Beautiful Feet

Adaptation   has a pretty impressive cast, including my girl-crush Meryl Streep. Best line is when Brian Cox's writing-guru character advises the struggling screenwriter: "Don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina!" Jury's still out on this Tarkovsky film. Lots of juicy Biblical allusions and themes, but it wasn't as visually postapocalyptically satisfying as I'd hoped. The TIFF audience was hardcore, though: for almost 3 hours, you couldn't hear a pin drop! Every time I go to CanStage, I see something astounding and/or fascinating. Both boxes ticked with Triptyque:  Gravity-defying athleticism, the lyricism of contemporary dance and the poetics of the imagination come together in this virtuosic triple bill from Quebec circus superstars The 7 Fingers ( Cuisine & Confessions, Traces ). For the first time, the innovative troupe joins forces with three internationally-renowned choreographers, weaving together a magical journey...

They've lost the clown noses but The Return by Circa was an exquisite blend of insanely talented circus art with drama and live Italian baroque chamber music and opera accompaniment. As usual, CanStage brought in innovative programming (and, as usual, some dope brought in their ringing cell phone). At one point, I just sat there being so grateful for the gift of art in my life. Lovely. CREATED BY Yaron Lifschitz with Quincy Grant and the Circa Ensemble MUSIC BY Monteverdi, Grant, Mahler, Pisador and traditional DIRECTOR Yaron Lifschitz COMPOSITION/MUSICAL DIRECTION/ARRANGEMENTS Quincy Grant CIRCA ENSEMBLE Nathan Boyle Marty Evans Nicole Faubert Bridie Hooper Nathan Knowles Todd Kilby Cecilia Martin OPERA SINGERS Kate Howden Benedict Nelson MUSICIANS Pal Banda (Cello) Joe Bronstein (Violin & Viola) Natalie Murray-Beale (Musical Director, Piano, Harpsichord) Cecilia de Santa Maria (Harp) TECHNICAL DIRECTION/LIGHTING DESIGN Jason Organ STAGE DESIGN Yar...

SPOTLIGHT AUSTRALIA meeting DIRECTED, CHOREOGRAPHED & PERFORMED BY  Antony Hamilton Vanessa Wells ‏   @vwellseditor Hootlet More Don't know how 2 describe what I just saw except 64 computerized tapping pencils & 2 Aussie dancers. Insanely cool @canadianstage #Meeting CONCEPT, TEXT & PERFORMANCE Tamara Saulwick SONG-WRITER & PERFORMER Paddy Mann SOUND DESIGNER, COMPOSER & OPERATOR Peter Knight SET & LIGHTING DESIGNER Ben Cobham / bluebottle DRAMATURGE Margaret Trail COSTUME DESIGNER Harriet Oxley PHOTO CREDIT Prudence Upton

Photo courtesy of Canstage This weekend presented me with a lot of cultural worldviews; this post and the following are a sample of the arts I enjoyed.   Kiss  caught me off guard; speaking to a friend after, it seemed that, unfortunately, half the audience thought this was a comedy and the political commentary was lost on them and somewhat ruined for us. Shout-outs to the cast.  WRITTEN BY  Guillermo Calderon DIRECTED BY  Ashlie Corcoran CAST Dalal Badr Liza Balkan Greg Gale Carlos González-Vío Naomi Wright Bahareh Yaraghi ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR/SOUND DESIGNER  Christopher Stanton SET DESIGNER  Jung-Hye Kim COSTUME DESIGNER  Jackie Chau LIGHTING DESIGNER  Rebecca Picherack PROJECTION DESIGNER  Alex Williams ARABIC TRANSLATION/LANGUAGE COACH S alma Al Atassi STAGE MANAGER  Natasha Bean-Smith APPRENTICE STAGE MANAGER  Lucy McPhee PRODUCER (THEATRE SMASH)  Stacey Norton ASSOCIATE PRODUCER  Cody McCallum PRODUC...

Photo: canadianstage.com It's obvious why this generation is experiencing so much anxiety and depression. This is an excellent commentary on identity and social media at Canadian Stage in English or French (see website for details). A CO-PRODUCTION WITH THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS DE TORONTO. FEB 14 - MAR 5  (ENGLISH)  MAR 21-25  (FRENCH). CAST Laurence Dauphinais Steffi DiDomenicantonio Tara Nicodemo Nico Racicot Alex Weiner  PLAYWRIGHT Guillaume Corbeil TRANSLATOR Steven McCarthy DIRECTOR Claude Poissant LIGHTING DESIGN Martin Labrecque MUSIC Nicolas Basque SET DESIGN Max-Otto Fauteux PHOTOGRAPHER Janicke Morissette WARDROBE Philippe Massé STAGE MANAGER Natalie Gisèle ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Jocelyn McDowell PRODUCTION PICTURES Jean–François Brière CREATION & SURTITLES OPERATION Melanie Hall

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PREMIERE Music is the only thing that matters in the life of celebrated concert pianist Liv Stein. When her son Henri dies, she gives it all up - the piano, her career, her marriage, herself. But the unexpected visit of a young promising piano student claiming to have shared Henri's last couple of years forces Liv to face past demons she is trying to forget. A mysterious pact is made that seems to reawaken Liv's will to Liv... Canadian Stage Artistic and General Director Matthew Jocelyn directs this suspenseful and exquisitely crafted drama by one of the most prodigious young voices in new German theatre. " Liv Stein  is a unique and unexpected examination of the relationship between truth and happiness. If something makes us happy, does it have to be true? In a moment when our fundamental relationship to truth is being challenged, this work provokes the audience to consider the shades of grey in what we think of as black and wh...

Photo courtesy of CanStage I saw Concord Floral  at CanStage this weekend and from the moment I entered the Bluma Appel Theatre, I knew we were in for something different, even by Matthew Jocelyn's standards. Billed as "a gothic urban thriller," I don't think that does this production enough justice. This is a very thought-provoking look into young people's psyches, through the medieval looking glass of Boccaccio's The Decameron. ( For some background, here's an interesting project and here's the play's teaser trailer.) Written by Jordan Tannahill and directed by Erin Brubacher and Cara Spooner, the work is the result of a 2012 Festival of Ideas and Creation. Four years later, it's still fresh and oh so relevant. But it's not for the faint of heart. In other words, you need to love teenagers and understand them if you're to get past the frank talk and subjects covered.  I found some of the ensemble stronger in their actin...

  Photograph by Sigrid Estrada  I had such a great time chatting with Mark Alpert , author of The Orion Plan and The Six (read my reviews here and here ), in New York last week that I forgot to get a pic {Marge Simpson sound}. Mark suggested meeting on the Upper West Side at a classic New York diner , and it was a good place to sit down and discuss what motivates and informs his content, themes and style. Remember when you had to discuss “the author’s intent” in high school English? And then you heard an author say about their book, “Oh, well that’s great if that’s what you got out of it, but that wasn’t intentional”? There’s a caveat in that. Those exam questions make us assume that we can ascribe things to writers that are not necessarily there, and we should learn to drop that presumptive approach to literature the minute we’re out of school. Case in point: I learned things about this author that surprised me because I had reflected on his books with my ...

A good piece of art takes you out of yourself. Last night, Toro , the ‘dance’ piece, allowed me to forget an unrelated incident from an hour previous that had left me shaking. I put dance in quotes for positive reasons, not to denigrate the performance. As Matthew Jocelyn likes to do, we were presented with a genre-bending performance that focused on dance but also employed world music, singing and drama to create the kind of eye-opening and enlightening CanStage offering that Toronto is beginning to expect from it. Toro was the quickly re-visioned performance after one of the two booked dancers, Israel Galvan, had a serious knee injury in Paris and had to withdraw. But the audience did not suffer for it: four remarkable musicians augmented the dance of Akram Kahn , and I had an education. David Azurza, countertenor, B C Manjunath, percussion, Bobote, flamenco and Christine Leboutte, contralto, provided an organic background of vocalization, and instrumental and body percussion wh...

Photo credit: Julien Lambert CanStage's presentation of  Cold Blood was the much-anticipated follow-up (but not prequel or epilogue, they point out) to last year's Kiss and Cry , created by  Michele Anne De Mey, Jaco Van Dormael and the Collectif Kiss & Cry, with text by Thomas Gunzig. While some reviews found it not as satisfying as the fi rst, I disagree, with one exception. Cold Blood is  very different than the other, and that is a good thing. While I loved last year's, this one was more disparate because its text was on a theme, whereas last year's was a theme along a narrative, and more linear. This week covered the topic of death but with humour, and there was more variation in the scenes: contrary to promotional material, there are more than just fingers and miniatures, including some surprises. Add music ranging from Bowie to Arvo Part and clever filming ideas, and you have a very satisfying show--and it's perfect for those with timely short at...