Review: (Montreal / Dance) So Blue

 (photo by: André Cornellier)

Nothing Cavalier
by Élaine Charlebois

There is no wonder why Louise Lecavalier recently won Le Grand Prix du Conseil des Arts de Montréal. From the moment the artist steps onto the Usine C stage, the audience is already sucked in. In So Blue, a piece choreographed by the dancer herself, this petite ball of strength fully indulges us with her amazing talent, inviting us into her awesome creative world.

Review: (Montreal) Le recours aux forêts

                                              (photo by Tristan Jeanne-Valles) 

Lots of F/X not a lot of effect  
by Chad Dembski

I can’t remember ever being given a pair of 3-D glasses before going into a live theatre experience.  Of course now it is common for there to be at least one or two Hollywood films at any given multi-plex that offer a 3-D experience version of the film but it has rarely crossed over into live theatre.  I sat in great anticipation wondering what kind of amazing special effects would be hitting in a few minutes.  Le Recours Aux Forêts starts quite slowly with an entrance of four performers who wear all black and stand in front of large microphones and speak all of their poetic and philosophical text from pages in front of them.  They are expressionless and speak either in pairs or solo and switch quickly between the two female and two male voices. 

Review: (Montreal) Quatre Creations

(photo by Herman Sorgeloos)

Two of Quatre

by Chad Dembski

Do you like to be surprised?  This is one of the central questions at the core of performance, or for the people who enjoy going to shows such as “Cheap Lecture” and “The Cow Piece”.  The duo of Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion, both from the UK have been creating duets since 2002.  They have garnered an international reputation for mixing the formality of musical composition with a simple and open approach to performance.  They are themselves at all times, very much in the space, with you, with everyone and perform with an awareness of every page they touch, each movement and look to the audience. They create an intimacy that makes you feel you are at an informal party and they are the magicians who don’t have tricks but are armed with an ability to make you feel comfortable, to think and laugh uncontrollably.

Review: (Montreal) Gob Squad's Kitchen

(photo credit: David Baltzer)

Live Video Killed the Theatre Star 

by Chad Dembski

Has film slowly destroyed theatre?  Did film make the live narrative irrelevant when it could directly deliver fictional drama and comedy in an easy to consume way?  As it gets easier to take in film and TV (Netflix, online streaming, illegal downloading) theatre seems to slowly drift farther and farther away, attracting only those most sentimental to its art (theatre students, the theatre community and the elderly).  

Yet there are companies and artists in the world who want to investigate, experiment and play with both forms of film and theatre and one of the best is Gob Squad.  Gob Squad’s Kitchen is a show first created in 2007 in Berlin and has since toured the world for six years.  This is Gob Squad’s first tour to Quebec, having played last week in Quebec City for Mois Multi, a festival that celebrates fusions of live performance and technology.  Taking Andy Warhol’s Kitchen as their starting point, two performers (“Sharon” and “Sean”) offer an awkward and gentle introduction of how they are playing a version of themselves but also confess they don’t quite know what their part is as well.  A massive downstage screen soon reveals two other films (via live video feed), one of a woman (“Sarah”) sleeping (ode to Warhol’s film “Sleep” that was originally eight hours long) and one of a man (“Sean”) staring into a camera with a neutral expression (ode to Warhol’s many “Screen Tests”).  The couple in the middle screen show us their kitchen items and attempt to re-create the Warhol film asking “how can we get it just right”?  A tension begins to build as the performers question their roles and it seems to be falling apart to total failure.  As things seem lost,  “Sean” enters the kitchen area and takes on a new character attempting to make the film more 60’s.  Soon “Sarah” is watching from the side and yearns to leave her bed and join the others.