Shauntay Grant’s words are thoroughly embedded in Nova Scotia’s cultural fabric: She is Halifax ‘s third poet laureate; the author of children’s literature including last year’s picture book Africville, a 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award nominee; she’s taken her work all over the country and the world to competitions and literary festivals. This week Grant’s […]
2b theatre
Posted inArts + Music
The Waiting Room is over
Places Please! Monday, July 30, 7:30pm The Waiting Room, 6040 Almon Street $40 tickethalifax.com A different kind of Waiting Room is facing closure this autumn: The four-year-old north-end performance space, rehearsal hall and home of KAZAN CO-OP will fall to the condo wrecking ball in the coming months. “We rented to 18 independent theatre companies […]
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Neptune Theatre announces 2018/19 season
Neptune Theatre, under the guidance of new AD Jeremy Webb, announced its 2018/19 slate this afternoon with its annual lunch at Fountain Hall. The summer season will kick off July 3 with The Argyle Street Kitchen Party, while the season proper bows with Shakespeare in Love (Sep 4-Oct 7) and closes with The Color Purple (Apr […]
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Review: One Discordant Violin
Before the lights come up, a man (Jacques Mindreau) emerges from the wings with a flashlight and a violin, plays a brief tune in the near dark, and then exits. A second man (Anthony Black), our narrator, enters to tell the story of his chance encounter with a piece of music in an abandoned theatre […]
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Review: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story
2b Theatre’s latest show tells the true story of the playwright Hannah Moscovitch’s great-grandparents who came to Canada from Romania in 1908. The beloved Ben Caplan is at the helm of the play, guiding the evening along with story and song, leading to flashbacks performed out of a shipping container-turned magnificent modular set. Mary Fay […]
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Ten rockin’ weekend picks
10 Free Comic Book Day Saturday Giant Robot celebrates Free Comic Book Day—and their sixth anniversary—with an equally giant cake and bins of free comics. 9 The Common Link: A Jane’s Walk Saturday A citizen-led stroll through some of the peninsula’s best patches of grass, this walk is part of the citizen-led Jane’s Walks that […]
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Old Stock’s dark relevance
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story May 4-14 The Waiting Room, 6040 Almon Street $20-$35 Traveller’s Curse Teaser from 2b theatre company on Vimeo In 2015, Stephen Harper was much derided for using the term “old stock” during a federal leaders’ debate to describe a group of Canadians. “It was a moment that jolted me,” […]
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The Bridge explores secrets and the past
The Bridge: A Work-in-Progress Showing Friday, February 24, 7:30pm Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University Avenue 2btheatre.com Shauntay Grant is bringing her latest stage play to life in collaboration with 2b Theatre and director Anthony Black. The Bridge is steeped in the past and present of a rural African Nova Scotian community and follows the trials […]
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Monday’s 5 things you need to know
1 Just in time for those rides to the lake, bus tickets are finally back on brand. The bright-orange tickets of Metro Transit’s past have been replaced by the above blue-and-gold tokens, which neatly match the recently rechristened logos of both Halifax Transit and Halifax the city. Spokesperson Tiffany Chase says the tickets were redesigned […]
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The more you Know
Love. Marriage. Baby carriage. Until the advent of the birth control movement, both practical considerations and societal expectations placed women firmly on the path of this schoolyard rhyme. In What a Young Wife Ought to Know, playwright Hannah Moscovitch explores the emotional and physical costs of living in a time where fertility could only be […]
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On stage in 2013
In the course of a year, there are well over 100 plays to be seen in and around Halifax. They run the gamut from works taking their first baby steps into the world to big-budget extravaganzas. What I find interesting when I compile this annual list of favourites is that the plays I remember are […]
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The matter of Invisible Atom
It’s been a wild ride for 2b theatre since Invisible Atom first premiered in Halifax in 2006. The one-man show, written by and starring 2b’s co-artistic director Anthony Black, has touched down in cities across Canada, as well as in New York and Cork, Ireland. It recently returned from a run at the Edinburgh Fringe […]