Review: (Victoria / Theatre) Equivocation

(photo by Emily Cooper)

Theatre and the Truth
Equivocation Rounds Off Spectacular Shakespeare Season at the Belfry
by Morgan McPherson

Since I have started my very young career as a theatre reviewer, I have seen the process of going to a show in a whole new light.  As a Fringe Festival theatregoer since 2003, I usually thoroughly research a show beforehand and make a very conscious decision about what I see.  After my first review, I decided to surrender myself to the shows I would be attending as a representative of this publication with little foreknowledge of the details.

On every occasion, I have been incredibly pleased with the result.  The Belfry Theatre here in Victoria has put on a simply smashing season; so goes the theatre's current offering, Bill Cain's Equivocation.

The Question... Frank Cox-O'Connell and Evan Webber on Little Illiad (Spark Festival)

Skype it! - Space, Friendship, and the Trojan War
by Estelle Rosen

Frank Cox-O'Connell  is an actor and director in theatre, and a rock drummer in music. Evan Webber is a writer and performance maker. Together they have authored, co-­created or facilitated over a dozen performance works in Canada, the USA and Europe. “We task ourselves with performing what we think is real in order to see it change. We don’t always agree. Our plays are often about this disagreement. We’ve been doing this for almost ten years now in a lot of different contexts and with many different collaborators. We always make things a bit differently, but there is one thing that is consistent, which is that this theatre (EW&FCO) is about how the sometimes opposed interests and positions of different people can coexist in the same place and the same moment in time.”

CHARPO: Little Iliad audiences will experience this play in an unusual fashion; specifically why does the audience watch the show wearing headphones? And tell us about the Skype involvement.

WEBBER: Both of these decisions were made very early on. We first had the idea to make something that could function in the midst of the chaos of a festival, where there's lots of drunk people and music and other shows happening around it. We thought this kind of environment could serve to embody the spirit of togetherness that we think about in the play, the togetherness that inspires art, war and so on. For this to work, the outside needed to be bigger than the inside so the inside had to be made small. So, small audience.

Review: (Victoria) Proud

Rick Roberts (photo by David Cooper)

Introduction to Government 101
In Which the Writer Receives Her First Political Education

by Morgan McPherson

My name is Morgan, and I am a political neophyte. I’m rather sorry to admit that I’m one of those youths (although rapidly not becoming a youth anymore) that has only voted once, and seems to know very little about the candidates. Once I even got suckered into the “your vote doesn’t matter in this riding which is 95% X Party anyway” stream of thinking. For shame, right?  I’ll tell you a secret about why I’m uninterested in politics:  POLITICS ARE BORING.

Review: (Victoria) Home is a Beautiful Word

Youshie Bancroft (photo by David Bakuch)

A Community Given a Voice
Homelessness in Victoria Takes Centre Stage
by Morgan McPherson

Last night, I had the honour of seeing Joel Bernbaum's Home is a Beautiful Word (directed by Michael Shamata) performed at the Belfry Theatre. I was glued to my seat, riveted by the honesty and emotion that was portrayed onstage, and I felt privileged to be a part of the mind-expanding performance that took place.  But let me back up a second.

Homelessness is a big topic, and a sensitive one. There are such a wide range of emotions that people experience when reflecting back on their encounters with those that are homeless. There are a lot of misconceptions, a lot of prejudices, a lot of anger, and a lot of sadness swirling around the issues. Joel Bernbaum conducted over 500 interviews with Victoria's homeless, and the result is an eye-opening piece of verbatim theatre that shines a light on the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the interviewees. And by verbatim, I mean every um, every sniff of a tear held back, every curse word and every stutter were faithfully transcribed and beautifully performed by the five talented actors onstage. Each interviewee's interview started with two open-ended questions: "Homelessness is…?" and "Home is."

Review: (Victoria) A Tender Thing

Belfry poster art

Life Long Loves
Changing Romeo and Juliet’s Stars
by Morgan McPherson

Young love. Burning, all-consuming, can’t-imagine-life-without-the-other passion that lights up the soul.  There’s no more classic example of this type of love than Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We all know the tale.

But what if that kind of love endured over time?

Ben Power's A Tender Thing (directed by Peter Hinton), now playing at the Belfry Theatre, paints a stirring picture as to what this might look like.  Romeo (Peter Anderson) and Juliet (Clare Coulter) did not commit suicide in their early teenage years, as originally written, but they have lived their lives together and are every bit in love now as they were then. However, not everything in life can stay golden forever, and the play raises this question: what would you do for the love of your life? How far would you go?

Review: (Victoria) Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

FROM QUEENS TO CYPRUS
Canadian Classic Kicks Off Belfry Theatre's Shakespeare Season
by Morgan McPherson

Tonight was the night where I got to experience that intangible transformation that takes words on a page and, as if through alchemy, changes them into an experience you can properly lose yourself in.  I got to see Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Canadian classic, Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) at the always-charming Belfry theatre.

Eleven years ago, as a fresh-faced teenager, I took the one English class of my university career, and recall reading both Othello and Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). To be honest, until tonight, I forgot that I had read Othello at all, but never forgot Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet).  I distinctly recall it to be one of the only works in that class that I enjoyed reading, and when given the opportunity to see it staged, I did a little happy dance and headed off to the theatre.  It’s so rare for someone who hasn’t studied theatre to have read a play, then finally get to see that work put forth onto the stage.  Everything about this production was fantastic, and a testament to the magic that can be worked when the right material meets the right creative team.

Review: (Victoria) Let's Make an Opera and The Little Sweep

(photo by David Bukash)

Let's Make the Audience Sing
Cute, but not what you might call “high art.”
by Spencer Malthouse
@S_Malthouse

In a first-time pairing, Pacific Opera Victoria and The Belfry theatre have united to present a sweet little production of Let's Make an Opera and The Little Sweep. The show might be called a meta-theatrical study of the creative process. More appropriately, however, it is a lighthearted introduction to opera for children and families.  

This play/operetta is a nursery tale on stage acted by children and opera singers. It is entertaining in that the actors are lively, the children adorable, and the singing pleasant. The plot could be followed by a six-year-old. In the first scene, the players set about creating the opera. This exposition is insightful but also very simple. The operetta itself is a children's cartoon set in 1810 – imagine Sound of Music but without the Nazis, love story, or strife. 

Review: (Ottawa) And Slowly Beauty...

Celine Stubel, Caroline Gillis, Mary-Colin Chisholm, Dennis Fitzgerald

(photo credit: David Cooper)

And slowly perfect...

Belfry/NAC co-pro stuns

by Jim Murchison

Last night, with the translator and the writer in attendance, the National Arts Centre launched their Studio season with And Slowly Beauty, fresh from a heralded run at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria. The praise is well founded.

Maureen Labonté’s translation of Michel Nadeau’s beautiful piece breathes with vital characters. It weaves the lives of real people with the characters in Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters skillfully. It is respectful to Chekhov without stooping to idol worshipping. This play grabs you equally by your heart and your funny bone and pulls you in for a deep, satisfying kiss. If it’s your first play it is probably the beginning of a long love affair. If you are a regular patron of the theatre, you will welcome the embrace of a long time love. It is a brave undertaking to perform a play that is about how beautiful and transformative theatre can be. If the play works it’s a poignant example of art, imitating art, imitating life. If the play doesn’t work it can be embarrassing and pretentious; as well as tedious and uncomfortable for the audience and the cast.