Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again

Tremblay Transformed

A play is adapted for the The Talking Stick Festival exploring aboriginal culture through the arts

by David C. Jones

The matinée performance of For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again had school groups in with a fair number of First Nation students in attendance. Written in 1998 as a tribute to his late mother Michel Tremblay has crafted a nostalgic, funny and theatrical remembrance.

Full Circle Theatre adapts the two characters from Catholic French Canadians to a First Nations mother and son. Since Tremblay has a line referencing his Cree grandmother already there, the only clear change is a magical bit of stagecraft that has an aboriginal flair.

In a Word... Anthony F. Ingram on Uncle Vanya

From The Darkness, Vanya
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Anthony F. Ingram is Vancouver born and bred, having lived away from his hometown a total of one year out of 47 when he trained and worked at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. In addition to that training, he is a graduate of University of British Columbia and Studio 58. Ingram has received numerous Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations as a director and actor. In 2010, he won Best Actor for his performance as a serial killer in Frozen (Shameless Hussy Productions). Ingram has toured across the country with a number of theatre companies and has played in San Jose, California with Electric Company’s Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla. Mr Ingram previously appeared in Blackbird Theatre productions of The Birthday Party, Pinter’s Briefs, Great Expectations, and Waiting for Godot.

CHARPO:  I'd like to get right into the meat of this interview: discuss the character of Uncle Vanya, his profound sadness (read: depression) and how you are bringing your own personal experience into the production. Tell me about shaping the character.

INGRAM: Well, it’s really quite funny, because after a reading of the play around a table, we all got into a discussion about the fact that Astrov is essentially a proto-environmentalist. And Robert (Moloney) who plays Astrov, has done stuff with Green Peace and is a vegetarian (I think) and quite politically attuned particularly about human rights and the environment, and, in the middle of this discussion, I turned to John Wright (the director) and whispered to him, “Robert is Astrov”.  And John looked at me and said, “Yes. But you are Vanya”.  And John was right: I get very upset about human rights abuses and the destruction of the environment and the destruction of Canada by particular politicians, blah blah blah... but at the same time - I’ve kind of given up on signing surveys, attending rallies, and such because, really, what’s the point? It seems to me that we human beings have somehow convinced ourselves that we are particularly special and that it will be a tragedy of universal proportion if we vanish from the face of the earth. Horribly arrogant, in my opinion. My melancholic nature prompts me to just accept the fact that we’re all on this ride to Hell in a very pretty hand-basket. And I think that Vanya’s depression really manifests itself in his frustration at what’s going on around him and his inability to do anything about it. He sees his past as a waste, his future as pointless. And, these are things that I completely identify with. Vanya and I are both 47.  I was, quite seriously, shocked to reach the age of 30. Now I’m 47 and I’m thinking, “so, now what? I just keep going? Someone please tell me that it will end at some point, and end quickly when it does, because I don’t know how long I can keep entertaining myself like this”. These people who have “life-goals” - I just don’t get them. So, really, if I’m doing this (the play) right, I shouldn’t have to worry too much about shaping Vanya, we seem to fit hand-in-glove. Hopefully, all I have to do is learn the lines and not bump into the furniture.

Review: (Vancouver) Dickens' Women

(photo credit: Prudence Upton)

From Pip to Miss Wade via The Waifs
by Chris Lane

My expectations were high before seeing Dickens' Women, as it's a rare chance to see a highly-acclaimed British actress on stage in Vancouver, and Miriam Margolyes certainly does not disappoint. Certainly a wonderful comedienne, she is also formidable in the more measured and dramatic scenes of the show.

Margolyes, known to Canadian audiences as Harry Potter's Professor Sprout, knows her Dickens inside and out, and her enthusiasm for his work is infectious as she performs a series of scenes from Dickens' books. She is also critical in her presentation of Dickens, lending some interesting insights into the more troubling aspects of his character. She presents him as a flawed man who created some masterful works of literature, but she also critiques certain aspects of his work, such as his penchant for sugary-sweet waifs.

Review: (Vancouver) Blind Date

Freaky Funny

by David C. Jones

Blind Date is one of the freakiest funniest most accomplished improv shows I have ever experienced! Go! 

But to say it is an improv show could possibly discourage from as many people as it excites to attend. This is not Whose Line Is It Anyway? or TheatreSports. This is a high risk / stupendously rewarding theatrical experience, a self described social experiment that captures that all encompassing human need – to find a desirable mate.

The witty and loving Rebecca Northan plays a clownish French character named Mimi. Before the show she and her two helpers wander through the lobby chatting with people and handing out pick up lines. This is when she is locating her ‘mark’. A male audience member who will be her co-star – for the whole show!

Now because the show is mostly Mimi and the audience member (the two companions play a small variety of parts like waiters and cops as required) it will be different every night. This can’t help but make it very in the moment and fresh experience each time. I was attending a show a couple of nights into the local run and in the audience was another local critic back for his second go round.

Review: (Vancouver) White Rabbit, Red Rabbit

Theatre at the Elbow

by David C. Jones

This is truly a theatrical experience and a unique opening production for a brand new Vancouver company The Elbow Theatre Society. It takes risks as it tests some theories and it has some great successes but a few flaws.

Each night a different actor or performer is given a sealed script. On stage are a ladder, a chair and a small table containing two glasses of water and a small vial of white powder. On cue our actress opens the script and cold reads. We were very fortunate to have the intensely curious Carmen Aguirre as our reader. She becomes the conduit for Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour as he educates and manipulates both her and the audience to react, respond and recoil to stories full of parables, facts and analogies.

Review: (Vancouver) Hunchback

Hunchback retells 1831 novel with modern flair and fantasy

Not Disney

by Jonas Gifford

Born at Edmonton's Catalyst Theatre, Hunchback retells Victor Hugo's novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, with dark but imaginative staging and an emotive and modern score.

Set in 1482, Hunchback is named after Quasimodo (Ron Pederson), a hunchback adopted in infancy by Claude Frollo (Scott Walters), the Archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris. Frollo and Quasimodo share powerful affections for a beautiful gypsy Esmeralda (Ava Jane Markus). Esmeralda also captures the carnal lust of philanderer and Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers (Andrew Cohen), but tragically succumbs to medieval criminal law after rejecting the jealously obsessive Frollo.