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. 

Prison Dancer at the Citadel - Always cool to see new works at a Regional Theatre

 

Photo Credit: Nanc Price

This week I caught Prison Dancer at the Citadel Theatre. It's a new work with Music and Lyrics by Romeo Candido, Book by Romeo Candido and Carmen De Jesus and Directed by Nina Lee Aquino. The Citadel was planning on doing this a couple of years ago but it was delayed by the shut-downs. Now it's up on their Shoctor stage and literally getting the audience up and dancing! I admit, when I first heard of the show I thought it was going to be in the smaller Rice Theatre, like other niche musicals have played (Gay Heritage Project, Craigslist Cantata, Bittergirl) so I was surprised to see it was on the much larger Shoctor. With the set and big dance numbers it made sense when I saw it. 

It's a fun show in many ways, but seeks gravitas with the fact that prison life (particularly in the Philippines) is not easy. It is fun, because the prisoners have to find a way to find joy in their otherwise bleak and sometimes violent lives. It is fun, as well, because the music is pop-infused and delivered by good voices along with enthusiastic and athletic dance moves! There are some really great voices in the cast, the standouts being Daren Dyhengco as Christian Serrano and Diana Del Rosario as Christian's girlfriend on the outside, Cherish. Their songs were my favourites, both their solos and their duet. Their story also had the most hope, which a prison story definitely needs. 

There were a few issues, it's clearly a new work, well on it's way, but hopefully this run in Edmonton will allow for a depending and strengthening of the script which lags a bit in places and is a little cliché in others. I also had issue with the sound balance, particularly in the first half of the show. Too often the band was too loud and I couldn't hear the vocalists.  When you throw in accents and very rapid lyrics, it made for a challenge in knowing what was being said. 

That being said, I was entertained and invested and it was fun to dance with a full house at the end of the show! There were a lot of younger audiences members who definitely were having a fabulous time form start to finish so I highly recommend for those of an age where you're still going out to dance AND for those who want to invest in new work, particularly new Canadian work. I can tell this show has a future and I will be pleased to say I saw it at the beginning!

Prison Dancer runs to May 28, 2023 at the Citadel Theatre. 

They range from $33-126.

Tickets can be purchased here.

Word of Mouth Tuesday and Wednesday! Fringe 2022

My apologies for the lateness on this one… I’ve been Fringing hard and needed to breathe! It’s been a glorious Fringe though! Lots of new titles on this list. Trust the recommendation of the random strangers I met in line ups and go catch a show!

Crack in the Mirror

Butcher

Mark of the Minotaur

History of the World in 7 Days

Drag Me to the Opera

God is a Scottish Drag Queen

Charade

Lemon

Fags in Space

Crisp Trepidation 

Re: Construct

Salsa Lesson

Chase Padgett

For Science! 

Josie and Grace

Juliet: A Revenge Comedy

Mules

Robert will Show You the Door

Blueberries are Assholes

Ladies of Jazz

I've seen 17 Shows so far... And we aren't even Halfway done! Woot!

So, I have seen 17 shows so far, I have at least 11 more to see and I might increase that if I have the stamina! Here's just a few quick reactions to some of the shows that I've seen so far:

Jesus Teaches Us Things - Hilarious! This is the most fun you will ever have at a Sunday School class taught by none-other-than Jesus! We may have strayed from the official curriculum a bit, but boy was it fun! Lots of great songs, audience participation (low risk and totally up to you), jokes that are hilarious but not hateful! Can't go wrong with that! 

The Big Sad - A really well crafted children's show for the wee ones (I'm thinking 4-8 years - 3 if your child is particularly verbal). It's about grief, but actually a lot of fun. The company also does brilliant work teaching the audience how to interact with the participation elements before the 'show' starts so that everyone can have a good time and participate appropriately if they feel comfortable. 

Hunchback Variations - Definitely one for the 'theatre people' like me! It's absurd, funny, smart and performed by two excellent actors. I had a great discussion about it with my son when I got home. Does it help if you've read or seen The Cherry Orchard, I'm not sure? Maybe it will make you want to read it... 

Plays by Bots - Every show is different. The Rapid Fire Theatre folks start each show with a brand new sight-unseen script written by an A.I. called Dramatron, who is a playwright with a very distinctive and hilarious voice and these improvisors go big with the choices presented. Partway through the script runs out and they improvise an ending. I was laughing so hard! I'm hoping to go back to see another show!

Ride the Cyclone - (Note: this is one of my favourite musicals so I know I am biased) A funny and dark little musical about members of a school choir who die on a roller coaster and have to pleased their case for a second chance. I love the show (saw it twice when it was at the Citadel) and this production was so well done! Perfectly cast! The voices and the acting and the dancing - simply awesome! I'd love to catch this one again too! It's also not really for little kids... and I like that about it! 

Destination Vegas - I saw Destination Wedding last year and loved the script concept and the  storytelling by three terrific actors. The same team (playwright and cast) goes to Vegas this year and things again get a little wild! Lots of laughs with the cast playing totally different characters in a new situation with even more at risk. How will it end?!?!? 

The Dreamer's Cantata - A truly lovely concert of works you likely haven't heard before set around the theme of dreamers and dreams. It's very polished and sharp and all four of the artists on stage are terrific! I only wish I had a program so I could find some of the those songs again! I might be emailing the director to get some song titles and composer names! 

Now I'm off for 3 more shows today! Happy Fringing!

You can purchase tickets to Fringe shows HERE. 

Word of Mouth - Monday, August 15 - Fringe 2022

We're starting to get a few repeats! That's awesome! If you still aren't sure what to see at the Fringe this year, this list was curated by asking random strangers (and some folks that although they might be a bit strange, I would actually call them friends) who I met in line-ups and asking them what they've seen that I should go check out! 

Juliet: a Revenge comedy

The Flying Detective 

The Ladies of Jazz

The Dreamer's Cantata

Ten (The Show)

Dirk Darrow: Magic of Future Past

Blueberries are Assholes

SqueezeBox Cabaret: Divas

Disney Delusion

Suor Angelica

Josie and Grace

Conjoined

Marv and Berry

A Life, with Surprises (and Songs)

Iago vs Hamlet

Horseface

Underbelly

Crack in the Mirror

Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls

Chase Padgett: Lucky Break

Salsa Lesson

Generic Male: Just What We Need Another Show About Men

As always, if you have other recommendations, please feel free to add them to the comments! I'm working my way through a few of these and hope you can find some cool stuff to see from this list OR use the Fringe's magic Eight Ball to help you choose!

Tickets can be purchased online HERE. 

Word of Mouth - Sunday, August 14 2022 - Destination Fringe!

Another Fringe Day, another list of shows that were recommended to me by people I chatted with in lines! I talked to a wide demographic today, from 14 years to 60+ years, first time fringers and long-time fringers, and I think that's reflected in the recommendations I received! 

Remember, if you have a Word of Mouth recommendation (shows you have seen that you really liked!) pop it in the comments!

Chase Padgett: Lucky Break
The Walk in the Snow: The True Story of Lise Meitner
For Science
Ally Anne
Shot in the Dark
Hacking and Slashing
Butcher
Juliet: A Revenge Comedy
The Flying Detective
Eleanor's Story: An American Girl In Hitler's Germany
Jesus Teaches Us Things
Ride the Cyclone
Thundercats
Drag Me to the Opera
Epidermis Circus

I'm off to see three more shows today! If you want tickets to any of the above, you can purchase them HERE. Some of these are selling out and selling fast so don't delay (for example, a friend was going to join me for Ride the Cyclone last night but they waited to buy and it was sold out so they couldn't join me.)

Word of Mouth - Saturday, August 13th! Happy Fringing!

Here's the low-down on my Word of Mouth recommendations from Saturday, August 13th! I was running around quite a bit so I didn't get to have as many line-up chats as I would have liked. Please feel feel to put your Word of Mouth recommendations in the comments! 

Josie and Grace
Queer Music History: A Concert
Blueberries are Assholes
Suor Angelica
Jesus Teaches Us Things 
For Science
Six Chick Flicks or a Legally Blonde Pretty Woman Dirty Danced on the Beaches while writing a Notebook on the Titanic
Epidermis Circus
Reyna: The Story of a Zapoteca Queen
Are you lovin' it?
Drag Me to the Opera
Crack in the Mirror
Happy as Larry
Plays by Bots

You can get all your Fringe tickets here: LINK

And a note: You will get electronic tickets if you can't make it to a ticket booth for a physical ticket! That's nice when you are going to something at a BYOV!