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.