Posté le 26 avril, 2013 dans  theatredublog.unblog.fr

Fool for Love  de  Sam Shepard, traduction de Michèle Magny, mise en scène de Kevin Orr.

Dans une chambre de motel minable, les  quinze spectateurs sont pris comme des rats voyeurs entre ces murs qui suintent le sexe, en compagnie de ces  deux personnages enfermés dans leur couple autodestructeur.  Le lieu choisi par la compagnie Les Cybèle est parfait:  ambiance crue, espace étouffant et bien adapté à cette rencontre entre deux êtres qui s’aiment et se détestent  avec une passion égale.
Il l’avait quitté pour une autre femme. May s’est enfuie  et  il l’a rattrapée: ils se retrouvent  maintenant dans cette chambre, après un long voyage à travers le désert, et les voilà en pleine fable western, où les bons et les méchants ne sont pas du genre évident et où la violence ne tarde  pas à se déclarer.

…

Read More Read More

Photo: Maria Vartanova

More than half a century has passed since Neil Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn landed on Broadway and launched a remarkable writing career. Simon went on to write more substantial plays — among them, The Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Lost In Yonkers — but his 1961 debut piece still still can demonstrate a lot of charm and vitality.

One of the virtues of Sarah Hearn’s production for Ottawa Little Theatre is that she respects it as a character piece and not just as a vehicle for a succession of verbal gags and comic situations. Therefore, she looks for some solid contrast between Alan Baker, the feckless playboy brother struggling to escape his own family culture, and younger sibling Buddy who arrives, suitcase in hand, at Alan’s bachelor pad in the hope of experiencing a more hedonistic lifestyle. And she recognizes not just the comic potential of the generational conflict which erupts between them and their parents but also an underlying pathos.

…

Read More Read More

Photo. Maria Vartanova

There is a very thin line between characterization and caricature and between stereotype and individual character.

In Come Blow Your Horn, playwright Neil Simon periodically steps over the line. So do director Sarah Hearn and her cast in the current Ottawa Little Theatre production. Even so, Simon’s 1961 debut play — semi-autobiographical as are several of the comedy/dramas that came later — holds up well, in part because Hearn wisely chooses to present it as a period piece and focus on character.

A number of Simon’s works offer examples of the ambivalence he felt for his older brother and this is particularly clearly demonstrated in Come Blow Your Horn when 21-year-old Buddy leaves the parental home to move in with 33-year-old Alan and emulate his playboy lifestyle. In addition, the sense of responsibility Alan feels for Buddy comes through loud and clear, which is why a number of his actions and words in Act II are a carbon copy of their father’s words and gestures.

…

Read More Read More

Photo: Andrew Alexander

Why do Shakespeare straight if you can spoof it? That’s the approach director Eleanor Crowder has taken with her all-male production of this early Shakespeare comedy.  Problem is, while the show is often entertaining, it ultimately can’t make up its mind whether it wants to be a spoof, a comedic love story, a post-feminist broadside or some combination of all three.

Scott Florence, well-versed in playing fast and loose with Shakespeare thanks to his years of experience with the irreverent A Company of Fools, sets the performance bar high as Petruchio, the wily, self-assured gentleman from Verona who tames  (or does he?) and marries the snarly, fiercely independent Kate. Sardonic, self-interested, a natural student of behavioural psychology, this Petruchio plays those whom he meets like yoyos. Florence is a delight to watch, especially when he channels Pommes Frites, the preening character he created for Fools shows like Shakespeare’s Danish Play.

…

Read More Read More

Akiko Aizawa, Ellen Lauren, Makela Spielman

Photo: Craig Schwerz

On the afternoon of April 15, the Siti Company was en route to Boston to enact The Trojan Women (After Euripides) when they heard the news of the bombing at the finishing line of the Marathon. Despite their horror and ambivalence about playing under the circumstances, they decided that as actors, their responsibility was to perform. And indeed, the convergence between the devastation of the city of Troy onstage and the explosions at Copley Square in the city of Boston brought a deeper and more personal meaning to the play, certainly to this member of the audience.

…

Read More Read More

Photo: Élisabeth Carecchio. 

Texte de Philippe du Vignal , theatredublog.unblog.fr

Les Marchands, Je tremble, Cercles/ Fictions, Au Monde, Le petit Chaperon rouge, Cendrillon, Ma Chambre froide (voir Le Théâtre du Blog)…. Joël Pommerat  a su en quelque vingt ans construire une œuvre théâtrale des plus singulières et des plus poétiques. C’est sans doute l’auteur français vivant avec Novarina le plus connu à l’étranger. Et, fait assez rare dans le théâtre actuel, il a aussi mis en scène ses pièces, et l’on on y  reconnaît tout de suite sa signature: texte à l’écriture exigeante sur des thèmes comme la vie économique de la société française observée au quotidien, la famille et les relations entre gens d’en-haut et gens d’en-bas, mais comme approchés dans une vision aussi étrange que poétique, conception d’un espace scénographique frontal ou en rond où les éléments de décor d’Eric Soyer-qui signe aussi les lumières, tout aussi exigeantes et  d’une intelligence et d’une beauté exceptionnelle-apparaissent comme par magie, mise en scène  et direction d’acteurs d’une rigueur absolue .

…

Read More Read More

Todd Duckworth as Edward Curtis.  Photo, Andrew Alexandre

THE EDWARD CURTIS PROJECT, written and directed by Marie Clements, typifies a problem that’s becoming all too common in contemporary theatre. The technical production far outstrips the script, which I hesitate to even call a play. Rather, it’s more a disjointed sophomoric polemic on the plight of Aboriginals. When I end up with four pages of notes, all on the set, projections and music, it’s a sure sign that something’s out of kilter.

The story is centered on Angeline, a traumatized Aboriginal journalist. However we don’t get a full picture of her traumatic experience until near the end of the piece, so much of the earlier material is merely confusing. As for Edward Curtis, the controversy regarding him and his photographs isn’t mentioned. In order to get the point, one needs a deeper knowledge of his work than can be gleaned from the sketchy script.

…

Read More Read More

For just a few moments in the second act of Phoenix Players’ production of Murder at the Howard Johnson’s it seems that the show is finally coming to life. But the illusion of adequacy fades when the third character joins the two men on stage.

The problems are not entirely the fault of the director and performers although they must bear much of the blame for stilted delivery and constant shouting.

…

Read More Read More

Photo. Carole Rosegg.

Neva, Guillermo Calderón’s tribute to Anton Chekhov, takes place in a theatre in Saint Petersburg on January 22, 1905, known to Russian history as Bloody Sunday, the catalyst for the Revolution of 1905. On that day, striking workers marched to the Tsar’s palace to present a petition and were fired upon by armed guards. Thousands died. The title refers to the river which runs through Saint Petersburg, the site of numerous violent historical events, including Bloody Sunday. Theatre and revolution are the focus of the play.

…

Read More Read More

Métis playwright Marie Clements is a gifted storyteller who draws on the traditions of her Aboriginal roots as well as Western theatrical techniques to weave together highly visual stories that link the past and present; personal and collective. Although there are some kinks to be worked out, her latest effort, collaboration with photojournalist Rita Leistner The Edward Curtis Project, manages to situate the extremely complex issue of Aboriginal identity rooted in history, theory and representation into a contemporary sphere that is accessible and touching to watch.
…

Read More Read More