Photo: Quincy Armorer  (Othello) and Lana Sugarman (Desdemona). Set in the period of the war of 1812,  this brooding, production of the tragic events leading to the murder of Desdemona at the hands of her beloved general, manipulated most heinously by the hateful Iago brings out all the melodrama of the situation.  There is the  raging father (Brabantio) who can’t believe that his innocent daughter Desdemona (Lana Sugarman) has actually married this Moor of her own free will. A sneering, ironic Iago,  raging with jealousy and hate who narrates the story, telling how he has meticulously set the stage for the downfall of Othello (Quincy Armorer) and the death of the lovers.

The individual performances were rather good in as much as each actor dominated his role, articulated his text beautifully and made the drama so completely clear.   I especially liked Shane Carty as the viciously revengeful Iago who inspired utter loathing.

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 Agatha Christie has created two of the most colourful crime solving individuals in her career as a writer of mystery novels, short stories, plays and film scenarios:  Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Both have risen to worldwide fame through films, published works and the British television series featuring each of these fictional characters.

The play is interesting in as much it already contains all the ingredients that will define Christie’s brand of detective mystery  theatre. A murder is discovered, the suspects all find themselves within a closed space (an elegant drawing room, a huge country house in Britain or a similar setting) as guests of the deceased; everyone becomes a suspect as soon as the detective arrives to unravel the mystery and find the guilty party.

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  Photo by Alan Dean: .  As mystery writer Agatha Christie’s first play, Black Coffee deserves recognition as a landmark in theatrical history. Further, it is the only play (and later movie) in which Christie featured the character of Hercule Poirot, although many screen adaptations of her mystery novels star the Belgian detective.

That said, the carefully plotted Black Coffee, first produced in 1930, is heavy-handed, repetitive and slow moving. In the Ottawa Little Theatre production, director Johni Keyworth exacerbates the problem by keeping the pace slow and insisting that some of the characters attempt to adopt English accents. Much of the time, the accents are gratingly unconvincing and the actors are so focused on trying to sound English that they give less than the required emphasis to characterization. Thus, the result is stilted at two levels. For example, having a character pause, move two paces to centre stage, face the audience and announce that the death of the patriarch of the household is murder is even more painful than the over-pronounced vowels of failed English accents.

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When it premiered in 1958, William Gibson’s Two for the Seesaw was hailed as an honest examination of the relationship between two damaged souls.

It remains that — as well as a contrast to the more usual whitewashed-happy-nuclear-family style of show more usual in the 50s. But in the current climate, there are issues — even when the drama is presented as a period piece. For example, hitting a woman or commenting that an ulcer is a “man’s disease” is likely to raise the hackles of many audience members in the 21^st century.

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  Alison Deon, Tracey Ferencz, Stewart Arnott and Matthew Gibson Photo:
1000 Islands Playhouse.   Although I’ve long been a fan of Douglas Bowie’s plays his latest, SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE SEA, currently getting its first airing at the 1000 Islands Playhouse, seems not quite ready for prime time.  It tells the story of Celia, an amateur cook and housewife, on a “foodie” tour of the Scots Isle of Skye.  Her meeting and involvement with tour host Trevor, a world-renowned food critic, opens her eyes to her need for a wider life.  Assailed by global weather disasters plus various herds of sheep and cows, they eventually make it back to London’s Heathrow Airport, both somewhat changed.

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This production of Henry V is a first for the Company of Fools, trying their hand at one of Shakespeare’s most accurate historical dramas with long monologues, multiple sites, many characters and epic war scenes.

In the first moments, the play is put into perspective for all to see.   “Chorus” presents Shakespeare’s own words as he invites us to imagine the scene, and “gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play”. Thus it clearly presents the characters as  actors who are going to perform an event where our imagination must fill in the gaps.   The  show revolves around actors,  a perfectly functional collection of objects including an empty chest that serves as a walled city, some wooden volumes and royal red curtains set up under the trees, as well as a group of puppets.  It’s all  about creating a play  and since that is the case,  men can play women’s roles as they did in Shakespeare’s time, or women can play men’s roles as they do now in our time. It all fits.

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For a little bit over an hour while watching the Little Orange Man, I was trying to understand what the show was about. I’m still trying and, I must admit, failing.

Ingrid Hansen plays 12 year old  Kitt whose imagination, helped by Hans Andersen’s fairy tales that her beloved grandfather used to read to her, transports the audience to the wild and hyperactive time of childhood. Kitt uses everything that could fit in a lunch box and a trunk to convey the story. Everything is there: pieces of food, puppets, a lamp, a hat a suit, and a shiny bike helmet. The only thing missing is the story.

The performance is very physical. Hansen is energetic, talented and funny, as far as that part goes. Thanks to this, the show was a success. The audience rewarded the performer with a standing ovation and cheers. Unfortunately, except for effective use of different objects, nothing really worked. It felt like a collection of a few randomly picked stories, or rather, the beginning of a few unfinished stories. Kitt, supposedly 12, sounds more like a 7 year old, and for some reason, has a speech problem. The whole thing is unnecessarily long, tiring and, due to utter lack of direction, confusing.

 

Little Orange Man   Produced by: SNAFU Theatre

Created by: Kathleen Greenfield and Ingrid Hansen

Performed by: Ingrid Hansen

Plays at: St. Paul’s Eastern

 

Written and performed by Melanie Karin and David Benedict BrownThese two writers, performers are also excellent actors and they have produced a most unusual show that translates portions of Shakespeare’s best known plays, into moments of real theatre as reinterpreted through Hip Hop language and culture.

Hip Hop steps have now entered the world of contemporary dance and I have seen so many choreographers adapt these forms to classical music and historical narratives, the results are always exciting performances that bring all culture into the contemporary urban setting.  Most often it works. In this case, it did as well!

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Artists have always been in search for new topics and new ways to present their ideas.  Lady Business sticks to old issues, but with a very fresh approach through a series of skits. They look into our mind, dissecting its secret corners with a sharp knife and attacking fears caused by stereotypes with no mercy or decorum. You’re a fat girl, they say it to your face, and you have to cry about it? Come on!

The chain of sketches goes on. Some attack daily issues, some ridicule established routines, while others offer a serious criticism of global politics and economy. What is common to all of them, regardless of the form of, is the level of performance. It is a comedy close to its best. The young acting company Lady Business is comprised of three excellent actors: Laura Bonang, Alexandra Hurley and Deborah Ring. Remember those names, I believe we will hear from them again, and I hope soon!
Not only are they smart observers of life, but they also find a new way to talk about it – blunt, but in a good taste, and with the tinge of sarcasm. Their amazing ability to transform instantaneously from one character to another allows them to take on a variety of characters, and to make all of them alive, convincing and lovable. No wonder that the audience loved every minute of the show. The constant laughs and a long round of applause were fully deserved.  

Presented  in the  Arts Court Library.

In three seconds, long lanky Mark Shyzer  removes a shirt, flips on a wig, switches genders as easily as a snake sheds its skin and   transforms himself into four disturbingly sinister but grotesquely funny creatures. 

Nerdy Esther Goody, working on a physics experiment with “dark matter”, analyses the universe as she chats with Frank, the goldfish in his little bowl, floating in space. But she isn’t the only creature who emerges from the dark and creepy  world of Shyzer whose four creatures are impeccably performed. Raymond is the young rebel who tells us he hates his parents as he stands there clutching his arm, the  defensive gesture of a deeply disturbed young man;  there is the ambivalent  divorcee- male or female – it isn’t clear but that’s the point,  draped over a chair telling s us how she  hates her former partner . There is the elderly male and former teacher, near death, who hates his students and just wants to be left alone. They all seem to belong to the same family of monstrous slickly urban almost Gothic humans who all  breathe as though their lungs were rattling in their bodies, who stare with deeply enraged eyes. They are furious with the world and with all humans around them and they create the impression they all belong in that great fishbowl where the strongest eat the weakest.

Monstrously funny but intriguing as theatre, and  impeccably performed by an actor who draws your gaze and keeps you fixed on his body as well as on his excellent text.  A surprisingly original performance that perhaps went on a bit too long. They might consider cutting a few minutes. There were several moments before the final longer scene with Esther  that could easily disappear.

FISHBOWL is an  evening of hideous fun in the dark in  at Academic  Hall