by Dorianne Emmerton

Soulpepper’s The Aleph is incredible, it’s astounding, it’s a must-see. I don’t say this often.  

My companion for the evening is a friend who is not really a theatre-goer. I’ve taken him to two plays before, both of which I thought he specifically might like due to their content. So he probably trusts my judgement more than he should, because when he showed up to meet me and asked “So what’s this about?” I could not remember. All I knew was that it was Diego Matamoros and Daniel Brooks and, being a total theatre buff myself, those were names that meant I wanted to see the show regardless of any other factors.

My friend had no associations with those names. But he will now. At the end of the show he was as impressed as I was.

The Aleph is so powerful, in part, due to its simplicity. There is just Matamoros and a chair on stage. He tells a chronological coming of age story. There are a couple of special effects that seem to be fairly easy to carry out – but which are genius in their conception. Continue reading Review: The Aleph (Soulpepper) →

By Dorianne Emmerton

La Clemenza Di Tito is lush. That’s how it felt to me – “lush.” The music and singing were extraordinary, the costumes were gorgeous, the set was fantastic, the staging was excellent and those singers were pretty good actors as well.

Opera Atelier is a very focused company: they only do pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries and they do them all with period costumes and staging. What this means is a feast for the eyes for those of us who love dresses with low-necklined bodices with long, flowing, layered skirts. The men also wore long flowing coats and dapper little scarves about their necks.

In terms of staging, it means very stylized movement of the kind theatre historians think were used during the 17^th century. Characters went down on one knee a lot, and not because they were proposing. Men often stood with one leg planted and the other pointed. Perhaps the ladies did too – their skirts were too voluminous to see much of their legs, with the exception of the excellent ballerinas.

I would expect such overdramatic staging to induce me to roll my eyes, but the whole thing was just so perfectly period in every way that it just seemed natural. Continue reading Review: La Clemenza Di Tito (Opera Atelier) →

By Dorianne Emmerton

I kind of love Woody Harrelson. Not only does he have a string of stellar performances in fabulous movies and a history of environmental and peace activism, but he also loves Toronto.

Bullet for Adolf is his second production in the city, and his first at Hart House Theatre, a venue he happened upon by accident and fell in love with. It is a semi-autobiographical tale of young people hanging out, falling in love and getting into trouble in 1983.

I expected there to be a fair bit of politics in this play, given that Harrelson is a well-known lefty and the title references fascism. But there isn’t really any high minded message in the show. The only political topic that really comes up is race relations. As Harrelson explains in his Director’s note, he “hadn’t hung much with black folks” before he met Frankie Hyman when they were both working on a construction site in Houston. Continue reading Review: Bullet For Adolf (Children at Play Productions) →

by Dorianne Emmerton

Monkeyman Productions and their Simian Showcase are doing important work. It’s very silly work, but that makes it no less important.

Theatre is often seen as an elite art form. It’s expensive and a lot of theatre produced is… old. Not to diss Shakespeare, he’s great and all, but I’ve seen so much in my life that if I never see a Shakespeare show again that’s fine by me. As long as I get to see new theatre, theatre set in our time and written for a contemporary audience; theatre that is about the world we live in, a world which includes – predominantly – the internet. You’re reading this on the internet right now, aren’t you?

Continue reading Review: Simian Showcase (Monkeyman Productions) →

by Dorianne Emmerton

On Tuesday night I attended a production of an Italian play, La Festa, performed by its original Italian troupe, Compagnie Scimone Sframeli as part of Canadian Stage’s Spotlight.Italy Festival.

Sometimes an intricate plot leads you on a journey to a place you never expected. Sometimes a recognizable plot gives you standard expectations for a production to subvert. Sometimes plot is a road to drive toward insight; sometimes it’s a structure to drape with insight.

But plot is not integral to insight. Sometimes plot, as it is traditionally understood, can be thrown out the window.

The plot of La Festa, is this: it is a couple’s 30th anniversary. They have a son who is a young adult. The husband is going out to work for the day but at the end of the day they will celebrate with cake and champagne. Continue reading Review: La Festa (Compagnie Scimone Sframeli at Canadian Stage) →