The Death of Klinghoffer, composer John Adams’s opera about the Palestinian Liberation Front’s 1985 hijacking of passenger ship MS Achille Lauro and subsequent murder of handicap passenger Leon Klinghoffer, began its run at New York’s Metropolitan Opera Monday night.
Theatre
Theatre Review: Oh, What a Lovely War!
It’s commonly said that “comedy is tragedy plus time,” and few shows can capture that saying in as much of a literal sense as Oh, What a Lovely War! does. Originally created in 1963—well after the dust had settled on the horrors of both world wars—the production was intended to[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a film franchise!
After months of speculation, DC Comics has released its five-year superhero film line-up, answering hundreds of assumptions, expectations, and unrealistic hopes in one succinct press conference. The films include the sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel, which will focus on Batman and Superman’s first meeting while simultaneously featuring multiple Justice[Read More…]
Superhospital makes an appointment for comedy
It’s fitting that Montreal Improv’s newest show, Superhospital, takes its name from an enormous medical centre that’s currently being constructed just west of the city’s downtown core. For the uninitiated, improvisational theatre—or improv—is a type of performance art in which a group of actors hop on stage with no script,[Read More…]
Billy howls into obscurity
There’s not much subtlety in Fabien Cloutier’s Governor General’s Award-nominated play Billy (The Days of Howling)—currently making its English language debut at Theatre La Chapelle—nor does that seem to be the playwright’s goal. Rather, Cloutier aims to explore the themes of delusion, judgement, and class relations, all of which he[Read More…]
Theatre Review: Monster
It’s difficult to describe the plot of Tuesday Night Café’s (TNC) one-person show Monster in words without dwarfing the experience. Narratives and characters are intricately interwoven, all powerfully represented by actress and co-director Laura Orozco, and the play achieves a sense unity and commonality despite the seemingly different stories. The[Read More…]
I like it better when we’re not wasted
The Drunken Show is exactly what it sounds like: A group of comedians who get inebriated and go on stage to perform their acts, with the audience heavily encouraged to get drunk as well. So naturally, with the aim of getting the ‘full’ experience, that’s exactly what I did—for artistic[Read More…]
What’s Happening In Montreal
MUSIC—Current Swell These Vancouver indie rockers should play lots of material from their latest album, Ulysses (2014), which means Classics and English Lit majors won’t want to miss out. Wednesday, Oct. 8, 8 p.m., Petit Olympia (1282 Amherst). Tickets $15. THEATRE—The Drunken Show: Over The Limit Pay $20 and watch[Read More…]
Shortform, longform, we all scream for MPROV
“Welcome to Montreal’s MPROV Festival, the place where everything is made up and the points don’t matter.” That Whose Line is it Anyway tagline may be what some audience members would expect to hear at the beginning of any of the improv comedy festival’s shows over the past week, seeing as[Read More…]
What the Butler Saw is shocking good fun
Farce is a notoriously difficult genre to pull off. If the comedy is played up too much, character nuance gets was out in favour of cheap gags and nonsensical plotting.
