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Live Theatre in Toronto

Another Home Invasion-Tarragon

I went to see "Another Home Invasion", a new play by Joan MacLeod at The Tarragon. Its one and only actor, Nicola Lipman, plays Jean, an elderly woman caring for her husband, Alec, while they wait to be placed in a nursing home. Many people and things invade Jean and Alec's home: old age, illness, well-meaning bureaucrats, incompetent bureaucrats, an indifferent granddaughter and most obviously, a deranged young man. For 75 minutes (with no intermission), Jean shares her life with us, her anger, rage and fear. And her loyalty to an increasingly senile and dangerous husband. For the most part, she copes alone as control of her life is wrested away from her by old age and by how badly our society deals with it. Nicola Lipman is utterly engaging as Jean; her humour and that rage I mentioned makes her story ring true with so many people faced with caring for aging parents, or themselves aging in a society that doesn't know what to do with them;the woman in front of me cried through the last ten minutes of the play. There were, I think, many people in the audience moved in a similar fashion. The subject may have hit too close to home for me: I appreciated the performance, I appreciated the play, but I KNOW this story. I know too many people living it. I felt for Jean, but from a distance, behind glass. That's my problem, and no fault of the play or the actor.

http://www.tarragontheatre.com/season/0809/anotherhomeinvasion/
 
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Spring Awakening-Canon Theatre

I'm scheduled to see "Spring Awakening" in a couple of weeks through my regular Mirvish subscription, but I found myself down a Dundas Square this afternoon and decided to see a matinee performance. I took in the half-hour talk before the 2pm show. It gave a bit of the background of the show and the 19th century play it's based on. The woman who gave the talk was careful to reiterate the audience warnings: "strong language, partial nudity, sexual situations", but it was more in jest than in earnest. It's an old play about young people; about adolescence and sex and bucking against authority. The play is old, the coming of age story is old, but the cast and the approach is as young and fresh as the title implies. Everything about the musical, from the cast to the lyrics, to the music itself, is adolescent but in a good way, a true way (some of the lyrics, however, I can best describe as "Facebook Confidential"). And it all works wonderfully. They work hard a breaking that "fourth wall": there are audience members sitting on stage and the actors use microphones when singing their songs even though the stage is amplified enough. It works, separating the 19th century characters and dialogue from their very 21st century music. I was sorry to hear that Canadian, Kyle Riabko, had dropped out of the road production (a TV deal beckoned), but Matt Doyle, who understudied the role of Melchior for two years (and has a role on "Gossip Girl" according to the kid sitting next to me), is terrific. He's dead cute and has a really good voice. Blake Bashoff as Moritz is also very good. All adult roles are played by only two actors; all adults are interchangeable I guess, we're a separate species and not what those kids will become one day, like it or not. I remember so vividly feeling like them, being like them, and now that I'm on the other side of the divide, I wish they could understand that often, adults want to spare them what they know will hurt. If experience were only as easily downloaded as music! But then, that's so much a part of being young, the not knowing. I digress: this isn't a happy musical, though there is humour enough. Life freaking hurts and it's messy and every action comes with a consequence. That's as much an awakening as all the obvious hormonal action going on.

http://www.mirvish.com/spring/
 
Benc7, there doesn't seem to be one truly comprehensive and current site addressing the whole Toronto performing arts scene, does there? I go to different sites for different things but it would be nice to have it all at one address.
 
Free Performance-Eaton Centre

Tewder said:
Benc7, there doesn't seem to be one truly comprehensive and current site addressing the whole Toronto performing arts scene, does there? I go to different sites for different things but it would be nice to have it all at one address.
Click to expand...

That's true, but it is getting better. Here's another link that might be useful to some, and also an excerpt from an email I received from the Mirvish people.:)

http://www.torontolivetheatre.com/

"Looking for a great way to spend Friday lunch? Head on down to the Eaton Centre and enjoy a FREE concert starring the top musical theatre talent in the country. The casts of WE WILL ROCK YOU, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, SPRING AWAKENING and DIRTY DANCING will perform selections from their shows on Friday March 27 at 12:15PM and 1:15PM at the Toronto Eaton Centre, in the centre of Level Two. And did we tell you it was FREE? "
 
Talking of free stuff - Opera Atelier are performing some of their upcoming The Coronation of Poppea at the waterfall stage in First Canadian Place next Monday at lunchtime.
 
Thanks, Urban Shocker, for the heads-up! I love Opera Atelier and I LOVE free stuff!:D
 
Dog Sees God:Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

This play(NOT authorized by the Schulz Estate), written by Bert V. Royal won a GLAAD Media Award for Dog Sees God, which also won the Excellence Award for Best Overall Production for its 2004 world premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival. It makes its Canadian debut at Six Degrees Venue 2335 Yonge Street, a spot I'd never heard of, much less been to. It was worth the trip! It's about the "Peanuts" gang in high school. C.B (Charlie Brown), played wonderfully by Jake Epstein, has just lost his beloved beagle to rabies. C.B's sister (Sally) played by Tatiana Maslany, has gone Goth, at least for this week. Paula Bracanti does a wonderful take on Van's sister (Lucy) who is in a mental home...a pyromaniac no less! Peppermint Patty and Marcie are drunken sluts, (played lusciously by Siobhan Murphy and Alex Saslove). Mike Lobel is simply terrific as a violent and homophobic Pig-Pen, Adamo Ruggiero plays a stoner "Linus" (Van in this play) and Ben Lewis plays "Beethoven" (Schroeder) and does a fantastic job. The world that C.B inhabits is long on violence, drugs, sex, virulent homophobia and very short on answers. He wants to know what happens to his dog now that it's dead. Is there a heaven? Fans of "Peanuts" (and I've been one for most of my life) will love how things are thrown in to remind us of the little kids these wrecks on stage used to be. The character of C.B remains consistent with the poor little loser we knew. You laugh and then you cringe...a lot. It's a pity that this play will never be seen in a high school; it's the audience that would most relate to, and most benefit from, the aching ugliness of being different and being trapped. No happy endings here, and frankly it should have ended a few moments before it did; the letter at the end was a little too pat for me. The cast ranges from excellent to good; a few of them are DeGrassi Street alumni (meaningless to me, I never watched it.) It was a surprisingly good evening of theatre and I'd see it again with pleasure.
http://www.dogseesgod.ca/index.html
 
Spring Awakening-Take 2

I went to see Spring Awakening again last night. It reiterated for me a truth about live performance: even with the same cast, at the same theatre, one never sees the same show twice. And, of course, the audience is also different and its reactions (or lack there of) determines the over all effect of the show. There were fewer kids seated around me this time (although at intermission I saw that there were quite a number of them in the theatre) so the response to the songs and actors, while appreciative, was muted. The principal actors did well, but the youth of the cast began to show; they seemed a little tired and a few of them had trouble with their solos. I still liked this musical very much; I was trying to analyze why it inspired such a fanatical devotion from some of their young fan base ("The Guilty Ones"). I think it's because it really does sound as if it were written by a talented sixteen year old and I think that's what resonates with them.

Kyle Riabko returns to the production on April 14th. Cripes, I may have to go again!
 
Glengarry Glen Ross-Soulpepper

Glengarry Glen Ross, at The Young Centre for the Performing Arts presents an interesting mathematical quandary: how does something equal LESS than the sum of its parts? The "parts" are impressive; some of the best male acting talent in the city is on that stage: Albert Schultz, Eric Peterson (Corner Gas) and Jordan Pettle. David Mamet's play has won multiple awards and is considered his best work to date. So, why don't these things add up to an evening of spectacular theatre? The play is about a group of con-artists masquerading as real estate agents and they are as odious a bunch as you'd ever NOT want to meet. This is the first time I've seen the work on stage so I went (as probably most people did) with the incendiary 1992 film version burned in my mind. The play features the shortest first act I've ever seen. Just as I was beginning to relate to the slimy, desperate, foul-mouthed men on stage the house lights went up. I anticipated a longer second act but longer doesn't mean more satisfying (at least not in this case).

After I got home I looked for the original script on line to see if David Storch(the director) had taken liberties. He hadn't. Every word and every scene was delivered as written, yet the guts seemed to be missing, as if they offered the audience a steak made of refined white sugar. I'm left to conclude that here is a rare case where the movie (written and expanded by Mamet himself) is far superior to the stage work it was based on. The "Blake" character in the movie played by Alec Baldwin (a part written by Mamet for the movie and for Baldwin) is absent from the play and its absence is keenly felt. For this stage production 1+1=0.

http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/09_season/glengarry_glen_ross.aspx
 
Shirley Valentine-Canadian Stage

Nicola Cavendish as "Shirley Valentine" reprises the role that won her a Dora in 1992. I didn't see that production, but a few people who had told me they'd tweaked this re-staging to make it a little more current. I wonder if that was even necessary; Cavendish OWNS the stage and OWNS this role. She is solo in front of the audience for about two hours and, if anyone else has had the same experience with one person shows, that can be freakin deadly. This is sheer delight. It's a funny and touching story about a housewife drowning in a life that has become useless and escapes to Greece to try and find herself. She had the packed house laughing and applauding at every turn, holding our attention single handed. In fact the applause began when she walked on stage. She is a much admired actress and for good reason.
http://www.canstage.com/shirleyvalentine

Earlier in the day, I took in the matinee performance of "Spring Awakening" at the Canon, partly because I love this musical and partly because I wanted to see what Kyle Riabko could do with the "Melchior" role. He's the Saskatoon boy who landed the role in the Broadway production but had to leave the touring company (replaced by Matt Doyle) to film a TV project. It was, for me, another lesson in the strange chemistry that is live performance. While Matt Doyle was very good, Riabko has that something extra, that "star quality" people talk about. Matt acted the role, Kyle inhabited it. His presence seemed to energize the cast and they gave the best of the three performances I've seen.

I mentioned that the Bluma Appel Theatre was packed for "Shirley Valentine". So too was the Canon for the Wednesday "Spring Awakening" matinee. I was lucky to get a good seat, but had I waited another 20 minutes I would have been stuck in the balcony. It gives me hope that the effect of the recession on local theatre will not be as great as I'd feared.
http://www.mirvish.com/spring/
 
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"Star quality" is such a mysterious thing isn't it? As you say, it's the "something extra" - the magic ingredient that can't be quantified, only appreciated when it's present. Great performances, great architecture, great art ... they all enhance the quality of life. If only the talent that produces them could be distilled, bottled, and mass-produced the world would be a much better place.
 
Urban Shocker said:
"Star quality" is such a mysterious thing isn't it? As you say, it's the "something extra" - the magic ingredient that can't be quantified, only appreciated when it's present. Great performances, great architecture, great art ... they all enhance the quality of life. If only the talent that produces them could be distilled, bottled, and mass-produced the world would be a much better place.
Click to expand...


So very, very true. And while we're bottling talent we can try to figure out how the "Fickle Finger of Fate" operates; she points to one with limited talents and makes them rich and famous and to the very, very talented she often gives just the finger. :confused:
 
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