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