REVIEW: Comedy of Errors a masterclass of mayhem
The Freewill Players launch their 35th outdoor season in Hawrelak Park this year with one of Shakespeare’s earliest and funniest plays, Comedy of Errors. It’s hard to imagine a better show for a spring evening than this venerable confection – an entertaining show as light as a breeze across Hawrelak Lake. It is, by the […]
REVIEW: Master Class brings opera diva to life
The aura of Maria Callas stills hovers over opera in the last half of the 20th Century. She was “La Davina” – plain in person but beautiful on stage. Her acting may have been minimal but she dominated every production in which she appeared. Famous for her wobbling high notes, she seldom performed (especially in […]
Finest of Strangers the finest of Lemoines
A new play by Stewart Lemoine is something to celebrate. For some 36 years – since his debut at the first Fringe – he has prolifically turned out play after play, over 70 of them now. The amazing thing about all this is that the playwright has managed to maintain an innate curiosity in a […]
Absurdist ‘anti-play’ explores meaninglessness of life
Eugene Ionesco is a polarizing playwright. Along with Samuel Beckett (Waiting For Godot), he is the prime exponent of Theatre of the Absurd – an existential form of theatre that tells us that your life has no inherent value, other than what you impose on it. You’re on your own – and besides, we’re all […]
Terry and the Dog intense, disquieting, touching
A man sits on his porch and waits for his dog to come back to life. “Buddy” is dead – and not for the first time. His master Terry is pushing at the outer edges of middle age, and is a recovering alcoholic. Twice before in a drunken stupor he has accidentally killed Buddy – […]
Young Frankenstein: It’s alive! It’s alive!
Except for the venerable Walterdale Theatre, ELOPE Musical Theatre may be the oldest amateur theatrical production entity in Edmonton. For 35 years the company has been scouring the community for talent, holding auditions and mounting productions of Broadway musicals. In the past few years they have featured such shows as Guys and Dolls, Sweeney Todd […]
Fly Me to the Moon a grand tall tale
We are quite familiar with the works of Irish playwright Marie Jones. She had a huge success a few years back with Stones in His Pockets the story of a couple of sad sack extras in a major movie being shot in Ireland. There have been, at least, two productions staged in Edmonton. Jones is […]
New incarnation of Robin Hood ‘engaging and spectacular’
Wrapping up a superlative season at the Citadel, Artistic Director Daryl Cloran decided to go out on a high. Like, really high. Three stories high. Back at the beginning of the year, as new Artistic Director, he was getting to know various players on our theatrical scene. One he contacted was Mieko Ouchi – the […]
Foote in The Door is in good with Company
Foote in The Door is an Edmonton based performance collective. They are graduates of the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School (and other groups who train young people in musical theatre). Getting tired of waiting for our major companies to phone with offers of jobs, they have banded together, in the best Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney tradition, to […]
Pretty Goblins pretty awesome
Twin sisters: even in the womb, they reach out to each other, clasping hands. A wondering doctor notes that their hearts are moving to the same beat. They will be born with a closeness that few will ever feel. Innocents floating in an amniotic sea, unknowing of the horrors that will be visited upon them. […]
Infinity is the perfect amount of time
Playwright Hannah Moscovitch doesn’t dodge the big issues. Moscovitch has written with distinction and considerable heart about the Holocaust, Nazi war criminals and gender politics in modern academia. Her plays (The Russian Play/East of Berlin – and others) have been produced all over the country (including Edmonton) and she has been dubbed “the hottest young […]
Mayfield production leaves reviewer All Shook Up
All Shook Up is a hunka, hunka burnin’ love set to the music of Elvis Presley. All air-brushed, gussied up and de-sexed, the music that once drove parents to lock up their children (metaphorically, I hope) has been transmuted into a bright, easy-listening, Broadway-style pop entertainment that is a light year away from The King’s […]
