Books

Writing non-fiction’s a bitch – a truth not universally acknowledged.

– Will Aitken in This Writing Death

Theatre

Chekhov for Beginners

by Natalie G.

Comment

Don't know where you were sitting, but there were lots of laughs.

– comment by Suzy Charto

From the category archives:

THEATRE

Emotional Hook Misses Mark

Spectacular set not enough to overcome clichés

by Anna Fuerstenberg
03.02.2012

In Absentia at the Centaur is a play fraught with symbolism. There are bare trees, a frozen river, the endless winter and the barren (or is she?) heroine of the piece. When Collette’s husband goes missing in Colombia while working for an oil company, she hunkers down and plays psychic possum. Her older sister Evelyn, [...]

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THEATRE

Chekhov for Beginners

Dawson College production of Chekhov's Three Sisters shows panache in spite of the challenges

by Natalie G.
01.02.2012

The Three Sisters, Chekov’s simmering drama about an army general’s family trapped in a provincial Russian town at the end of the nineteenth century, is brought to the stage by Dawsons College’s professional theatre program.

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THEATRE

Les bourgeois, c’est comme les cochons (bis)

La noce, Groupe de la veillée

by Mélanie Grondin
26.01.2012

Décidément, on se paye la tête des bourgeois ces jours-ci. Autant Le Dindon, de Feydeau, qui joue actuellement au Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, est un petit vaudeville gentil où la sexualité est plus verbale que visuelle, autant La noce, de Bertolt Brecht, est une satire des plus dévergondées. Peut-être trop, même.

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THEATRE

Les bourgeois, c’est comme les cochons

Le Dindon, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde

by Mélanie Grondin
25.01.2012

Certains diront peut-être que le Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, en tant que « théâtre national », se doit d’être un théâtre sérieux où le drame a plus sa place que la comédie. Même les grands dramaturges de ce monde — de Shakespeare à Molière en passant par Corneille — ont écrit des comédies, et il est vrai [...]

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THEATRE

More Slapstick, Fewer Words

Ars Poetica a few pratfalls short of a farce.

by Anna Fuerstenberg
21.01.2012

Veronica Classen designed a fabulous set at the Bain St. Michel and the device of having poetry and text messages projected on the high tech grey walls was delightful. She also dressed a cast which was supposedly sweating in the office of a tiny poetry magazine bereft of air conditioner, in seriously dark and heavy clothes … and in a Montreal heat wave only one character wore actual sandals.

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THEATRE

Never Say Die

Ars Poetica at Infinitheatre, through February 12

by Alex Woolcott
20.01.2012

It’s a swing and a miss for Ars Poetica, the second play by Arthur Holden and the latest offering from Montreal’s Infinitheatre. Infinite can always be commended for exclusively producing new work by local writers. But this time around they’ve emerged with a weak and meandering comedy in desperate need of another draft.

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THEATRE

Letter from Chicago

Visiting the Chicago Shakespeare Theater

by Marianne Ackerman
16.01.2012

The age of national culture is over. Forget about tired nation-states, their ineffective governments and surly citizens. Great art is to be found in cities with strong flavours. At the top of my list is Chicago, just over an hour from Toronto by air, where a vibrant theatre scene is offering the best play I’ve seen in years.

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