Now Is The Time To Say Nothing by Caroline Williams & Reem Karrsli @ Battersea Arts

We all sit in individual chairs, facing away from one another headphones on, staring at televisions. The room is dark and comfortable. Silence hugs us.

The TV tells us what to do; it filters images for us, gives us the headlines, and then pushes us beyond them. Who are the individuals affected? How are they affected? What is it like to live in a war zone, and then to choose to leave? What about those you leave behind?

It is easy for us to put war in a bucket, far away, distant. But when we are faced with the real humans impacted by it, you can’t turn away.

As the play continues, the TV guides us further, providing instruction, breaking us out of our individual nests and demanding connection. Acknowledging that sometimes we don’t have a choice, while still making the audience feel safe.

The construction of this experience is simple, but its impact lasting and powerful. See this if you can.

The Unnatural and Accidental Women by Marie Clements @ National Arts Centre (Ottawa)

It has taken me a long time to write about this show. To form cohesive thoughts about the experience, the work, the script in this time. The ensemble’s work was outstanding, each character living and breathing in their own space and time, and yet working as such a perfect unit, almost in secret. Every element of design drove the focus of the audience perfectly, whether the sound, or set, or costume. This is deeply challenging work.

There were times where an actor took time to do something, or cross the space, or even speak, where I for a moment felt I wanted them to hurry up. This was my impatient self, the self who processes too quickly and dismisses too easily. The moments needed the time, they deserved the time - and they were more than earned.

There were moments where dance and song gave power to the women, unity in their voices brought strength.

I cried.

I don’t know the last time I wept in the theatre. It might never have happened. I wept in frustration and sadness and anger at the ongoing issue of women going missing or being murdered. I wept thinking that the enormous list of women that was read aloud, ticker tape style across the stage, was from the 1980s. Because this list has only grown and grown and nothing seems to fix it.

I cannot imagine a better play or production to open the inaugural season of the National Indigenous Theatre in Canada. I am saddened that the house wasn’t full, that the run wasn’t longer. Everyone needs to see this play.

Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge @ Wyndham's Theatre via NT Live

I caught the NT Live airing of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s return to the West End with Fleabag, a run she has declared will be her last of the play, which has dominated since its 2013 debut. Unlike the TV series of the same name (and subject), the stage play is told only by her, in direct address, whilst sitting on a tall chair. From this perch, she contorts and cajoles, taking on the personas and judgements of people in her life, as she relays her messy and complicated life to her listener.

The nuance in the work is astounding. The tiniest gesture, tilt of the head, appears effortless and fresh and yet is so highly choreographed. Waller-Bridge is an engaging performer, able to hold her audience with the raise of an eyebrow. The physical work is surprising in its subtlety - she appears to not move at all and then suddenly be completely contorted and hanging off the chair, or standing, or completely embodying her sister or rat face or any of the amazing characters she brings to life.

And the sound. THE SOUND. Some of the most delicately curated, perfectly timed I have heard, ever.

What was interesting, attending this in NT live after her years of tours, and after the wild success of the TV show on BBC and subsequently Prime, that it felt absent of too much surprise (aside from the scenes that differ from the TV show). The audience were there to revel rather than to learn. While this was fun, I would love to enjoy it in a room where everyone, myself included, hasn’t an inkling of the depths of this woman’s soul.

Brian Jungen Friendship Centre @ AGO

I was fortunate to catch this exhibition in its final days, and am sad I didn’t make it sooner…only as it would have allowed me time to visit again. The first pieces you encounter as you walk from the main gallery into Jungen’s exhibition are mixed material - leathers and ancient natural materials mixed and interspersed with neon lights. They have a magnetic effect, drawing you in as the colours change. It is only after being drawn in that you notice the larger work in the centre of the room, Tombstone, which is plastic making what appears evocative of a turtle shell that at first seems suspended, until you notice the deep black block of filing cabinets beneath it. Turtle island sits on bureaucracy.

From here, you enter through into the larger space, which is pure whimsy. The friendship centre has a floor demarcated like a school gymnasium, with giant totems built of stacks of golf bags positioned in the corners. Dotting the space, almost too many to properly look at, are masks and head dresses and woven blankets created from Nike shoes and shirts. The sheer intricacy of each individual sculpture is overwhelming; how the materials from the shoes align perfectly to create pattern and balance. Something deeper is here in the undercurrent, only occasionally becoming overt with pieces like I Shall Be Released, which departs from the whimsy to a place of struggle.

This gives way as you walk through a hallway of lockers, to the most political pieces. A whale skeleton made of plastic chairs. Gerry cans painted in primary colours. Chairs wrapped in dark fabrics. The constriction is palpable here.

As you move back through to exit the installation, passing through the sculptured Nikes that initially seemed so whimsical, the dark colours seem more prominent. More present. Something you can’t forget.

Brian Jungen - I Shall Be Released, 2015

Improvised Therapy @ Toronto Fringe

London-based improv company Barry Brian Bean are talented and attentive improvisers. Their sketch show is bawdy and silly and a touch absurd, which is really quite enjoyable. I’ll be honest, I was over-tired and likely not the most receptive audience member to the pull-an-audience member on stage sort of improv, but the crowd did seem to enjoy it, and I suspect a less tired me would have been more there for it. Again, these 3 are talented and engaging improvisers.

The best sketch, for me, was the recurring “Board Meeting” which was increasingly ridiculous, until the trio resembled the slimy jean-store boss from Human Traffic (bonus points if you get that reference…) and showed us their “bird feeders”.

A great and silly time if you’re up for that.

Review. In Ireland We Rented a Car From Criminals by Rod Macpherson @ Toronto Fringe

Based on the title alone, I expected this to veer more into the neighbourhood of a dark comedy, however was quite surprised to get to enjoy a story of a woman who was working to re-trace her family’s roots. There were some really beautiful moments, but on the whole, it felt as though stylistically the script hadn’t quite decided where it wanted to sit. Some refinement could turn this into a really snappy and dark commentary on perspective and history.

Both performers did excellent work inhabiting the many characters, and the monologue that starts the play and then picks up to finish it is a truly delightful piece of dark comedy. That said, the title gave us the punch line in advance of even arriving at the theatre, so a little spark of the surprise was eliminated.

All that to say that it is some fine work and a really neat seed of a script, so well worth checking out.

Review. News Play by Madeleine Brown @ Toronto Fringe

From the team that brought us the 2018 hit Everyone Wants a T-Shirt, News Play is a fun and stylized allegory about the perils of using others for our own advantage. The cast are all wonderfully smart and funny, and director Aaron Jan does a great job creating a made-up space that hearkens to the children’s books the two protagonists write.

The show got a lot of laughs from the late night audience, but I can’t say that I found the writing to be as insightful and snappy as Brown’s previous work. It isn’t bad, per say, it just felt a little more broad than the past work I’ve seen, like it could use tightening up of the ideas.

Review. Lexi & the Flying b's by Joan Jamieson @ Toronto Fringe

Bird Brain Productions bring Joan Jamieson’s sweet young audiences script to sparkling life at the George Ignatieff Kids' Fringe Venue. Focused on a young girl, Lexi, and her struggle with dyslexia, it weaves a warm story of overcoming adversity and helping others. The three actors are delightful in their work, striking just the right energy level to keep the young audiences engaged. When the big reveal of Lexi’s success approaches, one young audience member said aloud “this is going to be awesome”. And it was.

The production integrated images and video in an interesting (if slightly inconsistent) way, and I didn’t always feel the shifts in time/place were sufficiently clear. That said, the actors shone through.

Absolutely perfect for the 5-10 year old audience.

Preview - In Waking Life @ Toronto Fringe

Looking forward to catching the work of Ottawa-based Lauren Welchner and Monica Bradford-Lea during this fringe, although my schedule prevents me from getting there early in the festival.

Their intriguing production is a partially improvised comedy, following two psychic sisters as they welcome you into their business and their lives. The show premiered in 2016 and has travelled a few Fringes so far, but this is their Toronto debut.

Really loving all the interactive work going on this year at Toronto Fringe!!

You can catch them tonight (Jul 6) and throughout the festival - full details and ticket info here.

I, Malvolio @ Toronto Fringe

“It’s all too easy isn’t it. . . To destroy the thing you’re too lazy to understand. To take joy in someone else’s downfall.”

We all do it. Schadenfreüde. We laugh at someone’s misfortune. We express our dominance over others, through joy at their misfortune. We know we shouldn’t.

But do we?

This play has captivated my imagination since I first heard Tim speak about it whilst studying in London. When we re-interrogate an existing play from the perspective of a single character, a character who is beat up on for our enjoyment…and turn that interrogation on the audience, what happens? What further happens when you aren’t just doing this with an adult audience, but to teens?

I have wanted to direct this project for awhile. But this spring, in the context of the cuts to education, reverting the Healthy Living curriculum to something that was relevant when I was still in high school. . . I decided now was the time. We are doing an extreme disservice to our young people by not teaching them about bullying, about different sexual orientations, by not teaching them consent. Not to mention avoiding the subject of how much easier and simultaneously more difficult puberty must be when everything you do lives online, and can be there for the rest of your life. One indiscretion, one step across a line, one mistake, and your future can be lost. Or it can be explained away by wealthy or powerful parents. A world, today, where even the most put-together person, may have been bullied. We all wear the scars of these memories, these aggressions, on our skin.

So; we present I, Malvolio. A play which interrogates our relationships to one another, how we the audience are positioned as middle schoolers, encouraged to interact, to question what they’re watching, to be on their phones. . . literally. The play itself, the production, and hopefully your experience, are chaos. Pure chaos, through which we examine relationships, performance, audience, and failure.

The play is performed by the brilliant Justin Otto, who, through his work on this play will help you question the act of watching, the act of laughing….and ultimately the act of judgment on another’s actions.

Come join us at Artscape Youngplace, Fringe venue #24, for a site-specific and interactive production of Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio, making its Toronto debut. And, if you’d like, add us on snapchat (impel-theatre) to see Justin perform.

Want to know a little more? Check out our interview with Donna G on The More The Merrier for CIUT Radio.

Tickets are available now! 7:30pm nightly from July 3-13 (no Sunday shows).

Review. The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney @ Soulpepper

There is nothing more satisfying than watching a production that so perfectly understands the text, that just lets the words be in the space, and uses smart and simple choices to elevate that language to a powerful experience for the audience. Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu is masterful in her direction of Mazin Elsadig, Daren A. Herbert, and Marcel Stewart in The Brothers Size at Soulpepper. The play is filled with oppositions; strength and vulnerability, loudness and extreme quiet, public and private…all of which contribute to this deep interrogation of what masculinity means, and more specifically, what black masculinity is. Every aspect of this production, from the gorgeous choreography to the near-perfect use of music (performed live by the amazing Kobèna Aquaa-Harrison) and sound manipulation that seamlessly moves us from the real into the hyper-real dreams of the characters, to the simplicity with which each actor approaches their most heightened moments, builds into this interrogation.

The tension builds and releases so beautifully, that when we reach the final moments, you can collectively feel the audience leaning in, terrified to know the choice that will be made, the fate that we know is inevitable (like Anouilh’s spring, it is wound up tight, and the results of that release are beyond anyone’s control).

Please, please, see this production. It is beautifully constructed and utterly crushing in all the best ways.

Review. Inner Elder by Michelle Thrush @ Nightwood & Native Earth

My cheeks hurt. Michelle Thrush shares her beautiful, sad, funny, wonderful personal story in a lovely, winding way. While there are moments of tension, and beats of the story that hearken back to one another, it would be challenging to describe it as “dramatic” in the usual sense of the word…and that’s all for the better. Thrush shows us women of many ages and experiences, from the plucky young girl who “raises” her parents, to the hilarious elder who leads a dance party. Each character is unique physically and it is pure delight to watch Thrush transform from one character to the next. The script was filled with pop culture references spanning a lifetime, with a distinct commentary on the bodies we see and hear from, and whose stories are typically told.

The staging used the space beautifully, similarly transforming seamlessly to create multiple spaces.

Honestly, I don’t even know what else to say. It was just wonderful. Go see it.

review. Blood + Soil by Rouvan Silogix - Theatre ARTaud @ TPM Backspace

Theatre ARTaud present an ambitious new work, straddling political commentary and surrealism (which, if we’re honest, is that political commentary nowadays?). The new play, Blood + Soil, begins with the chorus as the audience enter, interacting and tempting the audience, while a devil-like character lurks. As we move in to the play, we’re presented with a parable about a small city in Canada who choose to secede, only to repeat the mistakes of the past in their own implementation and exertion of power and ownership.

I had mixed reactions to the piece. On one hand, I adored the clever playfulness of the chorus, and the intelligent commentary on current affairs as told through the parable. There were some very enjoyable performances, notably the riveting Amaka Umeh who plays Snowball, one of the lead revolutionaries. Additionally, the ongoing live accompaniment from Ivana Popovic served to create wonderful tension in the live performance.

On the other hand, I found the overall style of the production to be abrasive; there were a lot of scenes shouted, and although alienation is one of the basic tenets of Artaud’s work and much surrealist theatre, in a story-based performance such as this, I don’t think this was the specific alienation they were looking to achieve.

On the whole, I think the script could have used some tightening; there were a number of interesting and insightful observations created through the physical and verbal language of the performance, including some really stunning (and at times, shocking) imagery. Yet It left me with the feeling that it didn’t quite achieve its own goals.

Definitely a production that will challenge you intellectually in ways unlike what you will find from a lot of other performance in the city, so worth checking out if you’re looking for that stimulation.

review. The Chemical Valley Project - Broadleaf Theatre @ Theatre Passe Muraille

This is a late-arriving blog post, with my regrets. I caught a Saturday matinee of The Chemical Valley Project the other week; I was immediately intrigued by the welcoming nature of the space, with the lead actor speaking to each audience member as they entered, and inviting them on to the performance space to look at additional photos from the research on the project. If one had come to the show without a lot of context (as my two friends had) this would have been a touch confusing, but also intriguing. Certainly, though, it set a really great tone for the afternoon and the information and experience we were about to share.

The play focuses on the research journey of one actor/creator as he explored information relating to The Chemical Valley in the Sarnia region, and particularly in reference to two first nations people who supported and guided his journey. The script held a lot of information, which could very well have been overwhelming, however on the whole it was not. The staging and use of video to hear the actual voices of the indigenous guides was unique, and useful in terms of ensuring that it wasn’t someone else appropriating their story and experience. All of that said, for me the script & production felt a bit disjointed; almost like there were too many topics, as the manner in which they were organized left me feeling like there were a lot of starting points that weren’t always clearly connected to one another. What was the story this was ultimately trying to tell?

That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it; the visual aspects were really beautiful and the use of the space was inventive. My bigger qualm was with the style of the performance - after setting up a beautiful, relaxed, non-performative style in the pre-show, the performance itself felt forced and ultimately did a disservice to the material, for me. I simply wanted the actor to exist in the space, with the aid of some clever staging (seriously, the use of scale was magnificent), to share this journey with me. It didn’t need anything else.

All that said, I definitely recommend seeing it if it has a re-mount.

review. The Shimmering Verge by Molly Peacock

I always like the adventure of finding a show at a place I am not familiar with. You open the door, and immediately are immersed in a new world. Director Karthy Chin creates a warm and enveloping space, with interesting positioning and intrigue in the objects, where we first are greeted with a poetry reading. Each night features a reading from a different local poet, which made for a unique positioning of the play that follows. It may, in part, have been due to the skill and engagement of the reader (I saw the divine Anne Michaels) but the reading, with the words just falling through the air, without accoutrement was thrilling and emotional.

The play itself was performed with dexterity by Madeleine Brown, in that delightful set, and accompanied by sound design from electronic musician Laura Dickens. For me, although the script was interesting and the performance highly enjoyable, the production felt crowded. While I enjoyed the light elements and sound elements, at times it felt like there were too many things going on at once that it stifled the air for the poetry to breathe on its own. Heightened text is always a challenge, and for my taste, I prefer to give it more space. That said, it was an engaging production, and highly enjoyable to take in. I definitely recommend checking out this ambitious work by a young company for the quality of the work and performance. They have 4 more shows between April 11 and April 13.

Playwrights You Should Know

So….the other morning I read a list of “30 female playwrights you should know”. I was really excited to click the link. And while I really do appreciate the work of the women listed there, the list felt painfully incomplete. My first instinct was to tweet it, along with “Lets’ list 30 more”. So i’ve decided to create my own list. Look these fabulous playwrights up - links to their public info are included where applicable.

1. Tara Beagan - ntlakapamux and irish “canadian” theatre artist, author of (among others) Reckoning, free as injuns, and In Spirit

2. Hannah Moscovitch - Canadian playwright, author of (among others) Bunny, Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, and Secret Life of a Mother

3. Falen Johnson - pissed off Mohawk playwright and writer (as per her twitter), author of Salt Baby, Ipperwash, and more…and co-host of the amazing Secret Life of Canada podcast.

4. Kate Hennig. Kate has been writing in one way or another for most of her life. Her writing includes plays, poetry, stories, articles for industry publications, a dissertation, two blogs, and a research paper. Writer of The Virgin Trial, The Last Wife, and more.

5. Yolanda Bonnell - Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer emerging performer and playwright of Anishinaabe/Ojibwe and South Asian descent, author of bug, White Girls in Moccasins, and more.

6. Debbie Patterson - Winnipeg playwright, director and actor, author of Candy from a Baby, Molotov Circus, Sargent & Victor & Me, and countless more, and creator of Sick + Twisted Theatre.

7. d’bi young - Jamaican-Canadian dub poet, monodramatist, and educator, as well as a 3 time Dora Award-winning actor and playwright, writer of The Orisha Trilogy, The Ibeyi Trilogy, and more.

8. Susanna Fournier - writer, actor, and the artistic producer of PARADIGM productions. Writer of Antigone Lives, Vincent, ALL THE WAYS YOU SCARE ME, and more.

9. Columpa Bobb - Canadian photographer, actress, playwright, poet and teacher of Coastal Salish descent, and writer of Singing Shards, Jumping Mouse, The Race, and more.

10. Trey Anthony - playwright, actor, and producer. Creator of Da Kink in My Hair, How Black Mothers Say I Love You, and more.

11. Yvette Nolan - Canadian playwright, director, actor, and educator. Writer of Annie Mae’s Movement, BLADE, The Unplugging, and more.

12. Alix Sobler - writer of theatre, television, and film, including The Glass Piano, The Secret Annex, Sheltered, and more.

13. Pamela Sinha - writer, actor. Writer of Happy Place, Crash, New, and more.

14. Djanet Sears - playwright, actor and director, nationally recognized for her work in African-Canadian Theatre. Afrika Solo, Harlem Duet…the list goes on.

15. Marjorie Chan - multi-disciplinary theatre artist working as playwright, librettist, director and dramaturge. Writer of Women of the Ward, Ocean Child, and more.

16. Audrey Dwyer - multi-disciplinary artist with over twenty years of experience working as an Actor, Director, Playwright, Teacher, Facilitator and Mentor…writer of Calpurnia & more.

17. Anusree Roy - Playwright, actor, librettist. Writer of Pyaasa, Brothel #9, and more (including operas!)

I’ve put together 17. All from this Northern land, mostly off the top of my head or with a quick google search refresher. Who would you add?

EDIT: Adding a few more.

18. Carolyn Gray - Canadian Playwright. My favourite of Carolyn’s plays is The Elmwood Visitation, and her North End Gothic is a delightful script you should all read.

19. Kat Sandler - Canadian playwright, dramaturg & actor. Kat has an array of plays including Mustard and Bang Bang.

review. Unsafe by Sook-Yin Lee @ Canadian Stage

The funny thing is, I never felt unsafe. I felt that this discussion, this demand for interrogation of censorship, of what censorship even means, was and is so urgently necessary. Who gets the commissions? Whose voice is heard? Whose perspective is excluded.

Sook-Yin Lee’s Unsafe is an exploration of these topics, using her skills and notoriety as a journalist and provocateur to delve into a series of interviews. The interviews are clearly edited; we see the cuts, the fast forwards in the video. She speaks of things that happen that she can’t share the details of, because permission was taken away, or never granted in the first place. The meta-journey through the creation of the piece, through the relationship of these two artists to the work and to each other, is familiar. Initially set up as a quiz show or ted talk, the play worked best, when it veered from that format of a staged discussion and into a representative world, one where theatricality was the most important, and if drama happened, so be it.

The ingenious staging from Sarah Garton Stanley served to amplify the right moments, and to highlight for us that the performance was self-aware. The images and movement about the stage were delightful, using the space in the Berkeley Street Theatre to its utmost potential to shape-shift into different worlds that were all a part of Lee’s intellect.

The conversation about censorship has moved underground, so to speak; it isn’t overt, in shutting down shows, but rather in the very funding models and commissioning models and support models that exist in this country for making new work. Lee’s interrogation really underscored (for me, anyway) the frustration that the topic, although a worthy one, was first offered to one White Guy, and then to Another. I’m grateful that the second one accepted, and brought in a new perspective…and then stepped back at just the right moment to let this work shine in the way it needed to. No offence to Zack Russell, but this isn’t a topic for a traditional play.

It was certainly interesting to watch this highly theatrical interpretation, right on the heels of watching the Forced Entertainment “Speak Bitterness” livestream, which was on the very opposite end of the theatricality spectrum, vehemently and insistently un-theatrical.

Again, I didn’t feel unsafe, perhaps because I’m the very generation of artist who grew up watching Sook-Yin Lee on Much Music. Exploring, provoking, experimenting…and just existing as a wonderfully quirky and unapologetic artist in space, with a lot of questions. Who, at least in some part, was inspired (or provoked) by Lee’s edgy and demanding nature, to make the work I do. Unsafe just reminded me that the teen in someone’s basement in suburban Winnipeg, watching Much Music with her friends, isn’t too far away. And she hopes that the people who needed to see this, and needed to think about these things, did. And will continue to do so.

review. A Blow in the Face - Bald Ego & Nightwood @ Theatre Centre

Postpartum depression is a challenging topic to talk about in a truly theatrical manner. How do you represent an experience that most women experience in some manner, but which differs for each experience of it, in a manner that will be sufficiently specific while simultaneously relatable? Lisa Ryder’s script is one of the best efforts at this I have seen. It begins in a fairly normal-looking home; a couple are dealing with a new baby, husband needs to leave for a couple weeks for work, there are household things to do on top of the all-consuming baby care. Quickly we spin into a weird and zany world where two aliens are representative of the weird, sometimes funny, sometimes dangerous ideas that creep around in a new mother’s brain.

Monica Dottor’s direction is beautifully choreographed; the three lead performers are deft in their physicalization, so deeply rooted in their bodies that the strange and highly stylized movements seem completely natural, allowing the audience to slip into the mind and world of Alice, the new mother. It is weird. It is funny. It is wonderful. At a snappy 70 minutes, it leaves you satisfied, rarely with a moment to stop and breathe with its frenetic pace. Rather like motherhood itself…

A Blow In The Face runs to April 14, do catch it if you can.

Upcoming: Workshop Reading - Sweet Mama and the Salty Muffins @ Red Sandcastle Theatre

I am completely filled with gratitude over this project. I first encountered Sweet Mama and the Salty Muffins through the “director-playwright speed dating” that the producers at Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival put their teams through to match up directors and playwrights. I read a lot of plays. I talked to a lot of playwrights. But something clicked when I read this play, and then when I spoke with playwright Ciaran Myers. It was like we had been collaborators for years already, despite literally a 10 minute phone call. Sometimes you just know.

We put up the first monologue of the play, Mama’s monologue, in the 2018 festival. It got some great feedback. And so often, that’s where new work ends. But again…sometimes you just know. We revived it at the D’Arcy Symposium in that form. Got more amazing feedback. Kept talking. Kept thinking. Then Ciaran approached me about a new collective launching a New Works Festival, Whiskey Ginger Collective. Did we think Sweet Mama could continue to develop?

We were going to do one more monologue for this Spring. An actor was lined up, a plan was in place. And then, suddenly, after a late night of writing… he had a whole play. 60 minutes, four characters, five songs, beautiful snapshots of our relationship to parenthood and loss. So, we found three more (amazing) actors who could workshop a script while also helping to write the songs for this play with music. We dramaturged. We cut. We debated. We wrote songs. . and here we are.

The current version has existed for about a week. We shared it with a preview audience Tuesday night, and invite audiences tonight (Wednesday March 20) through Sunday March 24th. It is a reading of the script in development, and it might even keep changing as the week goes on. We’ll see. You can get tickets here. There are PWYC shows, and artist rate shows, etc etc. We’re joined by two other works that are further along in their development, and hope that you’ll join us to see something new and fresh, and help give new writing the room to breathe in the ether. These four magnificent women represent some of the most versatile, generous, and talented performers you’ll encounter, which is worth the price of admission in itself. And, I think, there is something really special about this script.

Massive thanks go out to my collaborators:
Ara Glenn-Johanson - Mama
Liz Whitbread - Singer
Michelle Jedrzejewski - Bassist
Renee Strasfeld - Caroline

And to those who have supported the creation of this music: Liz, Ara, and Renee, along with John Norman and Sierra Noble, as well as to Lisa Lenihan and Emma Miziolek, who worked so diligently on the first production that helped make this all possible.

review. Hamlet - Theatre WhyNot @ Canadian Stage Company

Ravi Jain’s re-imagined production of Hamlet was most recently in Toronto at Canadian Stage Company as part of the 2019 remount that is touring Canada,. I missed the 2018 production, so am not certain how the move to the high ceiling, raw space of the Berkeley Street Theatre informed the show, however I did find that for the most part, the production seemed “at home” in this space, making use of unconventional entrances and highlighting the gorgeous exposed brick.

For me, the production was strongest in the moments when it employed ASL, with Horatio speaking entirely in ASL, and characters, notably Hamlet, communicating at times using ASL as well. The dramaturgical choices of when to have sound, and when to have silent language only were highly informed — they highlighted Hamlet’s struggle to be understood, and that Horatio was the only person truly listening and engaging with Hamlet, while everyone else writes Hamlet off as childish.

I have thought for some time about the value of swapping gender roles in this script. Given the role mental illness plays in the relationships to the characters, and the difference in the way Hamlet is managed (“buck up” and “get over it” so to speak) versus Ophelia, who is pitied and mourned, there is much to learn from swapping the genders. That said, this production opted to make Hamlet played by a female, but otherwise quite androgynous, while Ophelia’s movements and gestures were quite stereotypically feminine. I wonder whether different choices may have opened up more about these two characters.

Other parts of the production felt uneven in the performance; everything to look at was beautiful, including the detailed choreography and pictures on the stage, however the spoken text was not uniform…some actors shouted too much while others mumbled too much. In a production where the language (verbal or otherwise) is the main focal point, this was challenging for me. I struggled to reconcile how it may have been a specific choice, but have been unable to do so.

That said, Karen Robinson (Gertrude) and Barbara Gordon (Polonius) in particular were SUBLIME. There was a moment where I had managed to forget Polonius dies so early in the play, and then was deeply saddened that Gordon’s time on the stage was going to be cut short. Such was the strength of her performance!

What i found really interesting was the similarity of images to other productions of Hamlet I’ve seen, notably Ostermeier’s Schaubühne production from a few years back — from the piles of mud, to the audience reflection (mirrors here, video screens for Ostermeier), to the graphic depiction of sexual acts and the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius. It was a stunning reminder of the images and questions that exist deep within the play, and our larger cultural relationship to these characters and this story...and a humbling reminder to me that as a director, any new idea you think of is probably not new.

This is, in many ways, some of the most exciting Shakespeare I’ve seen in Canada. While I have some quibbles, this is of course in reference to the work I’ve seen and the (rather absurd) amount of time I spend thinking about these things. In no way does that detract from the overall excellent quality of the interpretation and production as a whole.