The beginning of January is often a theatre wasteland (who wants to be in rehearsal over the holidays?), but this year we’ve already had LunaSea’s stunning Estate, and now Lions Den’s charming and quirky Strawberries in January. The play can be described in simple terms as a romantic comedy with a happy ending, but it […]
Theatre
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Branching out
Hannah Rittner considers herself very fortunate. The 23-year-old recent King’s College graduate has found her passion, and it’s not what she expected. Rittner pursued a degree in contemporary studies and English, but her ideas about her future changed after taking one course a couple of years ago taught by Martha Irving (actor and co-founding member […]
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Go big or go Estate
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to rewrite a classic but from the sounds of it, that’s exactly what Hannah Rittner does with Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”—a story about a family that returns to its ancestoral home just before it’s auctioned off—to great success. “What Hannah’s done is she’s just taken his themes […]
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The Heist Before Christmas
The Alderney Landing Theatre has been transformed into a little slice of Sin City (complete with casino games for the pre-and-post-show entertainment) for this year’s dinner theatre offering The Heist Before Christmas. It’s the story of a couple of pairs of star-crossed lovers who reunite to do a holiday show in Las Vegas. It has […]
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Camelot, the Panto
Every year at this time, the Theatre Arts Guild pulls out all the stops with its family pantomime. The shows are consistently delightful, filled with music, comedy and with plenty of opportunity for audience participation. This year’s offering, Camelot, the Panto, may well be my favourite of the many pantos I’ve seen at TAG. Veteran […]
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Elf yo’ self
If you’re looking to beat the bah-humbug blues, a trip to Neptune Theatre’s Elf: The Musical is just the ticket. Any movie-to-stage transition can be tricky, but this show manages to keep all the fun and magic of the popular Will Ferrell film. Some of this success is due to clever writing, but even more […]
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Eye of the beholder
There’s laying your soul bare on the stage, then there’s Elizabeth Anne McCarthy. With her one-woman play, Scopophilia: Into the Eye of the Sun, McCarthy draws inspiration from her day job as a life model at NSCAD, setting her tale of dual identities, voyeurism, feminism and violence in a life drawing class. McCarthy plays Marina, […]
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Little Whorehouse goes big
Yeehaw! Dartmouth Players have pulled it off again. They’ve brought a huge show to their tiny stage and made it sing. The raunchy, profanity-laced The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas might not seem like an obvious choice for community theatre, but the enthusiastic audience reaction says different. Miss Mona, the madam with a heart of […]
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Top marks for Mrs. Markham
It’s been almost 30 years since two amateur theatre groups merged to form Bedford Players, and the company has served up a lot of laughs in those three decades. The Players’ latest production, Move Over Mrs. Markham, is a fine example of the kind of bawdy farce that their audiences love. Mrs. Markham is filled […]
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Kill Shakespeare kills it
I see over a 100 plays a year, and I’m predicting that Kill Shakespeare will stand out as one of the most memorable and entertaining of 2012. It’s a live stage adaptation of Anthony Del Col and Conor MaCreery’s popular graphic novel series of the same name. Del Col and MaCreery’s writing is stylish and […]
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Nevermore forever
As a child with a dark streak, I was fascinated by Edgar Allan Poe’s meditations on murder and madness. In Nevermore, Shakespeare by the Sea has brought four of my favourites to the stage: “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven” and the “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Of the four, I was […]
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BINGO!‘s a winner
Chances are you’ll find yourself on your own trip down memory lane with the five quirky characters in Daniel MacIvor’s reunion comedy Bingo!. Even if their reminiscences are not from your high school era, MacIvor speaks in big truths about youth, longing, belonging and vulnerability. Dookie (Marty Burt) is the golden bully boy, Nurk (John […]