Review: Lucy Lost Her Heart

Heartless

by Chad Dembski

Lucy Lost her Heart is the third part of a trilogy that has been in development since 2005 by Theatre Junction Grand.  This is my first time experiencing one of their performances and this was the company's first time in Montreal.  

The show seems to start as the audience enters with all the performers in American Apparel underwear and warming up and rehearsing on stage.  They smile at the audience and seem to be preparing but also seem to be in some kind of character as well.  The show begins and the story of five “lost souls” who are trapped in more ways than one (in a mine, in the past, in their memories) a strange line between character and performer is constantly played with.  These characters include Flip (Mike Tan) who begins hosting the show and dreams of being a cowboy, Pocahontas who speaks en français as if in a constant dream and slowly paces back and forth on stage, Pierre (Stephen Turner) who has undergone a massive trauma that seems to both inspire and hold him back, Red (Isabelle Kirouac) the minor of the group who seems trapped in her own head and Lost Soldier (Ian Kilborn) who has returned from an unknown war.

Review: Ogoki Nights II (LIFER)

The Debauchery Continues...

...in LIFER Ogoki Nights II 

by Chad Dembski

LIFER (Ogoki Nights II) is the continued story of tree planting that in this version takes place up in Northern Ontario near Wawa ("so nice they named it twice" is one of the funnier lines of the play) and other tiny Ontario towns where they travel to plant.  I did not see the first version of this play (Ogoki Nights I) but I can imagine it having quite the same type of premise; a large cast on a small stage, lots of transitions (black outs, set changes, props), and tons of references to the life of a tree planter.  I have never been a tree planter myself so when at the door I could hear them asking if each member of the audience coming in had been a tree planter ($10.00 a ticket, the only discount they offer) I could tell this piece was made by and for a very specific audience.