Friday, January 27, 2012

Penny Plain

Ronnie Burkett celebrates 25 years as the master of his own universe (strings attached)

Penny Plain

Ronnie Burkett is a skilled manipulator—of puppets that is! His company, the Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, celebrates 25 years of theatre magic-making this year with a national and international tour of Penny Plain, a dark and thought provoking drawing room comedy about the end of civilization on stage now at the Factory Theatre. Featuring one man (the all-powerful creator himself) and a large cast of marionettes of various shapes, sizes, ages and persuasions, this wildly imaginative production examines the baser side of human nature in all its tragic glory.

The story follows Penny Plain, a blind, elderly boarding house owner, who sits in her armchair waiting for doomsday. Joined by her seeing-eye dog and companion, Geoffrey, Penny listens to the television news broadcast—voiced by Canadian media and theatre personalities, such as Jeanne Beker, Peter Hinton and Anusree Roy—while chaos wreaks havoc on the world outside. When Geoffrey leaves home to experience life as an independent (did I mention Geoffrey is a talking dog with dreams of becoming a gentleman?), Penny longs for a new friend to take his place.

Ronnie Burkett's Penny Plain

Over the course of the play, she encounters many interesting characters: a horny Mexican Chihuahua and street-walking poodle; a crazed editor/serial killer; a vulgar old lady; a cross-dressing banker; a sad puppeteer (Geppetto) and his estranged son (a grown-up Pinocchio); a lonely woman desperate for a baby; Jesus-loving Americans; a little girl who pretends to be a dog and the little boy who wants to protect her.

Burkett moves swiftly between scenes, switching marionettes with seemingly effortless precision. His set is divided into two levels: Burkett controls the strings from the top tier and the action unfolds on the stage below. By the end of the show, the set—complimented by Kevin Humphrey’s striking lighting design—takes on a life of its own, sprouting flowers and vines as Mother Nature forces her way into Penny’s living room.

To quote the great Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki—who’s wise words apparently inspired the show–“We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.” Penny Plain is a stark reminder that the human race is on a collision course with disaster. Don’t miss this comically ominous and touching puppet performance.

Penny Plain runs until February 26 at the Factory Theatre. Visit factorytheatre.ca for more information and to buy tickets.

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Golden Dragon

Tarragon Theatre serves a whimsical, heart-wrenching slice of life with The Golden Dragon

By Ava Baccari

Written by Roland Schimmelpfennig
Translated by David Tushingham
Directed by Ross Manson

The Golden Dragon

Lili Francks, Tony Nappo, Anusree Roy, David Yee and David Fox. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

There’s no worse time to see Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon, now running in Tarragon Theatre’s main space, than on an empty stomach; especially as kitchen staff at the “Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai restaurant” the Golden Dragon repeatedly howl orders of Bangkok-styled duck, pad Thai noodles, red curry and one ill-fated bowl of order Number 6: Thai soup with chicken, coconut milk, Thai ginger, tomatoes, button mushrooms, lemon grass and lemon leaves (hot).

But this bustling eatery offers more than mouthwatering pan-Asian cuisine: it’s the central hub for the international tenants who live in the floors above and Schimmelpfennig is nearly perfect at drawing out the innate similarities connecting them beyond a shared mailing address. Strung together with seemingly disparate vignettes—such as one parallel storyline involving a bullying ant and helpless cricket—Schimmelpfennig exposes the various scales of vulnerability and abuse experienced when navigating unknown terrain, like a rocky relationship or foreign country.

Although playfully evoking elements of magical realism, director Ross Manson consistently achieves harrowing believability throughout the 90-minute run with a cast of Canadian greats. Through self-reflexive dialogue that includes stage directions, the actors boldly hop between characters ultimately unlike themselves.

On the bottom floor nearest to the restaurant lives an old man (played with much conviction by the youngest cast member, David Yee) who’s visited by his young granddaughter (one of Lili Francks searing, emotional displays) and can’t quite work up to sharing her life-changing news. She lives on the top floor with her svelte young boyfriend (a delightful David Fox) whose love for her wanes as her belly swells with the child they can’t afford.

The storylines are woven through the chaos unfolding at the restaurant, where the newest staff member cries out in pain from a rotted tooth. Since healthcare isn’t an option for the boy (Anusree Roy)—an illegal Chinese immigrant who arrived in search of his missing sister—the staff swoops in with vodka and pliers instead, one of the show’s many darkly comical moments.

Teresa Przybylski’s clean set consists of a large table for cooking and serving and where actors nimbly circle around and perform over top. Simple costume changes signal the character’s transition into a different tenant—with a wig, Fox becomes a brunette flight attendant—keeping a fluid momentum as their tangled lives rapidly unveil themselves.
The most poignant storyline to emerge is of the young married couple occupying another floor, where the wife (Tony Nappo in a red dress) tells her husband (Roy) she’s leaving him for another man; the fallout of which has devastating effects on the women he encounters later on.

Even with Schimmelpfennig’s skillfully fleshed-out characters, the progression of the show is often weighted down by the numerous storylines it moves between and some feel slighted by the end. But rarely has such a powerful example of the kitchen as a unifying pillar in daily life—and what happens when there are just too many cooks in it— emerged in Canadian theatre.

The Golden Dragon runs until February 19 at the Tarragon Theatre. Visit tarragontheatre.com for more information and to find tickets.

 

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Q&A: Cruel and Tender Actor Jeff Lillico

Cruel and Tender rehearsal

Atom Egoyan, Jeff Lillico, Arsinée Khanjian. Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Jeff Lillico has established himself as one of the most versatile young actors in Canada. With an impressive list of credits from the Shaw Festival and Soulpepper (to name a few), and a Dora Award for outstanding male performance in a principal role for Acting Up Stage Theatre Company’s 2010 production of The Light in the Piazza, the talented thesp is well on his way to becoming a household name.

This month, Lillico will tackle the part of Arsinee Khanjian and Daniel Kash’s son in the Canadian Stage production of Martin Crimp’s Cruel and Tender. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Atom Egoyan, the contemporary drama, based on an ancient Greek tragedy, opens this Thursday, January 26 at the Bluma Appel Theatre (previews have already started).

Here, we chat with Lillico about working on the show, his upcoming role in Canadian Stage/Studio 180’s production of Clybourne Park, and more.

Theatromania: Tell us about your character James in Cruel and Tender. What attracted you to the role?

JL: James goes on an incredible journey through the course of Cruel and Tender. At the beginning of the play he’s at home, living his life, not too unlike any other young man might do at present. He’s wondering what to do with his future, frustrated with his mother and the superficial concerns of her daily life (in his opinion at any rate), and spending his days trying to connect with friends and some sort of truth or even just entertainment over the world-wide-web. He’s reduced to staying in touch with his friends through the internet as he and his mother have been sent to a remote location near an international airport. His father, a high-ranking general, has been shipped across the world for a mission they know little to nothing about.

Without getting into too much more of what’s to come, James is sent on a journey to find his father. The experience will put him through horrors worse than he could imagine. He’s left trying to put all the pieces together before our eyes and I was certainly drawn to exploring the brutal road he must walk.

Theatromania: What is it like working with Atom Egoyan? Have you learned anything new from this experience?

JL: It’s been fantastic working with Atom. He has a thrilling vision and extreme intelligence. The thing I’m most struck by, however, is his sense of humour. I’ve been delighted to discover that he’s a very funny individual, which makes every day working with him a real pleasure.

Some of Atom’s ideas for this production have been pretty wild, which is very much in keeping with the nature of the play. I’ve learned a lot by putting my trust in him. I’ve really tried to commit to ideas that I may not have understood immediately. In the end, I’ve always been very glad I’ve stuck with it and have felt something very interesting has come about. It’s also great how collaborative the process has been. He has an idea and then is very open to our expanding on it to make it into something none of us could have predicted. I think this is the best way to work.

Theatromania: Why should people see this play?

JL: People should see this play because it’s exciting. It’s startling. It’s devastating. It’s sexy. It’s, at times, very funny. It’s entirely unique. It’s an opportunity to watch one of our country’s greatest artistic minds, in Atom Egoyan, take his vision from film and from opera to the theatre with a visceral, powerful piece, never before seen in North America. We’re also blessed with an amazing cast that I’m thrilled to get to work with.

Theatromania: Do you have any pre-show traditions or rituals?

JL: I don’t really have any pre-show traditions or rituals, at least not before a nightly performance. I do in the larger sense, I suppose, in that I love to travel and if I can tie it into my work I will make every effort to do so. I recently returned from a trip to East Africa that was very much centred around preparations for Cruel and Tender.

James goes to Sub-Saharan Africa in search of his father. His experiences lead him to many revelations – some are specific to his relationship with his parents but others are about the lives of the people there, and how they contrast to the life that he has known. I find travelling incredibly rewarding and I love that in so many ways, large or small, it will invariably have an impact on what I’m able to bring to my work.

Theatromania: You are also performing in Studio 180/Canadian Stage’s upcoming production of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park. Have you started preparing for that part yet?

JL: I’m very excited for Clybourne Park. I haven’t begun preparing for it in too many ways yet. I’ve read it several times. In the first act I play Jim, a minister. I’ve talked to a friend of mine about meeting up with his fiancee, who’s a minister, to get a sense of things I might want to think about. My girlfriend, Kimwun Perehinec, co-founder of Studio 180 Theatre, is also going to be in it, which is very exciting to me—it will be our first time working together. Just tonight she shared an article with me called “How to Misunderstand Satire” by Lyndon Hood. Clybourne Park is one of the clearest instances of satire I can think of and so, in small ways, the preparations have already begun, yes.

Theatromania: Who are some of your greatest influences?

JL: I feel very blessed to have many great influences. I’m fortunate to say that the list is added to all the time. Between starting out at the Shaw Festival where I spent five seasons, 20 productions at Soulpepper, one year at the Stratford festival and, now, my first production with Canadian Stage, I’m more grateful than anything to have worked with and been inspired by such continually exciting and motivating individuals.

Theatromania: What’s your dream role?

JL: My dream role…hmm. The next one. And the one after that…and so on!

Theatromania: Are you working on any other projects?

JL: Nope… I have the show with Canadian Stage/Studio 180 on the horizon, and then the world is a terrifying place. I’m not too worried though :)

Catch Jeff Lillico on stage in Cruel and Tender until February 18, 2012. Visit canadianstage.com for more information and to buy tickets.

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Other People

Other People offers another look at the scandalous lives of struggling New York artists

By Ava Baccari

Directed by Aaron Willis
Written by Christopher Shinn

Other People

The cast of Other People. Photo by Mercedes Grundy.

The kids in Christopher Shinn’s play Other People, about a gaggle of broke, twentysomethings holed up in New York’s East Village, are—as you would imagine—not all right.

Here we go again: a saga told many times before (Friends, for one) Shinn’s thinly contrived plot indulges these self-involved young adults whose woeful pasts have not only stifled them creatively (and verbally, it seems) but makes for awkward, irrelevant stage material that consistently scrapes along at surface level.

Longtime friends Petra and Stephen are recently reunited at a New York diner and awaiting the return of Mark, Stephen’s ex-lover, who will complete their trifecta of naval-gazing struggling artists all living under one Manhattan roof over the holidays. It’s clear from the onset that this much baggage won’t fit in their shoebox apartment.

Written by New York playwright Shinn, whose 2008 play, Dying City, was shortlisted for the Pulitzer prize, the show first opened in London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2000; its Canadian premiere, on now at the Tank House Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, a collaboration with Mutual Friends Co-Op and Mercedes Grundy, already feels dated.

From the opening scene, Ben Lewis’ Stephen is unbearably grating—a fast-talking nervous-wreck whose gag of speaking in stunted, barely English phrases tires quickly. The rapid-fire, pseudo-intellectual dialogue Shinn longs for—which worked wonderfully in 90s’ teen soap Dawson’s Creek—translates into hyper-self-conscious psycho-speak in his lost youth: “I always kept my life very compartmentalized,” Stephen admits in one of his many rehashings of what went wrong with Mark, (Indrit Kasapi).

After a short bout as a Hollywood director, Mark returns to New York as a devout Christian. In his period of reform, he brings home a bible and a stray youth, Tan (Brendan McMurtry-Howlett) and Stephen grows suspicious of Mark’s intentions.

Tatiana Maslany’s Petra, an aspiring poet from Queens who moonlights as a stripper, is likely the most believable character, though even she is prone to chronic, convoluted philosophizing of her writerly impulses. She attempts to explain to a particularly inquisitive client (Mike McPhaden) that she took up the gig in Japan to pay for grad school, and continues to dance even after returning to New York for more artistic reasons than simply paying the bills.

It’s hard to tell if the show’s lack of engaging substance is inherent to Shinn’s script or a shortcoming in Aaron Willis’ production (though the techno music consistently humming along during many intimate discussions is particularly distracting). The functional minimalist set transforms from apartment, to restaurant, to nightclub with ease but is awkward and uninspiring.

Like all starving-artist twentysomethings, what these kids, and the show, need most is some sagely, guiding direction.

Other People runs until January 28 at the Tank House Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Visit youngcentre.ca for more information and to buy tickets.

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Kim’s Convenience

Ins Choi has something great in store for Soulpepper audiences this season

Written by Ins Choi
Directed by Weyni Mengesha

Kim's Convenience

Ins Choi in Kim’s Convenience. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

After a hit run at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience opened Soulpepper’s 15th anniversary season Thursday night to triumphant acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

The Soulpepper Academy alumnus’ debut play tells the story of a Regent Park convenience store run by the larger-than-life Mr. Kim, or Appa (father). Ken MacKenzie’s authentic set design recreates the look and feel of your typical neighbourhood corner store, right down to the lottery tickets, cigarettes and ginseng.

Mr. Kim (played by the hilarious and powerful Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) argues with customers in broken English, nags his 30-year-old daughter, Janet (the clever and comical Esther Jun), and proudly defends his Korean heritage against comparisons to the Japanese. He is king of his own little empire.

But when Mr. Kim is offered a large sum of money for the property, the store’s future comes into question and he must choose between a comfortable retirement and the legacy of Kim’s Convenience. The business is his “dynasty,” and he dreams that one of his children will take over. Although, Janet, a photographer, has no interest in running the store, and his estranged son, Jung (Choi), left home after a fight and hasn’t spoken to him for 15 years.

In 85 minutes, a highly entertaining and moving family drama unfolds: Janet fights for independence and acknowledgement from her father, who meddles with every aspect of her life, including a budding romance with her childhood friend Alex (a wonderfully versatile Cle Bennett, who also plays three other characters in the show); Mrs. Kim or Umma (Jean Yoo), meets with her son at church and reminisces about the good old days; and eventually, an unhappy Jung, now a father himself, returns to the family store to make amends.

Under director Weyni Mengesha, the five cast members give deeply committed performances, bringing this poignant immigrant story to life with real emotion and respect for the generations of people who sacrificed their lives to give their children a better future.

Don’t miss your chance to see this outstanding Toronto play. Tickets are selling out fast!

Kim’s Convenience runs until February 11, 2012. Visit soulpepper.ca for more information and to buy tickets.

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Blue Dragon

Familiar skeletons of the past collide with fiery new characters in Robert Lepage’s complex, trilingual spectacle

By Ava Baccari

Written by Marie Michaud and Robert Lepage

The Blue Dragon

Photo by Erick Labbe.

The Blue Dragon, currently running at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, is in every sense a powerful, cinematic experience: from the way it effortlessly transcends spatial and linguistic boundaries as it dips in and out of time and time zones, right up to the subtitles crawling along a screen and transformative set holding it all in place.

Picking up where co-writer and director Robert Lepage’s character previously left off in The Dragons’ Trilogy, The Blue Dragon revisits Québécois-expat Pierre Lamontagne (Henri Chassé), now a living as a gallery owner in Shanghai. Michel Gauthier’s practical, beautifully rendered set functions both as Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and a converted arts centre where Pierre now resides.

Divided into tiny shoebox-sized rooms, Pierre’s apartment and studio, is as compartmentalized as his life: Claire, (Marie Michaud) an old friend from la belle province, who turns out to be his wife, stops by in the midst of her plans to adopt a Chinese baby, while Xiao Ling (Tai Wei Foo) an artist exhibiting at his gallery and current flame, drops in to spend the night.

If this is sounding over-the-top soap opera-dramatic, it plays out this way on stage. But rapid set changes, Chassé’s monologues about ancient Chinese art and the perplexing screening of a Chinese KFC commercial, keep the hour-and-50-minute running time (no intermission) moving along gracefully.

As the lives of each of these three strong characters represent, things don’t always work out as planned and the ghosts of what should have been remain with us like tattoos. Claire’s resurfacing reminds Pierre of the Quebec he’s glad to have left behind—full of “nationalism that gets you nowhere”—but forces him to confront the place he may soon need to return to, as he and the other tenants face a looming eviction in favour of more profitable, capitalist Chinese enterprises.

This uncertainty not only fuels artistic expression—there’s plenty of it to go around—but makes for an entertaining theatrical spectacle of cinematic proportions.

The Blue Dragon runs until February 19, 2012. Visit mirvish.ca for more information and to buy tickets.

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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cabaret

Life is a cabaret and you don’t want to miss your chance to catch the live show

By Ava Baccari

Book by Joe Masteroff
Based on play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood
Music by John Kander / Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Adam Brazier

The company in “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” Photo credit: Daniel DiMarco.

As Emcee of a night at the Cabaret—both the swinging club in 1930s Berlin and the decadent 1966 musical that relishes it now playing at Toronto’s Hart House Theatre—Michael-David Blostein’s delicious drawl pulls us in from his breathy opening number, “Willkommen.”

Our guide to the smoky, freewheeling world of hard liquor, lacy garters and jazz that dazzled pre-WWII Berlin, Blostein introduces us to the cabaret—a refuge for flappers and gentleman where “everything is tacky and terrible and everyone’s having a good time.” Women in top hats and torn pantyhose limberly climb the cabaret stage of the Kit Kat Klub, framed like a powder room mirror with flashing light bulbs and swathed in frothy pink velour curtains. Double kudos to Brandon Kleiman for recreating that swinging Gatsby-style sentiment with his set and costume design.

As one of Canada’s most versatile musical theatre actors and adored Broadway and West End exports, Adam Brazier’s razor precision and flamboyant whimsicality is evident in his role directing the show, which opened Friday night. In the same role that consecrated Liza Minnelli as holy stage diva in the 1972 film, Courtney Lamanna sizzles as Sally Bowles, infusing the eclectic nightclub performer with a gritty, commandeering confidence. You can’t take your eyes off her. As her latest love interest, a wide-eyed aspiring novelist from Pennsylvania, Keenan Viau has just enough earnestness as Clifford Bradshaw.

Unfortunately his matronly landlord, Fraulein Schneider, Renée Stein’s musical numbers, while sentimental, fall flat in the midst of flashier, more memorable performances featuring the powerhouse cast of infinitely talented Kit Kat dancers. Perhaps the subdued, grave nature of the relationship with her tenant, Herr Shultz, (Don Berns) a German-Jew, inevitably translates into a quieter, bleaker presence on stage.

The show smoulders with the carefree allure of booze and jazz that seems to flow endlessly but sombre reminders of Hitler’s Nazis encroaching on raucous Berlin, and the rest of Europe, slip their way into all the bawdiness—most colourfully depicted as pasties shaped as swastikas. But even as the cabaret slowly empties and the orchestra and beautiful people flee Berlin, the era endures as one hell of a good ride right up until the grand finale. And Hart House Theatre’s Cabaret captures that in its indulgent, irresistible entirety.

Cabaret is on stage now at the Hart House Theatre until January 28, 2012. Visit harthouse.ca for more information and to buy tickets.

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Friday, January 13, 2012

The Penelopiad

Nightwood Theatre takes to Margaret Atwood’s myth busting novella like a duck to water

Written by Margaret Atwood
Directed by Kelly Thornton
Starring Megan Follows

Megan Follows and the cast of The Penelopiad

Left to right: Tara Rosling, Cara Gee, Monica Dottor, Pamela Sinha, Sophia Walker, Christine Brubaker, Raven Dauda, Kelli Fox, Bahia Watson and Megan Follows in The Penelopiad. Photo Credit: Robert Popkin.

This month, Nightwood Theatre presents the Toronto professional premiere of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad: a play of epic proportions. The highly-anticipated production opened last night at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and will run until January 29, 2012.

The Penelopiad is Atwood’s re-telling of Homer’s The Odyssey from the perspective of his loyal wife Penelope. Most are familiar with the ancient Greek myth, but in this version we see Odysseus’ 20-year voyage through the eyes of a woman: forced to fend off hundreds of lecherous suitors back in Ithaca, Penelope enlists her maids in a ruse to protect her good name. But when Odysseus returns, he kills the suitors and hangs the 12 maids, leaving Penelope with an eternally guilty conscious. For the women had no choice but to sleep with the suitors—they were only following orders to protect their queen.

From the depths of the underworld, Penelope (Megan Follows) narrates her side of the story, alternating with the chorus of maids who lament their fate through songs. The 12 supporting cast members play various parts, both male and female, coming together in an exuberant and heartbreaking on-stage sisterhood.

Featuring ethereal set and costume design by Denyse Karn, The Penelopiad is a veritable feast for the senses. As Penelope relates the major events of her life—from growing up in Sparta with her Naiad (water nymph) mother and father (King Icarius) who tried to drown her as a child, to her experience becoming Odysseus’ 15-year-old wife—the women work together, moving set pieces and propelling the production forward with impressive cohesion (the sailing scene where the cast transforms into a ship is particularly well done).

Under director Kelly Thornton, Follows’ culpable Penelope is admirably articulate and collected, except when she loses it in a hilarious fit of rage over her beautiful cousin Helen (played by the radiant Pamela Sinha). Not to mention the rest of this powerhouse cast—Tara Rosling, Cara Gee, Kelli Fox, Pat Hamilton, Bahia Watson, Sarah Dodd, Maev Beaty, Christine Brubaker, Raven Dauda, Monica Dottor and Sophia Walker—who give terrific performances as family members, maids and suitors.

As with much of Atwood’s work, The Penelopiad has a timeless quality that speaks to the ongoing struggles women face in a male-dominated world. With the writer’s signature wit and intelligence, this feminist take on a classic legend opens up a whole new world for women in literature. Imagine if other myths were revisited from a female point of view—the possibilities are endless.

Don’t miss Nightwood Theatre’s inspiring production. The Penelopiad runs until January 29, 2012 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival: Modern Love

Presented by Theatre Caravel
Written and Performed by Jessica Moss
Directed by Eric Double

Modern Love

Jessica Moss is a very funny lady—it’s hard to believe she ever gets lonely. But don’t we all feel that way sometimes? In her one-woman show Modern Love—an audience favourite at this year’s Next Stage Theatre Festival—she explores the ways we connect and disconnect from each other in today’s tech-obsessed society.

Kyle Purcell’s multimedia design provides the creative backdrop as Moss navigates the online world, acting out everything from friend requests on Facebook, to retweets, hash tags and laugh-out-loud profiles of potential matches on raunchy dating sites like “SynerGspot.com.” When she meets a guy (“Charlie Brown”) who shares her sense of humour, Moss shows her vulnerable side, and finally takes the risk of letting him get to know the real her. (By the way, she’s pretty great.)

Modern Love runs until January 15, 2012 at the Factory Studio Theatre. Visit fringetoronto.com for a full performance schedule.

Want to know more? Read our Q&A with Jessica Moss here.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival: The Washing Machine

Presented by Red Betty Theatre
Written by Radha S. Menon
Directed by Sasha Kovacs

The Washing Machine

Radha S. Menon’s The Washing Machine tells the story of an English woman’s return to “Chez Nous,” her childhood home in India. Upon arrival, the entitled Isabelle (Cydney Penner) confronts a series of unwelcome problems: unruly monkeys, strong-willed servants, ghostly spirits, dwindling resources, bad karma, and the “dirty laundry” that is her ancestry.

The play touches on interesting themes, such as religious faith, class systems and family secrets. However, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for the many characters involved. Much of the dialogue comes across as artificial and over the top, resulting in decidedly two-dimensional performances. Not to mention the script lacks focus and momentum, which makes for a long show.

While I appreciate what the work is trying to do, it’s time to put The Washing Machine through another workshop cycle.

The Washing Machine runs until January 15, 2012. Visit fringetoronto.com for a full performance schedule.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival: Tomasso’s Party

Presented by Rooftop Creations
Written by Jules Lewis
Directed by Nigel Shawn Williams

Tomasso's Party

Jules Lewis’ quirky two-hander Tomasso’s Party takes an intimate look at the sexual and emotional politics between two young lovers. Hugo (Simon Bracken) is hyper-anxious because Madeleine (Leah Doz) wants to go to a birthday party for her boss (the mysterious womanizer Tomasso), and he suspects she may be cheating on him.

Andre Du Toit’s cozy bedroom set becomes increasing stifling as the pair engage in cutting back-and-forth dialogue—full of teasing and torturous remarks—that leave the audience and Hugo unsure of Madeleine’s true intentions.

Bracken brings great comic energy to the neurotic Simon, while Doz gives a remarkably expressive performance as Madeleine (using only her voice and arms) with her back to us the entire time—an interesting approach that succeeds in making us feel Hugo’s distress more intensely.

Tomasso’s Party runs until January 15 at the Factory Studio Theatre. Visit fringetoronto.com for a full performance schedule.

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival: Loving The Stranger

Presented by Ecce Homo Theatre
Written and directed by Alistair Newton
Inspired by the life of Peter Flinsch

Loving The Stranger

Ecce Homo Theatre’s Loving The Stranger or How To Recognize An Invert has my vote for best of the 2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival. This show represents everything modern theatre should be: artistically bold, intellectually curious, emotionally compelling and visually striking.

Based on the life story of Montreal’s Peter Flinsch (theatre designer, visual artist, and survivor of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals under Paragraph 175), the cabaret-style production presents a musical collage of queer history facts and figures from the 20th century.

Alistair Newton’s script pulls from multiple sources, including a recorded interview with Flinsch (the last before his death in 2010), personal memoirs, newly translated documents from the history of the gay rights movement in Germany and homophobic Nazi propagana. The play also examines contemporary LGBT rights issues with satirical recreations of anti-gay Proposition 8 ads and a couple of digs at Stephen Harper’s stance on same-sex marriage.

The uber-talented cast of five—Seth Drabinsky, Matt Eger, Kimberly Persona, Geoff Stevens and dancer Laurence Ramsay—play over 30 characters, while Flinsch (played by a deeply committed Hume Baugh) observes from his chair. Featuring wonderful costumes and makeup, silent film projections, and music from the gay cabarets of 1920s Berlin, Loving The Stranger is a unique and touching tribute to a courageous man, in loving memory of the others who didn’t live to tell their story.

Loving The Stranger runs until January 15, 2012 at the Factory Theatre Mainspace. Visit fringetoronto.com for a full performance schedule.

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