MONDOmagazine

The Nick Drake Project
By Matthew Heiti
Directed by Ryan Ward
Featuring Julian De Zotti, Melissa-Lynn Dozois, Jonathan Seinen, Justin Tilley, Ryan Tilley, Ryan Ward
SummerWorks Theatre Festival
Factory Theatre Mainspace

By Matt McGeachy

I have no idea who Nick Drake is. Perhaps I’ve been living under a rock — it wouldn’t be the first time.  Because I don’t know who he is (well, now I know he is/was a musician) and I didn’t know what to expect from The Nick Drake Project.  Despite no expectations, I left rather more disappointed when I left than when I entered.

This is not to say that what happened on stage wasn’t interesting or that the actors, designers, and team were not talented: quite the contrary, in fact. The problem is that a bunch of talented people doing Read the rest of this entry »

Montparnasse
Created by Maev Beaty, Andrea Donaldson, Erin Shields
Directed by Andrea Donaldson
Performed by Maev Beaty and Erin Shields
SummerWorks Festival
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace

By Matt McGeachy

I first had the pleasure of seeing Montparnasse performed at Buddies in Bad Times as part of the Rhubarb Festival, where it was one of the smashing successes. A slightly longer and perhaps less edgier version graces the stage at Theatre Passe Muraille for SummerWorks, and the result is no less delightful.

The story centres on friends Ameila (Maev Beaty), an aspiring painter, and Margaret (Erin Shields), a painters’ model and bon vivante, as they strive to realize their artistic dreams in 1920s Paris. Paris, as always, is as much a character in the play as Margaret and Amelia, and the city, as well as many of its notables (including James Joyce, Sylvia Beach, and Henry Miller, among others), are brought vividly to life by Read the rest of this entry »

XXX Live Nude Girls
By Jennifer Walshe
Directed by Graham Cozzubbo
Musical Direction by Gregory Oh
Featuring Christine Duncan, Kate Fenton, Ginette Mohr, Patricia O’Callahan
SummerWorks Festival
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace

By Matt McGeachy

XXX Live Nude Girls bills itself as a “doll opera.” It is the only time I can recall where, if not bound by professional ethics to see the show in its entirety, I would have walked out after the first fifteen minutes. This show was so ill-conceived, so poorly performed, so self-indulgent — in short, so bad — that my initial irritation gave way to shock followed quickly by indignation, and finally, succumbed to pity for the performers.

At stage right were the musicians.  Centre stage was occupied by vocalists Duncan and O’Callahan, and stage left by a giant dollhouse, where the two “actors” Fenton and Mohr enacted “scenes” with Barbie dolls while being filmed by two cameras and projected onto two large screens behind the ensemble. Surtitles supposed to give some narrative thread were projected onto one of the screens. In the interest of fairness, it should be noted that one of the cameras and therefore one of the projection Read the rest of this entry »

The Ecstasy of Mother Teresa, or, Agnes Bojaxhiu Superstar
Written and directed by Alistair Newton
Original music by Reza Jacobs
Musical direction by Dan Rutzen
Featuring nisha ahuja, Andrew Bathory, Matthew Boden, Matt Eger, Jason Gaignard, Andre Kwan, Michelle Langille, Kaitlyn Regehr, Chy Ryan Spain
SummerWorks Festival
At the Theatre Centre until August 16

By Matt McGeachy

From Ecce Homo, the company that brought us last year’s hit The Pastor Phelps Project, comes another spin on religion and extremism, The Ecstasy of Mother Teresa — a clever pun on the name of the famous Bernini statue in the Cornaro Chapel in Rome — and perhaps a more controversial stab at one of the world’s most famous nuns: Mother Teresa, aka Agnes Bojaxhiu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and founder of the Sisters of Charity in Calcutta, one of the most impoverished areas in the world.

The show’s premise is smart: most people don’t think ill of Mother Teresa. In fact, many believed that she should be canonized as a saint. The show challenges this Read the rest of this entry »

La Senorita Mundo: An Operatic Allegory
Composed by Njo Kong Kie
Written and directed by Kico Gongalez-Risso
Featuring Keith Klassen and Vilma Vitols
SummerWorks Theatre Festival
At Theatre Centre until August 16

By Matt McGeachy

Once again a festival show in Toronto takes the opportunity to remind us all that opera is not by any means a dead art form; of course, just living doesn’t mean it’s destined for greatness.

La Senorita Mundo has a lot going for it: a pretty decent story idea, a well-planned stage and lighting design, and of course, Keith Klassen, the tenor who enchanted audiences at the 2008 Fringe’s “Opera On the Rocks.” But what it has in its favour is outweighed by some big problems with the script and production as whole—problems that kept me checking my watch after the first 20 minutes of this 55-minute show.

Klassen plays Julius, a narcissistic over-40 playboy, apparently of some Latin extraction (hence the Spanish title), hosting a birthday party for himself. Read the rest of this entry »

Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry
Conceived and performed by Daniel Barrow
SummerWorks Festival
At Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace

By Matt McGeachy

Bridging the traditional conceptual gap between visual and performing art without becoming performance art, Daniel Barrow’s beautiful and challenging theatrical event Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry left me theoretically confused but delighted. Describing the plot is less important than the concept itself: a live performance of cartoon drawings on and overhead projector, narrated by Barrow from above the audience.

By pushing the boundaries like this, Barrow challenges the idea that theatre is an event exclusively for live humans to perform. Is it possible to see a theatrical performance by a cartoon? In the physical sense, it is of course possible: we just did it. In the theoretical sense, of course, we are left asking ourselves Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto Noir
From stories by Sean Dixon, Kim Moritsugu, and Michael Redhill
Directed and adapted by Heather Davies
Featuring Emily Andrews, Murray Foster, Adrian Griffin, Jack Grinhaus, Alicia Johnston, Sarah Mennell, Marilla Wex
SummerWorks Festival
At the Theatre Centre until August 15

By Matt McGeachy

Like many transplants to the city, I’m rather taken in by Toronto in a way that others find annoying, so when the opportunity to see Toronto Noir came up, I was thrilled to see this production that, more than that characters featured in the stories, stars Toronto itself.  Although this production doesn’t rate as the best show I’ve ever seen, it was still a lovely production and certainly entertaining for the locophiles among us.

Adapted from a collection of short stories by Canadian authors, director Heather Davies has collaborated with the performers to bring the stories to the stage using classical film noir aesthetics, including dark lighting and dramatic music. The three stories are unrelated except in their aesthetic sensibility and the high quality of the actors’ performances.

Among the standout performances in this ensemble production were Murray Foster’s Plunk Henry, a down and out bass player with excellent timing and a voice to make Bogey jealous, and Sarah Mennell’s suburb performance as a jealous, petty, and ultimately murderous actress down on her luck.

The difficulties of adaptation and some questionable sequences such as a slow-motion fight scene kept the show from being totally memorable; it’s enjoyable to see our city on the stage nonetheless.

Apricots
By Misha Shulman
Directed by Adam Lazarus
Featuring Lauren Brotman, Melissa D’Agostino, Sam Kalilieh, Kwame Kyei-Boateng, Allan Michaels, Kevin Sheard, Pierre Simpson, Evan Webber
SummerWorks Festival
Factory Theatre Mainspace until August 16

By Matt McGeachy

Short plays that deal in stereotypes and absurdity can be very funny, but also run the danger of completely missing their mark. Misha Shulman’s Apricots falls somewhere in between these two extremes, which is fitting, I suppose, given that moderation and humour are important to his examination of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The idea is spot-on: showcase the ridiculous posturing of politicos on both sides in all its hypocritical glory while focusing on the small ties that bind humanity, including those that bind an Israeli plumber and a Palestinian apricot farmer. The execution of said idea left a lot to be desired. Read the rest of this entry »

In Good King Charles’s Golden Days
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Eda Holmes
Featuring Benedict Campbell, Graeme Somerville, Ric Reid, Laurie Paton, and others
At the Shaw Festival until October 9

By Matt McGeachy

In Good King Charles’s Golden Days is charmingly subtitled “a true story that never happened,” and to be blunt, we would all have been better off if this production had never happened at all.  It’s one of those rare moments in the theatre where even a young critic such as myself gets giddy with malicious glee, believing the production to be so horrible that it will finally, finally provide that Addison De Witt moment we all crave: the permission to tear a production to shreds with a cold glint in the eye and acid rolling off the tongue.  This feeling, close to sublime in the first fifteen minutes of the Shaw Festival’s dreadful production, quickly and disappointingly gives way to utter boredom, followed by resignation that one is losing three hours of one’s life with nothing to show for it. Read the rest of this entry »

Born Yesterday
By Garson Kanin
Directed by Gina Wilkinson
Featuring Deborah Hay, Thom Marriott, Gray Powell, and others
At the Shaw Festival until November 1

By Matt McGeachy

Oh, the days when a mere millionaire could buy his way through the U.S. Congress!  Today, a cool million is what it takes to get your foot in the door, and it certainly isn’t enough to buy the influence of a U.S. Senator, who, I understand, does not come cheap.  But these halcyon days are the subject of Garson Kanin’s comedic play Born Yesterday at the Shaw Festival. Read the rest of this entry »

By Matt McGeachy

On Wednesday, June 3rd at the Four Seasons Centre in downtown Toronto, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced the nominees for the 30th annual, 2009 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, honouring excellence in Toronto theatre.  Hosted by TAPA executive director Jacoba Knaapen, and presented by the Toronto cast of the celebrated musical Jersey Boys, there were 176 nominations from 218 eligible Toronto theatre productions in General Theatre, Opera, Dance, Independent Theatre, and Theatre for Young Audiences divisions.  This year’s Doras will be hosted by CBC Radio personality Jian Ghomeshi on June 29th at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Leaders of the pack include Agokwe from Buddies in Bad Times, Jersey Boys from DanCap Productions, and Crow’s Theatre with nominations for Eternal Hydra and I, Claudia.

In addition to the presentation of nominees, a number of special awards were presented.  Noted comedian and actor of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame, Colin Mochrie, received the Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in theatre and advocating on behalf of the performing arts in Canada.

Co-artistic directors of Theatre Columbus, Leah Cherniak and Martha Ross, received the George Luscombe Award for mentorship.  Both Cherniak and Ross studied mime and clown at the famous Jacques Lecoq school in Paris, and Theatre Columbus is renowned for producing innovating, physically challenging work.

Naomi Campbell, an independent producer and currently of the Magnetic North Festival in Ottawa, received the Leonard McHardy and John Harvey Award for arts administration.  Named after the celebrated owners of Theatrebooks, this award recognizes achievement and leadership among the talented arts administrators that bring the art form to the stage for the public eye.

Without further ado, select nominees for the 30th annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards are:

General Theatre Division

Outstanding New Play

Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes
Andrew Moodie, Toronto the Good
Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, Scratch
Joan MacLeod, Another Home Invasion
Waawaate Fobister, Agokwe

Outstanding New Musical/Opera

Sanctuary Song
Opera To Go: The Perfect Screw
Opera To Go: The Virgin Charlie
Opera To Go: My Mother’s Ring
Ines

Outstanding Production of a Play

Radio Play, Young Centre presents Peggy Baker Dance Projects
I, Claudia, Young Centre presents a Crow’s Theatre Production
Festen, The Company Theatre
A Raisin in the Sun, Soulpepper Theatre Company
Agokwe, Buddies in Bad Times

Outstanding Production of a Musical

The Sound of Music, Mirvish
The Forbidden Phoenix, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People and the Citadel Theatre
Jersey Boys, DanCap Productions, Inc.
CINDERELLA, Ross Petty Productions
A New Brain, Acting Up Stage Theatre Company

Opera Division

Outstanding Production

War and Peace, Canadian Opera Company
Simon Boccanegra, Canadian Opera Company
Sanctuary Song, Tapestry and Theatre Direct in partnership with Luminato
Rusalka, Canadian Opera Company
Fidelio, Canadian Opera Company/L’Opera national du rhin/Staatstheatre Nuremberg

Dance Division

Outstanding Production

Radiant (evanescence:made in Canada), princess productions
Innovation: Emergence, The National Ballet of Canada
La Pornograpie des ames, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage
Lost Action, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage
Rankefold, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage

Independent Theatre Divison

Outstanding New Play/Musical

Tijuana Cure, Layne Coleman
The Gladstone Variations, Brendan Gall, Mike McPhaden, Rick Roberts, Julie Tepperman
Miss Julie: Sheh’mah, Tara Beagan
lady in the red dress, David Yee
Eternal Hydra, Anton Piatigorsky

Outstanding Production

You Fancy Yourself, Contrary Company in association with Theatre Passe Muraille
The Gladstone Variations, Convergence Theatre
lady in the red dress, fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company in association with the Young Centre
Eternal Hydra, Crow’s Theatre
Appetite, Volcano in association with Exchange Rate Collective

Theatre for Young Audiences

Outstanding Production

Walking the Tightrope, Theatre Direct
The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh, Roseneath Thaetre in association with Carousel Players
The Emperor’s New Threads, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People
Ghosts and Ladders, LKTYP
Bird Brain, LKTYP

For a complete list of Dora nominees, please visit the website.

Dance Party of Newfoundland
Performed by Phil Churchill, Steve Cochrane, Jonny Harris, and Susan Kent
May 21-24, 2009 @ Factory Theatre (part of the Performance Spring Festival)

By Matt McGeachy

A spunky and irreverent comedy troupe, Dance Party of Newfoundland’s skit sets — presented as part of the Performance Spring Festival at Factory Theatre — were fresh, delightfully ironic, and at times wonderfully wicked.

This troupe makes fun of Newfs as only Newfs can, or are allowed to.  Beginning with a skit where a Newfoundlander brings his new wife to meet his family in an isolated coastal town with true Shakespearean dialects, followed by an old woman talking about the joys of molestation money, these comedians are not afraid of political incorrectness.

Whereas a less talented (or funny) group would have seriously offended even the most irreverent among us with the molestation gig — my god, did I just write “molestation gig?” — DPN skillfully treads on some dangerous topics.

Among the best of the night were: the man-cats, where two grown men behaved like cats in a fashion instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever owned one; Pervlerte, the sexy Spanish guitar maestro, who — no joke — licked a member of the audience; Chinesus, an Asian-fusion version of Jesus who was upset that Mary Magdalene and Timothy have taken up together since his crucifixion; and the translating of an extreme Cockney English accent.

Punctuated with Newf-inspired musical themes from the international rock sensations “The Sons of Our Fathers”, the entire evening was good, heady, Canadian humour.  In what other country would a group of hosers on the pogey, planning their holidays to Latin America on their Blackberries, elicit a string of laughter from an audience?

The woman sitting behind me had it all right when she said through laughter, “I thought I knew where they were going with that, but I was all wrong!”

The unexpected musings of Dance Party of Newfoundland were a treat — the troupe offers up the droll sense of humour for which this country is famous.  It doesn’t make your gut hurt from laughter, but it sure does tickle your funny bone.