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.
Lascivia (played by Angèle Morgan, who is also the writer) is a parody of a diva: everything she does is “fierce” and/or “fabulous.” She name-drops – apparently Matt Damon tells bad jokes. She complains about having to get up at the early hour of 11 am so she can spend all day planning her hair and makeup for that evening. She has a sparkly dress, too many fans for even a computer to count, and a devoted keyboard player who is in no way discreet about his love for her.
Death Ray Cabaret is a sketch comedy show performed by a two-man troupe of the same name. Kevin Matviw and Brad Sayeau met, according to their website, at Bad Dog Theatre (formerly Theatresports) which is Toronto’s incubator for improv comedy talent.
As you enter the show you know you’re in for some darkly-tinged comedy, as the BYOV – St. Paul’s/Trinity Church’s chapel – is set up as a funeral. However the show is never morbid and there’s probably nothing in there that would offend your grandmother. Your grandmother, however, might not “get” all the jokes as a lot of them – generally the ones that work best – are pop culture references.
GIA is a concept piece, complete with modern dance moves, syncopated vocalizations/breathing and lots of abstract pondering. The main idea, which is spoken right away and then expanded on throughout the hour, is that the planet Earth is a conscious living entity (as the title suggests.)
I had no prior knowledge of the 2005 controversy surrounding the destruction of Haydn Llewellyn Davies’ sculpture ‘Homage’ when I went to see this play. It was appropriately titled Homage,and produced by 2b Theatre Company as a part of LuminaTO. Now I know all about it, and about the existence of moral rights for artist’s work. This was an educational as well as a theatrical experience and succeeded in both without being overly didactic.
The play is a true story of one man’s battle with a public entity after a late-in-life rise to fame as a sculptor of large works. It is based on an incident of Lambton College destroying a sculpture without informing the artist, a piece that they had commissioned thirty years earlier.
