Magnetic North is pointing east right now as the national travelling theatre festival of new Canadian shows opens in Halifax. The event, which alternates each year between Ottawa and a different Canadian city, provides a kind of one-stop shopping opportunity for presenters and producers from across the world to experience some of our country’s best […]
Kate Watson
Posted inLifestyle
Acting out: A summer’s worth of theatre
June 19-29;
Magnetic North Theatre Festival Canada’s only national theatre festival, Magnetic North, is descending on Halifax and Dartmouth and bringing with it some of the best touring theatre from across the country. Enjoy plays (including east coast stories produced as part of Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Theatre Festival), take part in workshops, sit in on […]
Posted inArts + Music
No Animal and The Prince of Pig Alley
Tim Lake Rena Kossatz, Jeffrey O’Hara and Maggie Hammel take a walk on the wild side Playwright Bethany Lake’s entertaining double bill delves into the dark corners of the criminal mind. No Animal is a short play that has a killer and a criminal psychologist squaring off across a table. The writing is taut, layering […]
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Spring Awakening
MJ Photographics A passionate performance by Neptune Theatre School’s Pre-Professional Training Program cast Spring Awakening is an old play (written in 1891) given a new twist by a pop rock score that allows the troubled teen characters to unleash their tortured inner monologues. It’s a work that’s both provocative and disturbing, not because of its […]
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Podium 2014’s feast of music
The Canadian choral community is descending on Halifax this week for a “feast of music”. Choral music conductors, music educators, accompanists, composers and singers of all ages are taking part in a biennial conference called Podium. They’re here for professional development, but a happy by-product is that there are almost two dozen opportunities for the […]
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Tiny Vaudevilles
Ben Stone tickles the ivories Zuppa Theatre’s Tiny Vaudevilles is deceptively simple and definitely delightful. It plays on the idea of “vaudeville” by incorporating two of Chekhov’s funny and astute one-act farces (called vaudevilles) into the vaudeville variety-show format . This gives the talented trio of Stewart Legere, Susan Leblanc-Crawford and Ben Stone ample opportunity […]
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Miss Caledonia
Peggy Ann Douglas—tomboy, farm girl and dreamer—has a plan to escape her dreary rural existence. Against the wishes of her dour father and with the help of her resourceful mother, she’ll climb to the pinnacle of the small town pageant world with the hopes of opening doors to the wide world beyond. Melody A. Johnson’s […]
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Gender Failure
The dynamic duo of Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote There’s something powerful and seductive about being told a story, especially if the storytellers are as generous, personable and talented as Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote. The dynamic duo wowed a packed-to-the-rafters crowd at the Bus Stop Theatre with their multi-media live show Gender Failure. Spoon […]
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Ballet Jörgen`s Romeo and Juliet
Hiroto Saito and Saniya Abilmajineva as Shakespeare`s star-crossed lovers With Romeo and Juliet, Ballet Jörgen and Symphony Nova Scotia bring the story of Shakespeare’s immortal, star-crossed lovers marvellously to life through dance and music. Joy, sorrow and passion are expressed in movement, subtle as the disdainful pointing of a finger and grand as a joyful […]
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An Evening of Ives
Talent on parade in “An Evening of Ives” Review eight plays in 150 words? Impossible! Briefly review one fabulous evening of theatre which just happened to be made up of eight plays? No problem! For the second year, Lions Den Theatre has produced a directors’ showcase comprised of short plays by wordsmith extraordinaire David Ives. […]
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Harvey
“In this world, you must be oh-so smart, or oh-so pleasant,” says Elwood P. Dowd (Dave MacNeil), the visionary in Harvey who befriends a giant invisible rabbit and chooses pleasant over smart. Dowd spreads his sunshiney outlook despite opposition from his dithery sister (Cathy Cameron) and his self-absorbed niece (Rebecca Schneidereit). In my memory, Harvey—made […]
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The Last 5 Years
Love on the rocks in The Last 5 Years The construction of the two-character musical The Last 5 Years is both clever and confusing. Half the scenes are told from the point of view of Cathy (Becca Guilderson) while the other half are from the perspective of her husband Jamie (Taylor Long). Cathy’s arc traces […]
