Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) The Concessions

(photo by Tim Matheson)

Facts, rumours and the preternatural collide in small-town thriller - Suspense and relationships make up for lack of warmth
A rural community is the nexus of mystery and hearsay in a play with a mystical twist on small-town drama.
by Chris Lane

The Concessions is a psychological thriller set in small-town Huron County, Ontario, where everyone knows each other and listens to the CBC. The play centres around Fay (Emma Slipp), at once a local and an outsider, as her vocation of reading tarot cards can bring about polarizing responses. She has a tumultuous relationship with barman John, thrown into even more turmoil upon the discovery that someone close to them has been murdered. Rumours abound, abetted by one meddlesome and inexperienced town reporter.

Review: (Vancouver) Dancing With Rage

22 Minutes’ Mary Walsh delivers true Canadian comedy
Dancing with Rage is funny, but not very new
by Chris Lane

Newfie comedian Mary Walsh is in town performing her one-woman show Dancing with Rage, a very Canadian comedy centred around her most famous character, Marg Delahunty: Warrior Princess. It’s as Canadian as Tim Hortons. Dancing with Rage really is Mary Walsh’s own show, having been written by her and directed by her and Andy Jones. Walsh, known for being one of the main faces from CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, works in plenty of her best-loved alter-egos in what seems rather like a round-up of Walsh’s comedic work.

Review: (Vancouver) Medicine

Fear and Addiction
by Jay Catterson
@ScienceOfSmut

Insights into what causes addictions and our biggest fears are highlighted in the one-man play, Medicine, written and performed by Fringe veteran TJ Dawe and playing at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver. This 80 minute one act play is a deeply personal journey into Dawe's experiences with addictions physician Dr. Gabor Maté. Not only does Dawe reveal his inner demons that haunt him, but recounts his journey to self-discovery via Dr. Maté's therapy retreat involving Peruvian shamanistic ceremonies where participants imbibe the psychotropic plant medicine ayahuasca. 

Review: (Vancouver) Kid Gloves

(from the website)

Making History
by David C. Jones

A lot of the truly interesting things about our Canadian history are lost, either because at the time no one thought what was happening was note-worthy or, worse, they suppressed or deleted history in hopes of preventing a changing time.

Vancouver writer Sally Stubbs (Herr Beckman’s People, Wreckage) became intrigued by the first female police officers in Canada and discovered that Vancouver was the first city in Canada to have not one, but two officers in 1912. Not a lot is known about Lurancy Harris and Minnie Miller, it’s not conclusive where they came from or even how their names are correctly spelled.

So Kid Gloves, at Firehall, is the imagined story of what happened those first weeks on the job based on what was happening in Vancouver at the time and a few scraps of historical information.