THEATRE NEWS: NAC's Hinton leaving post in 2012
12 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN -QMI Agency

TORONTO - Peter Hinton, credited by many with revitalizing the English Theatre program at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, is stepping down as the NAC’s artistic director of English theatre, effective August, 2012.

Hinton’s departure was announced Wednesday by Peter Herndorf, NAC President and CEO, who praised Hinton’s abilities as both a builder and a mentor. “We will miss his passionate commitment to artists and to his audience,” Herndorf said. Hinton will program the NAC’s 2012-13 season of English theatre, prior to his departure.

THEATRE NEWS: GG's Literary Awards finalists; Mirvish/Mackintosh cast Les Miz for 2012
12 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

The finalists for the 75th anniversary edition of the Governor General's Literary Awards have been announced, chosen from a slate of 1,684 eligible books.

English language fiction finalists include David Bezmozgis's The Free World, Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues: A Novel, Marina Endicott's The Little Shadows, Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers and Alexi Zentner's Touch.

In English language non-fiction, finalists include Charles Foran's Mordecai: The Life And Times, Nathan M. Greenfield's The Damned: The Canadians at the Battle of Hong Kong and the POW Experience, 1941-45, Richard Gwyn's Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald; His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867-1891, J.J. Lee's The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son and a Suit, and Andrew Nikiforuk's Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests.

In English language drama, the finalists include Brendan Gall's Minor Complications: Two Plays, Jonathan Garfinkel's House of Many Tongues, Erin Shield's If We Were Birds, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard's Gas Girls and Vern Thiessen's Lenin's Embalmers.

For a complete list of nominees in all categories, including French language fiction, non-fiction and drama as well as French and English poetry, translation and children's literature, text and illustration, visit www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla.

Winners in all categories will be announced Nov. 15,and awards will be presented by Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, at ceremonies at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Nov. 24. Each winner receives a cash purse of $25,000.

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It's not slated to open 'til next summer, but David Mirvish and Cameron Mackintosh have already begun the casting process for their Canadian 25th anniversary production of Les Miserables. All those interested in auditioning are asked to send a photo and resume, as well as a voice demo, if available, to Les Miserables Casting, 62 Ellerbeck St., Toronto, ON, M4K 2V1.

THEATRE REVIEW:
SEX, RELIGION AND OTHER HANG-UPS
8 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
R: 4/5
Pictured: James Gangl

In a world where personal ads long ago morphed into internet dating, and where people still search for new and more effective ways to connect on the most primal level, writer/performer James Gangl may have stumbled onto the next big thing when it comes to hooking up — a sustained stand-up routine about his struggle to get down and dirty.


But even if it succeeds, don’t look for it to change the face of theatre as we know it. While Gangl’s bright idea has the potential to leave him making out like a bandit, anyone familiar with the ADD effect that massive infusions of testosterone can have on the XY chromosome will know that conventional theatre is probably pretty safe, considering the work that’s been poured into this. 
Gangl’s show — more of an illuminated monologue, really — is called SEX, RELIGION AND OTHER HANG-UPS and, in the wake of outstanding success at this past summer’s Fringe Festival in Toronto, it opened a commercial run Thursday on the stage of Theatre Passe Muraille, where it is slated to play through Oct. 22.


At its most basic, SRAOH is a 75-minute personal ad, in which Gangl rather unconventionally attempts to further his ongoing search for Ms. Right by documenting what proves to be a rather uneventful sexual history for a man whose 20s can only be glimpsed in the rear-view mirror. 
But then, Gangl was apparently something of a late bloomer, a condition he blames on a rather passionate attachment to the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. In his case, it was an attachment manifested by an intimate knowledge of the church’s pantheon of saints, and by a certain ambivalence toward what have come to be known in polite circles as sins of the flesh — at least those involving other people.


After setting the scene with some charmingly self-effacing chatter, Gangl’s monologue really starts to cook when the aspiring young actor, then in his mid-20s, finds himself cast in a beer commercial that involved three other young men, and three very beautiful young women, one of whom instantly captured his attention.
 Their ill-fated romance begins with an evening of pharmaceutically enhanced conversation, and from there, progresses slowly and painfully as the still socially inept young man overcomes a lifetime’s collection of inhibitions, a penchant for bad poetry and a condition best described as a holy Tourette’s syndrome.


In all, it’s pretty innocent stuff that in today’s world rarely, if ever, crosses that invisible and ever-shifting line that separates the merely risque from the truly rank. In fact, it all comes out as a sort of modern boys’ own version of a Jane Austen novel, ending with something a little more physically engaging than a mere kiss. It’s a story where candour passes for insight, proving conclusively the truth in the old axiom that tragedy plus time equals comedy.


Under the direction of Chris Gibbs, with C.J. Astronomo at the lighting board, Gangl pulls out all the stops, and he turns in a sure-footed comedic performance, rendered even more compelling by a loopy charm and an “everyman” face (to match his walk, it seems). His performance is almost certain to catch attention from the young women in his audience, without threatening the males, many of whom will recognize their own hang-ups in his story.
Like a lot of made-for-the-Fringe offerings, it may not be great theatre, but it is nonetheless, a pretty good time.

THEATRE REVIEW: THE UGLY ONE
5 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
R: 4/5
Pictured: David Jansen

Beauty may indeed be only skin deep — but that is small comfort indeed for the esthetically deprived living in our shallow world. Rather than brood on our society’s preoccupation with pretty, however, both the beautiful people and their esthetically challenged kin can now laugh, if not at their own reflections, then at the reflections of German playwright Marius von Mayenburg.
Those reflections are all wrapped up in a bleakly funny play called THE UGLY ONE, currently playing in Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space where it opened Tuesday in a production by Theatre Smash.


As translated by Maja Zade, THE UGLY ONE tells the story of the unfortunate Lette (played by David Jansen), a man so physically repulsive that even his loving wife (Naomi Wright) can only bear to look him in his left eye and kiss his shoulder, rather than his lips. Still, Lette has managed to remain oblivious to his facial shortcomings — until his boss (played by Hardee T. Lineham), in an attempt to sell one of Lette’s inventions, assigns Lette’s better-looking underling (Jesse Aaron Dwyre) to be the front man.


Shattered by the revelation that his co-workers and even his wife find him something far less than attractive, Lette somewhat reluctantly consigns his fate and his face to the skills of an enterprising plastic surgeon (played by Lineham) who gives him a whole new look and, along with it, a whole new outlook. As a result, Lette is soon caught up in a whole new life that involves not only undreamed-of professional success, but sexual excess as well, culminating in a torrid affair with a 73-year-old woman (Wright) and her mollycoddled son (Dwyre). But Lette’s newfound lease on the good life is threatened when he discovers the good doctor is selling the same new face to anyone with the money to buy it.


In addition to its entertainment value, THE UGLY ONE represents a major acting challenge for every single member of the four-person ensemble, most of whom are required to slip seamlessly from one character to another, often in the same scene. That said, the greatest challenge falls, not surprisingly, on Jansen, who is required to transform himself from ‘ugly’ to ‘wildly attractive’ without the prosthetic aid, despite the fact that he is, like most of us, neither.
That he is convincing in both is testament to a committed performance from a seasoned actor who clearly knows his stuff as he highlights the inner beauty of the ugly Lette then slowly revealing the growing ugliness in the remade version.

For Lineham, the opportunity to tackle two roles in one play seems to be a romp — and he tackles both the ignorant boss and the venal surgeon with glee. Meanwhile, Wright and Dwyre move back and forth between the two characters they each play with deceptive ease and grace, deploying bursts of almost panther-like sensuality with telling effect.


In the face of Camellia Koo’s all-but-overwhelming set piece — a huge table that eats up much of the available stage space in a theatre reconfigured for runway staging — director Ashlie Corcoran creates a production that permeates the entire theatre and fairly crackles with life. 
But while Corcoran does some impressive work in folding audience into production and production into audience while still milking the script for all its incisive comedy, she runs out of steam at about precisely the same time as the playwright.


As endings go, THE UGLY ONE perhaps goes just a little too far.

THEATRE NEWS: Six in the running for Siminovitch Prize; StratFest adds a single for TWELFTH
4 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

Six Canadian playwrights have been shortlisted for the $100,000 2011 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. They are Newfoundland’s Robert Chafe, Quebec’s Jasmine Dubé and Larry Tremblay, British Columbia’s Joan MacLeod, Saskatchewan’s Mansel Robinson and Greg MacArthur, who splits his time between Quebec and Alberta.

Currently in its 11th year, the Siminovitch Prize is named in honour of Elinore and Lou Siminovitch and is awarded in annual rotation to outstanding Canadian directors, playwrights and designers. This year’s six finalists were chosen from 23 nominated playwrights and a winner, to be announced Nov. 7 in Toronto, will be chosen by a jury chaired by Maureen Labonte.

Previous winners include director Daniel Brooks, playwrights John Mighton and Daniel MacIvor and designers Dany Lyne and Ronnie Burkett.

Meanwhile, in other theatre news, the Stratford Festival has added a single performance to the run of its current production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Des McAnuff.

Tickets for the additional performance, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. in the Festival Theatre, are available at 1-800-561-1233.

THEATRE REVIEW:
ANOTHER AFRICA
3 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 4/5
Pictured: Lucky Onyekachi Ejim

TORONTO - If you missed it during its 2010 Luminato run, you're being offered a second chance to catch up with Volcano Theatre's acclaimed Africa Trilogy — or at least, two-thirds of it. What started out as a rich theatrical blend of the work of three playwrights and three directors, under the title of The Africa Trilogy, has been reduced to two plays by two playwrights — rechristened Another Africa — and carefully transplanted from the Fleck Dance Theatre to the stage of the Bluma Appel, still under the Volcano imprimatur, a presentation of Canadian Stage.


Initially, the two works that survived the cut — Binyavanga Wainaina's Shine Your Eye and Roland Schimmelpfennig's Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God — were to have been joined by a third. But days before last week's opening, Deborah Asiimwe's prologue, titled The Stranger, was scrapped in favour of a simple welcome performed by the entire cast.

Under the direction of Volcano's Ross Manson, Shine Your Eye remains a highly impressive work, set in the heart of a modern day Nigeria, where the interests of multi-national oil seem at constant cross-purposes with the interests of the Nigerian people. It's the story of a single girl, Gbene Beka, who is determined to make history rather than be trapped by it. As played by Dienye Waboso, she's a firecracker determined to follow her own path, despite the best efforts of either her Nigerian mentor — a player in Internet scams — or a Canadian Internet friend who wants Beka to join her in the Great White North.

As played by Lucky Onyekachi Ejim, that mentor simply wants to capitalize on the political martyrdom of Beka's father, using her as a pawn in various nefarious financial games, Meanwhile, the Canadian friend Doreen — a lesbian financier played by Ordena Stephens-Thompson — may be only slightly more altruistic in her generosity. Using a rich blend of storytelling, music and video, Manson's assured production makes it all but impossible to remain uninvested in Beka's struggle to control her.


From Nigeria, the action then moves to contemporary North American suburbia for Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God, as two clearly upwardly mobile suburbanites, played by Tony Nappo and Kristen Thomson, welcome home a pair of old college chums, played by Maev Beaty and Tom Barnett, only recently returned from seven years of hard medical service in AIDS- and war-ravaged Africa. As the reunited foursome makes nice, it becomes obvious there are cracks in every single one of the relationships the story embraces, all of which is exacerbated by the tragedy of a single African child.


While the playwright plays fast and loose with time, rewinding and fast-forwarding as he pulls his characters out of the action for more intimate monologues, Peggy Pickit offers a less than flattering look at the ongoing interventions of the Western world, questioning just how much long-term good we can accomplish.
 While it remains a powerful commentary on the cost of charity and its ultimate worth, Liesl Tommy's production seems oddly out of balance. Stepping into a part created by Jane Spidell, the normally impressive Thomson turns in a performance that quickly becomes forced and shrill, undermining Nappo's otherwise strong work and toning down the volume on fine work from Beaty and Barnett.


Still, the works that are Another Africa may not change the way you look at African issues, but they will ensure that, when you look at those issues in the future, you'll understand that the solutions aren't simple matters of black and white.

OPERA REVIEW: RIGOLETTO
30 SEPT/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 4/5


TORONTO - As a showbiz veteran, the Canadian Opera Company’s Alexander Neef clearly recognizes that it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time. And having embraced that notion, he’s apparently gone on to embrace the notion that if pleasing everyone is out of the question, garnering a passionate reaction from everyone will work just about as well.

Which is precisely why, one suspects, he has engaged director Christopher Alden to mount a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s RIGOLETTO, which took to the stage of the Four Seasons on Thursday. Alden, you may recall, is the director behind the COC’s love-it-or-hate-it take on The Flying Dutchman, wherein everyone seems to be suffering from a frightful case of debilitating mal de mer. Judging from the audience reaction when Alden took his bows on opening night, this RIGOLETTO is destined to garner the same range of reactions.

Based on Victor Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse, RIGOLETTO tells the story of a hunchback jester of that name, in the court of the corrupt Duke Of Mantua. But even while Rigoletto seemingly embraces his Duke’s wastreling ways, he’s trying to protect the innocence of his motherless young daughter, Gilda, by forcing her into an all but cloistered existence. Despite his best efforts, Rigoletto’s two worlds collide with — this being opera — tragic results for daddy, and even more tragic results for his beloved daughter.

On the plus side, this production is nothing short of a musical feast, featuring a cast led by Quinn Kelsey, a magnificently expressive baritone with a face and a voice made for tragedy, sharing the title role with Lester Lynch throughout the run. There’s also impressive work from tenor Dmitri Pittas, cast as the scandalous and licentious Duke (David Lomeli shares that role). And if soprano Ekaterina Sadovnikova lacks the power in the upper ranges to make a truly impressive Gilda, a role she shares with Simone Osborne, she nonetheless packs maximum innocence and pathos into her performance.

But even though the COC Orchestra, under the increasingly assured direction of Johannes Debus, leads the opera’s singers and an impressive supporting cast through Verdi’s glorious score with sure-footed ease, this is a production that seems destined to leave a lot of patrons bemused.

For even while it is all but impossible not to embrace the beauty of Michael Levine’s set — an evocation of a Victorian-era gentlemen’s club, complete with wood panelling and coffered ceiling — it is a setting that does little or nothing to evoke the Renaissance era in which the tale is set. The intention, one suspects, is to underline the fact that in a closed little world where women and people such as Rigoletto are consigned forever to the fringes, to be used and abused at will, tragedy is more or less inevitable. But that has always been apparent in the telling of this tale.

In limiting the action to the locale of the Ducal court — or nightmarish versions thereof — and ignoring Rigoletto’s attempts to create an oasis away from it, Alden strips the story of much of its shading, dimming the horror of the violation of his tragic hero’s sanctuary and the ultimate tragedy of his loss.

In short, Alden seems to have created another opera aimed squarely at those who see opera as an entertainment from the neck up. As for those who want it to be an experience that touches the heart as well, one suspects they were the audience members who booed even while they applauded, when Alden joined the line-up at the opening-night curtain call. But, as Neef has surely noticed, there was hardly anyone who wasn’t engaged.