I’d forgotten how fun, and frantic, Fringe can be. Trying to see the bulk of the shows means mad dashes across town to meet tight turn-around times as well as lengthy layovers in The Bus Stop lobby that offer a chance to discuss and digest the plays. Last night’s offerings certainly offered lots of food […]
Theatre
Posted inArts + Music
Get on the bus with Legoland
Legoland is a musical about two bus-hopping, drug-dealing, ex-hippie runaways, Penny (Maggie Hammel) and Ezra (Henricus Gielis), who are forced to sing and dance as part of their community service. Their genre of choice? Vaudeville, which is “fast-paced, fun and predictably unpredictable,” says the show’s director, Gillian Clark. Popular in the late 19th and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Androidgynous’ robot love
If you’re wandering around Halifax and see a man in make-up holding hands with a doll that’s holding hands with a robot, fear not—it’s just actor Ian Mullan promoting his Fringe show, Androidgynous. Mullan will be playing two roles, lovelorn Aunt June and her young, robot-obsessed charge Riley. “I was a kid who loved machines […]
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Landline, ho!
Landline is one of the most unique theatre experiences at Prismatic. It uses technology to connect individuals in Dartmouth and Ottawa, and invites them to share their surroundings and stories. Dustin Harvey (Secret Theatre, Halifax) and Adrienne Wong (Neworld Theatre, Vancouver) talk a little about their creation. How/when did the creation process for Landlinehappen? DH: […]
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From ashes to opportunity
Jesse MacLean stands in front of the Park Place Theatre and kicks the charred remains of a garbage can. “You can see where the fire started,” he says, pointing to the circle of ashes and gesturing up the side of the building where the flames spread into the attic storage space on the morning of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Definitely not the opera
Most of us can remember our first foray into high school theatre. Usually in an auditorium, usually performing—with varying degrees of enthusiasm—a play carefully vetted by the drama teacher, usually about high school, usually written by someone you’ve never heard of, lucky if it was written in the last decade. Contrast that with the youth […]
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Magnetic North’s field notes
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 […]
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The show still goes on
On Sunday a suspicious fire damaged Park Place Theatre, Shakespeare By The Sea’s headquarters at Point Pleasant Park, days before rehearsals for its summer season were scheduled to begin. The fire started in a trash can after midnight, spreading to the building and damaging the roof and attic, along with much of the seating. The […]
Posted inArts + Music
Beyond tolerance
It sounds like the makings of a Law & Order episode—18-year-old Aidan David Cromwell is walking home with his girlfriend late one winter night in Fairview when 25-year-old Marc Bernard Tremblay spots them and begins to follow and verbally harass them. From there you have conflicting accounts—either Cromwell charged Tremblay purposefully knife in hand or […]
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Neighbors
Despite a prolific career, Rose Byrne—who’s done turns in comedies (Bridesmaids) and alleged comedies (The Internship) before—is mostly known for the law drama Damages and as The Underwritten Pretty One in films far and wide. In Neighbors, she gets no help from Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O’Brien’s script, but at least director Nicholas Stoller […]
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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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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 […]