Medea Gosperia @ The Cockpit

Medea Gosperia is an operetta adaptation of the Greek story of Medea (you know, her…) which uses musical styles to explore what is happening to each character, their feelings and emotions. So Medea expresses through classical opera, while Jason expresses through Jazz, etc. The singers are all of exceptional quality and skill, supported by a brilliant 7 piece live band. The music at times works well to this premise, however at times the shifts in style felt arbitrary, rather than as if they were pushing the story forward. Similarly at times the clash of genre worked to brilliant dramaturgical effect, but not consistently.

Unfortunately for me, the libretto was weak, and undermined some of the interesting musical choices happening. The lack of energy in the lyrics translated to the cast feeling like things were moving too slowly at times.

Overall an interesting experiment, worth watching — but for me one that still needs a bit of development to recognise its true potential.

Get Off @ Battersea Arts Centre

This show isn’t intended to be easy viewing; from the very start, we see the performer, Katy, in a loop of video, nude in her bedroom, panning around the space. When the performance begins, she is laying on the floor of the white stage, in front of the screen, with a microphone. A clever play between the recorded Katy and the live in front of us Katy sets a tone for a funny performance that won’t take itself too seriously.

It continues with some truly delightful and funny moments, and some really challenging moments, and quite a lot of failure in performance. It was interspersed, however, with some fairly graphic moments projected up on the big screen, which I struggled to connect with the rest of what was happening in the story. Furthermore, it was never made clear why the performer was naked, or what purpose this served. Which is fine, but for me in the particular circumstance of performance (particularly female solo performance) this double objectification needs to have a purpose.

All in all, while there were some fantastic moments, and some that really made me think, the production as a whole (in this new version) felt undercooked — a lot of great ideas, but just missing that link that would pull them all together, giant poop video and all.

Samuel Takes a Break by Rhianna Ilube @ The Yard Theatre

…in Male Dungeon Number 5 After a Long But Generally Successful Day of Tours

Yes that’s the whole title. And the mouthful of a title hints at the darkly serious yet funny play that marks the debut of Rhianna Ilube at The Yard Theatre. The play tells the story of a tour guide, Samuel, and his colleague, Orange, and the cast of individuals who come to take a tour of the Castle in Ghana where humans were held as captives before being shipped to North America as slaves. It tells us a story of modern times reckoning with the long reach of colonialism in a deeply insufficient way. It tells us a story of contemporary humans grappling with the depths of the distant, and not-so-distant past.

The cast is rounded out by two actors who play all of the couples making the visit; all 4 are directed superbly by Anthony Simpson-Pike, who creates a physical and intentional space which allows the audience to be taken in and not question the jumps in space, time, and reality. All 4 actors are equally exceptional, and the production as a whole was thoughtful, yet felt dangerous and at the edge of acceptability.

An absolutely incredible play, production, and set of performances. One can only hope for a remount.

Guys and Dolls @ Bridge Theatre

Sometimes you see a production, and it embodies all the things you have wanted for a play. (okay, maybe that’s just me). I have adored this musical since childhood, and have yearned to have others see how dynamic and engaging it has the capacity to be. Nicholas Hytner did it.

Staged in a dual fashion, with traditional seating in the round, but also an immersive floor option, the production quite literally creates the dynamic and bustling world of New York City. The stage is in pieces which reconfigure, moving up and down through hydraulics and what I can only imagine is the most complex stage management cue sheet known to human kind. What was truly incredible was that despite the movements, and complete awareness of the mechanics of the production, from the immersive floor space we were still able to be completely swept away in the story.

I am tempted to go again and sit in the traditional seats, to see what the moving and shifting looks like from the outside.

With all of this you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was simply technical prowess on display. Quite the opposite; every performance, and every step of choreography was pitch perfect. Brilliant re-imaginings of the classic and well loved songs, choreography which simultaneously felt of the period but wholeheartedly modern. Simply superb.

Please go to this. It is what musicals should be in 2023.

A Play For the Living in a Time of Extinction - Katie Mitchell/Headlong @ Barbican

It is simultaneously full of artifice, and absent it entirely. Katie Mitchell’s bicycle powered one-woman show (performed passionabely at The Barbican by Lydia West) is as much spoken word poem as it is lecture, as much monologue as it is news article. And that’s to its credit; while we are given a story and much to look at, it feels inherently un-play-like. Instead we are confronted with a barrage of information and literal labour - 8 cyclists ride for the duration of the 90+ minute performance to power the minimal lighting grid and projections. We are reminded of the energy and effort required to create theatre; that even those of us who consciously consumed our way to that point in the day, via public transport and reusable bags filled with bread from eco-conscious bakeries, and with coffee in reusable cups will sit in a theatre and absorb spectacle which takes resource from this planet. A play about a time of extinction, too.

The production leaned a little too heavily into a few moments of audience participation for my taste - the early pieces engaging with the audience I thought really fruitful and useful to the story, however while the moments bringing audience up on stage had payoff from a visual sense later in the production when the choir came on stage, it felt contrived and almost like a way to fill time, which is rarely good.

Overall the marriage of the text and its performance were strong; I just wonder whether there is any benefit of performing this for a room of reusable bag using Barbican goers. Will it change anything?

Ivanov - Theatre Of Nations @ Barbican

Timofey Kulyabin is renowned for his use of sound and silence, so the opportunity to see his interpretation of Chekhov was a promising one. The cavernous Barbican was willed with life from the start of the play, even in the most still, quiet, moments. Kulyabin’s Ivanov is positioned in a more modern Russia, with suits and party dresses, but the same old familial obligations. The characters sparkled and overlapped one another, and were truly funny. It is joyful to see Chekhov performed with true gleeful fun, as this high makes the sad, still, lonely moments all the lower.

What was interesting is that the set changes were glacial. At first, I didn’t know why. They seemed to suck the energy out of the production, however the next scene would burst out, filled with energy anew. This sat with me for some time; it felt clunky and almost amateurish, but as I continued to reflect (for weeks! I saw this Oct 12!) it began to be clear to me that this was intentional. Slow, clearly performative, demonstrating the construction of Ivanov’s life, his world, and the precariousness of that construction.

It is also thrilling to see theatre performed for its audience; the vast majority of this audience were from the Russian community around London. Their reactions to moments in the play were certainly different; the personal touches, the jokes about how families work (slippers for all visitors, breaking into song…) were wonderful and there for the Russian audience and had echoes of my own upbringing in a Ukrainian family, far away in Canada. At the end, the audience cheered voraciously - there were about 8 curtain calls, and as they escalated, audience members brought forward flowers for the performers…part of a clear ritual.

review. The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe @ Howland Company & Crow's Theatre

The Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre have put together an exciting young cast to share Sarah DeLappe’s Pulitzer shortlisted firecracker of a play, The Wolves, with Toronto audiences for the first time. Centred on a girls’ soccer team, DeLappe’s play gives us what pretty much no other play has; young girls, in their own element, speaking as they do, overlapping, multiple conversations at once, simultaneously ultra-serious and completely silly. This play is an important landmark in playwriting. Reading it the first time, the structure and language reminded me of first encounters with Caryl Churchill….fiery, searing, powerful, and undeniably female.

This production, directed by Courtney Ching-Lancaster, makes use of a thrust setup and minimalist turf setting, showcasing the all female cast and giving them nowhere to hide. Off the top the energy is a bit over-the-top, but within a few minutes, as the overlapping chatter begins, the actors settle in and we start to see the girls as they are. There are lots of reasons to be nervy as a performer, with a lot of ball manipulation required throughout, and extremely challenging dialogue. A standout is Amakah Umeh as 00, the perfectionist goalkeeper, who simply radiates, despite the fact that we hear very little from her.

The scenes are divided by movement scenes set to abstract electronic music; I hoped for a bit more in these sequences, ultimately they felt like filler rather than urgent and necessary….they detracted from the forward momentum of the script. On the whole, I craved more movement that was representative of soccer bodies in space. While the performers did move a lot, it somehow felt static, and not necessarily linked to the pace of the play. The most compelling moment was 00’s fierce repetition of man-makers, until you feel like she might vomit; an honest portrayal of the fierce determination of these young women to succeed. The overall pace was decent, however I felt it lacking a musicality in the build-up and release of tension as the voices and conversations move over one another, then disperse, from density to sparsity so easily. As a result, some of the tension building in final moments was, for me, a bit lacking.

All that, however, does not detract from the overall necessity and importance of this show. I saw the production with my 14 year old, who herself is among the elite soccer players her age in the province. She has seen a lot of theatre, so has some high expectations; it has been a long time since I have seen her as captivated and engaged in a story. It is such a telling demonstration of what representing experiences on stage can do for someone. Please, please; if you can take a young woman in your life to this play, do.

review. I Call Myself Princess @ Cahoots Theatre w/ Native Earth Performing Arts

I caught this on the closing weekend, and was quite looking forward to what was described as a “play with opera”. I love merging and blending forms of performance that might not normally mingle.

Director Marjorie Chen helps the cast elicit beautiful performances, both in the singing and acting, however the overall direction felt muddled. The staging, which required often overlapping time periods evocative of Stoppard’s Arcadia, felt clunky, and the set was indecisively between surrealist and naturalist. The costume design, however, was stunning; with such clear costuming, the stage design could have benefitted from a touch of minimalism, I think.

The story Jani Lauzon mines the script from is intriguing, following a young indigenous opera student attending the RCM, and his exploration of a turn-of-the-century opera about an indigenous woman. The play unveiled some of the beautiful tension that occurs when we view historical work with a contemporary lens, offering the historical characters an opportunity to talk a bit about their intentions, helping the contemporary viewpoint come even more clearly into focus. That said, the script unfortunately came across as heavily education-focused; it could have benefitted from some revision to make the message clearer through less exposition.

I think that in its current form it might make a very fascinating TYA script. Which, to clarify, is not necessarily a bad thing…I just did not get the impression that was the intention.

review. Hamburger by Ciarán Myers @ Toronto Fringe

Kitchener-based company Informal Upright take over The Hideout at College and Bathurst with Ciarán Myers' new two hander, Hamburger. Staged in the bar (with drinks and food available during the show!) the play shares the story of two coworkers as they grow in their careers and as people, but always in some relationship to one another. It explores themes of workplace romance (and the propriety or welcome of advances) along with aspirations and the politics of working in a kitchen while building a career as a young female. 

Although it is a mainly light story, there is a darkness to the play as we see hints of frustrations for the characters, specifically Lib (subtly and intelligently performed by Mina James). Zach Parsons plays Arie admirably, particularly knowing that he joined the cast as a replacement only a few days before this preview. 

The use of the space is interesting, if not always effective, and the pacing of the show doesn't do the best to show off the script through the build and release of tension, however some of this is likely due to the last minute cast change, thus not to be judged as a tick against them. All in all, an interesting story, well performed, and under some dire circumstances. Definitely worth putting Hamburger on your list. 

review. Bug by Yolanda Bonnell - Manidoons Collective @ Luminato

This is a difficult story. Yolanda Bonnell's solo show, bug, is a daring construction which weaves creation story with real life and esoteric worlds to create a moment in which we witness all the joy and pain, hope and despair of a young indigenous woman. She is many women. Women whose babies are taken, or whose daughters and sisters and mothers and aunts disappear or are killed. The women Bonnell shares with us, however, have hope. Hope that they can and will do better. 

The physical work in the play is beautiful. Haunting images of Bonnell dancing, creating shapes to transform the space, throwing herself on the ground, or reaching oh so gently for the little ladybug. Situating the audience in a sharing circle, Bonnell connects eye to eye with many of the audience members. This isn't simply a performance, it is a shared story, which does not allow the audience to sit back. It is difficult viewing, but intentionally so. 

Director Cole Alvis does a great job pacing the production to build tension and release just where we need it. The production team's choice to share the creation story of the top, and also to bring a spiritual healer to each performance is a wise one. Despite the hopeful tone, the real pain of the characters is palpable, and audience members are visibly shaken. 

This is a challenging, emotional piece of theatre, and one that needs to keep living across the country. 

review. Blink's Garden - Fat Blue productions @ Toronto Fringe (KIDS VENUE)

Blink's Garden is a charming and compelling story about a young girl's efforts to build a community. Performed primarily by children (with support from their adults) the show presents a lovely story about what happens when we feel "the grass is greener on the other side" and the lessons we learn. The story is told through music and song, which is beautifully rendered live on stage by a trio of musicians, with the whole cast singing beautiful harmonies. The staging is playful and lacks polish, but that is the essence of its charm; it is clearly several families coming together to tell a wonderful story. 

The Winnipeg-based company are here for their first Toronto Fringe, and this should definitely make your list for young theatre-goers; it will spark some great conversation with them afterward (which, after all, is the point of theatre!). Winnipeg readers, watch for them at Winnipeg Fringe, too! 

Check out their Facebook page for all remaining show dates and times in Winnipeg & Toronto.