Slight of Mind takes flight of fancy at the Citadel – just not in a theatre
A couple of years back when current Artistic Director Daryl Cloran first arrived at the Citadel, he kept getting lost. Joe Shoctor’s big brick playhouse had empty rooms, long hallways and all sorts of dark nooks and crannies. Never one to let a theatrical idea go to waste, Cloran searched for a vehicle that would […]
REVIEW: 19 Weeks tackles real life abortion dilemma in devastating detail
In 2016, Australian playwright Emily Steel wrote a raw, highly emotional, intensely personal play that she felt would end her career. At one time, she thought that women who had “late” abortions weren’t very smart or responsible – yet here she was, pregnant for 19 weeks, putting on a hospital gown and having an IV […]
REVIEW: Surreal Middletown sees characters askew in search of a plot
Will Eno is an American playwright whose works have gained some notoriety in the past decade or so – winning awards, attracting and often dumbfounding audiences. He takes ordinary situations and runs them through his cracked view of life. As a small American town in Middletown, currently in production from the U of A’s Studio […]
THEATRE PEOPLE: Jesse Lipscombe running race
Jesse Lipscombe is perfect for the Citadel Theatre’s latest madcap adventure – two political comedies running simultaneously in two different theatres inside the building, one in the Maclab, one in The Club on the third floor, with the same characters played by the same actors – who have to literally run up and down the […]
Lungs filled with doom in dark comedy
The Shadow Theatre production of Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs was supposed to open on March 13. But then the production blew up, losing its Montreal-based director and two local stars. When we finally got to see the show on Friday March 22, the directing credit was split between the assistant director Emma Houghton and Shadow Artistic […]
MacEwan cast aces Broadway classic
So, there’s this Damon Runyon guy, an ink-stained sports scribe crankin’ it in the Big Apple of the 1930s. When he’s not covering the likes of Babe Ruth or Jack Dempsey, six’ll get ya’ five, his battered Smith Corona is churning out tales of Nathan Detroit, Harry the Horse, Nicely Nicely Johnson, Good Time Charlie […]
THEATRE PEOPLE: Fearless Dove takes a flying leap
A rock musician turning into an actor is rare enough in this town to be noteworthy. Consider the curious case of Dove Brown, longtime bassist for Jr. Gone Wild lately spotted on stage at the new Grindstone Comedy Theatre. He plays the Paul Shaffer to Dana Andersen’s Letterman in the improvised talk show Up Late […]
REVIEW: Anxieties speak louder than words in Small Mouth Sounds
Six distressed souls find their way to a silent spiritual retreat in upstate New York. They hope to find relief from their troubled lives – casting off the mental and emotional baggage they have picked up along the way. There, amongst the mosquitoes (and what sounds like a pack of ravening wolves and one pissed […]
COME FROM AWAY: Dazzling new musical shows heart of Newfoundland on 9-11
In 2012, the visionary Toronto show business lawyer Michael Rubinoff and his two Canadian book-lyricist-composers Irene Sankoff and David Hein mounted a 45 minute workshop production that combined the horrors of 9-11 with the quite incredible warmth of the people of Gander, Newfoundland. The amiable Newfoundlanders had opened their hearts and homes to some 7,000 […]
PLAYBOT: Women in theatre!
A quick analysis of other PlayBots in both local and foreign domains reveals a surprising fact: In recent times there have been as many good roles for women as there have been for men. Lots of plays with strong female characters, lots of productions written, directed and produced by women. A correction has occurred! Yet […]
PLAYBOT: La Boheme Rhapsody
You could argue that the decadent, hard-living, unprotected sex-having “bohemian” culture of the late 1970s led directly to the tragic circumstances depicted in the musical Rent – which is set 10 years later and loosely based on the Puccini opera La Boheme, which was written 100 years earlier. In a further time twist, we return […]
MATILDA: It’s the adults that are revolting in delightful Citadel musical
What a joyful, merry, nasty, chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable romp is this adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical, currently settling in for three more weeks at the Citadel Theatre. The much-awarded winning musical is still playing in London’s West End. It was a big hit on Broadway, and it was there that Citadel artistic […]
