Horror-pop Halloween: Zombies, An Evil Videogame, and A Sinister Suburb

by Borah Coburn

Happy Medium Theatre’s production of Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom by Jennifer Haley is often funny, endearing in a nerdy (and sometimes intensely angsty teenage way), and engrossing. The basic story is that in the creepy/Stepfordian suburb of an unnamed town, all the teenagers have become totally engrossed with a videogame that uses satellite photos of the players’ neighborhood and zombifies its inhabitants. But the game isn’t just a game, and the consequences of in-game action start appearing in the real world—so what happens at the final level? It’s an enjoyable night of theatre, especially if you like the scary side of Halloween and/or gaming.

Rigoletto at the COC

by Kelly Bedard

Verdi's brilliant 3-act opera is given a beautiful if sometimes silly staging at The Canadian Opera Company this fall.

Dueling Cabarets

by Kelly Bedard

Sonus Stage Company's Sondheim revue Side by Side just opened at the Walmer Center Theatre. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to enjoy excerpts from Acting Up Stage's Both Sides Now, a revue of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell songs. Sonus' production, a less polished restaging of a pre-existing cabaret has none of the jaw-dropping talent and music direction innovation of Both Sides Now, though they begin with more iconic musical theatre material.

The 1975 revue hasn't been updated since its original staging and therefore lacks many of Sondheim's most famous and more current melodies and while the company does an excellent job making the niche composer accessible to non-fans, an update would have really helped their cause.

Theatre Smash's Ugly One

by Kelly Bedard

Theatre Smash’s production of Marius von Mayenburg’s dystopic one act The Ugly One is a whole lot of funny and whole whack of unsettling all wrapped into a tiny 1 hour package.

Director Ashlie Corcoran and designer Camellia Koo pair to stage Maja Zade’s superb translation of the excellent play in a unique and effective way, using Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space to full effect with a massive multi-use table taking up 80% of the playing area and characters joining the audience to observe during their down time. Jason Hand’s excellent lighting design makes interesting use of brightness to startle the audience out of its stupors and mimic the trademark surroundings of an operating room or big budget corporate presentation.

In Stratford: Twelfth Night

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #1
The most fun I’ve had at a Shakespeare play in a very long time was at Des McAnuff’s raucous celebration of anachronism: Twelfth Night, my favourite Stratford Production of 2011.

In Stratford: The Little Years

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #2
My first tears of the 2011 Stratford Festival Season came in the Studio Theatre one afternoon as I took in a play about which I knew nothing.

John Mighton’s original work The Little Years was the surprise delight of the season, a new play I loved so much that it usurped some of my favourite Shakespeares to take the silver medal spot in this year’s rankings.

In Stratford: Titus Andronicus

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #3
A lot of people consider Shakespeare’s early revenge tragedy trashy, vulgar, somehow incomplete and most certainly inferior (to the bard’s more “sophisticated” later works like Hamlet). But some of the smartest directors I’ve ever met are convinced there’s a certain darkly comic genius to it. That seems to be the trick with the grotesquely violent Roman drama- don’t be afraid of the absurdity but don’t mock the suffering either.

At The Stratford Festival this year director Dark Tresnjak made use of those very principals to create an innovative and stirring production of Titus Andronicus that proves why it belongs in the great revenge canon right alongside Hamlet.

In Stratford: Hosanna

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #4
After I read late Stratford artistic director Richard Monette’s beautiful memoir This Rough Magic, I couldn’t wait to buy a copy of the play that made him famous. But when I finally got to read great Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay’s groundbreaking 2-man play Hosanna, I was surprised by how much I didn’t like it. I thought on stage it would be campy, possibly even shallow. What I didn’t realize was that Hosanna is one of those plays that simply doesn’t belong on paper. It needs a beating heart, and that’s what Gareth Potter gave it this season at The Stratford Festival.

In Stratford: The Grapes of Wrath

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #5
Frank Galati’s stage adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath is incredibly demanding. With no fewer than 61 characters (not including “Travellers, Guards, Strikers, Citizens and Hoopermen”), an on-stage river, a rainstorm, ever-changing locales and a moving vehicle of remarkable size, it’s a wonder that any company would consider attempting a production.

But if there’s one company to tackle the iconic novel’s demands, it’s The Stratford Festival with their brilliant effects teams, ambitious corps of directors and designers and large, capable acting company full of diverse, classically-trained talent. The result is an entertaining production that’s both technically impressive and emotionally affecting.

In Stratford: Jesus Christ Superstar

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #6
Jesus Christ Superstar is inarguably the biggest hit The Stratford Festival has had in years. But that was fairly predictable. Current Artistic Director Des McAnuff is, at heart, a rock musical man and he’d been dreaming of JCS for quite some time. After the arrival of Josh Young in last year’s Evita and with the maturation that title role brought to ingénue Chilina Kennedy, the cast was finally starting to take shape to be able to pull off the massive task of the Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice rock opera. Now, the soldout, extended-run breakout is headed not only to La Jolla playhouse but all the way to Broadway come March, where hopefully we’ll see some of Stratford’s best get some Tony love.

As for me, I liked the production an awful lot. But with a few weak points and a central character interpretation that’s pretty alienating, I think there are better things at the festival this year, which is why its biggest hit is only my #6 choice.

In Stratford: Richard III

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #7
Take a look at that promotional photo- doesn’t that look like a kickass Richard III? Unfussily sexually ambiguous, surrounded by attack dogs and draped cockily on a throne that’s not hers- I really think that should have been Seana McKenna’s Richard III. I mean look at those boots! Who needs a penis when you’ve got bitch stompin’ boots like those? Alas, there seemed to be a bit of cowardice running around in Richard rehearsals at the Stratford Festival this year as their brave move towards busting open the great roles for whomever was most qualified dwindled into a single mediocre production without the heft to knock politely, not to mention break down any doors.

In Stratford: Camelot

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #8
I’m fond of Lerner and Lowe’s Camelot. It was one of the first things I ever saw at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival and this year’s iteration pays lovely homage to that great production with erstwhile Lancelot Dan Chameroy bringing his lovable swagger to the small part of Sir. Dinadan. That said, Camelot is not actually that good a musical. It has its moments and when executed well it can be pretty entertaining. But the source material here just isn’t as strong as sophisticated more contemporary offerings like, say, Jesus Christ Superstar.

In Stratford: The Merry Wives of Windsor

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #9
The Merry Wives of Windsor is not a particularly great play on its own merits. It’s a silly “one more time, just for the financial benefit” retreading of beloved characters from superior plays (most notably, Henry IV’s breakout star Falstaff). It can be amusing, I would imagine, if staged innovatively with the unhelpfully broad weak points sidestepped in interesting ways. Almost anything can be at least enjoyable if cast right and directed well (I even found a Comedy of Errors that I liked last spring). But Stratford director Frank Galati didn’t even take a stab at innovation- he just cast well and leaned the incredible weight of a major mainstage production on the actors’ shoulders- not something even the best in company can handle on their own.

Broadway Bound

photo by David Hou

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has just announced what I was hoping would be coming: Jesus Christ Superstar's move to Broadway!

The smash hit production (directed by Broadway vet and Stratford Artistic Director Des McAnuff) will premiere at the Neil Simon Theatre on March 22, 2012 after a sojourn at California's La Jolla Playhouse starting in late November.

The last Stratford production to make the move to NYC (2009's Importance of Being Earnest) recast all its best performers (Mike Shara, Ben Carlson, Andrea Runge and Stephen Ouimette). Here's hoping the same doesn't happen to the superb cast of JCS (including Chilina Kennedy, Bruce Dow, Brent Carver, Marcus Nance, Aaron Walpole, Lee Siegel and Mike Nadajewski), for many of whom world stage recognition has been a long time coming. If the cast makes it intact I'm calling it first that Josh Young's got Tony Nomination written all over him for his performance as Judas.

Look out for our upcoming review of the production.

In Stratford: The Misanthrope

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #10
Set designer John Lee Beatty hits The Misanthrope out of the park. As does costume designer Robin Fraser Paye. But there’s a reason the aesthetics and design teams are the standouts in this production- it’s a superficial one.

Moliere’s brilliant script is in predictably fine form with the superb English translation by Richard Wilbur- who had the insight to translate in verse, maintaining Moliere’s hard-to-deliver but wonderfully entrancing rhythms and rhymes. Director David Grindley does an uninspired but acceptable job of staging the amusing story but neglects to give it any real heart.

In Stratford: The Homecoming

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #11
Alright, Pinter is not my thing. In fact, he is so far from my taste that I found myself getting progressively annoyed at his characters and their seeming inability to make a decent decision about their lives. I have a tendency to not think nutso people are interesting or metaphorical, I usually just think they need help and to get off the stage. That’s why The Homecoming is so low in my Stratford rankings. It is, undoubtedly, a very well executed piece. It’s also a beloved script from a Nobel Laureate playwright. So this one came down to a matter of taste. It’s not my thing, so I didn’t love it. But I will tell you all the great things that the company did with it, in case Pinter IS your thing.

Sugar Cereal goes Girl Hopping at Club Oberon

 by Brian Balduzzi

I think it's delightful when I can just enjoy theatre; it doesn't happen often that I can sit back with a glass of Pinot Grigio and appreciate a play like a good sitcom. Sugar Cereal Productions' launch and world-premiere of Girl Hopping was such a night.

Housed in the infamous Club Oberon, Girl Hopping is a sweet, tarty look into the lives of six women. Six lesbian women. Really, the stories would have been the same if you inserted a couple of men, but I’ll talk more about how the energy is just right with this particular cast of actresses and characters. These women all live in West Hollywood, California, and they all sleep with each other. Or they want to sleep with each other. Or they have slept with each other. But as light and enjoyable as the evening proved, playwright Ilene A. Fischer left the mundane and saccharine to actual sitcoms, instead filling Girl Hopping with charm and bite, a devilish mix for this hot cast of women.

In Stratford: Shakespeare's Will

photo by Andrew Eccles

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #12
The crime of Shakespeare’s Will was not a grave one. It’s not last on my list of enjoyable fare at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival this year because it was offensive, badly executed or terribly written. In fact it didn’t bother me in the slightest… because I was too busy trying not to fall asleep.

Poor Put-Upon Bertha

by Kelly Bedard

Alumnae Theatre's current production of After Mrs. Rochester is somewhat of a mess.

Polly Teale's uneven script tells the story of Jean Rhys, a novelist who grew up in the West Indies, which inspired her to write a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre about the life of Bertha, Mr. Rochester's troubled first wife who hailed from the same area. While I'm all for telling Bertha's side of the story (the oft-ignored character is not only crucial to the understanding of Jane Eyre's male lead but she's a significantly more fascinating presence than any other woman in the novel- including its heroine), this is not the way to do it. Teale uses Bertha, more or less, as a metaphor for her characters' suffering- everyone sees the light through Bertha and her story and finds comfort in the connection. As Bronte's story, Rhys' story and Teale's story get meddled, the play becomes more and more disjointed, becoming harder to follow and giving you very little reason to try.

In the Next Room or the vibrator play

by Kelly Bedard

I've been to many productions in the Tarragon theatre but until recently I had never been to a Tarragon Theatre production. Turns out it's a remarkably capable company with strong production values and solid actors.

In the hands of director Richard Rose, Sarah Ruhl's clever play on modern medicine, domestic power and female sexuality is done excellent justice. David Boechler's beautiful set and costumes also give an excellent sense of period with large lighting fixtures hanging in the centre of each room to fascinate the 19th century characters.

My Theatre Looks Back

by Kelly Bedard

Going through our My TV archives I discovered the following article in an "Obsessions of the Week" column from the days before My Theatre existed. As I embark on my Stratford 2011 top 12 rankings, I thought I'd share the article, if only for the nostalgic fun.

Meant for Each Other: Soulpepper's Odd Couple

by Kelly Bedard

Without question, The Odd Couple is the first production at Soulpepper that I’ve truly loved. I liked The Kreutzer Sonata a lot, enjoyed The Glass Menagerie and was very impressed by the heft of White Biting Dog. But with The Odd Couple, Soulpepper has moved from a solid company I admire to one I will actively seek out- less like Tarragon and more like Stratford.

Neil Simon’s brilliant script- full of just as much heart as it has full belly laughs- is perfectly staged by Stuart Hughes. It’s simple and straightforward- Lorenzo Savoini’s set and Erika Connor’s costumes adding small character detail to the story without over-interpretation or distracting on-the-nose elements. They set the play in period without constricting it, allowing it to feel relatably modern without modernizing.

Iphigenia in Tauris at The COC

by Kelly Bedard

I am by no means an opera expert. A working knowledge of classical music, a solid background in French, a decent understanding of Greek myth and a critical eye for good storytelling was what I had to cling to as I entertained the prospect of reviewing the Canadian Opera Company’s current production. What I found, however, was that opera expertise didn’t prove a dire necessity as director Robert Carsen teamed with designers Tobias Hoheisel and Peter Van Praet and choreographer Philippe Giraudeau to create a production that is far more balanced between sound, movement and set than most opera I’ve seen.

Tony-Nominated Play Gets New England Premiere

by Brian Balduzzi

It's remarkable how many meanings that the word “fall” can take in our daily lives. We fall asleep, we fall down, we fall in love, we fall back on those we love. This fall, I was delighted to attend SpeakEasy Stage Company’s New England premiere of Next Fall by Arlington, MA-native Geoffrey Nauffts. This stunning piece of theatre had audiences falling in line to see the 2010 Tony-nominee for Best Play on Broadway. The awards and accolades are no surprise to me; the script is punchy, poignant, and moving. The Boston community is fortunate enough to have a cast and director with the sensitivity and talent to navigate the many nuances of Naufft’s script for the full-range of meanings on the play’s clever title.