Finster Finds

Photo Credit: Marc J Chalifoux This past Friday, I took in Opening Night of The Noon Witch written and directed by Stewart Lemoine and presented by Teatro Live! at the Varscona Theatre. It was a fun night of theatre warning of the dangers of young women met at midday with baked goods - you must be careful as they might actually be a witch, trying to fatten you up so you will sink to your death ( lured to the water by nixies of some sort ). It takes place in 1920s Hungary and we meet first Anatol (Aidan Laudersmith), who has just returned from a long trip exploring the country, and Joszef (Eli Yaschuk), who has quit his long-standing job at a bakery because he can't stop eating the goods. These two have wonderful chemistry together and Laudersmith handles the complex and witty dialogue wonderfully. Yaschuk is brilliant at playing the very quirky Joszef and he has a comedic subtlety that was very fun to watch! The two men have a friend, Sandor (Ethan Long), who they discover has be...

Brianne Jang BB Collective Photography Friday night I took in the Opening Night of Angry Alan presented by Northern Light Theatre, directed by Trevor Schmidt and starring Cody Porter. When I attended the season launch for NLT I thought the casting of Porter was so smart, because in just the preview the things that his character (Roger) said were highly inflammatory. Only someone like Porter could play this role and not have everyone dislike ( hate? ) him and Roger, outright. This was confirmed when I saw the show.  Roger is disillusioned with his life. It clearly has not gone the way he thought it would. It has not gone the way he felt he was promised - promised by society and it's expectations - and then Roger finds the Men's Rights Movement online. His frustrations with the world ( which he finds unfair and inexplicable ) are echoed by online persona Angry Alan, whose video rants feed Roger's need for answers. What's to blame? Feminism... it has clearly gone too far....

Immediately after my last post I was struck by something... it was respiratory and it lingered and I had to cancel tickets to several shows I had wanted to catch. I spent about a month literally 'on the couch', coughing and wheezing and sleeping.  In late November I did manage to catch The Ballad of Johnny and June at the Citadel and it was terrific! I should have blogged but I was not up to full strength. However, I saw this as a reaffirming of the standard of work I believe we should be seeing at a Regional Theatre. My mother liked it so much that she went twice and took my dad to it. That's a ringing endorsement! I took the big buy and he also really enjoyed it and he's hard to please!  In December I caught It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at Walterdale Theatre. The company did a great job tapping into the iconic Christmas story. The cast handily embraced the multiple character voices of a radio play and the look (costumes and set) and sound of the play...

Last Friday I went to Opening Night of the absolutely hysterical Stranger Sings presented by DarkStage Productions at the Backstage Theatre. It is what is sounds like it might be, a musical parody of the Netflix show Stranger Things . Like the TV show, it is set in Hawkins, Indiana, where four nerdy tweens play D&D and one of them (Will Byers - a puppet voiced by Melenie Reid, who also plays his mom, Joyce Byers) goes missing on his way home! All the folks you expect to see are there: D&D buddies Mike (Jeremey Zimmerman), Lucas (Jason Wong) and Dustin (Renell Doneza - who does an amazing imitation of Gaten Matarazzo), Steve Harrington with the hair (played by Brian Christenson who also plays Jonathon Byers with a quick switch of a wig and a moor slouch), Nancy Wheeler (Liz Janzen) and best-friend but forgotten Barb (Carly Pettit), Eleven (Jack Hunting), Hooper (Connor Foy) and, of course, the Demogorgon (the clearly never-shy in his life - Lucas Paterson). I mention them all ...

This October has quite a few cool options for those of you who like your theatre to have a Scare Factor! I must say, the Edmonton theatre community has really risen to the challenge this year! I was happy to catch 2 of them last week! First up is A Party to Murder at Walterdale Theatre. I quite enjoyed the unwrapping of this Agatha Christie inspired story. It's a layered story and things are not as they seem, and it channels elements of And Then There Were None , but with a more modern take.  I was reminded a bit of Knives Out in that not everyone is who they seem to be.   The twists and turns really start coming in the second act and it appears that everyone has a motive for murder, but just who did it is the question. Lots of laughs in this show too, mostly from the deadpan delivery of Erwin Veugelers as former football player, Willy. The whole cast is tight and you can tell that everyone is keeping secrets. When the whole thing spills out you'll be replaying earlier m...

It was a busy weekend of theatre for me! Felt like old times! Three performances in three days! On Friday, I took in The Invisible - Agents of Ungentlemanly Warfare presented by Catalyst Theatre at the Eva O. Howard Theatre at Victoria School for the Arts. This was the last professional show i saw before the great pause and much of what I reflected on then, still holds true. You can read my original review here.  The show has had some cast changes, but they are still a phenomenal ensemble of actors with no weak links. It's a terrific piece of theatre that reveals stories of women during World War II - stories we don't often get to hear. As I said before, it is one of my favourites from the company and remains so!  The Invisible runs to October 5th with tickets priced between $26.83-$51.83. You can purchase them here.  On Saturday, I went to The Varscona Theatre Gala . It was a lovely night with a variety of performers (House of Hush Burlesque, Die-Nasty, Lindsey Walker, ...