REVIEW: Harold Pinter’s Betrayal unpacks painful love triangle
The new Broken Toys production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, playing in The Studio of the ATB Financial Arts Barns through June 2, is said to be the first Edmonton showing of the play. That’s a rather surprising note in a town that has seen a lot of Pinter over the years. (Movie fans might remember […]
Die-Nasty wraps Game of Thrones homage
One million idiots put their name on a petition demanding that Game of Thrones producers remake the last season – prompting an instant backlash: “Hey, if you’re so smart, then you do it!” The Die-Nasty live improvised soap opera is way ahead of the game: Since mid-October every Monday at the Varscona Theatre their theme […]
REVIEW: Alessia Cara inspires little girls in Edmonton
Security sure had their hands full at the Alessia Cara concert in Edmonton on Wednesday night. What a tough crowd. Once the 22-year-old star started high-fiving and clasping hands with all the girls in the front row of the Jubilee Auditorium, everyone wanted a piece of her. Moms carried up their little ones to get […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Cher and Cher alike
You can’t be too mad at Cher – who retired and then changed her mind, not once, not twice, but thrice! At least she has a healthy sense of humour about it. The show coming to Rogers Place on Saturday night is part of the “Here We Go Again” tour. (IMPORTANT NOTE: On Tuesday night […]
REVIEW: Silence screams #MeToo from a thousand years ago
Silence, the season closer for the U of A’s Studio Theatre, takes us back 1,000 years to the time of King Ethelred, known to history as “The Unready” – who ruled the English from 966 to 1016 AD. Moira Buffini’s sprawling saga is set in the shadow of the end of the world. Like many […]
WEEKEND MUSIC: A match made in folk music heaven
Imagine, if you will, two of Western Canada’s most outstanding folk artists on tour together. Then imagine if they decided that instead of doing separate sets, one opening for the other, they’d play on each other’s songs, together. It’s not The Twilight Zone. It just what Michael Bernard Fitzgerald and J. J. Shiplett have decided […]
Grindstone on the nose! Comedy fest an off-Whyte hit
The Grindstone Comedy Theatre & Bistro is a lively little off-Whyte oasis in the otherwise boring squalor of the 81st Avenue area east of 102 Street – in the fringe of the Ritchie neighbourhood that wouldn’t be out of place in Stettler. But with this weekend’s inaugural Grindstone Comedy Festival, it’s clear this club is […]
REVIEW: Life is a Cabaret, old chum!
Edmonton’s ambitious ELOPE Musical Theatre company is attempting to take us back to 1930s Germany in a new production of the classic musical Cabaret. As we enter the Westbury Theatre in the ATB Financial Arts Barns – where the show plays until May 11 – we immediately find ourselves in the “Kit Kat Club,” a […]
LISTEN HERE: Dancing to Joni Mitchell
Hear music from Alberta Ballet’s The Fiddle & The Drum Joni Mitchell was the first pop star that Canadian ballet-meister Jean Grand-Maitre pitched to do a ballet. Jean has since done so-called “portrait” ballets about Elton John, Sarah McLachlan, Gordon Lightfoot, k.d. lang, and The Tragically Hip – but Joni was the first. Ten […]
REVIEW: Literary mash-up a farce to be reckoned with at the Varscona Theatre
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a 2012 comedy written by Christopher Durang. His playful sense of humour can be seen in such hits as Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Beyond Therapy and The Idiot Karamazov. He also has written serious plays on child abuse, Roman Catholic dogma and homosexuality. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Godsmack, Tea Party, Sweater Kittens!
Godsmack is smack dab in the middle of a North American tour that lands Friday night at Rogers Place. The Massachusetts quartet, founded in 1995, has found their sound labelled a few different things – certainly in the metal category, but they’ve also been described as nu-metal, post-grunge, and alt-metal. Whatever you call them, they […]
REVIEW: Banned in Iran, Nassim an experimental trip at the Citadel
Nassim Soleimanpour is something of a world-wide theatrical phenomenon. The Iranian playwright now has several international hits to his credit. Alas, his own country has never seen his work – he’s banned back home. His latest play, simply titled Nassim, has played in many venues including both the West End and Off-Broadway – where it […]
