Theatre
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No boys allowed?
Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein, the creators/performers of the 2007 Fringe Festival hit Girls Only: The Secret Comedy of Women, have returned to Winnipeg, and they’re up to their old tricks.
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The stylist and the souse
Rita wants to be educated; she wants to know everything.
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Blood cuts deep
Vancouver playwright Kevin Loring’s contemplative Where the Blood Mixes is a strange beast of a play, one which plays heavily on parallels and contradictions.
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Putting the pieces together
The University of Winnipeg’s fourth-year Devised Theatre class is promising theatre-goers a unique experience with its latest production.
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Theatre of the impressed
Three years ago, 26-year-old playwright and University of Winnipeg graduate Daniel Thau-Eleff boldly took the stage in Winnipeg and presented a challenge.
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An endearing look Back
The set of the world premiere of Looking Back – West at the MTC Warehouse Theatre is striking to say the least. A large war monument in the centre of the stage is framed by two simple picnic benches against a backdrop of screens portraying the peaceful greenery of New York City’s Madison Square Park. This human construction of nature, along with the contrast between the intimidating monument and the quiet park, dominates the themes throughout Robert Lewis Vaughan’s bittersweet play.
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The Caravan of Courage
Not since Manitoba Theatre Centre’s legendary production in 1965 has Mother Courage and Her Children graced a Manitoba stage. For that show, MTC founder John Hirsch directed, Zoe Caldwell starred and people flocked from all around to Winnipeg to see it.
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Fen is flawless
Caryl Churchill displays her acute sense of relationship tension in all of her work, but Fen truly captures how our relationships with others shape who we become.
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Play is creative and resonant with room for improvement
The University of Winnipeg Department of Theatre and Film showcase their creativity and range of talents in the production of Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom. The students did not simply recreate Churchill’s powerful feminist script exploring the horrors of the witch trials in 16th and 17th century Europe; they gave it a personal touch.
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Entertaining, but missing a point
Circling the stage to greet the audience, main character Derek (Rob McLaughlin) appears to be friendly and likeable at the beginning of Blue Kettle. In a heart-warming first scene, we see Derek become reacquainted with his long-lost mother (Patricia Hunter). It soon becomes apparent, however, that she is not his mother at all: Derek “collects” older women and claims that each of them is his mother.
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Timeless classic makes for Top-notch theatre
Both charmingly humorous and startlingly disturbing, MTC’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls vividly illustrates the subjugation, struggles and successes of various women throughout history.
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Churchill double feature Not Not Not Not Not to be missed
Performed in the intimate space of Studio 320, Far Away / Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen is a chilling double feature that leaves the audience asking questions about their own position in society.
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Still relevant after all these years
With a full cast of 18 characters, The After-Dinner Joke is made up of busy interactions and shorter skits within the main story. The play is light-hearted and humorous, even as it identifies blatant contradictions in the way that we live our lives.
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Good ideas fall flat
Although Michael Redhill’s ideas in Goodness are fascinating explorations into the human psyche, the transition to theatre performance falls short of being a coherent examination of the motives behind peoples’ actions.
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Over-the-top satire done to perfection
Kicking off the new year with a little something different, Manitoba Theatre Centre’s production of The Drowsy Chaperone is a high-energy rendition of this spoof on 1920s-style musicals.
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‘Merry Christmas, you wonderful, old Building and Loan!’
The first music video ever broadcast on MTV was for the song Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. It reflected a nostalgia felt for the passing genre of radio and the lost stars whose careers ended with its demise.
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Heartbreaking and captivating
A dramatic tale about disappointment and deception, Hannah Moscovitch’s East of Berlin has you hanging onto the edge of your seat the whole way through.
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A raucous and raunchy performance
Conventionally, thinking about theatre brings to mind posh sensibilities, stuffy dialogue and, more often than not, appeals to good taste. Le Mort is anything but a conventional theatre performance.
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Beautiful, but exasperating
Twenty years after its first production, Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Bordertown Café holds up well enough as a story of role reversals, but the unceasing conflict between characters quickly becomes exasperatingly frustrating.
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A captivating retelling
Remembrance Day is a time of reflection for many on the sacrifices made by those at war. We acknowledging their bravery with symbols like the poppy and pay tribute to our veterans at community centres and Canadian Legions.