All posts by Dorianne Emmerton

Dorianne is a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies joint program between University of Toronto, Erindale campus and Sheridan College. She writes short stories, plays and screenplays and was delighted to be accepted into the 2010 Diaspora Dialogues program and also to have her short story accepted into the 2011 edition of TOK: Writing The New Toronto collection. She is also a regularly contributing writer on http://www.sexlifecanada.ca. You can follow her on twitter @headonist if you like tweets about cats, sex, food, queer stuff and lefty politics.

Review: Fernando Krapp Wrote Me This Letter: An Attempt at the Truth (Canadian Stage)

by Dorianne Emmerton

Fernando Krapp Wrote Me This Letter: An Attempt at the Truth is playing at the Bluma Appel location of Canadian Stage. It’s their first show under the artistic direction of Matthew Jocelyn, who also translated and directed this show.

Jocelyn has announced a new mandate for Canadian Stage, which involves unconventional contemporary theatre. As the press release states they want to be “at the vanguard of contemporary theatre” and “question, challenge move and entertain not only with the tales they tell but with the way they tell them.”

Fernando Krapp is definitely an unconventional show: I have certainly never seen anything like it at the theatre formerly known as Canstage. Written by the German Tankred Dorst, the characters are allegorical clowns, who play out a fable about how love interacts with power.

Continue reading Review: Fernando Krapp Wrote Me This Letter: An Attempt at the Truth (Canadian Stage)

My Happy (Pyretic Productions) – 2010 Summerworks review

by Dorianne Emmerton

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In Pyretic Productions Me Happy a young woman named Biddy lives in a tiny remote town in Ireland called Muff. Muff’s only claim to fame is three large cliffs which provide a spectacular view, constant danger of falling to one’s death, and an ideal venue for cliff diving.

That’s right: diving in Muff. That’s the kind of humour at work in Me Happy. It’s no workout for brain, but on a rainy dreary Sunday I was quite happy to be entertained with some bathroom humour. Continue reading My Happy (Pyretic Productions) – 2010 Summerworks review

The Hanging of Françoise Laurent (Stranger Theatre) – 2010 Summerworks Review

by Dorianne Emmerton

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Stranger Theatre’s mandate is to tell stories inspired by history, literature and folklore using a variety of performance techniques. Their newest show,The Hanging of Françoise Laurent at Theatre Passe Muraille (Backspace) as part of Summerworks tells the true story of a Montreal maidservant sentenced to death for stealing a pair of her Madame’s gloves. The year is 1751 and according to the law of the time a woman could escape a death sentence if the hangman marries her.

Montreal does not have a hangman, as the old one has died and no one has stepped up to take the undesirable position. In order to take advantage of this law Françoise must convince the man in the cell next to her to take on the role of hangman and then to marry her. Continue reading The Hanging of Françoise Laurent (Stranger Theatre) – 2010 Summerworks Review

Loving the Stranger or how to recognize an invert – 2010 Summerworks Review

by Dorianne Emmerton

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A keyboard stands in a corner manned by a dapper fellow in white face and a bowler hat. In the other corner is what appears to be an armchair covered by an old paint-spattered drop cloth. Seated in it from the minute you enter the theatre is a pre-set old man. This is Loving the Stranger or how to recognize an invert by Ecce Homo Theatre.

Having seen him you expect the old man to begin the show, to speak once the house lights fade. Instead the musician in the other corner starts playing and a white-faced blond woman in a Nazi outfit, playing a child, starts to sing before setting off on a pro-fascist rant.

Brecht would probably be very pleased at how Ecce Homo is keeping his mode of theatre alive and vibrant. As long as he didn’t mind a whole lot of gay male content, at least. Continue reading Loving the Stranger or how to recognize an invert – 2010 Summerworks Review

Even Darkness is Made of Light – 2010 Summerworks Review

by Dorianne Emmerton

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Even Darkness is Made of Light (Not My Pig, Not My Farm Productions) is a one woman play about suicide. This sounds like my own personal theatre festival hell. Instead, this show was like a little bit of heaven.

Edwidge Jean-Pierre is a force of nature. It’s impossible not to pay her your full attention when she’s onstage playing Carrie, or any of the number of characters who interact with her. Besides Carrie she also plays Carrie’s love interest Carlos, her psychiatrist, her geography teacher, her sister and her school friends. Continue reading Even Darkness is Made of Light – 2010 Summerworks Review