Review: (Winnipeg) Bloodless

(rehearsal photo)

Bob's your uncle
That bugger is better off dead
by John Herbert Cunningham
[This article has been corrected]

If a medieval jousting tournament was the first thought that entered the audience's mind as they filtered into the theatrical space of the new Cercle Molière in Winnipeg (just opened within the last six months or so), there would have been justification.

Theatrical spaces come in a variety of configurations. The most common are the proscenium, which is the design of most of the larger theatres, such as the Manitoba Theatre Centre's Mainstage and also its Warehouse. In these stages, the audience sits facing the stage. Smaller theatre spaces, such as the Prairie Theatre Centre, will often employ the thrust design where the audience surrounds the stage on three sides.

Cercle Molière is what is referred to as a black box theatrical space where the seating can be configured in a variety of ways including both the proscenium and the thrust.

But what Sharon Bajer, who directed version 3.0 of Joseph Aragonís Bloodless:  The Trial of Burke and Hare for White Rabbit Productions, decided on was a design completely unfamiliar to most theatre goers;  the alley stage. Here, the staging area runs between seating on either side hence the medieval jousting match.

Review: (Winnipeg) Aïda

What's love got to do with it
Ancient cat fights can be deadly, particularly when the cat is a queen
by John Herbert Cunningham

One name almost synonymous with opera is Verdi; and one opera that readily comes to mind is his Aïda. This was what Manitoba Opera offered its sold out house on Saturday and it was greeted at the end with a standing ovation. This was quite an achievement considering Aïda's rocky start. All this without a single elephant.

Verdi's prominence in the opera world can be measured by this opera which was commissioned by Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, in 1871 for the unheard of sum of 150,000 francs. Aïda was premiered in Cairo on 24 December 1871.

The audience was informed prior to the start that there were over 200 individuals involved in the creation of this opera which cost Manitoba Opera over $600,000 and not one elephant.

Review: (Winnipeg) Gunmetal Blues

Andrew Wheeler (photo by Bruce Monk)

She waswaswas truetruetrue to herselfselfself
The case of the MPD dame

by John Herbert Cunningham

What does Mickey Spillane have in common with Scott Wentworth?

If you answered that they both created characters who were detectives, you win the boobie prize, and what a nice pair of boobies that dame has, all six, or is it eight, of them.

Mike Hammer ain't got nothin' on Sam Galahad (Andrew Wheeler). Why Sam even sings. They are both private dicks who have the hots for dames although, in Sam's case, he only met her once briefly and can't recognize her even though he encounters three, or is it four, different versions of her (all played by Meghan Gardiner). One of those versions is a songstress who slinks around in a tightly clinging red dress while she sings that she is several types of blonds potentially even the died type (and, yes, that word is spelled correctly).

Review: (Winnipeg) The Walworth Farce

l-r Toby Hughes, Bill Kerr, Andrew Cecon   (photo: Caroline Wintoniw) 

Three Irish Gentlemen and an Ebony Fox
Waiting for Godot done in real time
by John Herbert Cunningham

Bill Kerr is an associate theatre prof at the University of Manitoba. His speciality is Irish Theatre. Thus, it was no surprise when he took his 2006 sabbatical in Ireland to examine the archives of the Irish playwright about whom he'd written his dissertation.

What was a surprise, both to him and to us, occurred when he attended a theatre to see a play the playwright of which was a relative unknown to him. Imagine Vladimir and Estragon at a lunch counter where they are served actual bacon and eggs, and eat them, while waiting for Godot. This is the nature of the play Kerr brought back to Winnipeg with him.

And is the audience glad he did.

Review: (Winnipeg) Bashir Lazhar

On the Theme of Immigration
by John Herbert Cunningham

Given that Theatre Projects Manitoba describes its mandate, on its website, as follows: "We develop the voices of our region, choosing stories that have a connection to our community, our history and culture and grow these new creations with passionate support", one may forgive the  audience for wondering what this play is doing on the TPM playlist for this season. That audience would be even more perplexed when they realized that the first of the two plays this season was also a translation of a Quebec playwright's play.

But then, Manitoba does have one of the largest French-speaking populations outside of Quebec. Thus, that does in fact fit the mandate as French is a definite and important part of Manitoba's history and culture.

Review: (Winnipeg) Daddy Long Legs

Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock in Daddy Long Legs. Photo by Jeanne Tanner

The Route to Musical Love
by John Herbert Cunningham

Daddy Long Legs has walked a great distance to get from page to stage making many transformations along the way.

It began its journey in 1912 as a novel by Jean Webster, daughter of a wealthy socialite family who, when she arrived in New York to attend Vassar College as a budding English major and future novelist, became exposed to the American orphanage system and became an advocate for reform. Its next incarnation was as a 1919 silent movie starring Mary Pickford whom many may remember as a Canadian actress. It first appeared as a musical in 1931, sticking close to the original, before Shirley Temple, in 1935, starred in a musical version which required significant changes. This revamping continued when, in 1955, a movie version starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron was created with music and lyrics by Johnny Mer, as an anime television series, (1990), and South Korea (2005).

Finally, through a joint effort by the Rubicon Theatre Company of Ventura, California, TheatreWorks of the Silicon Valley, and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the original plot was restored before finally settling onto the mainstage of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (RMTC), the John Hirsch Theatre.