From the category archives:

THEATRE

THEATRE

Errors of Comedy

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Game of Love and Chance, Centaur Theatre, to April 1st

by Alex Woolcott
13.03.2012

There’s an old theatrical aphorism that says one should always leave the audience wanting more. This is exactly what happens in Centaur’s production of Pierre Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance (translated by Nicholas Billon). Watching the show, one is constantly wanting – if not hoping and praying – that the talented cast and crew are going to give us more. More jokes, more wit, more of Marivaux’s own blithe spirit.

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THEATRE

Beautiful Cruelty

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The Leisure Society, Bain St. Michel, March 6-25th

by Alex Woolcott
12.03.2012

Two years ago, actress-turned-director Ellen David was asked if she would direct a play for Infinitheatre. David leapt at the chance and within moments had suggested The Leisure Society (La Société des loisirs) François Archambault’s scathing attack on the cost of consumerism. David clearly has infallible instincts: her Quebec English-language première of The Leisure Society is Infintiheatre’s sharpest production in years and a standout of Anglo-Montreal’s 2012 season.

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THEATRE

There Was and There Was Not

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Our Story, Palestinian Theatre Group, UQAM, March 10

by Adam Bemma
06.03.2012

In a city where French, English and Yiddish language theatre draws huge crowds year-round, Montreal’s cultural scene is now home to a burgeoning, young, Arab theatre troupe paving the way for performances in their own language.

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THEATRE

Devil in the Details

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History of the Devil, Title 66 Productions, Théâtre Rouge, until March 4

by Alex Woolcott
01.03.2012

Enthusiasm will only get you so far and if you need proof, visit Title 66’s current production of Clive Barker’s The History of the Devil. The young cast and crew contain more than a few stars of tomorrow; unfortunately, they’re saddled with Barker’s meandering script, a fairly unseaworthy vessel that the talented crew have to fight to bring to into harbour.

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THEATRE

Aimez-Vous les Uns les Autres

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Les maladies honteuses, au Théâtre de l'Opsis et au Théâtre Jean-Duceppe

by Mélanie Grondin
28.02.2012

Certaines maladies — surtout celles où notre corps nous trahit malgré toutes les précautions que nous pouvons prendre — sont nobles, tandis que d’autres sont honteuses. Du moins, selon le point de vue de certaines personnes proches du malade, voire du malade lui-même. Ces maladies et la honte associée sont le point central de Frères [...]

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THEATRE

Scary Monsters, Super Creeps

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Scary Tales and Broken Hearts at the Mainline Theatre

by Kallee Lins
24.02.2012

Scary Tales and Broken Hearts takes you into the world of your childhood in which anything can be imagined, yet nothing is quite as you expect.  The dancers of Entre-Deux take the audience through a series of vignettes inspired by fairy tales, your wildest dreams, and your darkest fears.

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THEATRE

Agog about Gollywog

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Gollywog, by Bonnie Farmer, Black Theatre Workshop

by Beverly Akerman
20.02.2012

Though decades separate Bonnie Farmer’s two plays, her new Gollywog has the makings of a hit. Born in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Farmer came to Montreal at the age of two when her mother took a job as a cook in a convent. The family only lived there a year or so, Farmer explains. “They weren’t expecting a cook with a baby in tow. Our room was right off the kitchen and I kept getting into things. It was dangerous. I remember these beautiful marble floors. I remember seeing the nuns in their pyjamas.”

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THEATRE

Emotional Centre Does Not Hold

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Scientific Americans at the Segal Centre lacks conflict and passion.

by Anna Fuerstenberg
10.02.2012

It is never a good sign when they hold curtain on opening night. There is usually a great reason, but the audience gets restless and hostile and, in the case of Scientific Americans, very sleepy. I thought that the actors did remarkably well and the play may have had really important things to say. But [...]

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THEATRE

Emotional Hook Misses Mark

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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