Candy and the Beast at NLT … Bringing a Halloween Vibe to Your April!

Photo by Brianne Jang, BB Collective Photography

I took in Opening Night of Candy and the Beast at Northern Light Theatre this past Friday. Written, directed and designed by Trevor Schmidt, and starring Jayce McKenzie and Jake Tkaczyk, it evokes the feeling of 80's classics like Heathers and Beetlejuice (perhaps I was a bit reminded of 80's Winona Ryder). In a sharp turn from her recent performance across the street in Robot Girls, McKenzie as Candy is angsty, angry, and emo. The small community of Black Falls that Candy and her younger, but physically bigger, brother Kenny aka the Beast (Tkaczyk) live in has been struck by a serial killer, whose victims are young, blonde, and lower class. Candy is two for three, and unless the killer changes his target, she’s safe. Through Candy's observations, the show comments on those who are easily discarded versus those who raise alarms when they go missing. 

The aesthetics of the show are cool. Ghoulish masks on sticks populate the community, which features the blond victims, a pack of wild dogs, and various community members, who are all voiced by McKenzie and Tkaczyk. Lighting is  dark, with ribbons of visibility, often top-lit harshly so that you can’t quite see everything - adding to the mystery of "what’s exactly going on?!" Interspersed in the storytelling, are cool songs sung by Tkaczyk as Kenny, which evoke on 80s electronica sound. It’s edgy and dark and creepy and Tkaczyk does a great job selling those songs, as well as embodying the many characters he plays. 

 Photo by Brianne Jang,BB Collective.

The interplay between the siblings is terrific and it propels the story. Because Kenny is much younger and innocent (or is he?) than he appears, and the diminutive Candy is in some ways so much larger a personality, it’s a fun ride that leaves you wondering who the killer is and who will be killed next. And of course, will Candy be on the list? And will we actually find out who the killer is? I’ll leave that with you as I don’t want any spoilers. 

You don’t often see a show like this in April as it’s more of a Fall genre, But if you like things, a little dark and edgy and creepy, this is the perfect show for you. If you're into true crime podcasts and horror movies with edge and humour, you will love this! Who says you can’t have a little Halloween in Springtime?  

Candy and the Beast runs to April 20th at Fringe Theatre Adventures. Tickets are $38.85 and can be purchased here. There are also 2for1 nights and PWYC Nights available. 

A Week of Edmonton Theatre - Three Terrific New Works! Anahita's Republic (Autash), Subscribe and Like (WWPT) and Listen, Listen (Teatro Live!)

I've just come home from seeing the third of three new works on Edmonton stages this week! There's nothing my theatre heart loves more than new Canadian works and all three were also written by Albertan playwrights, so that's even better! There was also a great deal of variety in the pieces so it was a but of a rollercoaster of theatrical offerings!

Anahita's Republic by Hengameh E. Rice (Autash Productions)

Now running at the Backstage Theatre (Fringe Theatre Adventures), Anahita's Republic is a play I have been long invested in. It's set in Iran, in a compound where the strong willed and sharply intelligent Anahita (Roya Yazdanmehr) is able to live her life the way she wants to. She's safe to reject the hijab and run the family business, using her brother Cyrus (Yassine El Fassi El Fihri) as her public face. All the while she works to challenge the regime and gain freedoms for women. The play shines a light on a part of the world we may speculate about but not really know. Yazdanmehr gives a passionate and invested performance, and when it looks like she may lose control of her carefully curated world, you can hear the desperation in her anguished pleas. Anahita's Republic is a play that makes you think when you both watch it and in the days that follow seeing it. It makes you think about what you have and what you might do if it were taken away from you. It also makes you reflect on what it might be like to live in a world where all you want is to have the same things that your brother has - the things he takes for granted and even casually rejects - but you can't have them because you are a woman. The cast is rounded out by Omid (Jennie George), a young women whose arrival upsets the balance of Anahita's life, and Omid's father Masood (played wonderfully by Michael Peng) who further complicates the situation with wants of his own. The show is nicely paced and the stakes stack up imperceptibly until things reach a breaking point. It's a tight 90 minute show directed with subtlety by Brian Dooley. 

Anahita's Republic runs to June 4th at the Backstage Theatre.
Tickets are $44 but there are Pay-What-You-Can tickets available for every show. You can buy your tickets here. 

Subscribe or Like by Liam Salmon (Workshop West Playwrights' Theatre)

So... this was an unexpected show for me. I knew it likely had something to do with social media, because of the title, and I speculated there was a romantic/relationship angle because of the casting and the images I had seen online prior to seeing the show, but that's about all I knew going in. It was both funny and sad. It was also terrifying and inevitable. It's a memory play about Rachel and Miles who start a YouTube channel and travel down the path of needing the likes and views and subscribers to validate what they are doing. Their need to generate those reactions becomes obsessive for one of them, and ultimately destructive for the relationship. This show had me unable to look away even though part of my brain was saying I can't watch. Gabby Bernard and Geoffrey Simon Brown have real onstage chemistry that makes you believe why they are together as well as why they pull apart from each other. He is puppy-dog-like, which is adorable, but hey, he also eats your shoes. She is thoughtful and deep and caring, but over-invested and drained, and it's hard to be the not-fun one. It's a complicated interplay, but believable. 

As someone who spends a lot of time on social media, I totally got this show. I have over the last few years reevaluated my online role and needs. I know what it is like to track your likes and views so I understand the obsession. After seeing the show, my friends and I spent a half hour discussing it and how we related and I have come back to it several times today. I imagine it will haunt me for a little while longer. It's completely relevant in our world today and as a cautionary tale, it suggests that even if you aren't thinking about the impacts of social media on our psyches, you probably should be. 

Subscribe or Like runs to June 11th at the Geateway Theatre. 
Tickets are $27 - $43. Tuesdays are 2-for-1 at the Door. 
You can Purchase your tickets here. 

Listen, Listen by Elyne Quan (Teatro Live!)

It was so much fun to laugh at this show tonight! The premise was simple, but what started out a something simple (a customer's request) snowballs quickly into the world of the absurd. Led onstage by the physically elastic Farren Timoteo, the cast of four (Nadien Chu, Alexander Ariate and Nikki Hulowski) are delightful to watch. I think they were having as much fun as we were in the audience!

It's quick paced (kudos to director Belinda Cornish) and moves so smoothly that I was surprised that the first act was an hour. It literally flew by! The soundtrack is terrific (I would like a mixed tape of it, please!) and the music, costumes (Leona Brausen) and set (Chantel Fortin)  transported me and everyone else to the 80s (the best decade) for a super silly story pitting customer against service worker! It's a show that you can't help but enjoy and laugh at. Everyone onstage is excellent. As to Timoteo, my companion for the evening speculated the role was written for him as his physical comedy was perfection. The rest of the cast all have their moments too - Chu's slow-motion fight scene is hilarious; Ariate's three wildly different characters have their moments; and Hulowski not only plays the smartest cute girl at the mall food court, but she also channels the entire secretarial pool from the movie Working Girl (sorry, Executive Assistants). So much fun and absolutely perfect for a summer evening! 

Listen, Listen runs until June 11th at the Varscona Theatre. 
Tickets are $30 - $42. Tuesdays are Pay-What-You-Can at the door. 
You can purchase your tickets here. 

Understudies... they get the job done! Clue at the Citadel Theatre and a return visit to Hamilton with Broadway Across Canada!

I had a terrific two-city theatre weekend! After seeing Hamilton in Edmonton earlier this month, I tried for and won lucky lottery tickets to see the show again in Calgary. This meant a quick road trip down south with Gibson on Saturday to catch the evening show and a quicker return home because I had plans to see Clue with my Mom at the Citadel theatre in Edmonton on Sunday afternoon! Road routes were carefully planned because of the Pope's visit and it's many road closures. My article title refers to Understudies and both these experiences speak to the power and incredible skill of understudies. 

First, Hamilton! It was so nice to see the show again and seeing it from the front row was amazing. It was such a treat to see the show up close. Gibson (due to his music background) was thrilled to be able to watch the conductor at certain points in the show. I loved the show when I saw it first but this second viewing proved to me that it is the kind of show you can see multiple times and still be engaged and thrilled. We were also pleased to see two different performers in key roles. Between the two shows we saw different Aaron Burrs (Donald Webber Jr. and Ellis C. Dawson III) and Angelica Schuylers (Marja Harmon and Charlotte Mary Wen). These four performers were all excellent and between Gibson and I we each had different favourites (I won't say who liked who better) but above-all we felt that it was so awesome to see the show with different casts, particularly casts of this caliber, as it made us engage with the show differently and appreciate it even more. I truly appreciate that with a show like this, which is so specific, that the actors were allowed to bring themselves into the roles and not merely recreate the well-known performances of the originators. Regardless, it makes me confident that you will see a terrific show regardless of who in this company is onstage on any given night. 

After arriving home on Sunday morning at 11:55 a.m. I quickly changed and picked up my Mom to take her to Clue at the Citadel Theatre. In the pre-show announcement we were informed that the actor playing Mr. Green was unable to perform and that the Assistant Director Corben Kushneryk would be filling in and that he might have to use a script on occasion. Well, it was a riot! It took me a few minute to get into it (probably because of the driving) but once all the players were assembled it took off with a bang! The show was well cast and director Nancy McAlear did a fabulous job keeping the hi-jinks high! The Set (Designer Scott Reid) is an amazing puzzle box and I was delighted by it! I have to mention the outstanding job done by Kushneryk! It's hard to believe that he was just filling in as he was incredible in a very physical role! It was clear to see during the bows that the rest of the audience agreed! It was also delightful to see John Ullyatt as Wadsworth as his was also a tremendously funny and physical role. But really the whole cast worked together so well - with precision looks and choreography. They were a well-oiled machine and it was so fun to laugh so much! I highly recommend checking out this show!

Clue runs at the Citadel in the Shoctor Theatre until August 7th. Tickets range from $30.00 to $123.00 and are available here.

Tentatively stepping back into the theatre space...

The great pause... that's what we are in, I guess, and for me and many of the people I know, the biggest shift has been the loss of live in-person theatre. For me this was huge because of the amount of shows I normally saw on a monthly/weekly basis. Even with my slowing over the last few years, the shift was noticeable. 

Prior to last night, the last show I saw was Girl in the Machine in March. I don't think I blogged about it because right afterwards everything shut down. I was due to see a show at Shadow Theatre and postponed going due to being tired (how I wish I hadn't done that). I was also mentoring a director at Walterdale and had sat in on some rehearsals just prior to it all stopping. I remember feeling at the time that this was just going to be a few months. With my work at Walterdale we had many conversations about the shows in rehearsal. One was 2 weeks from Opening, the New Works (6 one acts) had just been cast, and the July musical was set to have their first read-through. So many conversations. So many if-then plans (if we can open by this date, then we can still do the show; if we open by this date, then we can do it in concert; if we cancel by this date, then we don't lose the royalties...). At all stages those conversations were heart-breaking, challenging, The various teams were creative. Most of the New Works decided to record zoom readings of their brand new/in-development plays and we were able to share those with our membership on-line. The team for the musical also did a zoom first read-through which allowed them to celebrate the show that would-have-been and hopefully this allowed for some temporary closure for them. At this point we do not know when we will be able to do a musical again (and after reading about this community theatre production of Mamma Mia!, I think we are right to wait). At the Board level we have had many many many conversations about what opening might looks like. We struck a committee to develop a plan to make sure that when we do reopen we are safe for everyone, our members and our audiences. We are definitely erring on the side of extreme caution (we are well aware how many of our audience members fall into the high risk categories). I have said over and over "We do not need to be first!"

So that brings me to last night. Last night I went to a show, in a theatre, with live actors onstage and other people in the house. It was the Horizon Lab at the Citadel, with their first show Where are Your Stories? "You are so brave." said one friend on Facebook. It never once felt unsafe. Certainly if felt different. But compared to a trip to Safeway or Shoppers, it was so incredibly well managed. Clear, explicit directions on mask-wearing and controlled socially distanced seating. An almost religious-ceremony of baptizing our hands with sanitizer on our entry. Everyone in masks. Even the show is kept clean - with a technician sanitizing the deck and set pieces that may have been touched by actors in the previous scene. I did not feel it was bravery to go, because I never felt unsafe in the situation. 

It was so nice to be in the familiar space. To share in applause and laughter with a group of people. The zoom and other online performances have been nice, but there is something about that communion of a live audience. Even the familiar irritation at the audience member in front of my who kept looking at his phone was kind of cool, because the feeling was nostalgic (Ah! I remember this!).  

The show(s) were... interesting, thought-provoking, and generous. They were all very different as you might expect from the varied backgrounds of those involved. Some were more compelling than others. Some were better written than others, Some were better performed than others. Some I understood, and some were a bit confusing. Some were angry, some sad, and some joyful. So, all in all, it was a pretty good night for theatre. 

I hope that the future offers me more of these nights. I'm good with going slowly and safely. I'm just happy to be back in my church. 

Mayor's Celebration of the Arts - A Whole Lotta Art Going on...

Last week I took in the Mayor's Celebration of the Arts at the Winspear Centre.  It was a terrific evening showcasing many wonderful local artists and it was kind of cool to move outside my usual as the evening celebrated not only theatre artists, but also dance, spoken word, music and visual art. The nominees and winners for the awards similarly came from a wide-range of artistic pursuits and it was wonderful to be in the room as the energy was so overwhelming supportive. It was also fun to watch Mayor Don Iveson show off his silly side as he danced with The Wet Secrets in the closing number. My favorite piece was the collaboration of Spoken Word Poet Mary Pinkowski, guitarist and singer Eva Foote and dancers Jeanie and Jodie Vandekerkhove.  I also have fallen in love with Jason Carter's artwork which was animated by Matt Schuurman and served as a backdrop for the evening's entertainment.  If you're looking for a gift for me, you can buy me one of his prints!

I'm hoping to return next year as this was a terrific evening celebrating what I think is one of the best things about Edmonton - it's community of artists!

Summer Theatre - Walterdale Theatre presents Jennie's Story

Last Friday I took in the final show in Walterdale's 2013/2014 season, Jennie's Story by Betty Lambert, directed by Alex Hawkins.  It tells the story of Jennie McGrane (Heather Brooke), a young married woman in 1938 Alberta who finds herself unable to have children because of a terrible injustice done to her when she was a naive teenager. There is much in the playbill about the reason for how this was allowed to happen, primarily the barbaric Eugenics Laws on the books at the time and the machinations of a trusted Priest (John Trethart) and her mother Edna (Syrell Wilson) who choose to go along with everything. It was a very thought-provoking piece and has stayed with me since.  Although the history of the piece is important in itself, as Lambert was specifically writing about this to draw attention to it, for me it connected strongly to the fact that there are still people and policies determined to control women's reproductive freedom.  A few weeks ago this story about a doctor in Calgary who refuses to prescribe any birth control due to her beliefs enraged me and the recent Hobby Lobby decision in the U.S. further emphasized the main theme of the play - that throughout history people have taken control of women's reproductive health and this is simply wrong and unfair. This is what resonated with me on seeing the play.  From 1938 to 2014, we've come so far...

The show itself is very well done.  Brooke has a real glow onstage and her Jennie moves from a cheerful earnestness to a desperate sadness over her loss.  As her supportive husband Harry, Ryan Beck gives a thoughtful and intelligent performance.  The rest of the cast rises to the challenge of supporting this story. The fifth cast member, Molly Dorval played by Molly MacKinnon is a lovely contrast to Jennie in her journey and characterization. The set, designed by Joan Hawkins, is  picture-perfect, it's pastel colours and clean lines contrasting sharply with all the dirty little secrets. Overall, I liked the script, but there are a few repetitive sections that I thought were unnecessary as well as an occasional strange turn of phrase here or there that didn't quite work for me.

It is, however, a thoughtful night and worth the trip - plus, the theatre is air conditioned, which is quite nice on these hot summer nights! Show runs to July 12th at the Walterdale Playhouse.