J’ai beaucoup aimé Le Dieu du Carnage par Yasmina Reza à la Berkeley Theatre hier soir! (Don’t worry, I’ll spare you my mangled junior-high French for the rest of this review.)
I feel kind of privileged to have seen Théâtre Français’s production of Le Dieu du Carnage in Reza’s original French. I admire those who can translate well and have seen many wonderful adaptations of works in other languages, but I think it’s a unique experience to see a play in the author’s original voice. This is a play full of wit and absurdity, and it was great to see how the language added to that. Continue reading Review: Le Dieu du Carnage (Théâtre Français)→
Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to sit through an awkward and tense holiday dinner. This rite of passage is the setting for local playwright Jason Murray’s The Dinner, playing at the St. Vladimir Institute theatre.
Eight friends who have known each other for years get together for their annual Thanksgiving dinner, but apparently the yearly event has been building up yearly tensions among the group, which come to a head on this fateful night.
I had the good fortune of seeing the inaugural performance of ProArteDanza’s 2011 season at the Fleck Dance Theatre. It was my first show of theirs, but after last night‘s performance, I don’t think it will be my last.
The performance included four pieces of varying lengths, which push the boundaries of balletic and contemporary movement. Though they are all part of one show, they really require separate attention in this review.
It seems like there are two groups of people when it comes to Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre. There are those that see it is as a dry dusty book that they were forced to slog through in school, or they consider themselves almost rabid devotees, able to recreate scenes instantly. I’ve read the book twice and have the Charlotte Gainsbourg movie version on DVD – guess to which group I belong? So, I was definitely interested to see this show. Continue reading Review: After Mrs. Rochester (Alumnae Theatre)→
Death is the most absurd thing in life. This is the basic premise behind Exit the King by Eugène Ionesco, currently being produced by Soulpepper Theatre at the Young Centre. I found the play to be a little absurd myself, though probably not in the way the playwright intended.
The story is one in which King Berenger the First, the 400-year-old ruler of a fictional kingdom, is told of his impending death. (I believe the exact words are “You are going to die by the end of this play.”) He and his royal court spend the rest of the show processing this. We go through the stages of grief with the King – denial, sadness, acceptance, etc. – and I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to tell you that he does indeed make his Final Exit at the end. Continue reading Review: Exit the King (Soulpepper)→
