web analytics

Theatre

You are currently browsing articles tagged Theatre.

Synchronicity?

November 27, 2019 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Wednesday mornings (for another week at least) find me up at crack of dawn (literally!) getting ready to wend my way in to the College for an early lecture.

Even at the height of summer my thought processes do not run very rapidly such an antisocial time of day. In the winter – when it is still dark as I stumble into the shower and fumble with the controls to turn the hot water on full – I barely register as a life form.

It follows – ergo – that nothing much of any import passes through my mind at this point. Thus is was this morning that my usual befuddled musings on the state of the world were unexpectedly leavened somewhat by the sudden thought that – unlike other recent years – at least in this one we have not suffered a relentless tide of deaths amongst the great and the good (or celebrities at the very least).

On arrival at the college and having a few minutes before my lecture I checked the BBC news headlines. Amongst the top stories were announcements of the following deaths:

  • Gary Rhodes – one of the first of the TV celebrity chefs, who influenced many that followed. Gary was the cousin (I think) of a friend of a friend and I met him once at a party. He seemed pleasant enough and he was very tall…
  • Clive James – Australian who made the UK his home – writer, program maker and TV critic for The Observer newspaper in the UK. We loved Clive’s dry wit and brilliant way with words and he was a fixture in our younger days.
  • Jonathan Miller – satirist, writer, opera director, medical consultant and polymath. He was one of the four great names that came out of the Footlights review – ‘Beyond the Fringe’ – back in the 60s, along with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett (who is now the only survivor). Jonathan was alumnus of the final school at which I worked and the new theatre there is named for him. Back in the 80s at some point he came to the college of the University of London at which I then worked to give a talk on a book that he had recently published on re-interpreting Shakespeare. It was called ‘Subsequent Performances’ and I still have my copy. He spoke brilliantly without notes for forty five minutes and then did as long again answering questions – also without notes and also quite brilliantly!

These souls will all be sadly missed and yet more figures from our younger and formative days are now no more.

So – that thought of mine in the shower… Synchronicity or what? – (probably ‘or what’!).

Tags: , , , , ,

The Children

October 6, 2019 in Life in BC | Permalink

To the Belfry last weekend for the first production in the new season – English playwright, Lucy Kirkwood’s, 2016 piece – ‘The Children‘.

The original production’s website contains this teaser:

“In a remote cottage on the lonely British coast, a couple of retired nuclear engineers are living a very quiet life. Outside, the world is in utter chaos following a devastating series of events. When an old friend turns up at their door, they’re shocked to discover the real reason for her visit.”

I think that it is fair to say the heart of the play turns out to be about something other than that which seems obvious from the get-go. Whilst not being perfect (what is?) The Girl and I both found the production engaging, rewarding and thought provoking and I strongly recommend it should you yet be able to get a ticket.

It seems a little harsh to say that it was good to see a ‘proper’ play again, though regulars of these musings will doubtless have heard my plaintive little cries on the subject before. Nonetheless we greatly enjoyed watching believably three-dimensional characters engaging with each other in a work which is strongly about ideas.

One of Kirkwood’s previous plays – ‘Chimerica‘ – was in the news quite a bit in London in 2014, before – of course – we moved across the pond, but I had rather lost track of what she was doing since and that turns out to be a little embarrassing. ‘The Children‘ is a three-hander – with two good female parts and one male. In the Belfry’s production we felt that the latter was the weaker of the performances.

Reading up on the play beforehand – however – we realised that in the original Royal Court production this part had been played by a friend of ours – to very good reviews. Furthermore he subsequently transferred with the piece for a successful run in New York. The embarrassment arises because whilst in London earlier this year I had lunch with him and we talked about all the various things that he had been doing over the last few years. He probably mentioned ‘The Children‘ but I clearly did not later make the connection. The trouble is that – though he is a fair bit older than I am – he is still working furiously and successfully on stage and on the screen. It is hard work keeping up!

Now – of course – I wish that I had seen him in the production. Apart from anything else I know that he would have been splendid in the role.

Tags: , , ,

The magic circle

September 8, 2019 in Life in BC | Permalink

“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.”

P.S. Baber – ‘Cassie Draws the Universe’

Our relief at discovering – subsequent to our arrival four years ago from London (arguably the theatre capital of the world) – that Victoria is consistently able to offer a rich bill of fare in thespian terms… was palpable! As I have written before in these pages, we routinely hold season tickets for The Belfry and one of the reasons that I was keen to sit on the Board of Intrepid Theatre was my admiration for the work that they do in bringing adventurous theatre to the provincial capital.

I have waxed lyrical before within these musings on the subject of the Victoria Fringe Festival (for those seeking proof posts may be found here, here and here). Of the three festivals operated by Intrepid Theatre the Fringe is perhaps closest to my heart, my healthy love of fringe theatre having been nurtured over many years at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The posts referenced above extol the delights of the shows from the past three fringe festivals with which we were particularly impressed and this post will do likewise for 2019 – but I do wish first to make a brief observation concerning the changing nature of fringe theatre.

When I first visited the Edinburgh Fringe in 1976 I am very sure that there was on offer more drama than there is now and certainly less comedy. Now, I have nothing against comedy – whether as stand-up or as comedy plays – but it is good to have a balance. Likewise in the field of drama the trend over recent decades has been towards small cast shows – presumably as much as anything on grounds of cost – with the emphasis often on solo shows based on personal experience. Again – nothing wrong with that as a form, but I do find myself longing for a ‘proper’ script, preferably containing subtle and thoughtful dialogue and (please god!) subtext!

Is that too much to ask?

So – the production that I enjoyed most this year was “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Theatre Alive Productions. Mitch Alborn’s play dates from 2002 and is a sensitive and profound text that was beautifully and movingly performed by the company. I love to see new work but I also greatly enjoy a piece that has been properly honed over a number of years and through numerous rewrites.

Elsewhere Englishman Charles Adrian’s “Dear Samantha” was as funny and delightful as when we first encountered him/her two years ago and the frankly bizarre – but also very funny – “Ballad of Frank Allen” by the Australian company Weeping Spoon Productions rounded off our fringe viewing on a high. The premise of this latter – featuring a janitor who has been been accidentally shrunk to microscopic proportions and who is living in the beard of another man – pretty much embodies the sense of the unexpected that one hopes to find in fringe theatre.

 

 

Tags: , , , ,

Griffin & Sabine

January 11, 2019 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidWay back in the early 1990s (long before, of course, I had the slightest notion of even knowing anyone from the west coast of Canada, let alone of emigrating to this blessed spot) I came across a newly published and really quite extraordinary book – in the form of what I later came to know to be an epistolary novel – by artist, illustrator and writer, Nick Bantock.

Griffin & Sabine was the first in what evolved into a set of seven books which document the extraordinary correspondence between Griffin Moss – a London-based designer of postcards – and Sabine Strohem – a mysterious woman who resides on an island in the South Pacific. This communication commences with an exotic card from the southern seas.

Griffin

It’s good to get in touch with you at last. Could I have one of your fish postcards? I think you were right – the wine glass has more impact than the cup.

Sabine

But Griffin had never met a woman named Sabine. How did she know him? How did she know his artwork? Who is she?

The novels are exclusively in the form of exquisite and exotically illustrated postcards and of letters which are tucked into their envelopes affixed to the pages.

I think I was drawn to the original book not only by the sheer beauty of its design and artwork, but also by the magical and mysterious quality of its premise. I purchased a copy shortly after its publication, appreciated its allure and then tucked it away in one of my bookcases where it has languished ever since.

What I did not know then – or indeed discover until recently – was that though Nick Bantock grew up around London and in Kent, in the late 1980s he moved to Saltspring Island, British Columbia (scarcely a stone’s throw from our home on the Saanich peninsula) where he has lived ever since. I might not have discovered this fact even now had not Mr Bantock teamed up with Michael Shamata – the Artistic Director of The Belfry Theatre here in Victoria – to adapt the series of novels for the stage. On receiving The Belfry’s programme for the year and observing upon it notice of this premiere we naturally purchased tickets forthwith for the last show of the run, two days before Christmas.

With some difficulty (in the finding) I dug my copy of the book from our library. I was intrigued to know how this highly unusual graphical novel could possibly be adapted successfully for the stage. It is a challenge that I, frankly, would not myself have dared attempt (even had I the talent so to do!). I am therefore delighted to report that The Girl and I both found the production to be magical and moving and that it somehow managed to avoid all of the most obvious pitfalls that usually befall attempts at the marriage of two such wildly different forms. Let us hope that the production now travels further.

Bravo to Mr Bantock and to all concerned – say we!

 

Tags: , , ,

Looking up

January 7, 2019 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward”

Charlotte Bronte

Okay! Here we are – a week into 2019 and how is it looking thus far?…  and let’s not have any of that negative thinking, “Doesn’t look any different to me!” sort of thing. Now is the time to accentuate the positive – or at least to look forward to the year ahead in the light of plans in the making and schemes being dreamt up. This is time of year for thinking outside the box – particularly if the box in question is quite such a tatty beat-up old thing as the one in which we currently appear to be stuck.

So here’s what The Girl and I are planning:

After a quick recuperative jaunt to Mexico for The Girl (I am otherwise engaged!) the start of the year will follow a familiar pattern… well, familiar in that it carries on where 2018 left off. The Girl works four days a week (when not gadding about south of the border) and has another three months of her course to complete before she is fully ready to strike out on her own. I have one more term of teaching at my post-secondary college – albeit on a slightly reduced timetable as enrollment is down. It may be that this turns out to be the last term that I will teach, but I have learned from long experience not to make definitive statements about such things. This unexpected return to work has certainly served its purpose and been a lot of fun in the process, so you will hear no complaints from me.

Once we are fully into the spring – however – everything changes. Come the middle of May we are heading for the UK and for Europe. This will be our first visit to those shores since leaving in 2015 so will definitely be a big deal. There are multitudes of family, friends and acquaintances to be visited, as well as places that we would love to see again and experiences that we will want to have. We end the trip with an expedition to Greece for a short recuperative cruise around the Greek islands.

Much, much more information about our jaunt will be forthcoming over the next few months, so – should you have an interest – watch this space. Let’s just hope that the country is still there when we get back!

Once back in BC in the middle of June there is much more to look forward to. At work The Girl steps down to a three day week and starts ramping up her new endeavour. “Bon chance“, say I!

Festival season will then rapidly be upon us and this year for me there will be an additional thespian enterprise to be anticipated. I came to the view at year end that it was high time that I made some theatre again. I have thus booked the Intrepid Theatre Club for two nights in October and I intend to stage one of my pieces there. At this point there is still much to be explored – much to be decided – but 2019 feels to me like the year to once again dip my toe in the water.

There will surely also be more music to be made this year. 2018 was particularly creative in this regard so I have high hopes. Further news on this front will also emerge as the year progresses.

There will doubtless also be other breathless things to anticipate but this would seem to be quite enough to be going on with for now. It is going to be a big year all round.

Let’s hope its a good one…

Let’s make it so!

Tags: , , , , ,

Fringe report

September 21, 2018 in Life in BC | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidI promised but a few posts back to report on our discoveries and experiences at this year’s Victoria Fringe. What with the new term starting and suchlike I am all too aware that I have not thus far kept my word.

Time to rectify!

In the course of the eleven day festival we saw six shows. Wearing my Fringe Ambassador hat I ‘schmoozed’ the queues for those and another seven shows. I spent an afternoon manning the cardboard castle at the Fringe Kids event and also an evening selling fifty50 tickets at the Fringe Preview night.

I feel very sure, however, that the gentle reader is really only interested (if interested at all) in matters theatrical, so – of the six shows that we attended – these were our highlights:

The Wonderheads mask show – ‘The Wilds‘ was by turns amusing and thought provoking. Mask theatre is not for everyone but for those for whom it works it is revelatory, inviting us to consider anew just how we express – or hide – our thoughts and feelings. The Wonderheads remind me a little of Trestle Theatre in London, though perhaps a little less dark (than Trestle used to be!).

Our personal ‘Funniest Show’ award was this year split between two contenders:

Paco Erhard’s ‘Five Step Guide to Being German‘ was a complete hoot and has deservedly been selling out just about everywhere it has toured around the world. It was not spoiled for me in the least by my becoming – having been unkindly pointed out to Paco by my lovely wife as being ‘a Brit‘ – the butt of many of the jokes throughout the evening. I had a chat with Paco afterwards and he is a genuinely nice guy and actually something of an Anglophile.

Stiff competition in the humour stakes was provided by the hilarious retelling at Langham Court of ‘The War of 1812‘, by Mike Delamont, Morgan Cranny, Wes Borg and Rod Peter Jr. Given the strength of this cast of local comedic luminaries it will come as no surprise that they jointly hit it out of the park!

The most gripping performance that we saw this year was given by Anishinaabe writer and performer Josh Languedoc, with ‘Rocko and Nakota: Tales from the Land‘. Playing multiple characters with astonishing commitment and energy this telling of Anishinaabe tales had us entranced and captivated.

By all accounts this year’s Fringe was a great success. Congratulations to Intrepid Theatre and to all those intrepid performers who participated.

Tags: , ,

OutStages!

July 3, 2018 in Life in BC | Permalink

By dint of an extraordinarily poor piece of planning on my part our trip to Montreal this May coincided exactly with the greater part of the first Intrepid Theatre festival of the year – UNO Fest. As a result, out of the ten day program of solo performances we were only able to see two shows – one at the very start of the festival and one at the end.

Much humble pie has been eaten for this faux pas and I have to report that of the many cuisines that I have enjoyed over the decades this hugely overrated dish will not be making my top ten anytime soon!

We were most happy, however, to have been able to see the wonderful Margaret McAuliffe in the Fishamble production – “The Humours of Brandon“. Mags is from Dublin and spins the tale of her attempt to become Irish Dancing’s open champion with exactly the kind of brio that one associates with her race.

The second festival of the year – OutStages – is considerably shorter, taking place over six days toward the end of June. Once again we saw two shows: this time they were both wonderful!

Up first was a rare appearance by the divine Queer Songbook Orchestra from Toronto in a show entitled “Songs of Resilience“. The conceit of the work is in the choices of popular songs made by members of the LGBTQ community and the frequently dramatic stories behind those choices. The show features guest narrators who read these submissions, to be followed by the twelve piece orchestra’s often startling re-interpretation of what might well be a familiar piece. The effect – engendered in no small degree by the excellence of the arrangements, of the musicianship and of the stunning vocal performances – is really most remarkably moving. I was not alone in wondering how nearly two and a half hours passed in a flash, leaving us wanting much, much more.

More concerning the QSO – including full recordings of their wonderful music – can be found on their website.

OutStages was closed by Peale Harbour’s extraordinary “Chautauqua“. Pearle is a drag queen also from Toronto (the creation of Justin Miller), and the show may best be summed up in words from her own publicity:

“Chautauqua is an immersive extravaganza: part cabaret, part tragicomedy, part Tent Revival. There’s music, sing-a-longs, puppet shows and even an exorcism! The world may be falling apart, but Pearle will show you that there’s more that unites us than divides us.”

From the moment that we were ushered into Pearle’s tent – ‘pitched’ on the stage of the Metro Studio – and directed to sit in pre-ordained places on backless benches, it was clear that this was going to be an unusual experience. That it was as memorable as it proved to be was in great part down to Pearle’s extraordinary stage presence. As Jennifer Enchin reported on “Mooney on Theatre”:

“She promised us that by the end of the night, we will be rid of all of our pain and sorrows. I’ll tell you one thing, with stage presence like that — I would believe pretty much anything this woman told me.”

More information, as ever, here:

Many thanks once again to Intrepid Theatre – and in particular to Executive Director Heather Lindsay and to Marketing and Development Manager Sean Guist who curated UNO Fest and OutStages respectively – for bringing such amazing talent to Victoria and for making us so very happy to be living here.

Ta muchly!

Tags: , , ,

(Melo)dramatic melange

March 28, 2018 in Life in BC | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid This is, clearly (in theatrical terms at least) a busy time of the year at the southern end of Vancouver Island. The emergent springtime has germinated the fresh green shoots of a new festival season which will now run (with – admittedly – occasional pauses for us all to catch our breath) right through to the end of the summer…

…and if it is Spring Break (which it is!) then it must be time for the Spark Festival at the Belfry.

This year The Girl and I attended what can only really be described as a vocal workshop (though that doesn’t even remotely get close) which went under the title “Why We Are Here” and was led by Toronto-based company ‘Nightswimming‘. This peripatetic parade of improvised chanting and movement was not to everyone’s taste, but I quite liked the atmosphere elicited by this fair sized group of assorted souls on finding themselves in a darkened workshop backstage at the Belfry, propagating a constantly evolving and distinctly dreamlike tapestry of minimalist harmonic sequences.

Considerably more down to earth (not to mention being on a different planet in terms of quality) was Daniel MacIvor’s “Who Killed Spalding Gray?“. Daniel’s disquisition on the subject of the American monologist, who killed himself in 2004 by jumping from the Staten Island ferry in New York, was thoughtful and touching by turns and is certainly a work of a very high order. Daniel was also in town last May to deliver the keynote address at the launch of Intrepid Theatre’s ‘Uno Fest‘ and I was lucky enough (wearing my Board of Directors’ hat) to have had the opportunity to drive him back to the airport afterwards. A very interested and talented man…

The Spark Festival closed – as it usually does – with a short performance on Sunday last by the youngsters taking part in the Belfry’s 101 program. Wearing a different hat (quite a lot of millinery going on here) as an educator of young thespists I like to attend such events to steal ideas see what other talented young folk are up to. The group had spent the whole second week of Spring Break putting together this divertissement and clearly had loved working together as a group, which is – when it comes down to it – why we all do this thing in the first place.

Finally last Thursday evening to the Chemainus Theatre (my first visit) for the dress rehearsal of Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux’s jukebox musical “Million Dollar Quartet”, which takes as its subject the legendary session at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records Studio in Memphis on December 4th, 1956 that brought together Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.

For those that have never heard of the charming Cowichan Valley town of Chemainus a little light reading on the InterWebNet might be instructive. A short crossing (on the Mill Bay ferry) and forty minute drive up island from our neck of the woods it is a bit of a trek for a weekday evening, but we were fortunate on this occasion to have been gifted complimentary tickets by an acquaintance of The Girl’s who is a benefactor of the festival theatre there – hence our preview seats.

Now – not unlike some repertory theatres in the UK the cute and hugely successful Chemainus Theatre knows its audience well and goes out of its way to keep them happy. If that meant that this particular production somewhat sanitised some of the wilder characters and outpourings of 50s American rock and roll (not to mention enabling us to get home early enough for a good night’s sleep) then that took nothing away from a most pleasant evening.

Tags: , ,

Tomorrow never knows

February 11, 2018 in Life in BC | Permalink


Image from PixabayIn 2014 John Mann – actor and singer with the Vancouver based Celtic-rock ensemble, Spirit of the West – was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He was just 50 years old.

Many of us will have had some experience of a loved one contracting Alzheimer’s or dementia and of the subsequent evanescence of personality and the dissipation of a presence that once played a large part in our own lives. Tragic and deeply sad enough in someone who is approaching the natural end of their days, we can only imagine what this might be like for one still in the prime of life, not to mention for those around and close to them who must endure the slow premature declension of a loved one.

Mr Mann’s wife – Jill Daum – is a playwright and her instinctive reaction to finding herself in this grievous position (with her husband’s full support, I should add) was to give in to her subconscious urge to allow the play that she was currently engaged in writing to morph into an examination of what it is like to find oneself in such a situation. The world premier of this brave piece – ‘Forget About Tomorrow’ – took place recently at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria and The Girl and I were present at last Sunday’s performance.

One might fear that such sombre subject matter would result in a worthy but grim night in the stalls, but Ms Daum is – thankfully – a far better playwright than that. She successfully locates (and subsequently mines auspiciously) the emotional motherlode that most writers spend their lives seeking – producing in the process a piece that can move an audience to tears one moment only to have them rolling in the aisles laughing but a few seconds later. The payload of the play is delivered all the more effectively for this skillful balancing act and the audience reaction at the close left no doubts that the target had been well and truly straddled.

Plaudits of course to Ms Daum and to Mr Mann (who contributed two songs – which may well be his last – to the enterprise) as well as to Michael Shamata, who directed with the most assured of touches, and to Jennifer Lines and Craig Erickson who play skillfully and truthfully Daum and Mann’s alter-egos – Jane and Tom. Excellence all round…

For me, however, the highlight was quite possibly the creation of Lori – Jane’s larger than life (how Canadian!) boss – played with considerable panache and dry, dry humour by the splendid Colleen Wheeler. Not only is Lori the source of much of the humour in the piece but she also manages to act as a very necessary counterweight to the emotional drama elsewhere – standing up for the everyman (everyperson?) who represents us in the face of others’ tragedies.

Following a couple of shaky seasons (in our humble opinion) the Belfry has landed three from three thus far this year.

Fight for a ticket!

 

Tags: , ,

Sir Peter Hall (1930 – 2017)

September 13, 2017 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Detail from a portrait by Jenny C HallI find myself moved to an unexpected degree by the recent death of that giant of the British theatre – Sir Peter Hall – at the age of 86.

It is a fact of life I suppose that, once one enters one’s autumnal years, the deaths of those with whom one is familiar – whether actually close or not – will have a cumulative and increasing impact. There have been losses over the past few years amongst that small group whom I personally hold to be ‘heroes’ which have been hard to take. Inevitably that number is only going to increase.

Peter Hall was not – for me – directly among that coterie. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I saw few of his many productions and – with rare exceptions – they do not feature in my personal canon of influential experiences. This is not in any way to denigrate the value of his vision, talent or achievement; in such matters opportunity and circumstance set us all on our own particular paths.

It is impossible, however, not to be overwhelmed by his impact and influence on British and international theatre during the post-war years. Consider:

  • he introduced London audiences to the work of Samuel Beckett in 1955 with the UK premiere of ‘Waiting for Godot’ when he was only 24.
  • in 1960, at the age of 29, he founded the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford, which he ran triumphantly until 1968.
  • he became the director of the National Theatre in 1973 and oversaw its protracted, painful but ultimately successful transfer from the Old Vic into its permanent complex on the South Bank in London.
  • he built an international reputation in theatre, opera, on TV and in film.
  • he was the founding director of the Rose Theatre in Kingston in 2003.
  • he was – throughout his career – a vociferous champion of public funding for the arts.

The news of Sir Peter’s death stirs a couple of thoughts and memories.

The National Theatre’s new home was opened in 1976 with a production of Howard Brenton’s ‘Weapons of Happiness‘ in the only one of the three theatre spaces then operational. I see from the InterWebNet that it ran for 41 performances – at one of which I was present. I marveled at the still unfinished building and at the wonderful standard of the production. The National was to become a most important venue for me – I have seen many productions there over the years; done the backstage tour more than once; participated in youth theatre workshops in its rehearsal rooms… and met the Girl for our first proper date in the bar outside the Lyttelton Theatre.

I am also a fan of the Rose in Kingston. Having been at school in Kingston and subsequently involved with youth theatre in the surrounding area, I was only to keenly aware of the lack of a theatre of any sort in what is an important centre to the south of London. I am delighted that the Rose now so splendidly fills that gap.

One sadness regarding Sir Peter’s last years was his diagnosis with dementia in 2011. Having observed my mother’s decline over her final years it must have been particularly poignant to witness such an intellect brought so low for so long.

Tags: , ,

« Older entries § Newer entries »