Review: (Montreal) Poutine Masala (Wildside)

Bollywood, Qc

by Rebecca Ugolini

If the grey winter landscape has you yearning for a little heat, the Bollywood-inspired dance numbers and light romantic comedy in Poutine Masala might be just the spice you need.

Choreographed by Deepali Lindblom, founder of the Deepali Indian dance company, Poutine Masala uses all the drama and comedy of Bollywood dance to tell the story of the cross-cultural love story between a free-thinking young Québecois man and a flirty but reluctant young dancer whose flight from an arranged marriage in India brought her to Montreal.

The Sunday Read: Interview - Alisa Palmer, Artistic Director National Theatre School (English)

(photo credit: David Cooper)

Feeding the Young

Alisa Palmer prepares new theatre people for a new world

by Rebecca Ugolini

@rebeccaugolini

As she leads me up a narrow flight of stairs in the National Theatre School (NTS) and into an office where we chat a little before the interview starts, I learn a few facts about Alisa Palmer that no amount of research could have revealed. The award-winning director, dramaturge, playwright and artistic director is already well-known to The Charlebois Post readers for her diverse repertoire and devotion to women’s theatre companies such as Nightwood Theatre. In-person, Palmer is humble, funny, and welcoming. And as her schedule at the NTS will attest—the receptionist told me Palmer was in a meeting before I arrived, and Palmer herself said she had another lined up afterward—she is busy, busy, busy. That’s because Palmer is set to take over as the school’s Artistic Director in January of 2013. I sat down with her to discuss her new role as Artistic Director, her relationship to young artists, and the future of Montreal theatre. 

CHARPO: So you’ve directed and taught at schools across Canada. What do you hope to bring to the NTS as Artistic Director?

PALMER: I think the really unique opportunity with the NTS is that it’s a conservatory and all the aspects of theatre are under one roof—and it’s bilingual. So there is more than one culture, and more than one area of specialty in theatre. So just as I do a lot of different types of theatre, I’d like to synthesize and take the most of all the different resources of the fields that are here and get a synergy of the place, get the most out of all of them by weaving them together, in a kind of coherent pedagogy.

Review: (Montreal) August, An Afternoon in the Country

l-r Eleanor Noble, Clare Coulter (photo: lucetg.com)

Family Pictures
by Rebecca Ugolini

In the oppressive August heat, family tensions come to a boil and secrets and scandals rise to the surface. August: an Afternoon in the Country is an unflinching portrayal of one family’s journey across familiar terrain, the well-worn, cyclical conflicts, celebrations and dramas that make up romantic, platonic, and blood relationships. 

The Centaur Theatre’s 2012-2013 opening night presentation of August is also the English-language debut of playwright Jean Marc Dalpé’s acclaimed French-language script, and neither Maureen Labonté’s lively translation nor director Harry Standjofski’s fine cast disappoint.

Audience members will love August for its true-to-life portrayal of the nature of family conflicts: although it’s natural to hope for a resolution to the tragedies portrayed onstage, like a hot summer’s day that eventually loses steam and fades into a humid, black night, August leaves its broken relationships and hurt feelings hanging in the balance, unresolved, hoping for a better tomorrow, but with only the cold and deadness of autumn on the horizon.

Review: (Montreal) Richard III

Metachroma presents a murderous, mad Richard III

by Rebecca Ugolini

A production of Richard III is an ambitious project to undertake for any theatre company, let alone one presenting its inaugural feature. Metachroma Theatre, a young Montreal-based theatre company whose mandate is to address the lack of visible minorities in Canadian theatre, deftly handles the long and complex Richard III by paying equal respect to the play’s violent, tragic, and humourous themes. 

Jamie Robinson is everything a Richard should be—perfectly hateable and yet irresistible, glib, sly, and as the Acts move on, increasingly terrifying and detestable. Whether he occupies the centre stage or stalks along in the background of a scene, he is the one to watch, and in those mute moments, his freakish, funny facial contortions speak almost as loudly as his acid-laden speeches.

Review: (Montreal) Changing Room

Beyond the stage and into the back
by Rebecca Ugolini

From the moment audience members enter Espace Libre’s performance space for a showing of the Nous Sommes Içi collective’s celebrated piece Changing Room, they know they aren’t in for just another night at the theatre. 

Hostesses are carrying trays of a blue-coloured, sweet-sour shot called Androgyne back and forth from the theatre’s well-stocked bar. Tables and chairs are arranged around the stage mimic a show club set-up, and a red-velvet-curtained stage complete with elaborate runway stands awaiting its performers. As soon as the lights dim and the disco ball starts spinning, Délice (Anne-Marie Coté) a big-haired, foul-mouthed, instantly-lovable drag queen hostess appears on stage and welcomes the audience to a night of cabaret numbers, laughs, and heart-to-hearts. 

Review: (Montreal) Macbeth

(photo via Facebook)

Macbeth satisfies and stuns at Monument National

It IS a dagger...

by Rebecca Ugolini

Superstition holds that it’s the play whose name dare not be spoken, but the Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company isn’t afraid to tempt fate. Their production of The Scottish Play is graphic, visually-arresting, and haunting, imbuing the famous play with new energy all the while screaming “Macbeth!”

Audience members sit on the periphery of all four sides of the square stage, either level to the action or watching over the railings of the balcony seating above, like spectators crowding a boxing ring from every angle. Thanks to directing by Aaron George, dynamic fight choreography by Paul DeTourreil, invigorating, dramatic, and almost tribal drumming by producer, percussionist, and set-builder Ace Lopes, and the eerie, cult-like movements of the production’s 12 Weird Sisters choreographed by Amy Blackmore, Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth feels appropriately frightening, claustrophobic, and mad.

Review: (Montreal) Bigger Than Jesus (version française)

(Photo credit: Craig Francis)

Mass

Rick Miller is 33, the same age as Jesus was when he was crucified, he was raised Catholic, he hasn’t been to church in 15 years

by Rebecca Ugolini

“Vous allez assister à une messe,” co-author and actor Rick Miller told last night’s expectant opening night audience of Bigger Than Jesus, a one-man show presented at Theâtre Denise-Pelletier by Canadian groups Wyrd Productions and Necessary Angel.

Featuring a new French-language translation of the script by Marie Gignac and Miller and an innovative staging utilizing live projections by Beth Kates and Ben Chaisson, Bigger Than Jesus rivals any liturgical celebration in pomp, grandeur, and mesmerizing visual effects, producing a show which straddles the serious and the silly, the sacred and the profane.