Plosive Theatre Archives - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

Blink: A Star is born on the Ottawa Stage

By Alvina Ruprecht | April 6, 2018

Blink, Plosive Theatre, Sophie: Gabriella Gadsby Photo: Wayne Cuddington

Blink by Phil Porter, a Plosive Theatre production

After performances in the UK, New York, all through Europe in multiple languages and even right here in Montreal, Blink by Phil Porter is presently in Ottawa in its English Canadian premier which is quite a feat for this Plosive theatre production playing at the Gladstone. Blink concerns human relations as they develop through virtual reality in our current society where we can no longer escape I -phones, smart phones, tablets, texting and all forms of mediated communication that have taken over interpersonal exchange. Paradoxically however, this show, which introduces us to a brilliant new actress who has been studying and performing in UK, leaves us with a resounding sense of the “real-reality” of the stage because she incarnates her character’s physical and emotional presence so thoroughly …

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Blink: Fine characterization in a play that does not satisfy

By Iris Winston | April 6, 2018

Photo: Wayne Waddington
Blink Gabriella Gadsby and David Whiteley

Blink by Phil Porter

Plosive Productions

Directed by Teri Loretto-Valentik

Two people can fall in love in the blink of an eye — and they can lose the connection just as quickly. Perhaps being screened from emotion (literally and figuratively) by keeping the relationship once removed is safer.

It certainly seems so for Jonah and Sophie, the two socially isolated loners in Phil Porter’s Blink, who tell their stories directly to the audience rather than to each other.

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Basket of Deplorables : a mostly pleasant experience!

By Rajka Stefanovska | December 10, 2017

Basket of Deplorables By Tom Rachman at Gladstone Theatre

If the definition of satire is: “ the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and critisize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issures” Tom rachman definitely hit t he mark with his latest book “Basket of Deploraples.” In this series of short stories , he explores the Trump era with an open eye , leaving no room for sympathy for the culture of his own time. Of course, his lont journalistic career made him a knowable observer of our reality. …

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The Maltese Falcon: A Family Reunion

By Capital Critics Circle | December 12, 2016

Play poster courtesy of Plosive Theatre

The Radio Play has been a staple of the Gladstone Theatre now for eight years. It is an interesting hybrid of theatre and radio that harkens us back to a simpler time when people would huddle around a box as a family to laugh and cry and listen to stories together.

There have been many different forms of the radio play, which allows the Gladstone to use the same basic set pieces every year with minor alterations in their placement. s Each year the set is familiar but different. That being said it is always CGLD radio; “Radio that makes you glad”.

This year director Terri Loretto-Valentik chose to recreate Dashiell Hammett’s classic detective story The Maltese Falcon. The detective yarn demands a little more concentration to follow the storyline than more standard holiday fair like Winnie the Pooh or Miracle on 34th Street. The Gladstone Sisters add the nutmeg and cinnamon to create a little seasonal flavour, peppering the interludes with lively period ditties.

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Speed the plow : a high-powered performance by Teri Loretto-Valentik and her team.

By Alvina Ruprecht | October 10, 2011

David Mamet’s play, first produced in 1988 with Madonna playing the single feminine role, has lost none of its bite, its irreverence – to put it mildly – its male capitalist energy, and the power of its dialogue that shoots back and forth as though the actors were riddling each other with machine gun spray. Director Teri Loretto-Valentik has captured the high powered rhythm of Mamet’s intense exchanges.

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The Importance of Being Ernest Suffers From a Badly Conceived Staging.

By Alvina Ruprecht | February 13, 2011

The new theatre Plosive productions has created a monster! They have taken a talented cast, a most witty classic of the Western English language stage, and turned the performance into a mish-mash of styles and staging errors that even makes the good actors look weak. Despite moments that do work, one has the feeling that generally, something has gone terribly wrong.

Of course The storyline is beautifully crafted by the playwright. Mr. Worthy who becomes Earnest in the city and Jack in the country, is eventually upstaged by his rakish cousin Algernon who turns up under an assumed name, to get the girl, who happens to be Jack’s ward Cecily Cardew. It’s full of plot twists, witty lines and hidden meanings about suppressed identities which always appealed to Oscar Wilde’s sense of provocative humour, for obvious reasons.

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