Traditionally, a stage reading is a stripped-down version of an author’s work. With no set design and minimal effort put toward costuming or props, performance and plot are at the forefront. Attending a reading allows keen audiences to access an unfinished product. Abandoning notions of polish and perfection relieves creators[Read More…]
Theatre
‘Spring Awakening’: A change of scene and season
The Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society’s (AUTS) production of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s 2006 musical, Spring Awakening premiered on Jan. 24 at Moyse Hall. Directed by Kyra Church (Concordia BA) and adapted from the 1891 Frank Wedekind play of the same name, Spring Awakening is a coming-of-age tale that follows the lives[Read More…]
‘True Crime’ doubles down on deception
True Crime is labyrinthine. The show, which played at the Centaur from Jan. 8-27, recounts indie-singer-turned-true-crime-writer Torquil Campbell’s real-life investigation into his con man doppelgänger, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. In 90 short minutes, Campbell whirls through his crimes, a series of kidnappings and murders, portraying Gerhartsreiter and his many aliases. Campbell also[Read More…]
Tuesday Night Café Theatre’s annual 24-hour play festival spotlights up-and-coming actors
In the 24 hours from Jan. 25 to 26, six student playwrights, directors, and actors met for the first time to write, produce, rehearse, and perform original student-written play as a part of the Tuesday Night Café Theatre (TNC)’s annual festival. Each play had to incorporate certain elements, including the[Read More…]
Dance takes center stage at the MAC
On Jan. 11, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) held a series of events as part of their current Françoise Sullivan retrospective, including a panel and a separate exhibition. Aptly titled the Dance and Visual Arts Study Day, the MAC invited a host of educators, artists, and theorists to share[Read More…]
‘10 Years of Gaga’ gets its rah-rah on
On Jan. 12, the Diving Bell Social Club and drag queen collective BabyDrag celebrated a decade of Lady Gaga’s career in 10 Years of Gaga, a show featuring a host of queens as talented and visually provocative as Gaga herself. Each performer took to the stage lip-syncing along to Gaga’s[Read More…]
Yvette Nolan’s ‘The Birds’ places indigeneity in the spotlight
Yvette Nolan’s adaptation of Aristophanes’s classic Greek comedy The Birds, which ran Nov. 21-23 and 28-30 at Moyse Hall Theatre, focuses on the history of colonization, and the future of truth and reconciliation for indigenous peoples in Canada. Produced as a part of the English department’s Drama & Theatre Program, The[Read More…]
Arcadia delves into discussions of science, sexuality, and existentialism
Past and present overlap in playwright Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, a curious exploration of sex and love, mathematics and nature, and the pursuit of knowledge. Presented by Player’s Theatre and directed by Steven Greenwood (PhD candidate in English), Arcadia portrays the curiosity and determination of young scholars in this brilliant rendition of Stoppard’s 1993[Read More…]
‘The Tashme Project’ combines personal discovery and public atrocity
The internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War was a shameful moment in history and one high school curricula often sideline. The Tashme Project: The Living Archives, which showed at the Centaur Nov. 15-24, brought the history of internment to the forefront. Created and performed by Julie Tamiko[Read More…]
‘Once’ is the ideal 21st century musical
The transition between theatre and film can be arduous, and at worst, painful (sorry, Rent). Once, based on John Carney’s acclaimed 2007 film of the same name, successfully manages the transition in reverse. The story tracks five days in the lives of two Dublin residents, one, a struggling vacuum-fixer who[Read More…]
