Review: Robin Hood

Eric Davis, Matthew Kabwe and Tamara Brown

Sherwood Forest 2.0
by Nanette Soucy

Legends and folklore are manna for tellers of children’s tales. Since we understand that any facts in their narratives and characters are stretched at best, at worst, entirely made-up, and often appropriated from whatever influences were blowing in the wind through which the last teller told them, the stories that are passed to us through books, place names and ballads continue to resonate with us throughout the centuries precisely because of, and not despite, the circuitous telephone game involved in their relaying.

There are lots of bits to Robin Hood. Since this is not a story that is passed down to us with a clear beginning, middle, and end, but more in bits and pieces gathered from rituals, songs and tradition, like a Pantomime, there are a couple of basic elements necessary to make it recognizable: We’ll need bows and arrows, trees, a merry band of misfits, a puckish rogue, and an evil sheriff bent on ruthlessly suppressing the peasantry. That’s it. The rest is just detail, bits and pieces added on and altered over the course of the near millenia that this hero has been a part of western consciousness. The moor, the maid, the King, the Friar, the Crusades, the details of Robin’s noble bloodline,  are all elements that have been woven into the tale at different times in order to make it appeal to the audience to which it was presented. It is in these details that director Dean Fleming and playwright Paula Wing bring the tale of this Prince of Thieves, this Man in Tights, to the urban, 21st century stage.

Review: I, Claudia

Would you be 12 years old again?

Geordie brings Claudia to Montreal

by Nanette Soucy

Can parents of 12-year olds, besought by the stuff of parenthood, have an accurate idea of what it’s like to be one of these “tweens” we hear about now? If they have a memory of being a “pre-teen”, in today’s reality it’s completely irrelevant.  While you’re struggling with the new Facebook layout, their entire emotional landscape is being shaped by the compelling exhibitionism and creative self design that the Internet is made from. When they feel like escaping, they disappear into their screens.

Review: A Thousand Paper Cranes (Wildside)

Why Sadako Sasaki?

The Bomb's impact and metaphors continue

by Nanette Soucy

Geordie Productions made a brief stop at the Centaur for the last weekend of the 15th Annual Wildside Festival to present A Thousand Paper Cranes, The Weapons of Peace, the high school version of their annual school tour.  Created by Paula Wing and Micheline Chevrier, A Thousand Paper Cranes tells the story of an ambitious 11-year-old runner named Sadako, growing up in the years following the attacks on Hiroshima, and the impact of the catastrophe on her family.

Review: The Little Prince

Daniel Brochu and Harry Standjofski (photo: David Babcock)

Beyond The Young Audience
The Prince may be little, the effect not

by Estelle Rosen

I love theatre for young audiences. Their honest reaction leaves no doubt what they like, more specifically what they don’t like, what is boring. They loved The Little Prince – as did I. Never having seen the play or the movie, I was truly impressed by a touching story told with great sensitivity.

Review: Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Lucinda Davis, Alex Macooeye

(photo: David Babcock)

Bustin’ Out Some Beethoven

Holy Schroeder!

by Amy Barratt

For the final offering in its 30^th anniversary “celebrating art” season, Geordie productions has chosen a play about a Classical composer dead nigh unto 200 years. Wow, Dean Patrick Fleming, way to appeal to the Mario Kart generation.

Of course, Artistic Director Fleming, like Charles Schultz’s toy-piano playing prodigy, knows better than to try to compete with whatever  technology or fad the kids are chewing up and spitting out this week. Geordie has always understood that to cultivate  an audience you just have to make the best theatre you can, as theatrically as you can.

Beethoven Lives Upstairs is fine theatre by any standard. From the dramatic lighting by Thomas Godefroid, to the minimal but highly effective set by James Lavoie, to Amy Keith’s costumes to the intricate puppets designed and built by Jesse Orr, Beethoven is a delight to the eye. Peter Cerone’s sound design works in many of Ludwig’s greatest hits alongside crying babies and crashing thunder.

News: Geordie Season Launch

Daniel Brochu in Geordie's Little Prince 

(photo: David Babcock)

GEORDIE SEASON LAUNCH: ALL HAIL THE PIXAR OF MONTREAL

the company has rebranded itself as theatre for all ages

joel fishbane

Some years ago, a little company named Pixar issued a challenge to anyone interested in the business of family entertainment. With their army of criminally talented writers, the folks responsible for Toy Story, Wall-E and Up showed that family-friendly films did not have to be full of treacle and cheese: they could be irreverent, whipsmart and emotionally riveting entertainments with an appeal that spanned the generations. Here in Montreal, this call to arms has been routinely answered by Geordie Theatre who, under the direction of Dean Patrick Fleming, has rebranded itself as theatre for all ages.

Theatre for Thought, February 7, 2011

CharPo is adding a new column to our op-ed Tuesdays. With the publisher's After Dark column, every week you will also be able to read writer/actor/director Joel Fishbane's opinions on Montreal English-language theater (MELT): Theatre For Thought. Feel free to join the conversations in the comments section below each piece.

On Genres and Critics

by Joel Fishbane

There were three significant openings in the MELT scene this week. Tableau D’Hote's Internet-based fundraising campaign peeked our interest for Humans; indie wunderkind Andrew Shaver has gone mainstream with Stones in His Pockets; and Geordie Theatre has helped Clowns Gone Bad resurrect MöcShplat, their giddy adaptation of a certain cursed Shakespearian play. All three are worthy additions to the theatre season. Yet, once again, the Montreal Gazette has shown their usual display of bias and assigned Pat Donnelly to the adult theatre (Stones and Humans) while giving Geordie to Kathryn Greenaway.

Review: MöcShplat

Top to bottom: Marcel Jeannin, Danielle Desormeaux, Michel Perron (Photo credit: Julian Haber)

Is This a Dogfish I See Before Me?

MöcShplat is Shakespeare like you’ve never seen him

by Amy Barratt

You thought a one-man Hamlet was messing with the classics? That was nothing compared to a four-clown send-up of the Scottish play. 

Geordie Productions, into its 30^th year and flirting with theatre for grownups, has brought back MöcShplat, Clowns Gone Bad’s collective creation dating back to 1997. It’s playing at Centaur Theatre this weekend and next with  daytime performances through the week for highschool groups.

The kids are going to have a blast. This is an adaptation of Shakespeare by a group of people who know the original material very well but aren’t afraid to throw 90% of it out and just riff on what’s left.