Wednesday night I ran into bassist/composer/electronic tinkerer Lukas Pearse outside 1313 Hollis Street – the venue for a performance of a new music composition penned by Pearse. “This is going to be really slow, ” he said in answer to a question about his piece. “Really slow. Quiet.” I noticed a michievous impishness in the […]
Graham Pilsworth
Posted inArts + Music
Rachid Taha Rocks El Halbah
If you were planning a night of hushed, introspective sounds Tuesday soir at the Jazz Tent, ya picked wrong, Jacko. What Algerian-born French singer Rachid Taha and his force-of-Nature band of merry men and opening act Kojopresented over the course of the evening was git-up-on-it musical combustion. Hotter than a stroll on the sun I […]
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Holly Cole
Sunday night. It was a pumped queue, peopled mainly with the “we-live–well” set (all ages), that snaked back from the Jazz Tent along Queen Street heading for Morris. Explanation for the line length? The Holly Cole show had sold out. How long was it? Long enough that you felt, in it, you could possibly, while […]
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Blast Tango In Halifax
A chilling word made its way to some of us filling the Jazz Tent to capacity and then some on Spring Garden Road Friday night – a lovely warm summer evening. Headliners. Orquestra Tipica Imperial had somehow lost their way from the airport to downtown. But, we were quickly assured, they HAD made it and […]
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Driving lessons
It was during a get-together of familiar faces on December 31, 2006, that a trigger moment readied for Sam Fisher. That year, like every year—a tradition, really—a pal of Fisher’s hosted the year-end whoop-dee-do; in his opinion, “always a great New Year’s Eve bash.” While others elsewhere overindulged on munchies, mistletoe and flutes of Spanish […]
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The Lover
Extra chairs were laid on for Saturday night’s sold-out performance of Harold Pinter’s deliciously twisted exploration of the question haunting us all: What is this thing called love? Sarah (wonderfully and sensuously played by Vanessa Walton-Bone) and Richard (Phil Reid, visually and note perfect in a tricky multi-leveled role ) have been married for ten […]
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Lunduntown
Poor Jordan, straight arrow Haligonian, would be art history student and innocent. In Lunduntown, a wry comedy written by Alan Mercieca and Glyn Jones, Jordan’s footloose on a mission. Namely to convince his aging free-spirit London-based Uncle, flakey Charlie Dibbles, to come to terms with and thereby to deal with a pressing family matter back […]
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Magical Thinking
Here’s a treat for audiences. A magic show. But not just a magic show. Magical Thinking (as in pick a card, show the audience, think of that card, is it the seven of diamonds?) is a piquant showcase of Trevor Poole, close-up magic card manipulator and heavy equipment maintenance man. OK, the latter is his […]
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O.S.I.S.T.A (On Shoulders I Stand, Tall and Alive
Monetta James exudes charisma, innate acting talent and oodles of potential as a theatrical performer. Her range of expressiveness whether in dance movement (mainly African-centric mimicking the movement of graceful cranes), singing in a clear confident rich alto, or portraying a freedom seeking slave in the American South, a troubled 30s “pop” singer modelled on […]
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Bud Hunter’s Life in the Big City or Male Menopause and the Single Guy
The two-barrelled title of Bud Hunter’s play is only the first of Hunter’s many problems. How about (for seconds) opening lines like, “This probably won’t be much fun for you” (oh-so-true) and, “If my childhood had been a factory, they would’ve shut it down years ago due to poor managerial practices and a blatant disregard […]
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The Truth According to Morro and Jasp
It’s as rare as fur on a duck, bicycles that prefer to walk or a chorus line of clog dancing eels. And that is clowns who are genuinely funny. Not like the odious burger shiller. Or those sad sack rubber wranglers fashioning balloon animals at kids birthday parties. No-no-no. I’m talking about real clowns who […]
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And Sometimes Y
This is a nice surprise. A smart, funny-witty standup delivered (and written) by Kirstin Howell on the roiling turmoil of dating from a single woman’s point of view. Interspersing the commentary, well-chosen, well-sung illustrative songs well-accompanied on a Roland electric keyboard by Adam Theriault (who also doubles as a potential Mr Dreamy “gentleman caller” and […]