As you might expect, Pluto’s Playthings is raunchy and titillating, filled with vampy, campy burlesque numbers and peek-a-boo nudity. But more than that, it’s a show that touches on what touches us, inside and out. It’s as much about love as it is about lust.

As the evening’s host Max, Stewart Legere brings a wonderful mix of toughness and vulnerability, as well as incomparable musical talent. His ethereal duet with the gorgeous, rich-voiced Josephine (Naomi-Joy Blackhall-Butler) is haunting.

Mike MacLeod plays Gunther, Max’s former lover who has spurned him for the loose and lovely Tatiana (Annie Valentina). MacLeod is fascinating to watch and listen to in both his male and female personas. And despite her character’s trampy reputation, Valentina tempers Tatiana’s sexuality with an adorable innocence.

Pluto’s Playhouse offers a unique theatrical experience, one that is both naughty and nice.

Tuesday February 14th to Sunday February 19th
8PM nightly
Plutonium Playhouse, 2315 Hunter Street
$25/$20
Tickets: plutosplaythings.eventbrite.com
Or call 423 4653

Sure February is all about candy hearts and valentines, but where are those gifts meant to lead? Why the bedroom, of course! So it’s timely that DalTheatre has taken on Arthur Schnitzler’s scandalous (for 1921) play.

The tiny MacK. Murray studio is transformed by a lush and lacquered red and black set centered around a huge round bed. Above the bed is a circle of shirred red fabric that descends from the ceiling and becomes a tunnel surrounding characters as they are captured in flagrante delicto. It’s a surprisingly versatile set-up that changes easily for all ten scenes.

These scenes are conversations between two people before and after they have sex. The “round” part of the play is that as a scene ends, one character continues into the next, making love with someone new. The conversations are open-ended, definitely posing more questions about each relationship than are answered.

The actors play it large, as is befitting of a story peopled by larger-than-life archetypes. And despite scanty costumes, the titillation factor is low, though it’s hard to say whether this reflects the jaded nature of 21st century sexual tastes or is merely a lack of chemistry between the actors.

This play is a visual treat that makes some interesting comments about human sexuality…tickets would make a great early Valentine’s gift.

Wednesday, February 8 @ 8:00p
Thursday, February 9 @ 8:00p
Friday, February 10 @ 8:00p
Saturday, February 11 @ 2:00p
Saturday, February 11 @ 8:00p

Tickets for all shows are now available for purchase through the Dalhousie Arts Centre Box Office, in person, over the phone at 494-3820, or online at https://kil-dacweb-2.cohn.dal.ca/. All tickets are general admission, $14 regular, $7 students and seniors.

A new company named wheelwright appeared on the Halifax theatre scene last night with a production called M is for Drowning. Co-written by the wheelwright’s founders Bryn McLeod and Patrick Blenkarn, the play “explores an explosion of memory”, including the literal (with all guts that entails) and figurative fall-out from such an explosion. The audience is seated around the Bus Stop stage which is bedecked with an attractive and eclectic mix of objects. And while there are seven actors on that stage, only five actively take part, with one of the remaining two picking out tunes on the piano while the other sits high above the action and knits. The other actors perform a complicated dance of words and movement. The dialogue flows and overlaps in an almost musical way. However, the heightened poetic language begins to wash over the listener in a manner that hypnotizes rather than engages. Moments of humour provide wake-up calls, but are perhaps too few. Still, this play is certainly an interesting concept and is given an interesting treatment, which bodes well for wheelwright’s future works.

WHEN: February 2-5 at 8pm (doors at 7:30pm)
WHERE: The Bus Stop Theatre
TICKETS: $15 general/$10 students.

Reserve tickets for the show by contacting wheelwrighttheatre@gmail.com or calling 902-448-7275.

Sudden Death. A strange African disease. Extreme sibling rivalry. Sexual abuse by a priest. A picnic at the altar. Physical abuse by a parent. Spontaneous singing. Random death-defying feats while suspended from a huge tripod. Frequent flashbacks. An eating disorder. Extra-marital affairs. Manic depressive-disorder. Attachment disorder.”Jesus” in disco-wear. Glow-in-the-dark pews. Copious crying. Director/playwright Pascale Roger-McKeever’s maniacally unfocused Family in Church centres on the most dysfunctional family you will ever come across. It certainly makes for one of the most memorable plays of the season. But memorable in a good way? Go see and judge for yourself.

Starring:
Lise Cormier, John Dartt Kristin Langille Dahl, Vanessa Walton Bone.

Set design: Zoe Nudell & Ben Gallagher
Sound design: Melissa Albiani
Assistant producer: Jenny Gimion

Presented at the North Street Church, 5657 North Street

SHOW TIMES:
• Saturday, Dec. 3rd: 3 pm, Matinee, and 8 pm
• Sunday, Dec. 4th: 3 pm Matinee, and 8 pm

Tickets: $20 & $15 (artists, seniors, students)
Tickets sold at the door: cash or cheque
To make a reservation, call: (902) 802 9921

• Timothy Richard

Susan (Kathryrn McCormack) and Elliot (Ian Mullan) are adorably quirky and cute. They’ve met online and are on their first date in a New York bar when things start to go hilariously wrong. Elliot, “a puppet-lover who hates rollercoasters”, keeps revealing disturbing tidbits about his obsessive personality, while the calmer, more collected Susan eventually admits to foibles including a “borderline personality disorder.” As the evening unwinds, so too do Elliot and Susan, passing from awkward banter to the all-important first kiss to declarations of love and finally to a tragic break-up. This is a dark and laugh-out-loud funny play. Staging this production in Tribecca adds a nice dose of realism, and gives the audience a voyeuristic feeling that fits with the themes of the play. In the end, this is not your average first-date-from-hell exploration, and Susan and Elliot are (hopefully) unlike anyone you know. But is it a blast spending the evening with them? Hell, ya!

November 17-19, Tribeca Bistro Bar, 1588 Granville Street, $10, nerve.eventbrite.com, 7pm

Taboo Theatre’s An Evening of Grand Guignol is a series of three plays designed to chill your blood and tickle your funny bone. The first play “In the Darkroom” falls into the chilling category, but by today’s standards, the scary payoff to the extended lead-up is not too scary at all. “Chop-Chop!” is an amusing tale of a kinky love affair, but again, the ending is foreseeable from miles away. It is the third play “Private Room # 6” that makes the whole production truly memorable. Directed by Mike Chandler (who also plays the evening’s genial and very French MC), this tense thriller stars (and I mean stars!) Pasha Ebrahimi as an all-too-human monster. Terrifant et terrifique!

TICKETS:
Email tabootheatre@gmail.com to reserve seats
$15 reg / $12 artists, students for evening performances Oct 27-30
$10 Matinees Oct 29 & 30

Dates & Times:
Oct 27 - 8pm show
Oct 28 - 8pm show
Oct 29 - 2pm matinee / 8pm show
Oct 30 - 2pm matinee / 8pm show

The young artists who perform in Jonathan Larson’s update of Puccini’s La Boheme are truly remarkable. They sing dance, and in the case of the rockin’ pit band, play their way through 47 songs with energy, passion and above all, talent.

It’s hard to single anyone out, because truly, they are a mega-talented cast, but I was blown away Jonathan MacArthur as the sashaying sunny-side-up Angel and by his loving and lovable partner Collins played by Matthew Beasant. There duet “I’ll Cover You” was one of the show’s (many) highlights and the reprise of it in Act 2 left not a dry eye in the house.

Geordie Brown was sensational as Roger and the duet “Light My Candle” that he sings with Mimi (beautifully played by Jessica Lynn DeCastro) is another show stopper.

There were some sound issues and not all the lyrics were clear, but overall all I really want to say is “Wow! Don’t miss this show.”

TICKETS: $37.50 and $29.50 at Ticket Atlantic locations and online. Saturday, 8 p.m., at the Spatz Theatre, Citadel High

Chester Playhouse is playing host a funky, spunky one-woman show called Stripes, conceived by and starring Sarah Hayward. She plays Pollyhymnia, a middle-aged woman who sings, quips and dances her way through an “audition” for the circus. Along the way, she explores her theory that it is the cracks (within and without) and stripes of different colours that make people wholly themselves. She riffs on the traditional circus acts—-for instance the high wire walker becomes a junky tethered by her tourniquet—-and reveals interesting tidbits of her life as she goes along. Hayward is an engaging performer with a quick wit and a powerful voice. She is also as fearless as an acrobat, as unique as a bearded lady and as funny as a rubber-nosed clown.

Stripes runs nightly till Friday at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee Friday. Tickets range from $15 to $25. Call 275-3933, 1-800-363-7529 or visit www.chesterplayhouse.ca

You’ve probably read about Wit’s End Theatre here in The Coast. They are the new(ish) company dedicated to staging theatre that will make you laugh, and so far they’ve been pretty darn successful. Their production of Canadian comic Sandra Shamas’ My Boyfriend’s Back and There’s Gonna Be Laundry stars Liz Johnston as a very desperate singleton working to capture her man. Johnston is cute as button and her comic timing is impeccable. The material is still as funny as when it was penned almost 25 years ago (although the concept of a man as the centre of a woman’s existence is kind of distasteful in any decade). The second half of the evening is dedicated to sketch comedy built around the theme of childhood. The ensemble group consisting of Johnston, Griffin McInnes, Chloe Sullivan, Paddy Macdonald and Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie play really well off each other, and the recurring themes that are woven throughout the sketches give this part of the show a lightly polished,unified feel. If you love to laugh, (and who doesn’t?) you’ll enjoy an evening with Wit’s End.

A double bill of comedy at the Bus Stop Theatre - 2203 Gottingen St.
Aug 3-5
$10
For tickets: (902) 802-7104

The starting point of Bingo! is not all that original—-five friends reunite to share memories, secrets and rivalries on the eve of a high school reunion —-but in the hands of wordsmith Daniel MacIvor, a stock premise becomes an absolute delight. His cast of characters is quirky and complex. Marty Burt is “Dookie” a self-important, misogynistic windbag who, refreshingly, is not redeemed by the end of the play. Emmy Alcorn is the tough-talking- but-good-hearted “Boots”, a woman whose butch demeanor and appearances gives people the wrong impression. Ryan Rogerson is “Heffer” a man trapped in his own life and going nowhere fast. Added to these are John Beale as “Nurk”, a shy, sweet and damaged engineer and Heather Rankin in a star turn as “Bitsy”, a middle-aged woman with all the grace (not to mention the eyes) of Bambi on ice. These five very specific characters manage to touch on issues that will speak to most everyone, giving this laugh-a-minute comedy both heart and depth.

July 29 & 30 CPPC ~ Guysborough (902) 533-2015
Aug 2 & 3 Savoy Theatre ~ Glace Bay (902) 842-1577

Playwright Graham Percy explores love and friendship as well as art and madness in Brightest Red to Blue. Loosely based on the life of nineteenth century poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the story is both eerie and witty—-The Corpse Bride meets Blithe Spirit. Jeremy Webb as the tortured and bitter Rossetti plays well off John Beale's delightfully perverse Swinburne, and Lisa Rose Snow is solid as Rossetti’s lusty mistress (although she seems oddly misshapen in her “fat suit”). Set designer Andrew Cull does a spectacular job transforming the North Street Church into a mist-filled Victorian graveyard, complete with a solidly-built wall that stands up to the abuse it takes as the actors energetically scale it. The original music by Jon Landry is lovely and haunting, particularly when sung by Jamie Konchak in a delightful turn as Rossetti’s ghostly wife.

In July, the Camerata Xara young women’s choir has been invited to perform at Festival 500, a biennial international choral festival held in St. John’s, Newfoundland. This past Saturday, Xara previewed “Played”, the program they will perform there. It’s a one-hour, three-act journey that sees young women grow from separate, busy lives to a joyful sisterhood with the help of a supernatural “trickster” who is represented by Will Perkin’s glorious light design. As usual, the sound of Xara is exquisite, but the theatrical quality of the program and the intricacy of the movement bring this show to a whole new level of choral experience. As an extra visual treat, local painter/mixed media artist Sarah Irwin has created something quite special from the humble pillow case. There’s no doubt that Xara will make Nova Scotia proud at Festival 500 with this show.

The cast of the King’s production of A Company of Wayward Saints seem to have a lot of fun together, and that’s a good thing since one of the messages of the play is that theatre is a collaborative art form. The premise is that a commedia dell'arte troupe is performing for a Duke who will fund their trip home if their show pleases him. In the first act, the characters ham it up while exploring the theme “the history of man”. It’s energetic good fun. The second act, however, slows to a glacial pace. Much of the life and all of the fun is sucked from the play by the maudlin exploration of the high points—including birth, adolescence, marriage and death—of man singular. It makes for an uneven, but interesting, evening of entertainment.

Through April 2, 8 p.m. at the Arts and Administration Building, University of King's College, 6350 Coburg. Phone 422-6011 ext. 10 for tickets.

The path forged by the three Catholic nuns in Wendy Lill’s Sisters is indeed a road to hell paved with good intentions. None of them, not even the ambitious and unbending Agnes, means to cause harm to the Aboriginal children under their care in a residential school. But we all know how that turned out. This beautifully staged and directed production is alive with fine performances: Steph Hallen as aforementioned Agnes; Natascia Lypny as the young, idealistic Mary; Scott Baker as her frisky young love; Bethany Hindmarsh as the bitter, damaged older Mary; Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie as the gentle, poetic and slightly off-kilter Gabriel; and Daniel Bergman as Stein, Mary’s also-damaged lawyer. And why, you may ask, does Sister Mary require a lawyer? I won’t spoil it by telling, but let’s just say that when you see this play, you’ll be rooting for a complete acquittal.

Sisters by Wendy Lill March 16-19 at 8:00pm In the Pit at King's $5 for students, $10 for non-students