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 […]
Theatre
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39 problems but a play ain’t one
The 39 Steps To February 15 Neptune Theatre, 1592 Argyle Street neptunetheatre.com “Kinetic” and “joy” are words Rhys Bevan-John uses a lot when he talks about the Neptune Theatre production of The 39 Steps, and that makes sense: the long-limbed, rubber-faced actor is known for his exuberant physicality on stage, and this play makes the most […]
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Where I work: Shahin Sayadi
Chess with the Doomsday Machine To February 7 Alderney Landing Theatre WHO HE IS I grew up in a theatre family—my dad had a company and my mother performed, I grew up in that environment, ended up in Canada and did theatre studies at Dalhousie. Maggie [Stewart, OneLight’s managing director] and I started the company […]
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Last Christmas
A Christmas Carol Dec 26, 2pm & 7:30pm Neptune Studio Theatre 1593 Argyle Street $18-$25 902-429-7070 In a very Haligonian turn of events, what began in 2003 as a make-your-own-work project for Jeremy Webb—a one-man version of The Christmas Carol—became 11 years, nearly 500 performances and a holiday theatre tradition. “I’d done the Neptune show […]
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TOP PLAYS OF 2014
Chess and the Doomsday Machine (Onelight) This play about a young soldier in Abadan during the Iraq-Iran war is told in a manner that engages on many levels. Music, projections and three “languages” (English, Farsi and unverbalized communication) are all integral to telling the story. The result is startlingly unique and emotionally captivating. Gallathea (Vile […]
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Mass appeal
Tanya Davis is an inquisitive soul. In her work as poet, playwright, filmmaker and musician, she’s constantly delving into life’s big questions around loving, belonging and believing. Now Davis is reimagining the Catholic mass in a way that will bring the audience into an exploration of faith and doubt, exclusion and community. The piece is […]
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Billy Bishop Goes to War
Before seeing Billy Bishop Goes to War, I knew very little about either Billy Bishop himself or the 1978 iconic Canadian musical. On the history front, I learned that Bishop was a Canadian hero, a World War I flying ace from Owen Sound who’s credited with destroying 72 German planes. I also discovered that the […]
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Heaven can’t wait
Vision and elbow grease. It’s taken a lot of both to transform the former Acadian Lines bus terminal on Almon Street into The Waiting Room, Halifax’s newest black box theatre. The vision belongs to Kazan Co-op, a theatre company founded in 2011 with a mission to produce compelling contemporary Canadian works. “We started thinking about […]
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Mending Fences down to earth
Mending Fences is the story of 28-year-old Drew (Iain Stewart) who returns to a farmhouse in rural Saskatchewan to re-connect with his emotionally-distant and difficult father after 13 years apart. While this set-up may not sound laugh-out-loud funny, in the hands of playwright Norm Foster, there are plenty of comic moments and zingy one-liners to […]
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Vertical City Performance: All Good Things
Prince George Hotel, 1725 Market Street Zone 1, exhibit #101 www.brucewbarton.com/all-good-things “It’s based on a real-life experience of mine, a near-drowning in a lake on Manitoulin Island, where I was pulled from the water by a fisherman, and based on the complex, lingering ripples of that event for me and for my family,” says writer/director […]
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David for Queen
Technology has certainly evolved in 25 years, but the Halifax Theatre for Young People production of John Lazarus’ 1988 play David for Queen proves that attitudes are much slower to change. It‘s the story of a gay junior high student’s journey towards self-and-social-acceptance, and while playwright Kristin Slaney has updated the script to incorporate current […]
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Homecoming out
Halifax Theatre For Young People co-artistic director Tessa Mendel first read playwright John Lazarus’ *David For Queen* 20 years ago, and was struck by the way the play dealt with the challenging issue of coming out in high school with sensitivity and humour. Twenty years later, Mendel revisited the play with a mind to update […]