Patrick Langston Arts file, November 8, 2019 A scene from Oleanna with Madeleine Julian as Carol and Guy Buller as John. Photo: Erika Scrivens Oleanna, David Mamet’s then-startling play about sexual harassment and power dynamics, debuted in 1992. So much has happened since then — including, here in Ottawa, allegations of harassment against a city …
David Mamet’s play Oleanna is about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students who accuses him of sexual harassment. It came out around the time of Anita Hill’s testimony against U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Clarence Thomas and the themes still ring true. The early 90s had Anita Hill and …
By Kennedy Fiorella, a student in the theatre criticism class of Yana Meerzon Lived experiences provide a foundation for the creation of theatre which is deeply personal, and far-reaching, allowing all types of audiences some ability to connect with what is onstage. In Hannah Moscovitch’s Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, she carefully …
‘Admissions’ is the third work of Joshua Harmon to appear at SpeakEasy in Boston’s South End. The earlier ones ‘Bad Jews’ and ‘Significant Other’ were very successful. Having just seen ‘Admissions’ I am prepared to say that it is likely that this third play will also be a winner. ‘Admissions’ is more topical …
The works of modern Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, largely absurdist and tragicomic in scope, are certainly not intended to be simple crowd pleasers. Rather, they display a depressingly monotonous view of life, with the protagonist often not achieving their goal or ending up trapped in the same cycle of rumination as before. Happy Days, the …
You think you have a handle on the messy business of appropriation? Then you haven’t seen Kat Sandler’s quick-witted Bang Bang, now at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in a solid homegrown production. Consider this: Sandler, a white playwright with a taste for nuance, has written a play in which an obtuse white playwright with …
Theatre, by its very nature, breeds more theatre. An interdisciplinary blend of space and of time, theatre-making is unique in its ability to transcend the boundaries of taste that might haunt other artistic disciplines; as such, it is able to tackle more concepts through more stylistic avenues than, say, a song or a painting. Bang …
Bedlam Theatre, a New York City Company, was founded in 2012 by the actress Andrus Nichols and the actor/director Eric Tucker. Their first show, George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, was performed by four actors in 2015 at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge although it was written for eighteen. As the company has grown …
Dramaturged and directed by native Kingston and award winning playwright Judith Thompson, the collective creation Welcome to my Underworld consists of nine character pieces based on the performers’ real life experiences. These performers, representing a diversity of abilities and backgrounds, articulate the struggles their characters undergo on account of their identity or state of life. …
Since its London premiere in December 1938, Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight has been staged all over the world. The narrative, which successfully wraps the fragile human psyche into a crime setting, attracts audiences and artists alike to this day. The story is set in Victorian era London and explores an intentionally abusive relationship between Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. Jack’s goal is to gradually drive …