Review: (Montreal / Dance) Winnin'

(photo by Frédéric Chais)

No end in Sight
by Caitlin Murphy, Senior Contributor

Winnin' is a compendium of gestures that, like its truncated title, are reluctantly reaching towards completion. Choreographed and performed by the brilliant Dany Desjardins, who has previously created All villains have a broken heart (2008), On Air (2009) and POW WOW (2011), it's an accomplished and powerful piece that explores our obsession with winning, and encourages us to lay down our tools of self-inflation.

Review: (Montreal / Dance) That's It

Any Shape, form or structure imaginable
by Chad Dembski,  Editor, Dance

The solo dance performance of That’s It at La Chapelle is a strong investigation of body transformation in all its possible forms. Brussels based creator and dancer Sabine Molenaar first premiered the piece in 2012 and has toured it extensively before making this its North American première. Her incredible virtuosity and control are displayed from the first image of sitting on the ground, back to the audience and arms wrapped in a mysterious way around her body. My first thought was that this was going to be a contortionist show of intense and unbelievable body moves. This became half true over the next 50 minutes where Sabine pulls, pushes, tears and transforms her body into every imaginable form.

Review: (Montreal) The List

Daring Happiness
by Caitlin Murphy

Umberto Eco said that “We like lists because we don't want to die.”  In Jennifer Tremblay's play The List, an unnamed woman – suffering an isolated existence in the country, drowning in domestic ennui – certainly feels like she's dying. Making lists of errands, chores and groceries is her one lifeline, a repeated reminder to herself that she exists and might matter. Translated into English by Shelley Tepperman and directed by Steph Ouaknine, No Exit Theatre's production of The List aims for much greater resonance than it musters; the discrepancy means that this story of a locked-in woman ends up leaving the audience locked out.

The 75-minute one-woman play begins with a shocking admission: though our housewife narrator (Torri Higginson) didn't actually kill her neighbour, Caroline, she is indeed responsible for her death. It's an intriguing starting point, a premise that gleefully merges the banal with the macabre. The woman goes on to recount how in her boredom, she became fixated on Caroline, mother of four, soon to be five. The contempt and resentment she has for Caroline's messy, laissez-faire life mixes uncomfortably with the awe and envy she has for her existential ease. Caroline is happy. How dare she be.

Review: (Montreal) Organon

Obscurity                          
by Élaine Charlebois

In a word, Organon was…confusing. 

A performance piece created by Alexander Wilson and Mélanie Verville, Organon attempted to shock the audience with its eerie sound effects and haunting, alien-like costumes. Having tried to de-code, without any luck, what the entire show was about, I left Théâtre La Chapelle feeling unsettled and confused by my experience. 

Review: (Montreal) La Valeur des choses

(photo by Dominique Skoltz)

MORE! MORE! MORE! 
by Chad Dembski

True Collaboration of inter-disciplinary artists is hard to find; there are a lot of combinations tried but few ever seem to effortlessly co-exist. Yet in La Valeur Des Choses playing now at La Chapelle until Jan. 25th Jacques Poulin-Denis has assembled a fantastic group of artists from Montreal and Vancouver. I had seen a work-in-progress showing of this piece as part of The Segal Centre’s dance residency program with Danse Danse in 2013.  At that point I was very intrigued where the piece would develop and what elements would be kept in future incarnations.

Review: (Montreal) Blindsided

The layers of Beginnings and Endings

by Chad Dembski

Blindsided premiered last night at Théâtre La Chapelle as part of their Festival Artdanthé, an ambitious festival of Montreal and Quebec artists who often cross disciplines with their practice.  Although I have only seen one other piece in this festival so far (Clea Minaker’s Book of Thel) I have been impressed by the commitment to a vision and aesthetic that each artist has brought to the modest but exciting Théâtre La Chapelle.  It is exciting in these conservative and cut-back times to see a theatre programming ambitious and risk-taking work by Montreal artists.

Review: (Montreal) The Book of Thel

(photo: Andrea De Keijzer)

A Dream within a Dream
by Chad Dembski

From the opening blurred image that slowly opens “The Book of Thel” the audience is instantly brought into another world. This is a surreal world of the subconscious, a place of dreams and nightmares. A duet performance (one performer onstage, the other backstage doing manipulation of objects and set), that plays with notions of time, space and reality. Based on the William Blake poem of the same name that was written in 1789, a poem full of rich images that Clea Minaker uses to full effect.