Lynn

Live and in person at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Created by Groupe de la Veillée / Théâtre Prospero in co-production with le Théâtre français de Toronto.

Written by Roland Schimmelpfennig

Translated by Camill Luscher and Claire Stavaux

Directed by Joël Beddows

Set by Cédric Delorme-Bouchard

Lighting by Chantal Labonté

Costumes by Béatriz Arevalo

Projections by Guillaume Saindon

Cast: Marcelo Arroyo

Catherine De Léan

Gregory Hlady

Benoît Mauffette

Louise Naubert

From the Programme notes: Published in 2007, before the emergence of today’s known right-wing leaders, Solstice d’hiver (Winter Solstice) lays bare the imminent dangers of the rise of extremism.

The Story. It’s Christmas Eve. We are in the upper-middle class apartment of Albert and his wife Bettina. They are having a spat. Albert chastises Bettina because she never greets her mother, Corinna, when she arrives, saying that is rude. Bettina in turn is angry at her mother because she has invited a stranger to celebrate Christmas Eve. Corinna was on the train that day and was engaged in conversation with Rudolph who was also on the train. The train was stuck. Rudolph was a courtly, charming older man who helped Corinna pass the time so she invited him for the family festivities, because Rudolph was alone for the holiday. Albert was a little put out by this but he tried to be gracious.

They were also joined by Konrad, Albert’s long-time friend. Konrad was a painter who was doing a painting for Albert and Bettina. Albert is a writer who writes books about the Holocaust. Bettina is a film-maker. Corinna laments that time is passing her by and so is charmed by Rudolph who lavishes attention on her and entertains the others when he plays the piano. Rudolph has connections to Paraguay. And he’s a doctor.

As the play unfolds we learn that the characters have secrets. They exchange ideas, conversations and gradually we perceive the unsettling effect that Rudolph has on the others: some are charmed others are wary.

The Production, Comment. Director, Joël Beddows has created a gradually gripping production in which a seemingly pleasant stranger comes into the home and proves to be something else.

As the audience files into the space, four characters sit silently at a wood table to one side. One man faces out to us. A woman sits with her back to us. A man sits uncomfortably in a chair and a woman in another chair next to him has her back to him. The dynamic of the squabbling couple at the end of the table is beautifully established and when the play begins Albert (Benoît Mauffette) and Bettina (Catherine De Léan) verbalize their antagonization. Corinna has brought Rudolph (Gregory Hlady), a well-dressed stranger to celebrate. He is accommodating, charming, courtly and gracious almost to a fault to everyone as he tries to feel at home.

Konrad (Marcelo Arroyo) arrives in paint splattered coveralls. He is painting a piece for Albert and Bettina. He acts as a narrator at times. And often the cast will continue with the narrative. Many of them at times play the unseen child of Albert and Bettina.

The room with no doors is all white (a stark image by Cédric Delorme-Bouchard). A projection fills in a section of the wall where the painting will be.

Beddows places characters apart from each other illuminating their squabbling distances. The movement is natural and easy. There is a lot of drinking going on, some dancing, and gradually Rudolph poses philosophical questions about purity, both in music and in the world. One’s eyebrows start to knit here. Director Joël Beddows has injected an occasional rumbling sound that got louder and louder as a forewarning. It added to the skin-tingling as we listened to Rudolph sound off on his theories of purity and watched others just remain silent.

The ensemble was terrific. The production was bracing and a note of warning in this angry, hate-filled world of ours. Written by Roland Schimmelpfennig was writing about the rise of extremism in 2007. He could have been writing about today. Prescient playwright.

Created by Groupe de la Veillée / Théâtre Prospero in co-production with le Théâtre français de Toronto.

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Streaming on demand as part of Next Stage Theatre Festival, until Feb. 13, 2022.

https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage/about

Created and performed by Fatuma Adar

Directed by Fatuma Adar and Graham Isador

Set and lighting by Joe Pagnan

Sound by Christopher Ross-Ewart

Director of photography, Roya DelSol

Music supervisor, Ben Elliott

Musical direction by Adrian Hogan

Videographer, Roya DelSol

Fatuma Adar is an artist with a lot of ambition but is full of doubts. She describes herself as a Black Muslim Woman and she’s under a lot of pressure to measure up; be successful; and contribute to Black excellence.

Fatuma Adar is also an artist who is brilliant.

In a world increasingly devoid of humour, irony and subtlety, Fatuma Adar is briming with the gift of humour and being ironic and subtle in her presentation. The result is a show that is bracingly funny, perceptive, challenging, and thought-provoking.

The show was supposed to be presented live at the Ada Slaight Hall but as she says: “…ya know, shit happened.”

Fatuma Adar’s world is established immediately with a filmed shot of the street signs of Kipling and Dixon Road. The walls of her apartment are adorned with post it notes that are about failure: “you suck”, “you’re not good enough,” “You should have stayed in med school,” But then her other world appears, the world of theatre as she rushes into the building to the Ada Slaight Hall and she begins her filmed show She’s Not Special.

You get the sense that Adar has added to her pressure by conjuring the name of Beyoncé when she says early in the show: “I’m not Beyoncé but there is a part of me that thinks I could be.” With all the things that informed Fatuma Adar’s life, being a Black Muslim Woman, is only part of it. Adar ramps up the pressure by wanting to be a writer and doing what she loves. Will she be able to make a living? Will her parents be proud? Will she be able to convince them that that she can support herself and contribute to them? Will she feel she is selling out by changing her ‘perspective’ when applying for grants? What will people think of her? Who is she trying to impress? Does she need to? Is she a representative of diversity or a token? Should she care? Questions. Questions.  

In a wonderful scene (in a show full of them) Adar is interviewed by “The Hollywood Reporter” (Graham Isador).

Graham Isador (who is also the co-director with Fatuma Adar) as the Reporter, with a wonderfully unctuous, superficial smile asks Adar questions without actually listening to her answers. He has his own agenda to play into the notion she isn’t good enough. He asks if her show “is to give white people the experience of walking in your shoes?” With the subtlest of reactions to the questions and looks to the camera we get the nuance, the sense of discomfort Adar is experiencing with this insensitive questioning. The scene, and the whole show, is directed by Fatuma Adar and Graham Isador with exquisite delicacy for maximum result.

Every part of this production works beautifully to create this stunning show. Adrian Hogan provides the musical accompaniment to Adar’s clever songs that is never intrusive. Joe Pagnan paints with light and sets the stage with understatement. The sound by Christopher Ross-Ewart heightens our attention, and Roya DelSol’s camera work hones in, enlivening reactions and makes the audience look harder and be more keenly aware.  

In a blurb on the show Adar says her show is “on a mission to free you from the clutches of exceptionalism and teach you how to relish in the joys of mediocrity”. Fatuma Adar will never be mediocre if She’s Not Special is any indication.

Fatuma Adar is brilliant. See her show and anything else she creates.

Produced by HomeMadeIt Productions and Pressgang in association with Pandemic Theatre

Plays on demand until Feb. 13, 2022.

Running Time: 60 minutes.

https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage/about

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Streaming on demand from Young People’s Theatre, until February 21. https://www.youngpeoplestheatre.org

Written and directed by Hélène Ducharme

Translators: Leanna Brodie, Jon Lachlan Stewart, Maurice Roy

Set design and props by Normand Blair

Music/Sound by Stéphan Côté, Nathalie Cord, Aboulaye Kané

Puppets and masks by Jean Cummings, Sylvain Racine, Claude Rodrigue

Shadow Theatre, Marcelle Hudon et Jean Cummings

Costumes by Deane Lavoie

Lighting by Valèrie Bourque and Patricia Daigneault

Video production: Sylvie-Ann Paré and Félix Lajeunness-Guy

Cast: Marco Collin

Stéphan Coté

Sharon James

Jon Lachlan Stewart

For children 5-9 years old.

Three folk tales reflecting three different cultures presented for children.

The three folk tales are presented as a presentation of an old-fashioned travelling band of performers. They travel from town to town by a colourful cart which holds their props, masks, puppets and other paraphernalia needed for their performances.

This troupe of players puts a modern twist to the presentation by acknowledging the pandemic that closed theatres, weighed us down and ‘hugging friends and family was not allowed.’ But now they are joyfully singing that the theatre is back and alive. The group of actors (Marco Collin, Sharon James, Jon Lachlan Stewart and Stéphan Coté (if viewing in French) engage with their ‘streamed’ audience as if they are present in person. They are asked to sit close to the performing circle but making sure they are separated by two meters to keep everybody safe. A lovely touch of writer/director Hélène Ducharme to make the audience feel as if they are engaged in the process. Four large rocks are arranged around the circle.

Each story-teller references a traditional stick used to tell the story. Marco Collin brings out a Haudenosaunee Talking Stick and lays it on the boundary of the circle. It’s used in Indigenous ceremonies to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to speak and understood is that everyone else will listen carefully to what is being said. Sharon James lays down a Griot stick. A Griot is a person who knows ‘all the stories’ in the cultures of West Africa. Jon Lachlan Stewart brings out a ‘Devil’s Stick’ to reference his Québécois story.  

Baobab

This is a folk tale from West Africa performed by Sharon James.

She dresses in a traditional billowy robe with an ornate covering of her hair. She says she is the village Griot, the holder of all the stories. She asks the audience if they will lend her their ears. She asks to ‘throw them here’ and she moves to catch them, thus engaging the ‘unseen’ audience.

She talks of a time when the Sun, the Earth and the whole world lived in harmony. One day a Baobab Tree’s roots touched the Earth and the heart of the Earth fell in love. They had four children. They were happy, but the Sun was jealous of this joy and wanted the children. The Earth and the Baobab Tree refused. The Sun raged, lost its heart and got even by shining on the Earth relentlessly. Everything caked dry. The Baobab Tree and the Earth wept into the ground so the Sun could not see and the water from the tears went deep into the ground. One day an egg fell from the tree and inside was a baby who would become a child who would unite all concerned by finding the secret to release the water below.

Sharon James tells this intricate, delicate story with a vivid sense of performance. She is graceful when manipulating the baby puppet and the puppet of the young child the baby would grow into. Sharon James’ sense of pacing, nuance, and understatement never tips her hand in telling the story. She evokes the West African traditions and making connections to Western philosophy and religion is an easy bridge.

Kudos to Jean Cummings, Sylvain Racine, Claude Rodrigue for the creation of the puppets. The puppets gleamed life, innocence and hope. At the end, the buoyant Sharon James gave the young audience back their ears. Lovely.

Otjiera and the Fasting Ceremony

The story is of the Mohawk nation and is told by Marco Collin who is of Innu heritage.

Marco Collin wears a traditional shirt, vest, roomy pants that end above the ankle and moccasins. He welcomes the audience to the circle in the Long House. He urges the audience to be careful of the stones (rocks) around the edge because they are sacred. He welcomes the audience as if they are Indigenous people, noting that one person in the audience does not wear ‘war paint’ and therefore peace is established. To another he is glad he adopted a young girl as his sister and he will not giver her back to her tribe. He urges people to bring ‘a feather from your first partridge’. He is describing Mohawk traditions and peaceful decisions that create harmony. He welcomes children and toddlers to the circle and the story telling because they will learn.

He puts on a head covering that suggests a wolf or other revered animal. He stands behind a drum wrapped in fur and from behind him he brings out a hand puppet of Otjiera. It’s Otjiera’s 12^th birthday and he is being prepared for the Fasting Ceremony to mark his coming of age in the Mohawk tradition. Otjiera must go to the Fasting Camp by himself, start a fire and not sleep, eat or drink for two night and three days, until the Great Bear comes to him in a dream to tell him his destiny. One can figure that without sleeping or eating for that long Otjiera would imagine or hallucinate seeing the great spirit.

Otjiera is confident, perhaps to arrogance, that his destiny is to be the greatest leader of his people. He rebuffs what he believes are tricks of his imagination when he becomes so tired that he imagines he is visited by the specters of various animals. He is faced with this thought of arrogance until his destiny is described. What happens does seem more powerful and steadfastly important than being the greatest leader of his people. The otherworldly realm meets the celestial for a true harmonious destiny.

Marco Collin tells the story with conviction and respect. His working of the puppet of Otjiera creates a boy with confidence, a touch of hubris and ultimately the light that is needed to lead his people and all others as well.

Again, the Mohawk tradition of a coming-of-age story can be applied to so many other cultures that have something similar.

The Bewitched Canoe/La Chasse-galerie   

This Québécois folk tale is told by Jon Lachlan Stewart. He wears a long coat of red and black squares, high collar, a wide sash at the waist, sturdy pants and boots. He quickly establishes that old Quebec was a place of many churches. Jon Lachlan Stewart brings out many rods with spires at the top representing the many churches. Religion was very strong. Without saying it he was referring to the Catholic Church.

The story is set on New Year’s Eve, 1899 in a logging camp far from Montreal or Quebec City. Seven loggers longed to go home to Montreal to see their wives and girlfriends but the distance was too great to get there. Until…. Burt, a wild, irreverent man arranges for a magic canoe to sail over the land with seven loggers in side, to take them to their wives and sweethearts to celebrate the new century. Burt did it by making a deal with the devil. The loggers would see their loved ones but they had to promise not to swear, take the Lord’s name in vain or hit a Church spire with the canoe. If they broke any of these conditions their souls would be damned for eternity.  

Jon Lachlan Stewart is an energetic story-teller. His puppets fit on his fingers. Only Burt’s face fit over one finger, another character’s face fit on another. The canoe with the seven loggers in it was carried aloft by Jon Lachlan Stewart who also flicked a switch on the boat that looked like the men were rowing.

It is soon clear that these men are going to a house known as Rose La Tulip’s. Hardly a place for their wives and one wonders about the girlfriends.

This version of The Bewitched Canoe/La Chasse-galerie is not to be confused with the rousing musical of a few years ago of La Chasse-galerie that played at the Storefront Theatre and later Soulpepper. While the premise is the same, this is the ‘diminutive’ version of it.

I must confess that I thought that this Québécois folk tale seemed a bit too risqué and mature for the age group of 5-9 year olds. Perhaps it’s meant for their parents.

On the whole I thought the different cultures were established with care and detail. As with all stories of different cultures they showed the many similarities we can recognize in our own cultures as well as others.

Produced by Théâtre Motus in association with Young People’s Theatre

Available on demand until, Feb. 21, 2022

Running time: approx. 60 minutes.

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Streaming on-line as part of the Next Stage Festival, until February 13, 2022

https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage

Book, music and lyrics by Jake Schindler and Sam Boer

Directed by Margo Greve

Lighting by Mathilda Kane

Videographer and Editor, Patrick Hodgson

Cast: Jake Boer

Belinda Corpuz

Stephen Ingram

Jake Schindler

This charming folk musical was one of the productions of the Next Stage Festival that was to have performed live at the Ada Slaight Hall,  but because of COVID had to be filmed and presented as digitally streamed.

A lively, engaging musician, guitarist-singer (Sam Boer) sings of his eccentric, imaginative Grandma who was a writer who wrote stories night and day. Her grandchildren loved going to her small house, getting squeezing hugs from her, and most of all, listening to her read them the stories. The one they requested most often was Ursa and the Bear.

Ursa (the wonderful, expressive Belinda Corpuz) is teenager who feels at sea. She sings that there is no place she can feel at rest. She feels that she is different from those in her small town, but does not illuminate that difference. We are told by others that Ursa feels lost but it’s not for home. She feels lost in her world and that her small town is making her feel anxious if not sick. She decides to escape to the forest.

At the same time, in the forest, there is a Bear (a laid-back and sweet Stephen Ingram)  who is timid about leaving his home. It seems he has never left his home or seen another bear. He has a book that deals with everything to do with bears, from their need to hibernate to their mating details that he consults often, so he’s informed about bears. It’s just that he’s never felt the need to venture out to seek another bear. And then he meets Ursa in the forest.

Ursa and Bear come from different worlds, but they find an affinity in each other’s company. Bear invites her to his book-filled home. Bear, especially, is happy with Ursa’s company. At first he believes she is a bear, (one wonders how closely he looked at the pictures in his bear-book?). At night Bear shows Ursa the various star formations, especially Ursa Major, meaning “The Great Bear.” So, in a way Ursa is a bear. And one can say they are ‘star-crossed friends.’

Ursa enjoys staying with Bear. A month goes by and the seasons change. Bear has to give into his bear-function and hibernate. Ursa doesn’t understand why he has to sleep all the time. Bear tries to ignore his nature and keep awake for Ursa.

Ursa: A Folk Musical is a gentle metaphor of how people (creatures?) meet and are beguiled and charmed by the people who change us. One of the many songs of the show mentions how perfect strangers we meet can change us forever. In actual reality, that might have happened momentarily in the show, but change was not lasting.

It’s a sweet example of how people so different try and change to accommodate the partner and sometimes it works and sometimes not. Creators Jake Schindler and Sam Boer present us with a work that makes us look at relationships in a different way; question how they are different; how they are the same and what can be done, if anything to continue in that pairing.

Director Margo Greve and her committed cast tell the story with verve, energy and a quiet grace.

The music is melodic and the lyrics are engaging. At times the songs do seem a bit repetitive, and the way the story is presented suggests we will be hearing more about this eccentric Grandma, which we don’t.  But overall the sweetness and quirkiness of Ursa: A Folk Musical  is engaging.

Produced by the Uncommon Folk Collective

Running on line until Feb. 13, 2022.

Running Time: 1 hour, 13 minutes.

https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage/about

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Heart of a Dog

Part of Next Stage Festival, on demand until February 13, 2022.

https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage

Based on the novel, “Heart of a Dog” by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Adapted and directed by Mohammad Yaghoubi

Translated by Mahsa Ershadifar and Mohammad Yaghoubi

Lighting designed by David DeGrow

Composer, Farshad Fozooni

Videographer and editor, Peter Riddihough

Cast: Ali Ghorbanian

Melanie Grace

Aida Keykhaii

Neta J. Rose

Yury Ruzhyev

Aylin Oyan Salahshour

Siavash Shabanpour

Adaptor/director/Mohammad Yaghoubi has created an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, “Heart of a Dog”, (written in 1925 but only officially released in 1987) that is set in Russia, but has filled his production with subtle references to his Iranian culture.

The result is fascinating.

In the story a starving dog named Sharik is taken into Professor Preobrazhenski’s household. The Professor enjoys a preferred place in Russian society because of his important work. He also enjoys talking down to hapless civil servants who want him to conform to a more equitable way of sharing space etc. The Professor refuses and shows his considerable influence to get his way.

The Professor also gets an interesting idea to experiment on the dog. He decides to take the pituitary gland from a corpse and put it into the dog, in a sense, beginning the process of making the dog human. Manners, decorum, subtlety are complex issues to teach Sharik. Another difficulty is that the pituitary gland came from a thug-like thief, so Sharik shows those tendencies as he makes his progress as a human.

It’s a play about the proletariat vs. the upper class, class distinction, the inequality of life between the haves and the have nots. When Bulgakov wrote it the book was considered a satire of communism.

Mohammad Yaghoubi has opened up his resultant play to reflect his Iranian background and the constraints that are in place in his native Iran.

First of all, he has cast a woman, (Aida Keyhaii) to play Sharik the dog. This would not have been tolerated in Iran as a woman’s body is a political statement. But Mohammad Yagoubi lives in Canada now and he uses his freedom to make a political statement without fear.

The part of the Professor is cast with non-binary actor (Neta J. Rose) who wears men’s clothes complete with suit and tie. Again Mohammad Yaghoubi uses gender switching to make a statement about the restrictions of gender roles in Iran.

Added to this, when other characters, not in the Professor’s household, enter the apartment, all the male characters except Sharik, wear head coverings, as women would do. Again, Mohammad Yaghoubi is being ironic and bold.

The acting is mainly declarative and broad, but the pointedness of Yaghoubi’s point of view and intention is what makes this adaptation compelling.

Produced by Nowadays Theatre Company for Next Stage Festival.

Runs Until Feb. 13, 2022.

Running time: 90 minutes.

https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage

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The Digital Festival of Light and Dark, on line from 4^th Line Theater Company. https://www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca/festival-of-light-and-dark

The Digital Festival of Light and Dark is presented by 4^th Line Theatre Company in Millbrook, Ont. just south of Peterborough. This is the second year of the festival that engages artists in the Peterborough area to create short videos and digital presentations around subjects of their choosing.  I was blown away by last year’s festival and the stunning array of talent and imagination that went into last year’s video presentation.

This year’s offerings are just as intriguing and imaginative.

And once again, I’m so impressed with the fearlessness of Kim Blackwell, the Managing Artistic Director of 4^th Line Theatre company, to fund and showcase artists in the Peterborough area to make their art.

This is from 4^th Line’s press information:

“The theatre has provided 10 regional artists with micro-grants to create 8 five-minute digital showcases of their work. The Festival enables the community to engage with the artists’ creations in the safety of their own homes through 4th Line’s digital video gallery. The Festival is free of charge to watch.

The projects encompass a myriad of artistic styles from experimental music to abstract painting to short films dealing with seemingly simple stories. The topics and issues explored include: the synesthetic experience of nature; fear of the dark; and finding the light within during the darkest times, to name only three.”

There are seven films that are available now with others soon to be available. But first……

I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering what is “the synesthetic experience of nature?”

From our friend Google: “Synesthesia is when you hear music, but you see shapes. Or you hear a word or a name and instantly see a color. Synesthesia is a fancy name for when you experience one of your senses through another. The word “synesthesia” has Greek roots. It translates to “perceive together.”

This idea is illuminated in the short film: Emergent Symphonies, a collaboration by Maralynn  Cherry who did the images and Michael Morse who composed the music.

This is how the piece is described: “This is a collaborative work based on synesthetic brush paintings of nature’s rhythms, and sympathetic musical elaborations.  Here, sounds give voice to unheard visual songs”.

One of the images looked like an erratic coil and the music reminded me of riffing on a piano. Another painted image looked like whisps of feathers or delicate leaves floating in a breeze. So the image of the painting from something perhaps in nature melded with the music.

I appreciated the depth of thought here in conveying something that we might overlook—nature and how music connects with it.

I’m so impressed with the scope and sweep of the imagination illuminated in these short films. Even what looks like a straightforward story, has quirky twists and turns.

Every Other Weekend

Written and directed by Mike Moring.

Cast: Taylor Brown

Mike Moring

Oliver Moring.

The film is about a divorced father who gets visiting rights to his son every other weekend. It’s poignant, sweet, loving and beautifully creates the loving care the father has for his son, and also his concerns that he wants to do better for him. There are lovely touches of how both father and son have the same anxiety when they are in the dark alone in bed at night and they imagine all sorts of sounds.

I was really impressed with Mike Moring’s story-telling in his short film last year in this festival. This year’s offering didn’t disappoint either.

Senior Moment

Written by Jack Shultz and Brad Shultz.

Directed by Jack Shultz

Original music by Jack Shultz and Tim Wright

Starring: Anne Killian

Chris Killian

Jack Schultz

The premise is simple: a senior couple is aware that someone in the neighbourhood is stealing delivered packages from porches. And they are going to do something about it to stop that.

It’s full of whimsy, irony, humour and it’s quite unsettling. Jack Shultz has an imagination that makes one’s eyebrows raise in disbelief for one who looks so young. The accompanying music is played liltingly on the ukulele adding an irony that ramps up the tingling feeling as the story unfolds.  And he has an artistry that makes it all work. Jack Shultz, remember that name.

There are also eclectic offerings in the festival.  

Joyeaux Anniversaire

Directed by Bruno Mertz

Music by Bruno Mertz.

Sung by Alicia Mertz.

Cast: Dreda Blow

Peter Blow.

The piece takes it’s lead from the song Joyeaux Anniversaitre about a woman trying to escape her haunted past. A lyric shows a woman rushing outside a house: “scrambling to get free.” Music, story and performance meld for this compelling scenario.

Art factors prominently in two films.

Be Inspired.  Embrace your creativity

Created and narrated by by Lynda Todd.

Lynda Todd became fascinated by the luminosity and the depth effect of acrylic fluid and resin art creations. And when you consider that she is visually impaired and partially colour blind, you realize what a huge accomplishment her colourful art is. A quibble and certainly not a complaint, is that I wanted a clear definition of what acrylic fluid is and how she forms her work. Some are paintings some are shapes and forms. I would have liked some clarification about her process.

What is absolutely clear is her enthusiasm to pass on her joy of art and creating it and getting people to realize their own joy in their own creating processes.

Flowing Euphoria: Black and White 

Paintings and comment by Valerie Kent

Video by Soma Belanger

Music by 3B

The video focuses on six black and white paintings of fantasy flowers Valerie Kent painted as a result of a dream conversation she had with a Japanese painting master. The painting master’s vision in the dream was to sharpen the impact of Valerie Kent’s new paintings by expressing contrast. The paintings are graceful, elegant and otherworldly.

When the camera slowly zooms in we see how the painting changes to the various strokes and components, and when it zooms out there is the full picture. Beautiful in every way. The music augments the viewing experience, even when there is silence.

Lumenumbra 

Images by Naomi Duvall

Music and editing by Ryan McLean Purdon

Lumenumbra is described as “a biorhythm, a transition between two qualities.  A metaphor for mortality”.

At times the images are deliberately blurry other times they are sharply illuminated images that look like trees.  The accompanying music is kinetic, percussive, and the whole effect is captivating.

I am always impressed with the talent that is introduced by the Digital Festival of Light and Dark. Well worth your time.

The Digital Festival of Light and Dark is available for free on the 4^th Line Theatre channel:

https://www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca/festival-of-light-and-dark

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On Line, presented by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Available for viewing until Feb. 6, 2022

https://hgjewishtheatre.com/

Soprano and curator, Jaclyn Grossman

Pianist and curator, Nate Ben-Horin

Creative directors: Ilan Waldman & Madison Matthews
Audio Engineer, Ryan Harper.

Curated, researched and performed by Jaclyn Grossman, Soprano and Nate Ben-Horin, pianist, arranger, both of whom comprise Likht Ensemble.

To commemorate and honour International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), the Harold Green Jewish Theatre presented this filmed concert of The Shoah Songbook; Part Two: The Kovno and Vilna Ghettos in Lithuania, that was curated and performed by Likht Ensemble, aiming to shine a light on great Jewish composers silenced before their time.

Likht means light and it’s fitting that Likht Ensemble illuminates the little-known works of Jewish composers who wrote these songs but whose lives were cut short in the Holocaust.

Before the filmed concert began Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s Co-Artistic Directors, David Eisner and Avery Saltzman interviewed Jaclyn Grossman and Nate Ben-Horin about how they curated the concert. Their scholarship and diligence in discovering these songs is impressive. They did research in Yad Vashem in Israel and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. They found the music to the songs, which Nate Ben-Horin arranged, and they also organized translations of lyrics. Some of the songs are in Yiddish. Jaclyn Grossman offered the historic context of how many millions of European Jews spoke Yiddish before the Holocaust and how fewer speak it today.

While reviewing theatre and not music is my forte, one certainly can appreciate the rich soprano voice of Jaclyn Grossman and her gifts in interpreting the songs. Nate Ben-Horin is a graceful pianist, a gifted arranger of the music to best serve the song and an attentive but unobtrusive accompanist to Jacklyn Grossman.

From the press information about the recital: “The recital runs the gamut from the haunting pre-war nursery rhyme “Oyfn Pripetchik,” to the adventurous harmony and pungent imagery of Edwin Geist’s “Three Lithuanian Songs”, to the captivating tango melodies of “Ein Traum” and “Friling.” With recurring motifs of springtime, dreams, suffering, and lost love, beautiful melodies are a vehicle for biting irony and devastating truth. This musical journey is a revealing snapshot of the inner creative life of Jews detained in these Lithuanian camps: their hopes, tragedies, and above all their defiant engagement with life itself.”

The concert began with the poignant reading of a letter a father wrote to his children who safely escaped, saying he would always hold them in his heart. His love was fierce and his message to them was heart-squeezing. The songs were interspersed with historical information that happened in 1941 and 1942. There were dictates from the Gestapo that ordered every Jew to wear a yellow Star of David on the left lapel of their clothing. There were orders for every Jew to leave their dwellings on a certain day on a certain hour and gather in the square. Those not obeying would be shot. Startling stuff. But the intension of this information was not to startle, I don’t think. It was to offer context. That in this horror, these composers wrote songs of love, dreaming, springtime and beauty. Astonishing.

Here are the songs and their composers:

“Oyfn Pripetchik” by Mark Washowsky (this lullaby will be very familiar to many).

“Schwerer Abend” by Edwin Geist

“Seeballade” by Edwin Geist

“Zingt un Transt in Ridelekn” arranged by Nate Ben-Horin

“Ein Traum” by Percy Haid

“Dynamik des Fruhlings” by Edwin Geist

“Friling” by Abraham Brudna, Shmerke Kaczerginski, arranged by Nate Ben-Horin

The concert is available to watch until Feb. 6 on the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company website. It was beautifully done.

https://hgjewishtheatre.com/

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Theatres might be closed, for the time being, but there is theatre out there worth checking out, on line.

Thurs. Jan. 20, 2022, 7:00

From the Stratford Festival on line…..

Henry VIII

Stratford@home.

Join our free prèmiere of Henry VIII on Thursday, January 20 at 7 p.m. EST, or become a subscriber and watch this production now, with unlimited access.

Watch this searing drama about one of the most fascinating, romantic, yet brutal periods in English history. When England’s King Henry (Jonathan Goad) falls for the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn (Alexandra Lainfiesta), he must somehow remove his beloved Queen Katherine (Irene Poole) from his life. As church and state collide, the King’s closest advisor, Cardinal Wolsey (Rod Beattie), suffers calamitous consequences, and the course of history is changed forever.

This was the last production that Martha Henry directed. It’s terrific and worth a look.

https://www.stratfordfestival.ca

Monday, January 24, 2022 beginning at noon.

From 4^th Line Theatre

Digital Festival of Light and Dark Programming Announcement

We are pleased to announce the programming for the 2nd annual Digital Festival of Light and Dark. The Festival has provided 10 regional artists with micro-grants to create five-minute digital showcases of their work. The Digital Festival of Light and Dark will launch online on January 24, 2022. The Festival enables audiences to engage with the artists’ creations from the safety of their own homes, through 4th Line’s digital gallery. The Festival is free of charge to watch.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here

“We wanted to support local artists. That was the genesis for the idea which ultimately became the Festival of Light and Dark. These short, digital pieces will be a chance for 4th Line audiences to explore the nature of light and dark through the work of regional artists.” – Kim Blackwell, Managing Artistic Director

The projects encompass a myriad of artistic styles from experimental music to abstract painting to short film and more. The topics and issues explored include: the synesthetic experience of nature; fear of the dark; and finding the light within during the darkest times, to name only three.   The eight video projects will be released on 4th Line Theatre’s website and YouTube channel for viewing as of Monday, January 24, 2022 at 12:00 PM.   To view please visit 4th Line Theatre’s website at www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca/festival-of-light-and-dark, or on 4th Line Theatre’s YouTube channel.

Digital Festival of Light and Dark Details

This is a fantastic festival if last year’s iteration was any indication. Lots of talent in the Peterborough area.

Tuesday, Jan. 25-Feb. 1, 2022

From Thousand Island Playhouse.

A wonderful opportunity to see the whole 2021 season digitally. It’s a fundraiser for the AFC (Actors Fund of Canada), an important organization. Funds donated to AFC are used to help actors and other members through hard times, and these are hard times.

The line up is eclectic and first rate. I saw Sexy Laundry and Serving Elizabeth when both were performed live at the theatre.

Now you can see them digitally. With Serving Elizabeth  by Marcia Johnson, you have the added bonus of seeing Marcia Johnson in her own play playing Mercy.

Announcing: 2021 Replay   JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 1 4 PRODUCTIONS | AT HOME | ON-DEMAND | PAY WHAT YOU CAN

For one week only, stream all four productions from the 2021 Season at home.   Best of all, Pay What You Can to access the series. You decide on the contribution amount and all proceeds go to The AFC, a national charity with a mission to help Canada’s arts and entertainment professionals maintain their health, dignity, and ability to work.

To gain access to the 2021 Replay series, click the button below and donate to The AFC. After your donation is processed, a link will be sent to you by email where you can watch all four productions any day and any time from January 25 at 10am to February 1 at 5pm.

Sign Up to Watch 2021 Replay

2021 Replay: The Line-up

Sexy Laundry

Armed with a copy of “Sex for Dummies,” Alice and Henry check themselves into a trendy spa hotel with a mission: to jump-start their 25-year marriage. Can they embrace all the wild suggestions Alice keeps pulling from her handy-dandy marriage-saving manual? Is Henry prepared to see his fifty-plus wife, and mother of his children, dressed in black leather?

Back in ’59

Four friends attending their 10-year high school reunion sneak away to an old hangout to reminisce and remember the music of their youth. Join them on this nostalgic trip through the 50s and 60s featuring over 70 hit songs, including Let’s Twist Again, Leader of the Pack, and It’s My Party. This musical mashup features incredible harmonies, clever medleys, and snappy choreography.

Serving Elizabeth

Mercy, a Kenyan independence activist, is asked to cook for the visiting princess Elizabeth, who turns out to have a few surprises of her own. Sixty years later, the making of a TV series about the royal family causes more than a few culture clashes for a young Kenyan-Canadian production intern. A fresh, funny, and smart new play about colonialism, monarchy, and who is serving whom.

Miss Caledonia

It’s 1955, and Peggy Ann Douglas is hitching her wagon to the pageant circuit in the hope it’ll steer her from her farm to the bright lights of a Hollywood movie set. A play packed with baton twirling, big laughs, and some fantastic fiddle playing. This is a play for anyone who knows what it’s like to dream big and hustle to make it happen.

ABOUT THE AFC   Proceeds from 2021 Replay will support The AFC. The AFC provides vital services to our community in the areas of emergency financial assistance, mental health support, financial wellness, career sustainability, mental health first aid training, personal support and advocacy, and more. Find out more about their programs, one-on-one supports, peer groups, workshops and events at AFChelps.ca.   Donate to The AFC Today

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022 7:30 pm

From the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company

THE SHOAH SONGBOOK RETURNS WITH RARE
MUSIC FROM KOVNO AND VILNA GHETTOS,
SHOWCASING HOLOCAUST COMPOSERS
New concert includes historic songs virtually unknown to Canadian audiences, to be released on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Today, the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company announced the
much-awaited return of The Shoah Songbook series. This time, the Likht
Ensemble transports listeners to the ghettos of Lithuania in Part Two:
Kovno/Vilna. The recital, to be released on January 27, International Holocaust Rememberance Day, is part of a series sharing rarely performed music by Jewish composers from the Holocaust.

Part Two: Kovno/Vilna features the first ever North American recording of Edwin Geist’s Three Lithuanian Songs; a premiere recording from songwriter Percy Haid; and original arrangements of Yiddish songs from the Kovno/Vilna ghettos by pianist and co-creator Nate Ben-Horin.

The Shoah Songbook Part Two: Kovno/Vilna will be presented on January 27th, at 7:30PM ET through”

https://www.hgjewishtheatre.com

The performance is free for all attendees, tickets are available now.
Note: Content may be sensitive for some audiences.

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Streaming on National Theatre at home.

https://www.ntathome.com/peter-pan

Written by J.M Barrie

Devised by the company.

Directed by Sally Cookson

Set designed by Michael Vale

Costumes designed by Katie Sykes

Lighting designed by Aideen Malone

Music composed and conducted by Benji Boner

Sound designed by Dominic Bilkey

Movement director, Dan Canham

Aerial direction by Gwen Hales

Puppetry designed by Toby Olié

Professional counterweighters: Keiran Gonzalez

Maurycy Kowalski

Barnaby Wreyford

Cast: Saikat Ahamed

Marc Antolin

Lois Chimimba

Anna Francolini

Felix Hayes

Paul Hinton

John Pfumojena

Ekow Quartey

Madeleine Worrall

If ever there was a show that could lift us out of this pandemic malaise this production of Peter Pan is it.

NOTE: I first saw this production of J.B. Barrie’s Peter Pan in 2017 at the National Theatre in London, England. Then I saw it when it was showing on the big screen as part of National Theatre Live. I saw it a few days ago on a ‘smaller’ screen as part of National Theatre at home. It’s still glorious.

The Story. A bit of a refresher course other than Peter Pan was a boy who didn’t want to grow up. Peter Pan has lost his shadow. He was at a window and overheard Mrs. Darling tell stories to her children, Wendy, John and Michael. Mrs. Darling thinks she saw the face of a little boy at the window, so she closed the window on Peter and trapped his shadow inside. Peter comes back for it when Mr. and Mrs. Darling are out at a party and the dog Nana, who is the nanny, is tied up outside. Sensible Wendy sews the shadow back on to Peter. Peter charms the children and teaches them to fly and they go off on a big adventure to Neverland where they meet the Lost Boys. It’s not all idyllic in Neverland. Peter cut off the hand of Hook (a nasty piece of work, due to the loss of the hand??), and Peter fed said hand to a crocodile. Hook has been looking for Peter Pan ever since to get even. The crocodile has also been coming after the rest of Hook.

The Production. While J.M. Barrie wrote the play, the company in this case worked on the adaptation—it’s a co-production between the National Theatre and the Bristol Old Vic. There are some interesting changes in this version and production with lots of double and triple casting. Nana is played by a sassy-speaking Ekow Quartey who wears a white frilly hat, apron and bloomers. Quartey also doubles as Tootles, a sweet, meek Lost Boy.

Peter Pan is played by a loose-limbed, petulant, stubborn, charming Paul Hinton, but he’s serious about playing him. He’s not play-acting like a kid—it’s serious business.

Madeleine Worrall plays Wendy as very sensible and kind-hearted but is up for a flying adventure. Wendy is a serious, mature kid who clings to that sense of child-like wonder, but you know she is the ‘grown-up’ there.

Hook is a woman with lots and lots of sarcastic attitude and metal teeth.  She is played by the wonderful and scary Anna Francolini who also plays the most loving, kind-hearted Mrs. Darling. Tinker Bell is played by an impish Saikat Ahamed who wears white wings and a kind of shorts outfit and speaks in a cross between baby gibberish and Italian.

It’s directed by Sally Cookson who I think is a master of physical theatre, dazzling in her invention of realizing the whimsy of the play, but always respectful of the seriousness of not wanting to grow up. She uses movement and simple imagery to create the most magical world.

Michael Vale’s set has created the world of the Lost Boys etc. with playground stuff; ladders, junk, ropes, piping and blinking lights. The floor is splattered with multi-coloured blobs of paint. The crocodile is made of separate sections of corrugated metal with a long snout and two lights for eyes. The separate sections are held by characters who move in a balletic sequence creating the slow, steady lethal movement of the crocodile, whose arrival is announced by a ticking sound.

Gwen Hales’ aerial direction of the flying of the characters is equally magical in that the audience does the work of imagining. The intention is to show how it all works, from the crocodile to the flying and yet the result is that jaw dropping world of the ‘unbelievable.’ Each character who is lifted off the ground is attached by hooks and ‘fairy wire’ on the side of their costume. The hooks in turn are attached to wires and ropes that are also attached to another person who scurries up and down a ladder on either side of the stage.  If the person is on the top of the ladder and drops down, the character he/she is attached to will in turn fly up.  When the person on the ladder scampers up the rungs, the character attached to that person then lowers down. It’s the combination of these two bodies acting as counterweights that give the sense of flying. Because it’s all visible to the audience they are in on the trick.

Wonderful.

There is a final bit of magic and faith that happens before our eyes. Wendy and her brothers come home from Neverland to their worried parents, bringing many of the Lost Boys with them. Wendy asks if the Lost Boys can stay. The Lost Boys stand in a line and are introduced quickly: Curly, Nibs, the twins, Tootles etc. Except that can’t be right. In Neverland the twins–Twin One and Twin Two–are always beside each other. But Twin Two is played by Felix Hayes who is over there as Mr. Darling standing with Mrs. Darling. We just take it on faith that when “The Twins’ are introduced that both of them are there and not just Twin One. It’s the magic of theatre. We take on faith what we are told to be true. I love that.

Whether one is in the theatre watching in person, or on the big screen or now on a smaller screen, this is a raucous show. Emotions are high. Everything is urgent. But it’s never one-noted. How does it work watching on a smaller (computer) screen? On the whole, I thought it worked really well. The acting is very broad but engaging. In a way you need the wide shot of a camera to capture all of the wild activity. Close-ups again are helpful in negotiating the various reactions of the characters. Occasionally the activity gets the better of the camera work and some things might get lost. The best advice is to look everywhere in the wide shot to get an idea of how it’s all done.

Comment. These are hard times with this lousy pandemic. Peter Pan is a joyous, magical, prickly show for fearless children and their accommodating parents.

Produced by the National Theatre and the Bristol Old Vic.

Running Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Streaming….

https://www.ntathome.com/peter-pan

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