Category: theatre

Early Thoughts on “The Big Kahuna”

After picking up a copy of the 2008 Fringe program over the weekend, I’ll be darned if it isn’t already marked up with post-its and incoherent scribbles. The 27th edition of the festival, “Fringe”-less in its name The Big Kahuna, begins on August 14 – just over a week away. As such, my personal countdown to my favourite time of year in Edmonton has begun.

The electronic ticketing system introduced last year to a boon of complaints remains, with the $2 additional fee that supports the still undefined “Box Office operating costs” left intact. While no tickets will again be sold at the venues themselves, Bring Your Own Venues (more commonly known as BYOVs), have been issued a grace this year, as tickets will only be available at the venue door when the clock hits two hours prior to showtime. Given the location of some of the peripheral venues in Old Strathcona, and the addition of New City, a lounge/bar located in Downtown Edmonton as a BYOV this year, it makes geographic sense for venue distribution of tickets. The obvious question, of course, is why a non-Old Strathcona venue was permitted to be a BYOV at all? As for the other suggestions collected in the January Town Hall meeting I attended – none appear to have been implemented, or at least can be gathered from the program itself (I wonder if Kenneth Brown’s veiled threat of producing his “gems” elsewhere if changes aren’t made will stick with his proposed plan to present his war trilogy over the next three years?).

New to the festival this year is the Fringe Midway – an extension of the $2 optical illusion sideshows of Fringes past. Quick and dirty serials, shorts, and this year’s Weed Woman sideshow are an addition great on paper at least – quick treats for those looking for a brief show or those short on cash but still looking for something other than outdoor buskers or antics.

My peripheral glance at the program so far has yielded a number of “repeat offenders”, so to speak. TJ Dawe, for example, is producing/directing/starring in/wrote five shows on tap this year. Daniel McIvor, whose A Beautiful View (at Theatre Network) was loved by the media last year, has three plays up at the festival.

Ones to bank on, based on name-recognition and critical favourites:

  • Teatro la Quindicina’s return to the summer festival – Happy Toes;
  • anything TJ Dawe is involved in (his own Maxim & Cosmo, Keir Cutler’s annual Shakespearean tirade, one-man-everything Charles Ross’ show);
  • musical marvel Rainer Hersch; and
  • Fringe darling Jon Stewart’s edgy new work.

I succumbed to the great deal of the Frequent Fringer pass (which allows me to bypass the aforementioned $2 Box Office fee), but it also means I’ve saddled myself for 10 shows in 6 days because of a late-August sojourn to Vancouver.

It will be an intense ride, but I’m ready for it. 9 days and counting…

Teatro la Quindicina: “A Rocky Night for His Nibs”

It was an absolutely packed house on Tuesday, only fitting for the large cast of A Rocky Night for His Nibs. From Teatro la Quindicina’s website:

“Perched by a glacial lake and presided over by the stately Prince of Wales Hotel, there’s no quieter or more pristine North American destination than the gentle town of Waterton. At least that’s how it usually is, but then there was that one time when everyone showed up. Everyone. At once.”

I have no doubt that Nibs is destined to become a classic in the vein of Cocktails at Pam’s. A mix of interesting personas, a case of (self)mistaken identity (amnesia could be a category for a Lemoine drinking game), and a mysterious yet familiar setting equal an almost no-fail Lemoinian forumula for entertaining hijinx. I found the exchanges particularly witty, and as a whole, a play much better than the season debut, Revenge of the South Sea Bubble. While the deux ex machine ending was too easy, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself in spite of the million-dollar cop-out.

All of the actors looked like they were having a great time, many cast in roles seemingly written just for them: Farren Timoteo as a height-challenged, giddy wanderer; Sheri Somerville as a striking woman on the run with a musical talent; and Andrew MacDonald-Smith as an awkwardly-gangly Hutterite with a naïve disposition. I particularly enjoyed Mark Meer as an unassuming everyman (a departure from his usual accented-antics), the Hutterite exes (Shannon Blanchet was the female half), and Mat Busby’s smooth turn as the hotelier’s right hand man.

If anything, A Rocky Night for His Nibs has made me more excited for the upcoming Fringe. Watch for Teatro’s (hopefully triumphant) return to the summer festival with the optimistically-titled Happy Toes, playing at the Varscona stage.

Walterdale Theatre: “Up Shit Creek” and “Bless You, Billy Wilder”

After High Tea at the Arbour Restaurant in Rutherford House, Janice, May and I headed to the Walterdale Playhouse in Old Strathcona to watch a double-billing of Up Shit Creek and Bless You, Billy Wilder, a part of the Walterdale’s annual “Trading Stages” event:

“A collaboration of beginners and masters. Four directors and two writers, under the guidance of established local professionals, hone their crafts presenting a series of one-acts. A new masterpiece and an established piece from a master will run each night.”

Up Shit Creek, by Taylor Chadwick and mentored by David Belke, was up first. A play about a Canadian and an American filmmaker crafting a movie about 9/11, I found the dialogue inarticulate and unnecessarily circular. The enactment of the film scenes with mini Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein puppets were as amusing as it sounds, but created a pacing that felt off. By the end, I still didn’t feel any compassion for either of the characters – the American for feeling that he had to “sell out” to his film executive father, or the Canadian for not getting his desired story told. For that reason, the play seemed long and simply a vehicle for the writer to debate reactions to 9/11.

With that disappointment, I was even more excited about seeing a vintage Belke, or at least, what I thought would be a vintage Belke. With “Billy Wilder” in the title, I was honestly expecting something like Dreamland Saturday Nights – a harmless, lighthearted romantic comedy. What we got instead was an experience not unlike the Fringe surprise May and I saw a few years ago (billed as a coming-of-age story, the production ended up being a show about bulimia).

Bless You, Billy Wilder started out innocently enough – a shy artist who grew up in a religious colony interviews for a position to assist a man with a film restoration project. Interspersed with clips from Greed by Erich Von Stroheim, the movie being worked on, the play quickly degenerated into one focused on mental illness and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, ending with the man curled on the floor, racking with sobs, as his assistant tried to comfort him. The pair of actors were the bright spots – Michael Beamish as Emil was scarily spot-on, jolting my blood pressure as his manic attacks increased in frequency, and Kassia Haynes as Patience was as mature, loving and warm as her character should have been. Still, I can’t say I enjoyed myself – Bless You is the type of play one has to be mentally prepared for.

Teatro la Quindicina: “Revenge of the South Sea Bubble” & “What Gives?”

I was so excited for the first Teatro la Quindicina show of the season (The Exquisite Hour, back in July of 2007, was the last Teatro play on stage) a double billing of the new Revenge of the South Sea Bubble and a revamp of What Gives? While not wholly disappointing, the evening was a mixed bag.

On the website, the Revenge of the South Sea Bubble is presented to be “a captivatingly convoluted noir-ish tale of deceptions compounded by lies, and speculations masquerading as conjecture.” Unfortunately, the one-act is as vague as the description. Involving two librarians, a Marilyn Monroe-esque dancer, a waiter, and a plot that was bereft of any real amusement, it really isn’t worth discussing further. Farren Timoteo as Vasco was endearing in his hyperbolic mannerisms however, and by the end of the evening, thoroughly reminded me of both Mark Meer (in his accent delivery) and Jeff Haslam (in his physical comedy).

What Gives?, a musical comedy, thankfully made up for the first show: “a pair of inspirationally bereft Broadway tunesmiths have their world turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of a pair of Canadian chorines.” Lighthearted and funny, the dialogue really allowed the actors to shine. I particularly liked Kendra Connor’s turn as Allure Potemkin, especially her showstopper of a “Baby Legs” number (Connor has the charm of Andrea House and the sass of Leona Brausen). The staging of “The Shanghai Stir-Fry” was also fairly clever, and as with most productions that don’t take themselves too seriously, it was easy to enjoy.

A Rocky Night for His Nibs is up next in July.

“Puppetry of the Penis”

Thanks to Vue Weekly, Annie and I got to see a show on Thursday night at the Winspear that has travelled the world over: Puppetry of the Penis.

Given that the tickets were free, I didn’t expect that the seats would be so close – orchestra right, sixth row back, aisle seats. Looking around, I didn’t see the 60- 40 gender split I expected after reading an interview with one of the Aussies who started it all – there were way more women, sprinkled with just a few gentleman that looked like they were trying their very best to blend into the crowd.

The act started off with a very funny comedienne from Hamilton, Ontario, whose name has slipped from my memory. My favorite bit of her act was when she declared that she had wanted to fit into a new dress she purchased by the time of tonight’s show. With a flourish, she took off her jacket, revealing her dress, raised her arms, and announced that she had done it, receiving cheers from the audience. When she turned around to get some water to drink, we were treated to the pins barely holding the garment together, with full view of her Paul Frank underwear.

After a rather lengthy intermission, we were finally treated to the main act – Martin and Dan, two young Australian blokes with fairly diluted accents, came out onto the stage each wearing a cape. Energetic, enthusiastic, and of course, not at all shy, the two men used many a term over the course of the evening to describe their exercises – including “penis installations” and “dick tricks”. With a camera positioned just below the stage projecting everything onto a screen behind the performers, even those in the upper and dress circles were able to have a good view of the “puppets”.

Though I shouldn’t have been shocked to see what I did, I can’t say I was entirely ready to know that it was possible to stretch, scrunch, bend, fold and twist the male anatomy into the shapes such as the Eiffel Tower, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a sea anemone. Annie’s favorite was the snail, and well, I don’t think I had a favorite. For those curious, the show does sell a do-it-yourself handbook that will show, with step-by-step instructions, how to form 26 penis installations in the comfort of your own home.

It was an interesting experience, I will admit, but one you do have to be entirely prepared for in order to fully enjoy.

Edmonton Opera: “Falstaff”

When I purchased an Edmonton Opera Explorers’ Club membership last year, my intention was to use it to see Stewart Lemoine’s take on HMS Pinafore and nothing else. After thoroughly enjoying that operetta, to really maximize the membership fee, I thought it best to use my discount towards the last opera of the year, Verdi’s Falstaff.

From the website:

“Based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, it tells the story of an aging-but-still-randy Sir John Falstaff, who is determined to mend his financial situation by seducing two noblewomen simultaneously. However, (as one would suspect), disastrous, convoluted and wildly funny results arise…. what a man won’t do for love and money!”

As I mentioned in my review of Pinafore, Falstaff was to function as a better litmus test for me determine whether or not I could enjoy opera. Turns out, not so much.

As Pinafore was in English, I didn’t have to rely on the supertitles. For the Italian Falstaff, they were indispensable, and though they helped disseminate the plot and outline the characters, it was exhausting having to dart back and forth from the projected words to the stage antics. As well, I found that I really wasn’t invested in any of the characters – a failing of this particular opera, I admit, and not necessarily true of all productions. But still, I couldn’t care less about the women’s revenge, or the B-plot involving the two young lovers.

To be honest, the most enjoyable part of the evening was the opening five minute video introduction of the 2008/2009 Edmonton Opera season, as presented by Artistic Director Brian Deedrick. He is one excitable man, and for an artform sometimes seen as archaic and irrelevant, I think someone so passionate is exactly the right person to lead the company. When he finally announced the names of each of the three (plus one) shows, Mack and I both could not believe the volume of the collective gasps and sighs emitted by the audience. As someone who would probably do the same upon hearing the new Teatro la Quindicina or Shadow Theatre seasons, I can put myself in an opera-lovers’ shoes, but on that night, I couldn’t help but laugh. If anything, it is good to know that the “opera community” is alive and well in Edmonton.

Would I go to the opera again? Perhaps, for a well-known knockout like La Boheme. Short of that, my opera days are done.

Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts

On Monday night Mack and I attended the 21st annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts at the Winspear Centre. This was apparently the fourth year the ceremony had taken place in a performance-based venue, allowing for an evening of recognition interspersed with dance, song, and theatre.

I purchased the cheapest tickets (priced at $25 each), which allotted us seats in the Upper Circle. They announced that proceeds would be distributed to an identified community group, and this year, Arts on the Ave was the chosen recipient – a great selection, in my opinion.

We weren’t sure what to expect, though I can say that I was most looking forward to the sampling of Teatro la Quindicina fare. And while they were fabulous, as always (Jeff Haslam’s “Chicken rice soup” rant was hilariously over-the-top), I have to say that Samantha Schultz, a seventeen-year old folk singer from Edmonton, was my favourite act of the night. Petite, and somewhat dwarfed by the guitar she was carrying, her age was completely irrelevant the moment she opened her mouth to sing – Mack and I were both blown away by her talent, lyrical maturity, and the magical hush that fell over the audience during her single, “Twilight Moment.” I’ve actually already picked up her debut CD, Both Sides, and on an initial listen, it’s lovely.

As for the rest of the evening:

  • Peter Brown from CBC Edmonton, one of the hosts of the evening, was hilarious;
  • I will never understand or appreciate interpretive dance;
  • It was funny to watch the various senior company representatives stumble over the appropriate prefaces for the honorable guests in attendance; and
  • The ending musical group Le Fuzz was perfectly upbeat, and apparently, dancing on stage has become a tradition at this event! I had to laugh when the Mayor was pulled into the conga line.

I agree with Mack – while I’m not sure I would go every year, the Mayor’s Celebration is a great way of exposing yourself to a variety of both established and up-and-coming artists.

Dancing on stage!

The 2008-2009 Citadel Theatre Season

I’ve mentioned my affinity for local, community-based theatre instead of the more mainstream and well-known Citadel Theatre in the past. But if their upcoming 2008-2009 season is any indication of future offerings, I may have to look at integrating their plays into my yearly theatre schedule.

Ronnie Burkett, master puppeteer, will be premiering his brand new show, Billie Twinkie: Requiem for a Golden Boy, in October. From the media release:

“Billy Twinkle is a middle-aged cruise ship puppeteer who dazzles audiences with his Stars in Miniature marionette niteclub act. His saucy burlesque stripper Rusty Knockers titillates the tourists, octogenarian Murray Spiegelmann invokes sidesplitting laughter with the inflatable balloon in his pants, Bumblebear juggles and roller-skates and steals the hearts of every audience, and Biddy Bantam Brewster brings a bit of highbrow hilarity to the high seas with her drunken aria. Billy is the best in the business and on top of the world as he floats along through life.

“Until he is fired by the cruiseline. Standing at the edge of the ship contemplating a watery demise, Billy is abruptly called back to reality when his dead mentor Sid Diamond appears as a hand puppet. Sid literally will not leave his side, and forces Billy to re-enact his life as a puppet show in order to remember and rekindle the passion Billy once had for puppets, people and the dream of a life that sparkles.

“For anyone stuck in the middle – mid-career, mid-love, mid-life – caught between our own past and future, this requiem for a golden boy shines a little light on the wonder of youthmeeting the wisdom of age with a kick in the pants to finish what we started.”

It sounds whimsical, fantastical, and I have no doubt it will be a visual spectacle that has to be seen. I can already see the beads of sweat forming on Burkett’s brow, as when he last peformed in Edmonton.

March will see the premiere of Extinction Song:

“Meet James. Seven years old, he has escaped to a fantasy world where he is being raised by wolves. Every day is a new adventure until, frightened they are on the verge of becoming extinct, James and the wolves concoct a plan to save themselves. Extinction Song is a funny, tender and heartbreaking account of a child’s way of coping with the troubled world around him.”

The primary reason behind wanting to see this play is attributed to the star – none other than Ron Pederson! He’s more than used to wacky roles after cutting many a tooth on Stewart Lemoine’s creations, and I can just see him easily retreating back into a believable, heartbreaking childlike state similar to the character he played in the last half of Shocker’s Delight! I can’t wait.

I’ve actually already seen Marty Chan’s The Forbidden Phoenix. Or at least, the earlier incarnation without the music and Peking Opera-inspiration. From the release:

“This fascinating new play by Edmonton’s literary genius Marty Chan is loosely based on the experience of the Chinese immigrants brought to Canada to work on the railroad in the 1800s. The enthralling story weaves together elements of history, diversity and environmentalism.

“Sun Wukong is the Monkey King, torn from his son Laosan and exiled to the west after displeasing the almighty Empress Dowager. Forced to work for the mighty Horne in Terminal City, he sets off to make his fortune. He need only conquer Gold Mountain and free the Iron Dragon to realize his dream of being reunited with his son.

“This enthralling fable is a fusion of Peking Opera, martial arts, acrobatics and “western” musical theatre. This powerful story of a father’s sacrifice to provide for his family will stay with you always.”

I remember being disappointed with the original Forbidden Phoenix, but beyond that, I can’t remember any specifics. That said, it’s been interesting following Chan’s process while writing and revising this new version of the play on his blog, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least attempt to see the final product.

It should be clear that my interest in the Citadel is less about the institution itself and more about my desire to follow my favorite actors and writers to whatever stage they will be performing on. And if anything, I hope exposure to these local artists will draw those who rarely venture beyond the Citadel to the other theatre districts in Edmonton.

MacEwan Theatre Arts: “Hot Mikado”

MacEwan Theatre Arts wrapped up their season with Hot Mikado. From the website:

“The story is based on the Gilbert and Sullivan original The Mikado. In an imaginary Japan, the town of Tittipu has tired of the Mikado’s (emperor’s) law which makes flirting the only crime punishable by death. They appoint a lowly tailor, one Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner, since he has been condemned for flirting, and won’t execute himself or anyone else. Ko-Ko is about to marry his beautiful ward, Yum-Yum, but she is being pursued by a young man of her own age, Nanki-Poo, who is pretending to be a second-trombone player. He is actually the son and heir-apparent of the Mikado, having fled from his father’s court when accused of flirting with the elderly and formidable Katisha, who wants to marry him or have him beheaded. Will Nanki-Poo be executed? Will true love prevail?”

It’s not hard to guess the answer to that question, nor is it a huge leap to assume that the production relies too heavily of the charm on the cast to carry across a fairly trite story. In this case, as with most MacEwan productions, the cast was a mixed bag.

Corey Rogers (Nanki-Poo) and Yemie Sonuga (as Katisha) were both unfortunately unable to carry a tune. Thankfully, there were a few surprises (Adrianne Salmon and Matt Van Boeyen) to help balance out the group, but it was still a bit painful to have to sit through some pretty awful numbers.

Dickson and I were both looking forward to the appearance of Alissa Keogh, who even as a chorus Gentleman #7 in the first half of the production managed to outshine most of her castmates. The second act saw her take a turn as the Mikado, complete with a solo tap performance, which she nailed. Her ease with movement and song will be a loss to the MacEwan stage, but I am certain she will be on to bigger and better things upon graduation.

Also looking forward, the program included a listing of the 2008-2009 theatre season, which includes a play by none other than Stewart Lemoine, which will run from March 13-21, 2009. It seems his departure from the position of Teatro Artistic Director has allowed him the time and space to write for alternative venues like the Edmonton Opera and now MacEwan. Where will he pop up next?

Theatre Network: “Famous Puppet Death Scenes”

Even a day later, I still don’t know what to make of Famous Puppet Death Scenes.

I felt a pang of regret last year when I missed the Calgary’s troop’s performance at the Roxy, having heard many good things about them, so I made sure to note the date of their return engagement in 2008. On Tuesday, we joined a full house to watch re-enactments of the most macabre moments in puppet theatre history.

A fairly standard puppet theatre frame, with a large curtained window flanked by two smaller ones, greeted us on stage. Everything started out well enough, with a rubber puppet resembling a face crafted out of an upside-down chin doing its best to elude a stalking wooden fist intent on destroying it. Scenes featuring this figure doing its best to dodge death (accompanied by some upbeat, trumpet-blaring music) were sprinkled throughout the play, and were always a welcome sight. I couldn’t help but laugh at the way its arms would flop as he did a happy dance.

A host figure (who looked like a green-tinged Albert Einstein) was used as a unifying force of sorts, trying to stitch together the individual scenes by posing thoughtful questions. But with some of the rather comic deaths following such requested introspection, pointed reflection quickly dissolved into laughter. Still, the sequences that were punctuated with humor ended up being my favourites, including the squeaky-voiced German figures that had to choose between two fateful doors, game-show style, or the futuristic, immortal Johnny Depp-lookalike aliens who had no concept of death. Unfortunately, funny was few and far between. The majority of the scenes involved more symbolic, solemn representations of death, such as the role of time in its erosion of life (in the morose but excruciatingly slow The Cruel Sea), the long, telling blink from a single large eye in The Last Whale, or the flight of King Jeff the Magnificent through space. By the end of the play, I was so exhausted from trying to stay awake that any profound message I was meant to gather would have been lost on me.

Content aside, I did appreciate the craftsmanship that must have gone into the puppets themselves. The Old Trout Puppet Workshop demonstrated their expertise with different types of material and a variety of styles, including marionettes and hand puppets. Mack liked the distinct backdrops used to set the individual scenes, which helped the viewer imagine the type of world that particular puppet inhabited (the alley created for The Beast of Muggditch Lane had great lighting too).

While I don’t deny the chance that I simply didn’t understand what the company was trying to get across, I think it is quite possible as well that the premise of the play – funnelling through unrelated, random sequences from multiple sources – may ultimately have reduced the connection that could be fostered between characters and an audience throughout the course of a full-length play. So although death was the common link throughout, Famous Puppet Death Scenes was too plodding and scattered for me to recommend.