|
One Step at a Time is a fun, playful, and entertaining way to get to know the writer and actor of this one-man show, James Melcher. Melcher’s stage persona is warm and inviting – I found myself completely enfolded and engrossed in his stories about growing up, learning, meditating, and making choices. I feel like I came out learning from Melcher’s self-reflection and self-discoveries. For example, I love the way he describes and contextualizes opportunities to make choices and will try to apply this to my own life: making a decision as an opportunity to stop, commit, and learn something, regardless of the outcome of the decision. Sonja’s Favourite Bits:
Missed the Mark for Sonja:
One Step at a Time is playing at Studio 1398 September 6 - 16 as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Sonja Cvoric
0 Comments
The Other Side of the Flood is a "spoken word musical theatre" performance created by David Lee Morgan. It's a one man show with multiple characters portrayed by Morgan with the help of some recordings representing additional characters in the piece. The title presumably is biblical, from the Book of Joshua, and would likely be a reference to the future temporal setting of the play – post apocalypse. The 'action' takes place in the future "on the eve of a worldwide socialist revolution" in the year 2035. Morgan's idea for this piece apparently came out experiences related to his interest in previous significant revolutions: the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, The Russian Revolution, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In response to the notion that we will never see the like of those great social upheavals again, Morgan felt compelled to imagine it as a possibility and create this theatrical piece. Morgan has 'cred' when it comes to poetry and performance. He has a Ph. D. in creative writing, has been published both in numerous publications as well as books, and has been very successful in the UK appearing in many festivals and Poetry Slams of note. The story involves some people from the opposite ends of the earth - Los Angeles, Bengal, and Dhaka - who are all involved in working toward the goal of a global socialist revolution. They are also living in a time when science has found a way to 'download' a person's brain to create a digital version of the person. Even as I write this I have trouble understanding how these people came to be in relationship and what the point of the story is, especially the digital brain part. The story is intended to be an apocalyptic vision of the future, wherein we humans are still living in the conflict of good versus evil, socialism versus capitalism, humanism versus religion - at least that is what I gleaned from it. It was, at critical times, difficult to understand some of the poetry so there were gaps in the narrative for me. Despite this I mostly really liked the poetry. I think this performance piece could be successful if it were professionally staged and performed by a more credible actor, with higher quality lighting, props, sound, and staging. Morgan alone doesn't have the chops to create the atmosphere and emotional charge that the play demands. The play is interesting but may be damning it by faint praise, but the best I can say. The Other Side of the Flood by David Lee Morgan is playing at the False Creek Gym 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Evelyn McKelvie
Travel Theatrics is a show about finding oneself in the unknown spaces of a big, scary world. This autobiographical piece is full of characters lovingly rendered by the theatrical portraiture of Keara Barnes—locals, fellow-travelers, family. Every portrait is unique and fully inhabited, so there is never any question which one we are seeing. From childhood vacations to the first lone sojourn into Malaysia, Keara brings scenes and images of her past to life in a style that is warm, intimate, and full of humour. The script is lively and poetic, although viewers may be conflicted as to whether the internally rhyming style adds to the vividness of scenes or distracts from it. Keara’s performance is as much physical as it is vocal. She really manages to occupy the whole stage. I was especially impressed by her portrayals of two children in the first story: herself and a friend met vacationing in England. One often struggles to remember what one was like as a child, but Keara doesn’t seem to have this problem, inhabiting her past self with that uncritical, unselfconscious air that is wonderfully typical of children. Travel Theatrics by Standing Room Only Theatre is playing at Havana Theatre 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Mattias Martens
No Belles is a heart-warming and entertainingly education play. This show is expertly and passionately pulled off and deserves the great success it has received since its debut in 2014. I hope this show continues touring for the next 4 years, 40 even! I hope that one day the scientific community will give this theatre company more women in science to include in their show. The current version of the show features 8 scientists, each of whom is spotlighted in a separate episode of the show. Each episode follows a different format – including slam poetry/rap, skits, sock puppets, letters, and illustrations – such that each episode is presented in a manner as unique as the woman it spotlights. Sonja’s Favourite Bits: Hearing the actors relate to some of their favourite scientists, describing why/how much they care about these women – both as scientists and as people. Their passion for the content is infectious and makes me want to go out and learn more! No Belles by Portal Theatre is playing at the False Creek Gym 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Sonja Cvoric
Devon More is always a joy to see perform. In Flute Loops, as ever, musical talent, verbal skill, and physical grace are interwoven into seamless fabric. The simplest, clearest demonstration of this comes from the pedalboard, which is used to create the titular “loops”. More integrates the working of the pedals with her physical performance, controlling the sophisticated arrangement of samples through motions that seem effortless, accidental—to the point that we can almost believe the opening conceit of the show, that this entire performance is spilling out of her spontaneously as she waits for her boyfriend’s band to come on stage. Prospective theatre goers might be wondering about the educational content. This is about as deep a dive into quantum physics as a one-person symphonic orchestral poetic performance incorporating flutes and physical comedy can reasonably be expected to be. Devon’s descriptions of physical concepts are accurate up to a point, but they are mostly being used as the vessels of a more central creative idea, one that explores the role of science in the modern world and the objective of the human search for knowledge. (I discuss this more in the video review, which contains spoilers.) I did feel a little uncomfortable around the performer’s handling of Stephen Hawking. Perhaps the honorific of “Saint Hawking” and the imitation of his distinctive robotically synthesized speech patterns were meant to be affectionate, but to me both came off as sarcastic and perhaps a little in poor taste. I’m sure opinions will vary. Overall, I would recommend this as a fun, witty treatment of physics that informs and moves, even if it doesn’t (and probably can’t) explain things at a deep level. Also, if you’ve yet to see Devon More onstage, don’t miss this because Flute Loops is Devon More in top form. Flute Loops by Devon More Music is playing at the Cultch Historic Theatre 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Mattias Martens
Levana Irena Prud’homme and Clay Nikiforuk’s collaborative piece, Life, Blood, Water is a unique and intimate look at an alternative narrative to clinical, normative, state-sanctioned understandings of pregnancy loss. This piece follows one woman’s personal narrative, as expressed through word and dance storytelling. Prud’homme and Nikiforuk perform in this piece and are joined by dancer Hayley Gawthrop. Prud’homme and Nikiforuk’s choreography and writing works well together to create a sombre and supportive story that poetically and politically examines ideas of body literacy. I really enjoyed this production and think this is an important piece for everyone, people with uteruses and without. My favourite part of the choreography was the dance implementing jars full of water; the dancer’s body movements were beautifully complemented by the swooshing sounds of the water in the jars. ~ reviewed by Sonja Cvoric
La Palabra en el Tiempo translates to ‘a word in time’, and this captures perfectly the way spoken word and Flamenco dance merge into this high energy piece. At times hypnotizing, the lead dancer Denise Yeo is one of those artists that’s so skilled in her technique that she’s able to move and play with the limits of the Flamenco forms. She flexes this expertise by using physical theatre to act out the accompanying poetry with the best sort of wild and silly dramatic movements. On the other hand, I found the poetry of Garth Martens too abstract in its form to detect any real story. Instead, it only served to distract and break up the flow of dancing in a way that I personally found grating. I think the fragmented and emotional words he lumped together were likely an attempt to mimic the emotional non-form of the strains of Andalucian gypsy languages spoken traditionally by Flamenco dancers as an element of the lyrics sung along with this form of dance. However, this needed to be clearer, and didn’t work for me. The singing was exceptional, and the guitarist really stood out as well. The costuming was wonderful as well. I recommend attending with an open mind, letting go of your perceptions of how Flamenco should perform itself and instead let your mind wander into the infectious rhythms, melodies and music of this Fringe- worthy piece. La Palabra En El Tiempo is playing at Studio 16 as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Elizabeth Goode
|
SPONSORED BY:
INSPIRED COACHING PUBLIC SPEAKING, PERFORMANCE AND VOICE TRAINING
Categories
All
|
