Memoir: Byron Toben on Ellen Stewart

Memoir: MY MEMORIES OF LA MAMA

Intimate Apparel brings with it the ghost of a quintessential theatre person

by Byron Toben

March 27 was the 50th anniversary of International Theatre Day and the Centaur Theatre, like many around the world celebrated by having its superb cast of the hit “Intimate Apparel” declaim tributes to theatre around the world just before its last preview. This confluence of the international and the subject of this play conjured up memories of my passing friendship with Ellen Stewart, La Mama herself.

Ellen, for those folk who may not have heard of her, was the doyen of the Off-off experimental theatre movement starting in the New York of the 60s. She rose from store cleaning work to become a successful beachwear designer and eventually a Ford Foundation recipient with worldwide theatre acclaim before she passed away last year at 91.

Review: (Montreal) ANA

ANA...THE ETERNAL FEMININE?

Six Annas in search of their mother

By Byron Toben

After the world premiere opening of the wonderful, thought-provoking play ANA at Espace Go, I wisecracked that it should be subtitled Six Annas in Search of their Mother.

Later, reading director Serge Denoncourt's program notes, I was gratified to see that he also paraphrased Pirandello to describe the show. The co-authors, Clare Duffy of Scotland and Pierre Yves Lemieux of Montreal spent three years working up a script based on a concept by Clare Schapiro of Montreal

and Muriel Romanes of Scotland.

Review: (Montreal) True Nature

Reviews: (Shaw Festival) Heartbreak House; On The Rocks

Politicians making speeches they cannot deliver on. Police cracking heads. Chekhov. Burglars. It's Shaw Fest!

by Byron Toben