Soldierland

The Sky Theatre Group demonstrates how to say "war is hell" in the most self-indulgent, incoherent, incomprehensible and boring way possible.

True West

True West is one of the best things I have seen on a Vancouver stage in a long time.  I was sorry to miss the production of the same play last December (but with a different cast and director) but was deterred by a heavy snowfall.  This production from Sonder House more than made up for it.

Sharp performances by the two leads -- Joel Butler and Patrick Dodd --  were bang on.

I do wish the program had given some detail about these performers.  Butler was a new face to me.  Dodd was more familiar -- a positive remembrance from one of the short plays at the recent "Pull Festival".

More information about Sonder House would also have been welcome.

The Overcoat

Too much James Rolfe and not enough Wendy Gorling

When Going Into the Woods It's Easy to Get Lost

It is hard to pass up a production of Sondheim's "Into the Woods" so I was quite looking forward to the North Shore Light Opera Society production that opened last night (May 9).

I came away disappointed.  Not that it was a bad production but it was one that had great potential and promise but never quite lived up to it.  All the leads had great voices and the characterizations were mostly spot on.  So what was the problem?

Someone had a production design concept that may have seemed brilliant in theory but simply did not work in practice.  I suspect the script went something like this:

"Hey! For the woods, instead of conventional scenery, lets put some actors in tree costumes and let them be the woods"

"Great idea - and its a big stage so we can populate it with more actors dressed to represent animals -- raccoons, deer and so on.  Lets run with it." 

The result was that for most of the show the stage was filled with a dozen actors with nothing to do except be in constant motion reacting to the main action between the principals.  This was a huge distraction and a number of scenes lost their intimacy as a result.

Sound level was also a problem.  The pit was good but tended to overwhelm the singers who, with one apparent exception, were unmiked and did not have any reinforcement to assist in making themselves heard.

A final problem was personal. I work hard to get seats that are front row centre so my view of the stage is unobstructed.  The Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver seems to have a curse attached to it.  About two years ago I attended a production of "Rent" there (my first visit to that venue since 1973) and, much to my chagrin, whoever makes these decisions placed a further row of temporary seats in front of me and seated some very large and rowdy adolescents in them.  For Into the Woods the designer attached to the top outer edge of the pit large (12 to 18 inches high) letters spelling out "ONCE UPON A TYME" again obstructing the view of audience members in the first 3 or 4 rows.

Despite these annoyances I do not regard it as an evening wasted -- only one that had the potential to be so much better.

Misery -- Describes the Audience Experience

This is a disappointing production of a not-very-good play.  A single idea dragged out to inordinate length yielded little more than tedium.

Part of the problem may be seeing it at the end of a relatively long tour, and the players have simply lost their edge.

But I am not sure that Andrew McNee had much edge to begin with.  He has the unhappy tendency to simply "mug" his way through the parts he plays.  This has been particularly evident in many Arts Club productions.  Particularly embarrassing were his performances in
Boeing-Boeing, The Odd Couple and One Man, Two Guvnors.  In the role of the author held captive by the crazed fan his histrionics reach new heights.

One function of the Arts Club's touring productions should be to attract audiences that it would not otherwise reach with material they would not otherwise see.  Misery is a play best left to community theatres as the "thriller" entry in their season's program.  These audiences deserve better from the Arts Club.

Love/Sick - Another One for My Pleasant Surprise List

Last night I went to see a performance of Love/Sick at Pacific Theatre.  This was strictly on spec' based on the briefest mention in a "what's on" list in the media and knowing nothing about it beyond the title and its venue.

This turned out to be a happy choice -- a talented ensemble (calling themselves "Stone's Throw Productions") performing an excellent script.  The format is a series of (not entirely unrelated) vignettes around the theme of what might be called "anti-love" -- rejection, falling out of love and the inability to fall in love.

Unhappily this was on the final night of a very short (four day) run and it certainly deserves wider exposure.  And I have a feeling it will get it, based on the history of John Cariani's (the author's) better-known play "Almost Maine" which is now one of the most widely-produced shows in North America.  It first hit my radar screen as a student production at Douglas College in New Westminster and has since cropped up a couple of times in the Vancouver area by other companies. 

When Love/Sick does turn up again it is well worth attending.

A Look Back at 2017

This posting involves a look back at the various productions I saw during the calendar year 2017.  Out of almost 120 productions I have identified a number that call for special comment.  They include a dozen favourites, a dozen disappointments, a dozen pleasant surprises and a few that were simply bad.

A Dozen Favourites

Out of all the productions seen during 2017 selecting a group of favourites is not easy.  At least 50 I thoroughly enjoyed.  Some of these were “pleasant surprises” because they so far exceeded my expectations.  Others were good, but not quite good enough to make it to the “favourites” list.  In no particular order, these are my favourite productions of 2017.

Ragtime in Concert
Master Class
Cabaret (Tomo Suru)
Titus Buffonius
Taken at Midnight
Hand to God
Les Belles Soeurs (UBC)
Anything Goes
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Capilano U)
42nd Street
Corleone
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

A Dozen Disappointments

Some shows we attend with high expectations. These may reflect the material, the producing company, the performers, critical reviews or simply the hype surrounding them.  A failure to meet these expectations constitutes a disappointment.  The extent to which the actual production falls short of what is expected, the greater the disappointment.  Here, in no particular order, are my dozen disappointments of 2017.

The Elbow Room Cafe
Love and Information
Refugee Hotel
City of Angels
A Chorus Line
One Hour Photo
The Audience
The Ridiculous Darkness
Peter and the Starcatcher (Capilano U)
Thanks for Giving
Angels in America; Perestroika
A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Dozen Pleasant Surprises

Committing to attend a live performance frequently requires a leap of faith.  Some or all of the material, the producing company, the performers, and sometimes even the venue, may be unfamiliar or unknown to you.  You go with few or no expectations and are prepared to be disappointed.  Then suddenly it all becomes worthwhile when a show unexpectedly delivers the entertainment package you were hoping for but despaired of getting.  These are my “pleasant surprises” for 2017 set out in no particular order.

Redpatch
The Music Teacher
The Hunger Room
Rumors
No Big Thing (Fringe)
The Inventor of all Things (Fringe)
A Soldiers War (Fringe)
The Pillowman
Mr. Foote’s Other Leg
This is our Youth
Vinci (NW Vagabonds)
On a First Name Basis

Just Plain Bad

I had no expectations to disappoint.  What more can I say?

Viva
Songs for a New World
King Charles III
Setting Bones (Fringe)

Seen in 2018 - First Quarter

I am back after a long absence from this blog - but not an absence from theatre attendance.  If anything too much leaving no time to reflect and comment.

Seen since the beginning of 2018 are the productions below.  Most were unmemorable but I could not resist interlineating a few comments

The Events
    A good production of a good play.  Equally impressive was the transformation of the Russian Hall into a performance venue that was a pleasure to attend.  At my last visit it was painfully hard seating, bad visibility and bad acoustice.
Above the Hospital
    A boring excursion into millennial anxiety
The Aliens
Merrily We Roll Along
    Sondheim can be very good or very bad.  Put this one in the very bad column
Buyer and Cellar
Ruined
    Some good performances.  Glad I saw it.
House of Yes
    The play is based on an interesting premise but it goes off the rails.
The Skin of our Teeth
    A 70 year old play said to suddenly be relevant to today's circumstances.  Don't believe it.  Some wonderful stagecraft wasted on a play not worth reviving.
Jitters
Pacific Overtures
    Sondheim somewhat redeemed.
Teachers
Forget About Tomorrow
Fun Home
The Star-Spangled Girl
    I always thought I liked Neil Simon but now I am beginning to wonder.
Antigone
    A brave production featuring the theatre students of Douglas College with an outstanding lead.  DC has done some good things over the years and does not get the attention it deserves.
The After After Party
    A steaming pile of self-indulgent garbage.
Institutionalized; Chimera - Four Play Program A (Studio 58)
    Always interesting to see but none of the four plays this year were up to the quartet featured two years ago
Harvey
    A staged reading that fell apart in the second act.
Sequence
    Is God really the Fibonacci sequence?
Butcher
    I found this to be a compelling drama with outstanding performances.
Freedom 56’; Ain’t: the Musical - Four Play Program B (Studio 58)
    See comments on Program A
Pull Festival 2018 – 6 Short Plays
Bar Mitzvah Boy
    A very moving piece of theatre.  I liked it very much.
Little Miss Glitz
    A very promising premise that just didn’t work.
Enron
Funny Money
Once on This Island
    Because I loved Ragtime I looked forward to another musical by Ahrens and Flaherty – and what a huge disappointment it was both in terms of the score itself and the production it was given.  One of the worst-lit shows I have ever seen.
Rent
    Again we are told it is newly relevant.  With a few great songs it has potential as a revival but it fell far short of Renegade’s previous productions of Hair and Tommy.  Their new venue needs a lot of work to make it a satisfactory performance space.
The Humans
    The play did not live up to its hype.
Blithe Spirit
    Community theatre at Deep Cove.  Adequate but not outstanding.  It is a pity that the company did not choose to do the wonderful musical version – “High Spirits”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Spirits_(musical)

I will try to be a bit more diligent about keeping the blog up to date.  If time permits I may do a similar retrospective on what was seen in 2017.

Vancouver Fringe 2016 Second post

Vancouver Fringe 2016 Second post

Brief thoughts on seven further Fringe productions:

 Two Ruby Knockers, One Jaded Dick
At the performance I saw the performer was a better magician than comic.  I gather others would reverse this assessment.  In any event, it was fun so long as one could avoid being snared in as a participating audience member.


Piaf and Brel - The Impossible Concert
A treat for the lovers of the music of Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel (count me in).  I might have come up with a slightly different selection of songs but I suspect that every fan would have his or her own wish list.  Looking forward to 2017 when the performer will do an evening of Sophie Tucker material.


Great Day for Up
This struck me as the ultimate in boring one-man shows.  Why it keeps getting positive reviews is a mystery.

The Dance Teacher
A compelling drama performed by a talented ensemble.  Worth a second view if it should come back.


Perpetual Wednesday
Two performers fighting some very bad material.  They looked like they might have great potential with the right script.

 Dog at a Feast
A great little play that left me wanting more.  Deserves to be expanded into a full-length piece.



The Famous Haydell Sisters Comeback Tour
The concept has potential but the material could be greatly improved.



 

Vancouver Fringe 2016 First Post

Vancouver Fringe No. 1

After an absence of about a year I am back with short notes on the first three shows I have seen.

And Bella Sang - A really great show.  Well conceived and written.  Excellent performances by all with Simon Webb a standout.  I have never seen him better.  A must-see.

Does Not Play Well With Others - The grain of a good idea fails to germinate.  Long dull stretches with two performers that can only be described as adequate.  The Revue Stage is a great venue and deserves better.

Waiting for Garbo - A pretentious and self-indulgent pile of garbage - both literally and figuratively.  Don't waste your time and money on this one.

Abattoir Morning

This blog has been silent for all of 2015.  Too many shows seen and too little time to write about them.  So it takes a major something-or-other to move me to awaken it.  The mover is a play just seen at the Havana Theatre on Commercial Drive -- Abattoir Morning.

In many years of theatregoing I cannot recall seeing a more incoherent, incomprehensible, self-indulgent pile of rubbish than this play.

It is presented by a new group -- OR; Theatre Company.  Some flavour of what they are about is found in the opening line of text at their website: http://ortheatre.com/

     "The forming of the unreal from the depths of division.  From the depths, the truth. 
       The realms of the unreal, unified reality."

After more pretentious drivvle it concludes with:

     "Our Philosophy: The manipulation of space consumes the space and partakes intimately
       of community. The consumption cannot be half-hearted—merely scratching the depths."

The lion's share of the blame for this misspent evening must go to one Ian Kent, described in the program as the Director, Writer and Producer of the play.  (In fact, Kents seem to be present in abundance as the "thank you" page lists four additional Kents.)

Ian Kent's biographical notes indicate that he is a published poet.  There are hints of this in the dialogue where Kent seems to be reaching for blank verse but never achieving it.  And strange sentence structures abound like ones sometimes found in a bad translation.

The two female leads may be capable and talented performers.  But given what they had to work with here there was little opportunity to assess their potential.

Production values were practically non-existent.  The centrepiece was a badly constructed wooden item that purported to be a freezer/locker for storing meat.  At one point in the action one of the characters draped a cowhide over one of the walls facing the audience making it clear that the locker had no ceiling.  No wonder the meat spoiled.

With so many good small theatre companies in the Vancouver area do we really need OR; ?  Based on this production and the nonsense spewing from its website, I suggest not.

2014 (Part 3) - Ten Favourites

Out of over 85 productions seen during 2014, selecting ten favourites is not easy.  At least 50 I thoroughly enjoyed.  Some of these, as mentioned earlier, were “pleasant surprises” because they so far exceeded my expectations.  Others were good, but not quite good enough to make it to the top ten list - here I am thinking of the Arts Club’s middle-of-the-road programming.

 In no particular order, these are my favourite productions of 2014.

Beggar’s Opera
Killer Joe
Little One (fringe)
Since You left Us
Our Town
Kosmic Mambo
Hunter Gatherers
Late Company
The Rainmaker
Iceland

Thanks to everyone associated with these and other productions that made 2014 a memorable theatre year.
           

2014 (Part 2) - Ten Disappointments

Some shows we attend with high expectations. These may reflect the material, the producing company, the performers, critical reviews or simply the hype surrounding them.  A failure to meet these expectations constitutes a disappointment.  The extent to which the actual production falls short of what is expected, the greater the disappointment.

Here, in no particular order, are my greatest disappointments of 2014.

Floyd Collins
Broken Sex Doll
Butt Kapinski
Slaughterhouse Five
Subway Stations of the Cross
Wide awake Hearts
Rodgers and Hammerstein: Out of a Dream
Apophis (Fringe)
Cabaret Brise-Jour
The Government Inspector

2014 (Part 1) - Some Pleasant Surprises 

The next three postings will involve a look back at the various productions seen during the calendar year 2014.  In reverse order, will appear my personal ten best, the ten biggest disappointments and a handful of pleasant surprises.

Committing to attend a live performance frequently requires a leap of faith.  Some or all of the material, the producing company, the performers, and sometimes even the venue, may be unfamiliar or unknown to you.  You go with few or no expectations and are prepared to be disappointed.

Then suddenly it all becomes worthwhile when a show unexpectedly delivers the entertainment package you were hoping for but despaired of getting.  These are my “pleasant surprises” and my list for 2014 is set out below, in no particular order.

Mr. Marmalade
Three Viewings
The Mandrake
Vixens of Wonderland
Gruesome Playground Injuries
The Marvelous Wonderettes
The Mikado (Metro)
Rebel Women

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of The Jersey Lily 

Theatre Crossing’s production, recently seen at the Jericho Arts Centre,  draws on the creations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as some real-life Victorian personalities, to provide a very satisfying evening of entertainment that is fun for both the actors and the audience. 

Solid performances by Brent Fidler, Tim Bissett and Corina Akeson respectively as Holmes, Dr. Watson and Lily Langtry (the actress of the play’s title known as “The Jersey Lily”) were complemented by a suitably menacing Professor Moriarty portrayed by Bill Croft.  For me the high point was Seth Little’s delicious turn as Oscar Wilde, scattering witticisms in his path while, at the same time, surreptitiously scribbling down the pearls that fall from Holmes’ lips for incorporation as his own in future works.

A bouquet to all concerned.

All That Fall - What’s All The Fuss About?  

It is interesting that two different productions should take the format of a “staged” radio play within the period of about a month. The first, the  “It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Show”, I wrote about on December 13.  The second, Samuel Beckett's “All That Fall”, is currently playing at the Cultch Historic – a production of Blackbird Theatre.

I have never seen a Beckett play that I truly enjoyed and All That Fall proved to be no exception.  Apparently, the only way that performing rights to the work could be obtained from the Beckett estate was by undertaking that it be staged in this format since it was originally written as a radio play.  This means that it had little to offer the eye and to succeed it had to have something exceptional to offer the ear.  It did not.  Closing ones eyes to get closer to the radio play experience carried the very real risk of falling asleep.  At fault was the material itself and not the very talented performers who struggled mightily to make something of it.

It strikes me that this reflects mistakes by both the Beckett estate and by Blackbird.  It is possible that All That Fall could be successfully adapted for the stage and, by insisting that performances adhere to the radio format, the estate is short-changing both the audiences and Beckett himself.  Blackbird’s mistake is agreeing to this restriction in the first place.

What surprises me the most is the positive critical reception this production has received.  I simply cannot see what all the fuss is about.

Catching Up  

The last posting at this collection of notes and thoughts was about a month ago.  After some R&R over the holiday season it is time to catch up with a look at more recent shows and a look back at the 2014 calendar year.  Stay tuned.

It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Show  

The latest offering from Pacific Theatre, “It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Show” is pure unpretentious fun.

The classic Christmas film is reimagined as a radio play being broadcast before our eyes in a 1946 radio studio by an ensemble of performers.  The synopsis of the film is so familiar that the dialogue required to move the threads of the plot line forward is minimal.  The real fun lies in the peripheral features: an array of sound-effects devices – all used to maximum effect; period commercials (mostly sung) and music contemporary to the period in which the action is set.

A minor departure from the radio broadcast template is the provision of a small amount of costuming that would be unnecessary in a real broadcast.  This serves to assist the audience in distinguishing characters whose identity would otherwise be ambiguous.

If you are looking for a Christmas show that is a bit out of the ordinary this one is a good bet.

Wide Awake Hearts  

Playing at Little Mountain Gallery is “Wide Awake Hearts”, a production of Twenty Something Theatre and Hardline Productions.

The play revolves around four thoroughly unlikable characters identified in the program only as A, B, C and D.  A, a writer for TV and film is married to B, an actress.  C is a boyhood friend of A who has beencast in a film (written by A) that also features B.  D is the female editor of the film with some sort of link to C.

What transpires on stage is a largely incoherent exploration of their relationships punctuated by soporific monologues by the individual characters.  The Director’s Notes were unhelpful and unenlightening. 

A particular irritant was the lighting.  For most of the action it seemed to be designed to put as little light as possible on the performers while, at the same time, shining what light there was in the eyes of the audience making it even more difficult to see the action.

All in all, it was an evening wasted.

Small Parts

Solo Collective Theatre’s “Small Parts,” which just closed at Performance Works, has attracted a number of comments.  Almost all have centred on the back story to the creation of the play.  The playwright’s mother, diagnosed with terminal cancer, writes (for reasons never made clear) a very bad play, its various characters being body parts.  The playwright lends his professional theatre skills to bringing “The Ovarian Dialogues” to life on stage.

Small Parts attempts to replicate the real-life events as a separate theatrical experience.  As touching as the back story may be, sad to say as a stand-alone play it simply does not work.

It is ironic that the seeds of what might make it work are already in the play but the playwright failed to let them germinate and take root.  I refer to Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as a template for the play.  The opening is promising by utilizing the opening scene with the storm.  But then the idea is dropped.  After that we see only passing references that invoke Shakespeare – a character named Ariel who is ultimately “freed” and the phrase “brave new world.”

Much more could have been done to map Small Parts on to The Tempest starting with the characters, their names and their relationships.  One character in particular illustrates the possibilities – Andrew McNee playing “Dan” is already there as a Caliban figure.  Just call him “Cal”.  Let Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda become Proserpine, Fred and Mandy mapped on to Irene (the mother), Nathan (the playwright) and Nory (a performer).

Defining new relationships between the characters and making them work would be a challenge and require a major departure from the back story – with no guarantee of success – but the result would have the potential to be a much stronger and engaging work.