In a day and age when a lot of marriages don’t last 10 years, it is pretty remarkable that an ensemble theatre company, the kind of collective that’s likely to be a hot-bed of creative passions and potential clashes, is entering its 10th anniversary season. But Zuppa Circus Theatre, one of Halifax’s most cutting-edge theatre […]
Kate Watson
Posted inArts + Music
Beautiful City
I hope that there is someone out there on this last day of The Fringe combing this blog for a great show to end off with, because I can recommend one. “Beautiful City” by Saints Alive! Theatre Company is a moving musical powered by an amazing collection of young talent. It’s basically a Romeo and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hippolytus
“Hippolytus” would have been a little more enjoyable if Cole’s Notes had been provided at the door. This modern-day version of Euripides’ classic play presupposes that the audience is familiar with Greek myths and goddesses. But even familiarity the ancient story would not have saved this play. The writing is confusing. For example, we supposedly […]
Posted inArts + Music
Righteous
Cory Bowles has presence, he owns the stage. It’s hard to take your eyes off him as he becomes two very different black men in his show “Righteous.” The first man is a smart, tough drug dealer working to support his family. The second is a successful lawyer, fleeing his community and the taunts of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dance in a Can
I don’t know much about dance. One of my earliest memories is of being hauled out of a performance of “The Nutcracker” because I kept asking, at the top of my voice, when they were going to talk. Well, Sue Gertridge’s “Dance in a Can” is a perfect introduction to dance for the uninitiated. She […]
Posted inArts + Music
Billie’s Blues Revisited
There’s a little bit of a lot of things in “Billie’s Blues Revisited.” There are snippets of powerful song from Taryn Della and the late, great Lady Day. There’s poetry by spoken word artists Reed “iZrEAL” Jones and El Jones –poetry that carries you away on rhythmic waves to times and places you’ve never been […]
Posted inArts + Music
Director’s Cut: 6 in Under 60
“6 in Under 60” is the kind of thing that one dreams of seeing at the Atlantic Fringe Festival; it’s excellent theatre, put together on a shoestring. Everything about the production is professional, from the performances themselves to the bridges connecting the six plays. The plays run the gamut from weird (“Rex”) to amusing (“Playwriting […]
Posted inArts + Music
Magick
The young people of The King’s Players deserve an ‘A’ for effort, but a ‘D’ for delivery for their production of Garnet Hirst’s “Magick”. It contains some pretty complex magic tricks that need to be executed flawlessly to be believable. They aren’t. The set is attractive and well thought out, but the need to move […]
Posted inArts + Music
The brilliance dance
It’s less than a week to opening night of the Atlantic Fringe Festival show Billie’s Blues Revisited, and its creator Taryn Della is going over some details with fellow performer El Jones. They are working out the transitions between the different components of the one-hour show, which includes music, stand-up, drama and spoken word. As […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Power struggle
Jen Crawford is a 26-year-old graduate student and activist. She has an engaging smile, an effervescent personality and a passion for feminist issues. She can see herself running for office in the future. Forty-two-year-old Catherine Meade recently sought the federal Liberal nomination in the riding of Halifax and lost by a slim margin. She is […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dan’s House
Daniel MacIvor has come home. Well, not home-home—as in his hometown of Sydney, Cape Breton—but home to Nova Scotia. Purcell’s Cove, to be exact. It marks the first time since his days as a theatre student at Dalhousie that the award-winning playwright and actor can refer to himself as a Haligonian. “I might as well […]
Posted inArts + Music
Ballad power
Playwright Ross Desprez has come full circle in the creation of his work The Ballad of Jim Pane. The play had its early roots as the story of a fictional 1960s folk singer, but morphed into The Ballad of Phil Ochs after Desprez discovered an album by Ochs and was moved by songs such as […]
