Review: (Ottawa) Detroit

David Benedict Brown and Stephanie Izsak

Party Madness is infectious
by Jim Murchison

The play is called Detroit, but the themes of diminishing urban and suburban community and evaporating middle class are pretty universal. As technology shrinks the world and social networking expands our virtual lives, it is actual relationships and frank conversation that bring joy and release from pressure and financial distress.

Attila Clemman's set has two adjoining back yards that tell slightly different stories about their occupants. One home has the backyard barbecue, patio furniture and sliding glass doors. The other has the rickety screen door, unfinished deck and backyard debris. The laundry hanging from the clotheslines serve as a screen for projections of neighbourhood scenes and Madison Avenue images of perfect commercial backyard barbecue moments.

Review: (Ottawa) Ethan Claymore

Yuletide Brotherly Love
by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

As I have said my theatrical tastes are very wide, so after seeing a clever, intriguing fantasy journey of an academic falling into a Shakespearian world at Great Canadian Theatre Company, I am now ready for the more traditional holiday fare.

Director John P. Kelly has finally got to apply his light, deft touch to a Canadian play. As the promotion for the play says, Norm Foster has grabbed a little bit of this and a little bit of that from a plethora of Christmas stories. Foster tells a Christmas tale about a man that while he has not lost the will to live, is really just going through the motions. At first I was concerned that the play might not find its own way with so many of the elements of the story inspired by other classics. I enjoyed the first act but was really hooked by the second.

Review: (Ottawa) 8 Ways My Mother Was Conceived

Like A Virgin
by Valerie Cardinal

I heard a lot about Michaela Di Cesare’s 8 Ways My Mother Was Conceived on the Montreal Fringe circuit in 2011. I never got to see it, so I was excited to review it now, after it’s had a few years and a few more shows under its belt. 

8 Ways uses a quirky starting point to tell a unique and personal family story. According to family legend, Michaela’s mother was born of a virgin, much like Jesus. Throughout the play, Di Cesare explores the different possibilities surrounding her mother’s conception (spoiler alert: there are eight). Along the way, it becomes an exploration of four generations of women, and what womanhood means to each of them. 

Michaela Di Cesare definitely deserved a bigger opening night audience than she got at the Gladstone. She is a charming and charismatic performer as she quite literally puts herself in the shoes of multiple family members. However, she sometimes had trouble disappearing completely into the characters; conversations between family members occasionally became difficult to follow because there didn’t seem to be much of a switch.

Review: (Ottawa) Private Lives

                                                                                      (photo by Andrew Alexander)
Cowardy Custard
by Valerie Cardinal

Written in 1930, Noel Coward’s Private Lives is considered to be among the great drawing room plays along with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest. Despite being set between two world wars, its themes and text still resonate with a modern audience.

Divorced couple Elyot and Amanda find their respective honeymoons with new spouses ruined when they happen to be staying in neighbouring hotel rooms. This allows the pair to revisit the reasons they love each other – and the reasons they hate each other, of course.

Private Lives’ strength is in its cast, with everyone bringing their A-game. However, David Whiteley and Alix Sideris as divorced couple Elyot and Amanda really shine in their scenes together thanks to their obvious chemistry. Steve Martin wins the award for best facial expressions as Amanda’s bumbling and well-meaning new husband Victor. Martin has the ability to crack up an audience with only a single bewildered glance. Bronwyn Steinberg is a delight as Elyot’s new wife Sybil, who is the human incarnation of naïve femininity.

Review: (Ottawa) False Assumptions

False Assumptions Glows Dimly
by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

The set for False Assumptions designed by Attila Clemman is quite wonderful. It immediately evokes the feeling of being in a place cluttered with learning and rich in thought. Suspended from the ceiling are glowing, curled and folded notes that seem like origami of the gods. In fact the raised upstage area is a platform for a Greek chorus of underrated women of science. Downstage left is the study where Marie and Pierre do their work. Directly stage right is a multifunctional area where we meet many friends of Marie and where we most often see a group of early victims of science called the radium girls. 

There were a great many friends of theatre and learning at the Gladstone lending support to the students of Ottawa Theatre School in particular and to director Teri Loretto-Valentik and the hard working production team. Many were also excited to be at a world premiere of a brand new play by Lawrence Aronovitch that combined his passion for science and theatre. 

Review: (Ottawa) Miracle on 34th Street

(from the company website)

Christmas with a Raving Sentimentalist
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

Plosive productions annual Christmas radio play at The Gladstone this year is Miracle on 34th Street. It has been adapted by John Cook in collaboration with Teri Loretto-Valentik and director Nicole Milne from the original story by Valentine Davies. Of course the advantage to this type of presentation is that you get to use mostly the same set every year, although tucked downstage left this year was a cozy little room where Poppa played by Bob Lackey and grandson Jake played by Ben Blacklock added some ambiance and modern context. It's a nice touch since so many of us have shared the film experience of this tale with family.

First of all I have to disclose that I am a raving sentimentalist. I have some favourite films that I watch at Christmas: A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life and of course Miracle on 34th Street. What works best for me in theatre is when your own imagination creates the magic. Film can pull out all the bells and whistles if need be, but few theatre companies can afford to create incredible live effects. For the most part, happily it is the audience's suspension of disbelief and their own imaginations manipulated by cast and crew that create the finishing effect. You simply have to believe. That's how it is with theatre, books, radio and also with Christmas.

Review: (Ottawa) Stones in His Pockets

Luck of the Irish

by Jim Murchison

Friday evening Ottawa's 2012/2013 season kicked off with Marie Jones award-winning play Stones in His Pockets directed by John P Kelly. As is traditional on opening night the director came out to thank the crowd for their support flanked by season coordinator David Whitely. As the two spoke it seemed to me that Kelly was particularly subdued this evening. He may be pacing himself and with good reason. He will be directing four shows this season; three at the Gladstone and another Marie Jones play at GCTC and as exciting as that may be, it is definitely daunting.

The scenic design by Merike Olo is very simple but effective. A long mural depicts the view of the Blasket Islands as seen from County Kerry on the southwest coast of Ireland where the action is set. Underneath the mural is a row of shoes stretching along the width of the stage that gives us the hint that the two actors have many shoes to fill. The only other set piece is a steamer trunk that holds costume pieces and serves a multifunctional role as a podium, bar counter or casket as needed.

Review: (Ottawa) The Communication Cord

Back row Janet Uren, Kat Smiley, Tim Oberholzer.  Front Row Michelle LeBlanc, David Whiteley, Genevieve Sirois, Alain Chamsi. (photo credit: Lois Siegel)

Capital Friel

More of the Irishman in Ottawa

by Jim Murchison

Last month I had the pleasure of seeing Translations by Irish playwright Brian Friel at the Ottawa Little Theatre. Although there was a fair bit of humour in that piece, it was largely dramatic in tone. After the success of Translations, Friel followed it up with The Communication Cord. Both plays are set in the fictional Irish town of Ballybeg and both deal with language. Although The Communication Cord takes place 150 years later in the 1980’s, the picturesque rural setting is relatively the same, as it is set in an historic home in county Donegal. That is where all similarities between the plays end. 

Review: (Ottawa) The Shadow

(photo credit: David Whiteley)

Does The Shadow Know?

A Christmas Mysteries Radio Show

by Jim Murchison

The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips,  television, video games, and at least five motion pictures. But it all started with the radio. The Gladstone Theatre has transported itself to that golden age.  “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" was the catch phrase of its time. The ominous laugh sets the tone for a night of mystery. 

Review: (Ottawa) I Do Not Like Thee, Dr. Fell

Richard Gelinas, Tim Oberholzer, Kelly Rigole, Robin Guy, Kathi Langston

A Blast With No Answers

Dr. Fell fills the prescription for the November blahs

By Jim Murchison

The current tradition in theatre is to start the performance with a few words from the director. Most of the time this consists of reframing what is in the program notes to begin with. The tone for the evening was instantly set when John P. Kelly after a few words about his twentieth play in Canada admitted, “It’s all my fault.”  He then instructed the audience to enjoy themselves and join everyone afterwards for food and music.

Mr. Kelly is a personal friend of the writer, Bernard Farrell, and it shows. He has directed the play with care and precision, making the most of its witty examination of American style therapy. Although there is a great deal of pretentious posturing by the characters, the play and the production are so completely unpretentious and fun to watch that it works on every level.

Review: (Ottawa) Speed-the-Plow

More Than Madonna

When libido and midlife crisis meet head on, impartial judgement is lost.

by Jim Murchison

I confess that I didn’t know a lot about Speed-the-Plow, other than it was the vehicle that launched Madonna’s Broadway career.  The irony of a play about marketing over substance, that used a pop star like Madonna to sell a million dollars in advance tickets, did not go unnoticed by the critics at the time. Fortunately, small Canadian theatre companies are not encumbered with the dilemma of hiring a pop icon, so we can concentrate on the merits of this production instead. Oh yeah, I hear Madonna is back in the music business.