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
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.
Great venegance, furious anger, and Shakesperian dialogue
Spectators arriving to see Bard Fiction are immediately greeted by the warmth and intimacy of the Plateau’s Mainline Theatre. In anticipation of the show, audience members mingled in a small, dimly lit room filled with couches and the buzz of conversation. Eventually, a flute coaxed the audience into their seats[Read More…]
Green is the warmest colour in Glengarry Glen Ross
The devious machinations of modern capitalism provoke an awful lot of hand-wringing, but they sure make for a great spectacle. Though much of the contemporary media coverage of Wall Street tycoons tends to be negative, the fact that they receive so much interest in the first place indicates the undeniable[Read More…]
The Vagina Monologues: continuing an incomplete dialogue
I sit peacefully in the depths of a blissfully dark, cavernous Leacock 132, waiting for The Vagina Monologues dress rehearsal to begin—until a blood-curdling scream cuts through the silence and I jump from my seat. The shriek gives way to another and then another; they ring together in a cacophonous[Read More…]
Players’ production of Peter Pan forces audiences to grow up
A university is the ideal place to stage the story of a boy who never wants to grow up; few understand the sentiment of wanting to be a little kid and have fun forever better than those of us on the cusp of adulthood. As we stress over midterms, job[Read More…]
