Review: (Ottawa) Tosca (Opera)

Michele Capalbo (photo by Andrew Alexander)

Tosca : Love and Jealousy

by Jim Murchison

Due to an unpredictable circumstance I ended up seeing the second night of Tosca rather than opening night. As it turned out, that allowed me to see the original cast as it was intended to be performed. A medical emergency in the Opera Lyra company had required a radical improvisation on Saturday's opening night in the grand tradition of the show must go on. 

A Fly On The Wall, July 4, 2014

Farewell for Now
Jim Murchison

So my writing for The Charlebois Post will soon be drastically reduced and I will have no more excuses about why I am not taking on some projects that I have long put on the back burner. As the direction of CP shifts to opera and dance I will continue to cover opera, but I will no longer be doing a column.

The Ottawa theatre community have been coming up to me and saying how much they will miss us. That is what pleases me the most. I am also happy with what I have learned. I really had done very little writing except for my government work and it was illuminating for me to stretch out in a more creative vein.

Review (Ottawa) The Devil's Circus (Fringe)

An Odd Love Story in a Cabaret
by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison


The Devils Circus is a puppet show that combines marionettes, Japanese Bunraku inspired puppetry, shadow puppetry and some devilish music.

Daniel Wishes and Seri Yanei are the puppeteers. In the classic demon gets girl, demon loses girl it is as much cabaret as circus as Satan is Ed Sullivan to trick puppets inspired by Elvis, Eartha Kitt,  Mick Jagger and more. Some of the best storytelling occurred during the Shadow puppetry without any words at all.

Review: (Ottawa) 2 Ruby Knockers 1 Jaded Dick (Fringe)

Mystery Solved
by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison


St Paul's Eastern United Church is an odd venue for a play that searches for clues in the dark murky underworld peppered with slick sleazy criminals, 1 hot dame and 1 very jaded private eye, Dirk Darrow.

Tim Motley as Dirk doesn't attempt to play all of the characters to set the table for this tale of intrigue. Instead he assaults the audience with 1 liners, distracts them with predictions, a wonderful card trick and a final reveal that is very impressive.

Review: (Ottawa) Love + Hate (Fringe)

PepTides Play It Up

by Jim Murchison
twitter@JimMurchison

Bass player Andrew Burns, drummer Alex Wickham, keyboardist Scott Irving, guitarist David Campbell with vocalists Claude Marquis, Olexandra Prudnicky, DeeDee Butters, Rebecca Noelle and Dale Waterman perform Love and Hate at the Mercury Lounge as part of the Fringe Festival. If the individual names don’t inform you of the show’s quality, would it make a difference if I said The PepTides. Many people in Ottawa and indeed Canada know that name means that you are going to be seduced by lush, sexy harmonies and jazzy instrumental support that is so intoxicating that you want to take a bath in it as much as listen to it.

Love and Hate explores hate and negativity until a helpful optometrist prescribes the right glasses and then the story jolts over to love, goes through the drudgery of corporate employment, drugs as therapy, the ecstasy of love, the bitter solitude of lost love and back again. 

It is a theatrical device to weave some delicious stage shenanigans by the players with the band’s seductive sound that has been compared with Manhattan Transfer and the B-52’s, but is pure PepTides. This show will delight their tried and true fans and create new ones …. If they’re able to get in.

June 19 - 29

Review: (Ottawa) A Mind Full of Dopamine (Fringe)

THRILL OF THE RUSH

by Jim Murchison
Twitter @JimMurchison

Rory Ledbetter is certainly among the most engaging and upbeat performers at this year’s Fringe. Very often a play that is about addiction shows people at their very bottom robbed of their dignity and generally brings the audience so down that they shut themselves off before they learn anything about it.

Ledbetter takes you through the rite of passage into manhood that gambling is and the brain induced chemical high, that surge of dopamine. It is the same high that thrill seekers who bungee jump or take a ride on a roller coaster feel. It is appropriate because at the crest of every peak there is a descent.

The approach is so successful because Rory is so completely honest and heartfelt that the audience quite literally gasps and cries, “Oh no.” when they feel he is on the wrong path.

By choosing not to preach and by exploring every sinew and nerve, and exposing his heart and soul he ultimately makes the show about perseverance and recovery and reaches into the hearts of the audience as well. This is an incredibly entertaining show and an important one as well. By the way with a last name like Ledbetter you might imagine he plays harmonica and you’d be right.

June 19 - 29

Review: (Ottawa) Can't Argue With Pussy (Fringe)

CAN'T ARGUE WITH PUSSY - 
WELL YA CAN'T!

by Jim Murchison
Twitter@JimMurchison

It was an odd time to see two stand up comediennes: 1:00 pm Sunday. But 10 brave souls went to see Can’t Argue with Pussy and found out why. I even got to do a cameo. I had to play an asshole which I was told I did quite effectively proving that casting against type is not always a bad thing.

The whole premise of the play is really to give two women stand up comedians an opportunity to do material that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do at the male operated venues. You might think that in the world of stand up that it is no holds barred but apparently not. 

Rebecca Reeds and Jennifer Hayward don’t pull any punches. I don’t think I need put in a disclaimer that this is adult themed humour as the title is pretty much a give away. It was pretty well received which is not always the case with deprecating jokes of all varieties with a small crowd in attendance, but this group wasn’t overly reserved so a lot of the material hit the mark. 

Thankfully, the rest of the run are all evening shows with the Thursday one being at 11:00 pm and the larger house should definitely be a boon to a show that deserves and should have a larger audience. Don’t take it too seriously or be offended by a little bit of raunchiness and you should have a good time.  

June 19 - 29

Review: (Ottawa) Chase & Stacey's Joyride (Fringe)

Fasten Your Seat Belts

by Jim Murchison
Twitter @JimMurchison

Chase Padgett returns this year with his new playmate Stacey Hallal. The word play was never more appropriate to describe what performers do. This is a play that is all about playing. Hallal and Padgett are skilled improvisers and the structure of Joyride provides a framework that allows them to know their final destination with a map that has some holes in it. In fact the audience with a word provides the critical info on where the start point of the Joyride is and that substantially changes where Chase and Stacey are from night to night.

Every audience will get Padgett's brilliant musical overlays, Hallal's wildly exuberant search for contact with the other side and the duo's hilarious attempt at nasty sex without naughty words, which if it were dance would be a pas de dirt.

For laughs Joyride is a sure bet and because of the improvisational aspect it will never be the same twice. The chemistry they have with each other is equally as potent as the connection they have with the audience.

June 13 - 29

Review: (Ottawa) Oceans Apart (Fringe)

About Coming Home

by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is something that we are becoming increasingly conscious of. In my parent's day it was likely a sign of weakness to even hint that you needed help. Keep a stiff upper lip, don't let them see you cry are still probably good pieces of advice in certain moments when you need focus to get you through, but afterwards when the dust settles and the things that you have seen and done haunt you what do you do about it?

Author Alain G Chauvin plays Cpl Patrick McLachlin, a young man that has to deal with fears and worries of his family and the more devastating  smiles and silence. Daniel Groleau Landry plays friend Lt Joe Braddock who suffers the physical trauma and Rebecca Laviolette is the woman just trying to be supportive.

You can't cover the entire spectrum of pain and healing that one goes through after being in circumstances that the men and women in Afghanistan and other war zones endure. Patrick it appears just needs to keep moving and we go along for the ride experiencing his anger and anguish. With all the fun and silliness that is available  Fringe offers something a little more serious to sink your teeth into.

The cast is honest and sincere. This would be a show that could turn into a longer play as there is so much to explore.

June 19 - 29

Review: (Ottawa) Wasteland Radio (Fringe))

Post Apocalyptic World

by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

There is a lot of promise in the premise of Wasteland Radio. In the post apocalyptic world the landscape has little pips of lone survivors clinging to survival, not knowing if they might be the last person on earth, creating their own little universes to help them cling to sanity and hope.

There is more of a set for Wasteland Radio than most of the Fringe shows and Emily Soussana has done a good job representing a refuge of recycled mementoes. Scavenged items adorn the walls of the small radio station, scattered tapes and trinkets on the desk and in the large travel trunk are important links to the world when there was indeed a world.

Sam Dietrich does a credible job as a lone beacon broadcasting blindly into the wasteland looking for a voice back although I think I preferred the brief performance of Marc-Alexandre Hudson as the visitor. Things never seemed to completely connect with the audience however. It may have been that the balance between hope and desperation was a little off or perhaps an infusion of humour would have increased the empathy.

I don't think that the audience wasn't as surprised with the ending as what was hoped for and they were a little confused with the choice of an unconventional curtain call but that was just an exclamation on a piece that hasn't quite made it to its potential.

June 19 - 29

Review: (Ottawa) Moonlight After Midnight (Fringe)

Go With The Flow
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

Before I start this review I am going to make a couple of public service announcements. I almost missed this play because of an error on the program. The overview foldout has some errors, consequently I thought I was seeing a play an hour and a half later than its actual scheduled time. One would be wise to double check the schedule against the performance list under the show’s title to identify conflicts.

Review: (Ottawa) Mr. and Mrs. Jones (Fringe)

Keeping Up With The Jones's
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

There are a lot of intriguing questions posed by the two extremely engaging performers from New Zealand's You Rung? Productions. David Ladderman and Lizzie Tollemache play the title characters with  a wonderful blend of illusion, mentalism and storytelling oozing with charm. 

Actually Ladderman is an Aussie and Tollemache a Kiwi and their characters allege that they are like any other couple ... almost. They are like any other couple that bend objects with their minds, read others' minds,  and solve murders while confounding and amazing their 19th century audiences.

Interview: George F. Walker

The Burden of Being Walker
by Jim Murchison

George F. Walker has received nine Chalmers Awards, five Dora Awards, three Governor General's Awards (including a 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award) and the Order of Canada. In 1997 his six-play cycle Suburban Motel premiered at Factory Theatre (Toronto) and Rattlestick Productions (New York). Plays from the cycle have since had numerous productions in the US, the UK and Germany. Walker's latest play The Burden of Self Awareness is playing at Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa.

CharPo Ottawa Editor Jim Murchison spoke with Playwright George F. Walker about his career.

The interview started a little late and I was initially paranoid that I had the date wrong as there was no one around that seemed to know an interview had been set up. But then George Walker came walking up the stairs pointing at director Arthur Milner saying “his fault”, as Milner nodded in agreement and said, “My fault, my fault.” Walker said he relied on Milner to get him where he needed to be. Milner told Walker he had already told him to stop doing that. After a sound check, there was some sound bleeding from the downstairs lobby into the gallery and so we went around the corner and found some comfortable chairs in the entrance of the mens washroom. So that is where I interviewed one of Canada's and the world's most produced playwrights.

CHARPO: What fascinates me most about your career is the way it started, working odd jobs; finally as a taxi driver seeing a pamphlet for Factory Theatre Lab: You were obviously already writing, doing poems and stories I believe? I mean were you thinking when you did your first try at a play that this was going to be your career? 

WALKER:  Oh, Absolutely not. I just... wrote one.

CHARPO: (laughs)  

WALKER: I'd only seen one live play. I saw Henry... I don't know Henry something, at the Royal Alex. 

A Fly On The Wall, June 13, 2014

Cries For Help
by Jim Murchison

I was reading Estelle Rosen's interview with Keir Cutler and Gaëtan Charlebois' After Dark this week and it amazes me how much smaller an already small world has gotten. I first met Keir probably about 35 years ago and I've known Gaëtan for 40 years now.

All of the stories captured in After Dark this week I can relate to and of course I have first hand knowledge of some, having been in that same boot camp called theatre school together with Gaëtan. I don't think any of this would have happened without the internet that makes it so easy to reconnect with old friends and keep in touch. We all know what the bad aspects of the internet are I think.

I found myself chuckling or fuming all over again reading about the downside of show people. It got me thinking about what is probably the worst experience you can have on the stage. Working with someone that is drunk or stoned is always frightening. There can be the fear that no one understands what is happening on stage or that you have no confidence in what is going to happen next. 

Review: (Ottawa) The Burden of Self Awareness

(photo by Andrew Alexander)

Money or Nothing
by Jim Murchison

Martin Conboy’s set is uncluttered. Spare furnishings and three columns that rotate to reveal a wine rack when it’s a restaurant, a bookshelf when it’s an apartment and other times, like when they are outdoors it is just three columns. Conboy’s lighting is also supportive and illuminates the actors with no hoopla or effects. It is simple and doesn’t detract from the words or the actors. The conversation is the central point of The Burden of Self Awareness, George F Walker’s often very funny look at the darker side of the widening economic gulf between the wealthy and the dwindling middle class.

The play is directed by former GCTC artistic director Arthur Milner and his respect for Walker and the material allows him to confidently let the cast deliver the story effectively. They certainly do with a quirky blend of pathos, humour and realism. A lot of people may not use real as an adjective to describe Walker’s characters, but the edge of madness is something that is very real in society and I feel that the play reflects that actuality. While the events in the story are certainly concentrated and often comedic, I really think it packs a punch that isn’t overly exaggerated.  

Review: (Ottawa / Theatre) 9-5 The Musical

Revenge of the Working Girls
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

Patricia Resnick’s book and Dolly Parton’s lyrics are quite fun. Orpheus puts its energetic fun stamp on the stage version of the popular movie. This play is not Titanic or Fiddler on the Roof so go to it expecting to have some laughs and see some energetic performances and you should have a good time. There is s good message about equity for equal work and revenge on demanding misogynistic bosses who are short on imagination and quick on blame, but that is a byproduct of the fun and fancy.

A Fly On The Wall, May 30, 2014

Fringe is Coming
by Jim Murchison 

Well the Fringe Festival is almost upon us. I am going to soon be too busy to write much of anything but Fringe reviews, but next week June 3-5 at the Arts Court I will finally get a chance to see the full length version of my favourite production from last year’s Fringe, 6 Guitars and just enjoy the show. 

6 Guitars is far more than a terrific one man show. It is a play! Written by Chase Padgett and Jay Hopkins who also directs the story it is certainly a tour de force for Padgett’s musical and acting talent, but beyond that it makes sense as a  piece of theatre. It is probably the only multiple character solo show that I believe would be a weaker play with more actors. 

A Fly On The Wall, May 23, 2014

A Second Look
by Jim Murchison

A few weeks back I wrote a review of Seeds where I said I don't think I like documentary theatre. After seeing Oil and Water which is essentially documentary theatre about the crashing of the Truxtun in St Lawrence, Newfoundland, I guess I really do like documentary theatre.

Most critics seemed enthralled by Seeds whereas I was somewhat underwhelmed so I started to ask myself why. Oil and Water had this tremendous story of how a single event changed a man's life. The man was Lanier Phillips, the first black man to literally hit the shores of St Lawrence. The production was lean, intimate and theatrical at the same time. It was made more personal by the actors' voices and the manner in the way they manipulated the props and the set. These are things I love about the theatre and why big productions often leave me cold. For me the flash sometimes gets in the way of the substance.

Review: (Ottawa / Theatre) huff

(photo by Cliff Cardinal)

Dark Theatre to Die For
by Jim Murchison 

The set for huff is stark. There is a chair, a couple of plastic milk crates with beer bottles in them. Long white plastic drapes hang in the centre of the stage and various images can be projected on them. 

I do not want to give the storyline away so I am going to draw from writer/performer Cliff Cardinal's and producer Elizabeth Kantor’s own defining statement. The focus is “on the creation of new transgressive, cathartic works that explore the pain of people living in taboo subcultures”.

What this means for an audience is that unless you are already intimately familiar with the subculture and despite everything you think you may know, you still may find yourself shocked, jolted or even repulsed. Cardinal writes very well and as an actor actively engages the audience to get every reaction he can from them even though his characters may feel that we are nothing more than a hallucination brought on by auto asphyxiation or gas inhalation.

A Fly On The Wall, May 2, 2014

Going It Alone
by Jim Murchison

I was thinking about what is right and what is wrong with theatre. The Fringe is coming and there are a lot of one-person plays at the Fringe. That is fine for the Fringe. The Fringe by its nature requires compactness and touring ease and what better way to take advantage of that than to have everything you need in one vehicle and hit the road with it.

I don’t have a vehement hatred for one-handers and I usually give them a fairly good review because an actor has to know his craft and has to have something fairly well written to even consider trying it. I just think there is too much of it. The fact of the matter is that it is hard to survive as an actor, a writer or a producer in theatre unless you have another job or do a shitload of film and commercials. So I accept that even though there are only a handful of solo shows that I feel would not have been better with more actors. They fall into three types.