a well paced production, nor the performers who make the story within a story close to heartbreaking. Damien Atkins is a crisp,  matter-of-fact  author named Henry who has suffered a dissapointing rejection from his publisher for his novel called The 20th Century Shirt (apparently mirroring Martel’s own dismay when his novel was rejected), begins the play at a lectern at a side of the stage, speaking to an audience about how he overcame his disillusion and turned instead to other interests like theatre and books. Well and good. But then, Henry tells us of a a strange note from another person named Henry, who would like his help about a play he is writing.

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Reviewed by Kat Fournier.

The story of Anne Frank, humanizing the Holocaust, is one of the greatest modern tragedies.

Director Tim Picotte has used the 1955 award-winning script by American writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett to present the dramatization of the young girl’s diary. Moving, yet funny, the play is, at its core, a work of naturalism. Minute, realistic detail is built into the setting, dialogue and character.

The script spans three years in Amsterdam, and opens with a scene three years after the Franks move into their hiding place, following the end of World War II and the evacuation of the concentration camps.

The set, designed by Annemarie Zeyl, is a worn annex of an office building in Amsterdam, now transformed into a small apartment for the Franks and Van Daans. The space comprises a raised “loft” upstage of a central living room, flanked by two closet-sized rooms. The rooms are separated by curtains only, so emphasizing the lack of privacy.

Picotte offers a straightforward interpretation of the script, faithful to the original staging. Unfortunately, the approach lacks the necessary subtlety, resulting in the loss of the richness embedded in the text. The characters, played without the requisite refinement, almost became caricatures.

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A toi pour toujours ta MarieLou

Richard Bénard en gros plan.

À toi pour toujours ta Marie-Lou de Michel Tremblay, actuellement au Théâtre de l’île à Gatineau (Québec) est un petit chef-d’œuvre de mise en scène. Ce quatuor de voix, les deux filles (Carmen et Manon) et les parents (Léopold et Marie-Louise), mènent simultanément deux dialogues parallèles, dans deux espaces/temps différents où le décor symbolise le drame qui a déchiré cette famille par le passé, et continue à la ruiner. Marquée par les éclairages ingénieux et un paysage sonore puissant qui nous transporte bien bien au-delà de la réalité québécoise, cette représentation cerne un paysage cauchemardesque où tous les personnages arrivent sur le plateau comme des revenants, baignés d’une lumière bleuâtre d’outre-tombe, avant de s’installer dans leurs fauteuils où ils seront relégués pendant tout le spectacle.

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Photo. Caroline Laberge,  Evelyne de la Chenelière,  Jean-François Casabonne, Violette Chauveau

Une œuvre troublante dont la trame s’inspire du roman de Marie Cardinal (Une vie pour deux), mais dont le style théâtral semble nous renvoyer à l’univers langagier et dramatique de Marguerite Duras. Un couple, Simone et Jean, passe leurs vacances en Irlande, pays des brumes, des fantômes, des revenants. Ils découvrent le cadavre d’une inconnue sur la plage, encastrée dans le sable, comme un fossile qui cache des secrets. De beaux effets de lumière aquatique transforment le sable en tombeau liquide et installe une étrange magie sur ce monde d’obsessions. . Tout d’un coup, nous voilà en pleine relation triangulaire tâchée de transgressions qui hantent le couple « durassien »  (le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, L’amante anglaise).

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Being in love with someone and love are two very different things. The first is a breathless kind of Bora that awakens in you a temporary madness. It’s a volcano of sweet emotion that sweeps you off your feet and prevents you from thinking straight, especially about the object of your emotion. Their every quirk is endearing and every second spent apart from their lips is the worst kind of torture. Love, on the other hand, is what’s left over after this temporary madness subsides. You are suddenly left with a person, annoying quirks, terrible taste in music, and all. …

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^Photo. Courtesy of the NAC

L.to R. Christine Beaulieu, Tanja Jacobs, Eric Peterson.

here’s a memorable moment in Seeds when Eric Peterson, superb in the role of embattled Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser, delivers a passionate defence of farmers’ rights against the overwhelming powers of the genetically modified food industry.

It’s not an elegant moment. Indeed, there’s more than a glimmer here of Oscar Leroy, whose cantankerous presence once enlivened the Corner Gas television series. But in its mingling of anger, despair and futile defiance, it carries its own rough-hewn eloquence. The polemic works but — this is important — only for the moment.

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Photo. Gladstone

Let’s cut to the chase: Tim Oberholzer as Hedwig, the title character in the rock opera about a transgendered person whose life and sex change surgery have both gone horribly wrong, is nothing short of extraordinary.

Hard to say what deep well of inspiration Oberholzer pulled this performance from, but he’s a joy to watch as he gives us a big-wigged, drama queen Hedwig who is, in one fell swoop, angry, hurt, curiously hopeful, cynical and one heck of a singer with all the rock star moves.

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Photo: Marianne Duval

Cette production remarquable de l’œuvre d’Ionesco, mise en scène par Sariana Monette-Saillant, sous la supervision de Tibor Egervari, révèle les talents de cette jeune femme ainsi que ceux de l’ensemble des étudiants qui suivent le programme de mise en scène à l’Université d’Ottawa. Monette-Saillant a saisi l’importance d’une vision stylistique intégrée dans l’écriture dramatique et surtout, elle a fait en sorte que cette vision domine l’ensemble de son travail.

Jeux de massacre, œuvre créée en 1970, est un clin d’œil à Artaud, au théâtre en général et à des scénarios apocalyptiques revus et corrigés par un désir de situer la fin du monde dans un grand carnaval scénique.

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