The history of racial relations in North America has certainly been a topic of interest among filmmakers and playwrights in recent years—one which audiences have been happy to engage in. One need look no further than the recent successes of Django Unchained, Fruitvale Station, or the buzz around 12 Years[Read More…]
Theatre
tick, tick…BOOM! is no bust
It’s a musical where “everybody we know wants to be something else.” With a cast of three actors and a live four-piece band, Tuesday Night Cafe (TNC) presents tick, tick..BOOM!, by Jonathan Larson, best known for bohemian rock musical Rent. Choosing love, success, or passion as life’s top priority is[Read More…]
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
It always disturbs me when I hear one of my female peers say something to the tune of, “Don’t worry—I’m not a feminist or anything,” as if it’s something to be embarrassed or even worried about. Thankfully, Imago Theatre’s production of If We Were Birds screams feminism, highlighting the strength[Read More…]
An affair to remember
David Sherman’s Joe Louis: An American Romance is the perfect event to kick-off Black History Month. Thematically and visually complex, the play explores the life of Joe Louis—the African-American heavyweight boxing champion of the world—through flashbacks, fictional scenes, and historical footage, to comment on the racial prejudice that still resonates[Read More…]
Song and dance for the tortured soul
Alice Walker What do you do when you’re trapped in a Buenos Aires prison? You fantasize about movie stars, of course. That, at least, is how Molina—a gay window-dresser in prison for “corrupting a minor”—has gotten through his darkest hours. When Valentin, a hunky Marxist revolutionary accused of attempting to[Read More…]
In Goethe-inspired opera, a fatal attraction
Opera of Montreal Shortly after the curtain rises on Opera of Montreal’s production of Werther, a young boy wheels a bicycle across the stage, laughing and carousing with his friends. The bicycle remains onstage through the first act, occasionally pedaled by the boy but mostly left in a corner, untouched[Read More…]
Before there were hipsters…
Holly Stewart Though it usually operates on a smaller scale, this week Opera McGill will debut a big-budget, big-cast version of what is arguably the world’s biggest-name opera: Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. “It’s the world’s favourite opera, in some way,” says Patrick Hansen, the director of McGill’s Opera Studies program.[Read More…]
Rewriting the classics
Perhaps inspired by the trials of his conflicted protagonist, director Max Zidel ambitiously attacks Aeschylus’ three-part tragedy in The Oresteia Rewritten, now on at Players’ Theatre. The result of his efforts: a powerful and unexpectedly fast-paced reproduction full of sound and fury. From early on in the play it is[Read More…]
Writing, directing, and performing a play…all in 24 hours
Anna Katycheva Even if you’ve never heard of McGill’s Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre (TNC), you’ve probably wondered why there’s a 50s-inspired neon sign on the otherwise pleasant ivory tower that is the Islamic Studies building. But within the walls of this subtle structure is a world of student ingenuity and[Read More…]
The Tempest
Many of the films that will be contending in this year’s Academy Awards were released during the holiday season. For this reason, we bring you a rundown of the best movies from December 2010 that you should be sure to catch in theatres before school starts taking over.
