Review: (Toronto) Twelve Angry Men

(photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

The Fathers of Mad Men

by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

@causticzoe

What resonances does Twelve Angry Men have for today’s Canadian audiences? Reginald Rose’s famous play concerns a jury assembled in New York in the 1950s—respecting all the Aristotelian unities, it takes place over two hours as the men deliberate the fate of a 'slum' youth, whose conviction will send him to the electric chair. On the surface, the contemporary parallels aren’t obvious. The jury is homogenous (with one exception), the death penalty is something for backward Americans, and everyone has a regular job.  

It seems easy enough to dismiss the play as a period piece—one that nevertheless makes us chuckle at those cheesy 1950s colloquialisms. But as the internecine squabbles get underway, we come to the disturbing confrontation of the steadfastness of prejudice – racism, sexism, anti-elitism, and jingoism, sometimes subtle, sometimes unmistakable. One leaves the play with an overwhelmingly potent sense of the damage wrought by 50s masculinity that still looms over us today. 

Review: (Toronto / Theatre) The Road to Mecca

(photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Together Apart
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

The beginning of The Road to Mecca, now playing at Soulpepper’s Michael Young theatre, is jarring. A young schoolteacher, Elsa (Shannon Taylor) bursts on stage and crankily snaps at her unsuspecting hostess, Miss Helen (Diana Leblanc). An elderly widow, Miss Helen lives in the Afrikaans small village in South Africa and Elsa has travelled 12 hours from Capetown for this visit – why? We’re not sure. On the highway she ran into a poor African woman carrying her newborn baby in the stifling heat. It is this kind of injustice that incenses Elsa, and she has a vituperative way of taking it out on Miss Helen.  But what is slowly revealed through the first act is a foundation of fondness between the two women. Furthermore their exchanges do aptly demonstrate different kinds of rebellions. For all her tongue-lashings, Elsa deeply respects Helen, with her quiet but powerful bucking of the status quo, her steadfast commitment to her art at all costs. 

Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Theatre Centre's Incubator series

From: Death Married my Daughter

Stories Robustly Told
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

Last Thursday night marked the opening of the Theatre Centre’s Incubator space, where three distinct one-hour plays, by three talented Indie companies, were presented in rep. The subjects of these shows are as diverse as you might expect. What connects them is an innovative lighting designer, André du Toit, and most importantly, a dedication to telling stories through robust physicality.

Ralph + Lina
Ahuri Theatre

First off is Ralph + Lina, a true-to-life account of actress/creator Cristina Serra’s Italian grandparent's courtship, marriage and eventual immigration to Canada. Serra even plays beside her real life husband Dan Watson in what makes for an enduring romance that resonates through generations.

The play begins with the couple’s morning routine. As they lunge for the paper in a tango, while Lina absentmindedly pours hot coffee into Ralph’s perfectly placed cup, we know this is a couple who has been carrying on like this for years. This opening display of crabby and comfortable domesticity is impressively realized by these two nimble actors, who use robust physical movement and precise choreography to bring the old couple to life. Indeed, their whimsical acrobatics are the highlight of the show.

As Lina begins to do her husband’s laundry, a familiar smell takes her back some 40 years to the small Italian town where she grew up.  Now, the main story unfurls in flashback. A handsome, but poor young buck, Ralph, in pre-war Italy courts a pretty and coy Lina. This story has its charming moments, but isn’t as captivating as their older-couple impersonations. Things become clichéd when Ralph is conscripted and finally returns to Lina, now betrothed to another. Here the play offers up an echo of that famous Notebook scene: “I waited for you for seven years.”

Things are quickly resolved, however; and soon enough the couple immigrates to Canada, and we return to the charming seniors we know already, as they are preparing to greet their large family brood. Heartwarming and silly, Ralph + Lina is a sweet take on a familiar Canadian immigrant story.

News: (Toronto) Report: MyTheatre Awards, Winners

Raquel Duffy and Gregory Prest presenting the award for Best New Work (photo credit: Ann Fitzhenry)

Jenny Weisz Hosts First Outing
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

Though the My Entertainment World awards themselves have been bestowed annually since 2009, last night was the first MyTheatre Awards Ceremony – an opportunity/excuse for a throng of theatre people to come out and celebrate two months before the Dora Awards. 

All the essential elements for a fantastic award atmosphere were there: savoury hors d’oeuvres, banquet seating, a flowing bar, a cover band and dance floor. Jenny Weisz, played host effectively.  She began the night belting out “Show People” from the musical Curtains, later took selfies with the audience and finally passed out copies of her own signed headshot.  (Toronto recently saw her as the title character in YPT’s Annie.) 

Review: (Toronto) Untitled Feminist Show (World Stage)

(photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Unfettered Joy

by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

Harbourfront’s World Stage brings us Untitled Feminist Show (UFS), written by New York playwright Young Jean Lee, with choreographer Faye Driscoll, and director Morgan Gould. This is the second display of Lee’s work in Canada after World Stage’s 2013 season included The Shipment, her commentary on the black experience in the United States. UFS similarly grapples with identity politics, but this time, as all promotional material is quick to tell you, the action unfolds without words or wardrobe. What you can expect then, is less of Lee’s signature caustic commentary; instead, the more playful element of her previous plays seems to have exploded into 60 minutes of exuberant whimsy. 

Review: (Toronto) The Valley

Ian Lake and Colin Mercer (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

The Sacrosanct Sphere
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

Set up like an office furniture showroom, all in muted artichoke and beige, the Tarragon Mainspace was arranged as an alley, which is theatre-speak for audience on either side of the stage. This requires that we encroach on the world of the play in order to take our seats – a movement, common enough, though it still somehow feels like a violation. But, while we traipsed across, one area remained unalloyed. At centre stage there was a perfect circle, an orb of seraphic light. This space, the healing circle, intimidates even the four actors at first; they deliver thoughtful monologues at its perimeter, basking in its warm light, but never stepping in. Then, all of a sudden, the narrative lurches forward, vulnerabilities reveal themselves, and before long characters aren’t so much stepping in as stomping across or collapsing in defeat, in this once sacrosanct sphere. 

Review: (Toronto) Delicacy (SummerWorks)

From left, clockwise: Tennille Read, Andy Trithardt, Kelly McCormack, Kaleb Alexander (photo credit: ZAIDEN)

On a delicate subject...
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

Theatre Brouhaha promises to produce work that will wow the 'HBO generation'. This helps to explain why watching Artistic Director, Kat Sandler’s, new play Delicacy, at the Lower Ossington Theatre, I felt more like part of a studio audience than someone watching a play.  The set, suggestive of ones seen on sitcoms, a sea of white, done up with all the flourishes of crude wealth, from a tacky shag rug, to a hideously expensive phallic sculpture. 

Review: (Toronto) How Can I Forget (SummerWorks)

Remember When...
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

While it’s comforting to think of memories as stored away treasures nestled safe in the attic of our mind, recent scientific developments have us disabused. Rather than waiting for nostalgic moments to emerge fully formed, memories are created afresh each time we summon them.  Even at their most robust, these recollections are elusive, and not to be trusted. Still we rely on memory, we have to, to form a coherent narrative of who we think we are.The tricky quality of memory and its role in identity formation is the fodder for Sook-Yin Lee, resident artist at SummerWorks, and her collaborator, Ben Camino’s, experimental multimedia performance, How Can I Forget. 

Review: (Toronto) Morro and Jasp - Go Bake Yourself (Fringe)

Cook This!
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

There is a plentiful share of comedic duos at this years Fringe. So why aren’t more of them women?  Fortunately, we do have clown duo Heather Annis and Amy Lee, that is Jasp and Morro, capably venturing into novel territory in their one hour cooking show extravaganza.  Prissy Jasp plays “straight man” to the unruly Morro; Morro wants to play Battle Kitchen Stadium, while Jasp would rather mince about Betty Crocker-like.  The two of them elbow each other out of the way in a constant struggle of who will be Sous, to the other’s Top Chef. Their robust physical comedy is put to great effect.  Jasp bounds up and down the aisle sharing their latest concoctions. Morro beckons us to the stage to take part in a strenuous gladiator-style carrot-peeling competition. 

Review: (Toronto) Callaghan! and the Wings of the Butterfly (Fringe)

When Shorter is Better
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

In several years of Fringe attendance I had never seen a production with such polished synchronization of sound, lighting, musical and choreographed effects.  Callaghan, taking its inspiration from the Indiana Jones movies, is a rumbustious spoof, chock full of balletic fight scenes and cliff dangling escapes.  Save for the title character, each member of the six-person cast takes on numerous minor roles, many accented, as well as playing various kinds of scenery. 

Review: (Toronto) Hip.Bang Improv! (Fringe)

Hegemony...Chemistry
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

“Hegemony,” my obliging friend suggested, and HipBang, that is Tom and Devin the Vancouver improv duo, balked.  They asked for a definition and we provided one: dominance by a ruling class. The word was important, as it was to propel the next 45 minutes of spontaneous stage time. Hegemony might have been a more difficult term than they’re used to, but hegemony was what they got, and they were off.  

It doesn’t make much sense to elaborate on the specifics of this performance, since of course it changes night to night.  But understand that improv of this type requires robust athleticism. For 45 minutes we were taken through vignettes that ranged from sinister surgeons to rebellious monks to a dysfunctional tree family.  The more outlandish the more laughs. 

Review: (Toronto) The Collectors (Fringe)

Woman on the Verge
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

The Collectors boasts, one of the most compelling blurbs in the Fringe brochure. Dealing with “emotional poverty and debt” the play centers on a woman, Hannah, sequestered in her apartment, accosted by collection agencies, struggling to make art amidst disorder. But the play is not really interested in it’s own conceit. It doesn’t focus on debt, or the nature of debt, or anything to do with debt.  

What The Collectors really captures is an unstable and desperate woman, but the characterization stops there.  We don’t know anything about the art Hannah is purportedly trying to create, she refers only fleetingly to her misgivings about it, and even then only vaguely, “I don’t know what my work is actually worth. I don’t know who the judges are.  I don’t know how to reach them.”

Review: (Toronto) Jem Rolls Attacks the Silence (Fringe)

Relevant as Ever
A Fringe veteran commands the stage
by Zoe Erwin-Longstaff

A seasoned Fringer, Jem Rolls’s new vehicle, Jem Rolls ATTACKS THE SILENCE, delivers the dexterous versification veteran patrons relish. Over the years his one-man shows are examples of personal effervescence on display. But forget his buoyant theatricality; this show would be engaging for an audience blindfolded.   Jem Rolls knows the pleasures of sound.  Those delectable “o” vowels, richly elongated, resonate and tease our ear. With brio, he rattles off alliterative lists, creating canny rhymes and rhythms that hit the spot each time. Though occasionally sputtering and raspy, his vocal prowess includes exactitude of diction assuring we don’t miss a word – even as he careens us forward at breakneck speeds.