Toronto, ON– SummerWorks Performance Festival, Canada’s largest juried theatre festival, announces its final selection for the 2013 festival running August 8th– 18th. This year’s festival will feature over 35 theatre productions and the return of the popular Music Series, Live Art Series and Performance Bar.
“This year’s SummerWorks is remarkably diverse and innovative”, Says Artistic Producer Michael Rubenfeld “A year of returns and introductions, we are thrilled that the festival continues to attract international and national artists of great acclaim. It’s a fantastically ambitious year, living up to the kind of artistic quality you have come to expect from our Festival.”
Shaw and LaBute face off on love, morals, guilt and passion at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre
I’m not sure what it would look like if George Bernard Shaw and Neil LaBute went for a drink together, but I imagine it might have been something akin to fledgling theatre company Neoteny Theatre‘s double-bill production of Overruled/Romance. In Red Sandcastle Theatre‘s cozy storefront space it’s hard not to describe my experience at the show as anything less than up close and personal.
Overruled is a quick-fire one-act by Shaw, following the brief encounter of two couples who are in the midst of embarking on adventures in infidelity – with each other’s partners. LaBute’s Romance is a darker exploration of the caveats of intense love and love loss. Themes of lust, morality, passion and guilt are a distinct through-line in each show, making them an interesting pair despite Shaw being light-heartedly farcical and LaBute being especially grounded and hyper-realistic.
Spring is supposed to be here, and while it seems like it’s gotten a little stuck trying to make it through customs, at least there’s some interesting theatre to keep our minds off the fact that it’s not beach weather yet.
Here is what’s going on in Toronto theatre this week. There are several great shows to catch for the week of March 25th, 2013. ** Shows marked with the double asterisks and in red are the ones that make Wayne, our Managing Editor, wish he could exist in multiple parallel universes so he could check them all out.
Contemporary dance show Half Life Motel explores an array of moving themes
Half Life Motel, a collaborative effort of Flightworks and Blue Ceiling Dance, happens to be my first foray into Toronto’s contemporary dance scene. Presented by the DanceWorks CoWorks series at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation, I was enthralled by the deft skill of the dancers and impressed by their intensity. A show comprised of three separate pieces by three different choreographers, Half Life Motel tackles a varying array of themes in interesting and sometimes perplexing ways.
The first piece, entitled Centennial Motel and Rest is an exploration on the theme of falling. Choreographed by notable dance artist Karen Kaeja, and danced with verve by Diana Rose and Suzanne Liska, I found their partnering to be at times both tender and sensual. Sharp jerky movements mixed with fluid moments of balance and trust made Rose and Liska most interesting to watch. There is a lot of intricate floor work and, of course, falling, sometimes synchronized, and it brought me into the notion I think Kaeja was attempting to convey. Falling is a lot about timing, but also about support, its presence and absence.
