Where You Are at Shadow Theatre - It's where I want to be...

I caught Where You Are by Kristen Da Silva presented by Shadow Theatre this past Saturday afternoon. On the ride over the uber driver asked me about the play and I realized that other that the cast members and knowing that two of them were sisters I really didn't know much about it, but I was confident based on that information that I would enjoy it. I was not wrong!

Marc J. Chalifoux Photography

The two sisters, Glenda and Suzanna (played by Coralie Cairns and Davina Stewart), live together on Manitoulin Island and while they are clearly very different, it is not hard to imagine them being sisters. They have strong chemistry and an easy way of relating to each other. They do a great service to Da Silva's occasionally over-written script. Cairns and Stewart are gifted with making it all seem so real and believable and that this is a relationship with a long history and ingrained patterns of interaction. We meet Glenda, the wilder of the two, with a Something About Mary inspired hairstyle, raccoon eyes, and a heavy metal t-shirt under her bathrobe, and that sets the tone for what to expect from her. Suzanne arrives a little later, impeccably groomed and dressed, returning from church which she attends more for gossip than for spiritualism. They comfortably and humorously bounce off each other and we find out that Glenda's adult daughter Beth (played by the sharp and smart Nikki Hulowski) will be arriving soon for a visit and that there's a potential for conflict as Glenda has a long history of saying the wrong thing! We are also visited by the handsome and handy neighbour Patrick (Brennan Campbell) who the sisters clearly enjoy seeing on a regular basis. He's got his own history which involves being left (near) the altar. Beth arrives and things kick-off. We've also got hints that there is something big the sisters have been keeping from her. I don't want to give it all away, but of course, you have two attractive young actors who are unattached so there's potential there for a liaison, and it's clear that when Beth finds out the secret - she might not be happy about it. Come and see and find all that out. There are many laughs along the way of discovery and the four actors work really well together. Hulowski was terrific. Her reactions to the ridiculousness of her mother and aunt were perfect and wonderfully in the moment. Campbell was charming and kept up with the three powerhouse women on the stage. And, as I mentioned earlier, Stewart and Cairns have a real ease with each other which was so essential to creating that key relationship. 

Marc J. Chalifoux Photography

Now, I say it's where I want to be... maybe not right now, but I can totally imagine hanging with my sister and relating in our own way to each other the way Glenda and Suzanne do. I definitely connected to the situation. And the emotional investment you have in your adult children and their futures also resonated big-time for me. I would say for anyone around my age plus or minus 20 years with a sister you are close to, this is a terrific choice for a night out. The audience agreed with a standing ovation when I saw it. 

Where You Are runs until May 18 at the Varscona Theatre presented by Shadow Theatre. Tickets are $25-$38 and can be purchased here. They also have pay-what-you-can performances. 

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.