PLAYBILL: Awkward encounters
A Muslim, a Jew, an African-American and a white person have a heated conversation over dinner in New York City. What could possibly go wrong? Didn’t you listen to your mother?! No sex, politics or religion at the dinner table! All the characters in Ayad Akhtar’s explosive drama break mom’s rules in a play that […]
PLAYBILL: Christmas wholesomeness
‘Twas the night before wombat and all through the snerse, not a weeful was starping, not even a cherse. The weppels were hung by the stabbage with hair, in the clam that snat eelix would carter the snare. And nox in her keppitch, and meal in my lap, was flopping and keeling like mice in […]
PLAYBILL: Burning Bluebeard: Too soon?
Why is OK to make light of the Titanic and not 9-11? What about a deadly fire in a crowded Chicago theatre that happened more than 120 years ago? Such questions are set aside for the new production of Burning Bluebeard, at The Roxy on Gateway Dec. 13-24. Jay Torrence’s 2011 play is based on […]
PLAYBILL: Be like Scrooge
Life is so unfair. The central character in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol experiences an epiphany of goodness and a complete change of heart by the end of his harrowing ghost story – much like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes that day – and becomes the most kind, generous, warm, “Christmasy” person you […]
REVIEW: Fen a bleak portrait of muddy misery
In highly successful plays like Cloud 9 and Top Girls, English feminist playwright Caryl Churchill dramatically examines the abuse of power, sexual politics, women under duress and the evils of capitalism. She creates new forms and styles to present each of her plays – which often include humour and even farce. There is not much […]
PLAYBILL: Homosexual scandal rocks theatre scene
Shocking news, everyone: There may be gay sex occurring right under our very noses inside Edmonton’s live theatre community – and not the “lighthearted and carefree” definition of the word gay, either, though it could be both. Won’t someone think of the children?! Concerned citizens must pay heed to this menace that threatens the moral […]
WEEKLY PLAYBILL: Mobile homophobia
You know you’re trailer trash when … … you own a home that’s mobile and five cars that aren’t. … your house doesn’t have curtains – but your truck does. … if anyone in your family has died right after saying, “Hey, watch this!” No, it’s not Jeff Foxworthy. Quite the opposite. These lines come […]
WEEKLY PLAYBILL: ABBA cadabra!
November is a huge month for live theatre in Edmonton – almost a dozen openings, at last rough count. At the top of the list of the songs you can’t get out of your head this week is Mamma Mia, at the Jubilee Auditorium for five shows Nov. 11-13. Short run, big bang. What’s this […]
Witness to a Conga a dramatic dance
Teatro La Quindicina programs its season to run counter to the rest of the theatrical pack. And so this week, as others begin their seasons, Teatro has chosen to close off their first year in their spiffy new Varscona theatre with an old favourite from the canon of writer-director Stewart Lemoine, Witness to a Conga. […]
REVIEW: Stephanie Wolfe takes on Lily Tomlin
There are one-person shows that are linked to certain famous actors, such as Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain or, more recently, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston as LBJ. In 1977, Lily Tomlin, then a recent grad from the television series Laugh In, brought her one-person show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe […]
REVIEW: New Lemoine an absurdist delight
I’ll bet you didn’t know there was a tiny, forgotten kingdom, called Cynthia, near Lodgepole, Alberta. It’s only about 50 acres but it functions as a real principality. There’s a King, a Chancellor of the Interior and a small population of Cynthonian citizens. The kingdom was discovered by a Canadian census taker in 1956. All […]
Varscona Theatre REBORN!
A packed house of enthusiastic friends and supporters helped raise the curtain on Edmonton’s newest theatre on Saturday night – the new Varscona. The curtain is more than a metaphor. For the first time in its history the Varscona actually has a curtain – a large, voluptuous wine coloured velvet drape that splits apart to […]
