NAC English theatre 2018 Archives - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

The Hockey Sweater: A Musical. An enjoyable and heart-felt celebration of Canada’s sport

By Natasha Lomonossoff | December 16, 2018

Few sports are as definitively associated with Canada as hockey is, and fittingly, no other one comes close to the significance of the former in the lives of both big and small-town Canadians. While the Montreal-based Segal Centre’s production of The Hockey Sweater: A Musical, in turn adapted from the well-known short story by Roch Carrier, takes place in the small community of Sainte-Justine, Quebec, the passion for hockey displayed in this setting is, I suspect, eminently relatable for many viewers. It is particularly interesting that this production is the first in the NAC’s line-up of English theatre for the 2018-19 season. The announcement by artistic director Jillian Keiley noting how rare it is to have fully-produced homegrown musicals before the play began did much to situate the importance of the Segal Centre’s work in the Canadian theatre landscape. …

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Chasing Champions makes for potent theatre.

By Jamie Portman | November 19, 2018

Chasing Champions: The Sam Langford Story
By Jacob Sampson
A Ship’s Company (Parrsboro, NS) production in association with Eastern Front Theatre (Halifax) at the NAC Azrieli Studio
Directed by Ron Jenkins

He’s blind and impoverished, a forgotten figure in a Harlem care home. Yet there’s something resilient about him. An element of ruefulness may underly his stoicism, yet there’s an almost jaunty suggestion that he remains one of the undefeated — in his own mind anyway. …

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Chasing Champions brings to life a Black Canadian icon who should have never been forgotten

By Ryan Pepper | November 16, 2018

Chasing Champions: The Sam Langford Story by Nova Scotia playwright Jacob Sampson (who also stars) and directed by Ron Jenkins is very much a “best _____ you’ve never heard of story,” the tale of a young boxer who was never properly given his chance to be the champion of the world. The fact that the story must be viewed through a racial lens only adds to its strength and importance. …

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Champion production of powerful drama

By Iris Winston | November 16, 2018

Sam Langford was named to the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, one year before he died. The ESPN cable television network ranked him as one of the top ten boxers of all time. …

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Silence at the NAC: the romantic life of a couple behind the invention of the telephone

By Ryan Pepper | October 20, 2018

Photo: Claus Anderson

Silence brings to the spotlight the romantic life of the husband and wife behind the invention of the telephone. The opening night of the 2018–2019 season found the National Arts Centre turning the spotlight on a Canadian icon and his wife, Alexander Graham and Mabel Hubbard Bell, in the play Silence. This Grand Theatre (London, ON) production, brought to life on the national stage by director and former NAC English Theatre Artistic Director Peter Hinton, eschews simple biography and hagiography to focus on the romance between Alec and Mabel, of their endearing courtship and often difficult, but always loving, marriage. …

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Peter Hinton’s return to the NAC Stage

By Patrick Langston | October 14, 2018

October 12, 2018 Artsfile.ca

When Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell opens at the NAC, it will mark a significant occasion for director Peter Hinton. Although Hinton directed the revisionist opera Louis Riel in Southam Hall last year, Silence is the first time he’s been back with NAC English Theatre since 2012, when he completed his seven-year tenure as its artistic director.

Trina Davies’ play about Mabel Hubbard Bell, the deaf wife of Alexander Graham Bell explores the story of a strong and remarkable woman who had a major influence on her famous husband but whose life is little known to most of us. Notably the production also features a blend of deaf, hard of hearing and hearing performers.

Coincidentally, Mabel was honoured this summer when the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada unveiled plaques commemorating both her and Beinn Bhreagh Hall, the Bells’ summer home in Cape Breton.

Hinton is delighted to bring the show about Mabel to his old stomping ground. …

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Up to Low has Universal appeal.!

By Capital Critics Circle | May 7, 2018

Lynn Saxberg Ottawa Citizen

Published on: May 6, 2018 | Last Updated: May 6, 2018 11:18 PM EDT

Up to Low by Ottawa author Brian Doyle is set in 1950 and takes the audience from Ottawa’s Lowertown to a family cabin in Low, Que.

By Brian Doyle, adapted and directed by Janet Irwin

NAC English Theatre production

To May 19, Babs Asper Theatre, National Arts Centre

For Ottawa-area audiences, part of the charm of the theatrical adaptation of Up to Low, by Ottawa author Brian Doyle, is that it’s based on a road trip in our own backyard. Set in 1950, the tale takes us from the city’s Lowertown neighbourhood to a family cabin in Low, a classic example of the time-honoured Canadian tradition of getting out of the city in the summer. …

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Up to Low: Musical adaptation has theatrical merit but falters on plot

By Natasha Lomonossoff | May 6, 2018

UP to Low, Brendan McMurtry_Howlett, Magan Carty Photo David Hou

Reviewed by Natasha Lomonossoff on May 4^th, 2018

The English theatre season at the NAC is closing with what is meant to be a feel-good musical on life in the rural Gatineau Hills during a more idyllic time (or at least, the 1950s). Based on a book of the same name by popular local writer Brian Doyle, Up to Low tells of the journey which 15-year old Tommy takes with his dad and a family friend from Ottawa up to their cottage in Low, Quebec. The strength of this production, adapted and directed by Janet Irwin with musical direction by Ian Tamblyn, lies more in its theatrical deliverance of the material than the plotline itself. What initially seems to be a comedic road trip turns into a somewhat shoehorned lesson about healing and forgiveness; by the end of the show, it’s not clear exactly what the significance of this lesson is to Tommy or how it relates to his family’s stay in Low. …

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Up to Low via memory lane

By Iris Winston | May 5, 2018

Up to Low By Brian Doyle. Adapted for the stage and directed by Janet Irwin. An NAC English Theatre production

Up to Low is a journey in several senses. As well as a tale about traveling to a place at a certain time, it is a rite of passage in growing up and, most of all, a trip through memory.

Therefore, the dramatization of Brian Doyle’s novel for young adults is bound to have the greatest appeal for local residents who share some of the memories of the time and place described in and around Low, Quebec, circa 1950. …

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Carried away on the crest of a wave

By Capital Critics Circle | April 3, 2018

Carried away on the crest of a wave

By David Yee, directed by Kim Collier, NAC English Theatre production, to April 1

Reviewed Saturday by Lynn Saxberg, the “Ottawa Citizen

Carried away on the crest of a wave, David Yee’s ambitious play about the after-effects of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, is a boundary-pushing piece of Canadian theatre that dispenses with tradition.

Instead of telling one heroic story about the natural disaster that claimed more than 200,000 lives, it tells nine stories, each featuring decidedly non-heroic characters in different parts of the world.

As staged by the National Arts Centre’s English theatre department, the new version of the play consists of a series of nine vignettes, evidently one less than its Tarragon Theatre debut in Toronto three years ago. Although tightened up, it still has a running time of two-and-a-half hours, including intermission, and there’s a lot to pack in.

Each vignette features unrelated characters in different settings, their locations and dates indicated on a helpful timeline that runs across the front of the stage……

see http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/local-arts/theatre-review-carried-away-on-the-crest-of-a-wave