The Rover | Page 10

Dali Does Montreal

La Verita, Compagnia Finzi Pasca, Place des Arts, to February 3

by Cerys Wilson
26.01.2013

If truth be told, I have never been a fan of Dali. However, I am a huge admirer of Daniele Finzi Pasca. At the Place des Arts, the two masters unite in Compagnia Finzi Pasca’s La Verita, This is Pasca’s usual fare: playful, ingenious, and surreal. And yes, that’s an original Dali up there.

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FILM

Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object

South Korea Invades Hollywood, Part 1 of 3: Kim Jee-Woon’s The Last Stand

by Devon Gallant
25.01.2013

Bursting out of the gate—in what must be the most blatant talent farming expedition in recent memory—Kim Jee-Woon’s The Last Stand begins 2013’s triple threat of South Korean directors debuting in Hollywood, along with Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon-Ho.

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DANCE

Flamenco Forte

HomoBLABLAtus, La Otra Orilla, Danse Danse, Place des Arts, to January 26

by Cerys Wilson
24.01.2013

La Otra Orilla opens the 2013 Danse Danse season with HomoBLABLAtus. Led by the forceful Myriam Allard, the work explores the language of flamenco and the flamenco of language with sharp, playful wit. Allard, moving with almost mechanical precision, is outstanding. The evolution of HomoBLABLAtus is brief. With head and torso bent, Allard opens with [...]

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FILM

Porn Again

With her feature Inside Lara Roxx, filmmaker Mia Donovan explores the life of a young porn actress who contracted HIV

by Matthew Hays
23.01.2013

A strange rush of emotions are guaranteed to run through you as you watch Inside Lara Roxx, the documentary feature by Montreal filmmaker Mia Donovan. It is equal parts revealing, sad, confounding, hopeful, infuriating and sensational. Roxx made headlines in 2004 when the then-22-year-old was trying to make it big in the Los Angeles porn [...]

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THEATRE

Le roi est mort, vive le roi

Le Roi se meurt au Théâtre du Nouveau Monde jusqu'au 9 février

by Mélanie Grondin
20.01.2013

Au Cégep, j’ai dû lire Le Roi se meurt, d’Eugène Ionesco. Je l’ai lu et je n’y ai rien compris. Puis, sans crier gare, le professeur nous demanda d’écrire une page sur le sens de la pièce. Ma page est demeurée blanche et depuis j’ai une peur bleue d’Ionesco.

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BOOKS

Wandering Off

Astray, by Emma Donoghue, HarperCollins Publishers

by Elise Moser
20.01.2013

It is a measure of the strength of Emma Donoghue’s reputation — much enhanced by her previous book, the bestselling novel Room — that she has been allowed to publish a collection of short stories, although conventional wisdom decrees it a financially risky proposition for publishers. This is good news for readers who enjoy this form of storytelling, which requires the writer to pack a narrative punch into a limited space.

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BOOKS

A Will Too Mean to be “Shakespeare”?

Shakespeare's will puts his authorship into question

by Lamberto Tassinari
18.01.2013

The great majority of Shakespeare’s readers have never read his will, a document easily found on the internet but regularly omitted in the editions of Shakespeare’s work and seldom found in the ever growing number of the Bard’s biographies. Why? Because it is an embarrassing, dissonant document within the Shakespeariana.

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DANCE

On the Prowl

Discovery Bal, Andrew de Lotbiniére Harwood/Ah Ha Productions, Agora, January 11 & 12

by Cerys Wilson
16.01.2013

Discovery Bal feels like a dance still unfolding in the quagmire of Andrew de Lotbiniére Harwood’s mind. At several points during Friday night’s performance I thought I’d found my point of reference – only to fall deeper down the rabbit hole. Down, down I fell, until I tumbled out onto rue Cherrier, just as perplexed and only slightly less dishevelled than John Cusack.

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FILM

Desperately Seeking Bin Laden

Zero Dark Thirty, dir. Kathryn Bigelow

by Jim Burke
15.01.2013

It’s a long way into Kathryn Bigelow’s acclaimed, massively controversial take on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden before watches are synchronized for Zero Dark Thirty (that’s any time in the small hours us civilians), and the eerily silent raid on the Abbottabad compound begins. What then follows is a brutal and utterly absorbing thirty minutes during which Bigelow utilises all her renowned skills as an action director.

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THEATRE

Life After All

Life Here After, Wildside Theatre Festival, Centaur Theatre, Jan 11, 12, 13

by Phillip Legere
14.01.2013

Life Here After wastes no time addressing two important points. One, this is a play “loosely inspired by Karla Homolka” (a convicted Canadian serial killer), and two that it is a “work in progress.” Both of these points loom over the audience as the play proceeds.

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BOOKS

Smart as a Whip

Whip Smart: Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniards, by Kit Brennan, Astor + Blue Editions

by Marisa Lancione
13.01.2013

The life of Lola Montez reads like a story of a Hollywood starlet. Her seductive dances, royal entanglements and exploits with whips and pistols made her fodder for the gossip mongers of the 19th century. Born in Ireland in 1818 as Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, she spent her early childhood in India with her parents before they shipped her off to school in Britain. It took a few twists and turns before she was transformed into the infamous Lola Montez, Spanish dancer.

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MUSIC

All Method No Madness

Method Man, Club Soda

by Zeshaun Saleem
12.01.2013

In hindsight, who would have guessed nerdy South Asian missionary migrants to the United States in the early 20th century would give rise to the most hippest art form ever expressed: hip hop. To understand, rewind the boombox a mere 14 centuries prior, pickpocketing a particular 7th century Arabian prophetic tradition– “eloquent speech is as [...]

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STAGE

Best Foot Forward?

Touring production of Billy Elliot delivers serious moves but proves oddly unmoving

by James Gartler
11.01.2013

Only the coldest of hearts would be immune to the plight of a young boy struggling to study ballet in a hyper-masculine, lower-income, politically charged environment. At least, that’s what Billy Elliot is counting on. Much of the success of the 2000 film and 2005 West End production is due to its ability to draw [...]

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TRAVEL

Old Ideas, New Delhi

11 countries, 11 cities, one long train ride: India

by Sujata Dey
10.01.2013

So my cellphone claims that I was actually in Pakistan. Let me explain: I bought a French SIM card in order to have a cheaper European number throughout my trip. But every time I cross a border, the cellphone knows and sends me a text with new pricing for calls, area codes and dialing instructions for each country. As I was flying over Iran and Pakistan, it suddenly texted a “welcome to Pakistan” message. This is not going to help my security file.

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Downhill for Downton?

Downton Abbey, Season 3 on PBS

by Marianne Ackerman
09.01.2013

When they kissed the night before their wedding, Lady Mary opened her eyes – a broadly announced sign of bad luck. In the opening hours of Downton Abbey’s third season, yet another fiasco befell the long-simmering romance between the eldest sister and Matthew Crawley. The day was saved, but the sound of society wedding bells could not out-chime the death knell for Downton.

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