Tag: the Gladstone

Toto Too examines the politics of the Aids crisis

Toto Too examines the politics of the Aids crisis

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The Normal Heart
Photo: Maria Vartanova

The Normal Heart by  Larry Kramer, a Toto Too Production. Directed by Jim McNabb and Shaun Toohey

Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart is a play fuelled by anger.

Anger at the political, medical and media establishment of the day for its reluctance to accept the reality of a mounting AIDS epidemic.

Back in 1985, Kramer made enemies on all sides with a play that is an only slightly fictionalized account of his real-life efforts in New York City to awaken the prevailing culture — including a gay, closeted mayor —  to the reality of the frightening plague enveloping it. And because it takes no prisoners in its indictment, it remains perhaps the most unsettling play to emerge from the AIDS era

Kramer’s dramatic alter ego in the play is an outspoken crusader named Ned Weeks — and Shaun Toohey’s performance in this role supplies ample reason to take in TotoToo Theatre’s sometimes uneven revival of a seminal late 20th Century stage classic. …

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The Normal Heart: some solid performances in this sometimes rocky production

The Normal Heart: some solid performances in this sometimes rocky production

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The Normal Heart
Photo Maria Vartanova

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, Toto Too theatre, directed by Jim McNabb and Shaun  Toohey.

A friend smiled as he recalled the late 1970s as a wonderful time of emotional and sexual freedom. We had met for lunch after his weekly doctor’s appointment. He reported that he had lost a little weight and that one or two more dark marks had shown up on his body. But he was fine, he said. The year was 1990. Less than three months later, he was dead, another victim of the AIDS crisis.

By this time, the scourge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome had been recognized as an epidemic. The black, purple, brown or red marks of Kaposi’s sarcoma were understood to be signs of the dangerous progression of the killing disease.

When Larry Kramer wrote his angry autobiographical play The Normal Heart, first presented off Broadway in 1985, he was continuing his fight to make people understand and respond to the ever-increasing death toll. Yet, because AIDS in 1981 (when HIV/AIDS was officially recognized as an epidemic) and earlier primarily affected gay men, it was extremely difficult to raise political or personal awareness of the depth of the problem. And, in The Normal Heart, Kramer gives no quarter to the members of the gay community, who were too timid to fight or too hung up on sexual liberation to recognize that abstinence might stem the spread of the disease. …

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The Clean House: you could die laughing

The Clean House: you could die laughing

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The Clean House.  Photo: Andrew Alexander    The Clean House presented by Three Sisters Theatre Company at the Gladstone on Wednesday is a well crafted comedy that does not exploit cheap laughs. Rather it deftly explores relationships, anxiety, love and death with thought provoking and illuminating experiences. Sarah Ruhl has crafted a play that explores  relationships between women with a sharp focus on love, mortality, rivalry, jealously and forgiveness with balance and wit. …

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The Clean House: as a Pulitzer Prize finalist the play falls flat.

The Clean House: as a Pulitzer Prize finalist the play falls flat.

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The clean House
Photo. poster courtesy of The Gladstone theatre

The Clean house by Susan Ruhl, Three Sisters Theatre Company, Directed by Mary Ellis

The most striking aspect of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House is that the sum of the parts is far less than the play as a whole. The most amazing view of this 2004 play’s history is that it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. (2005 must have been a dry year for playwriting in the U.S.)

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Grounded ; Death by Remote Control….at the Gladstone

Grounded ; Death by Remote Control….at the Gladstone

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Grounded features  Alexis Scott

 The play Grounded by George Brant is an interesting concept. It poses questions about the modern military and the role of women in the traditional male roles of service. It also examines the depersonalization of combat through robotics and in particular drone warfare. When we first meet the pilot played by Alexis Scott she is still a hands on pilot,  flying  a plane in a real life eternally blue sky. She revels in the the Air Force fraternity and knowing that she is an isolated sister in the testosterone infused world of the flight officer.

After having gone through pregnancy and motherhood, the pilot returns to work only to find that technology has dramatically altered the life she knew. Through the use of drone, the blue experience of actual flying has been replaced by grey humdrum of monitors and remote control. She finds herself travelling from one screen at work to another one at home. I don’t believe that the author’s point is that war is less horrible or more glorious in real life. I think his intent is more about the numbing effect of technology that might actually be an impediment to diagnosing the prevalence of PTSD and other stress related side effects of war.

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Mothers & Daughters; World premiere shows much talent but the mother/daughter relationship not sufficiently explored.

Mothers & Daughters; World premiere shows much talent but the mother/daughter relationship not sufficiently explored.

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Mothers & Daughters
Photo Maria Vartanova

 

We are full throttle into the Ottawa Theatre season with Performances at Ottawa Little Theatre, Kanata Theatre, Central Square and of course the N.A.C. with the GCTC season just around the corner. I chose to attend Mothers & Daughters Friday evening. It is the world premiere of a new musical penned by S. Oscar Martin with music and lyrics by Jeff Rogers, Rich Rankin, Eric MacIntyre, Andy Ladouceur, Zach Martin and S. Oscar Martin. …

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Maestro: un choix de texte douteux

Maestro: un choix de texte douteux

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Maestro par Claude Montminy
En français, adapté pour l’Outaouais par Claude Montminy.
Mise en scène : Gilles Provost,
Scénographie et éclairages : David Magladry

Géré par Gilles Provost, bien connu dans la région en tant que comédien, professeur et ancien directeur du Théâtre de l’ile, ce spectacle semble cacher une parodie féroce de la classe moyenne québécoise/outaouaise , transformée en frénésie comique par la mécanique héritée de la farce française. En fait, dès le début, on se pose des questions sur la logique dramaturgique de cette œuvre qui mélange les styles de jeu, les thématiques et les stéréotypes de toutes sortes au point où on finit par se laisser bercer par la folle confusion de ce microcosme peuplé d’ambitieux, de misogynes, de mal élevés, de manipulateurs . L’auteur se moque de tout le monde, même du public qui ose rigoler devant cette parade de bouffonneries inouïes. …

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Little Shop of Horrors: Show explores the darker side of the human condition.

Little Shop of Horrors: Show explores the darker side of the human condition.

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Photo: Maria Vartanova

Little Shop of Horrors
Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman
Music by Alan Menken
Theatre Kraken
Directed by Don Fex

Frequently referred to as a cult musical, Little Shop of Horrors delivers as much blood and gore and almost as many bodies as Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Funny but too frightening for the younger set to be called family entertainment, the book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, with music by Alan Menken (the team responsible for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin) combines a tentative romance, an abusive relationship and a dictatorial blood-sucking plant in a somewhat unpleasant morality tale. (Be careful what you wish for. The end does not justify the means. Even bad guys deserve fair treatment. Take your pick.) …

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Little Shop of Horrors – a first-rate performance of this grotesque campy musical!! Theatre Kraken is back on track!!

Little Shop of Horrors – a first-rate performance of this grotesque campy musical!! Theatre Kraken is back on track!!

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photo: Maria Vartanova

Theatre  Kraken  has never been my favourite Community Theatre but this new production of  Little Shop of Horrors just changed all that.   The show  began with a surge of vocal and musical  energy  blasting from the  five piece stage band under the direction of Chris Lucas. There was also the impeccable precision of  director Don Fex  and  choreographer Brenda Solman  whose efforts were right on the mark.

This story of Mr. Mushnik,(with the  ever powerful  and oh so versatile Lawrence Evenchick ) owner of a flower shop in the skid row district of New York, becomes the site of a strange event that suggests the War of the Worlds except that it is a hillarious  drama and love story,  peppered with Jewish jokes   and Yiddish expressions  and an underlying  tragic history of the second world war. Something that Mel Brooks himself could have created but this  musical was adapted from the film  by  Alan Menken- music,  and Howard Ashman-, book and lyrics. With strong musicians (the keybords were particularly noteworthy),  director Don Fex’s  captured the  underlying seriousness of these campy characters with great style to produce a very strong show.

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Plan B: Dated Play Redeemed By Fine Performances

Plan B: Dated Play Redeemed By Fine Performances

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Plan B by Michael Healey, Director and set: André Dimitrijevic

Quebec separatism  was still a burning issue when Canadian playwright Michael Healey wrote Plan B some 15 years ago. So the revival  on view at the Gladstone does seem something of an irrelevant period piece — with its lack of topicality now making the script’s deficiencies seem more pronounced.

On the positive side, there is the solid quality of  Andre Dimitrijavic’s Phoenix Players production — one in which the satirical barbs can still deliver and the great divide that continues to exist between two cultures can still be examined. …

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