Review: Satrangi

Gold Dust

by Caitlin Murphy

The season’s first snowfall was serendipitous yesterday, at least for one local theatre opening.  Satrangi, written, directed, choreographed and performed by Deepali Lindblom, implores Montrealers to come in from the cold and move toward the light:  “7 Stories of Light” in fact.  And though the show offers a bright, cozy atmosphere and some delightful Indian dance, all that glitters isn’t quite gold.

The production quickly serves up several visual treats: the set, created by Claire Renaud and Charlotte Hoffman, is compelling in its simplicity: colourful sheaths of fabric are elegantly draped, and strings of twinkly lights gracefully hung to create a highly inviting proscenium in the Bain St. Michel. Alycia O’Keefe’s lighting design is inspired and evocative; and the many shiny, flowing, adorned costumes (changed often) create kaleidoscopic effects.  

Review: Trench Patterns

Much, but not enough
by Nanette Soucy
@NetSoucy

You've gotta keep your humour, if you're going to keep your wits. When IEDs are exploding all around and you're at the antipodes of home, with the lives of others in your hands, being able to make a crack gets you through the day, and, hopefully, back home, alive. 

Captain Jacqueline, a wounded veteran in Alyson Grant's Trench Patterns, is an expert at the healing powers of sardonicism. We meet Patricia Summersett's healing officer shortly upon her return from Afghanistan, in hospital, where she is slowly learning to walk and talk again after the loss of her leg and her men. Jaqueline is at once tough and supremely vulnerable, a situation that both her mother and her visitations take ruthless advantage of. Her vulnerability is poked at by her psychiatrist, who asks corny questions as though he received his degree from the Wikipedia School of Psychology. What her psychiatrist lacks in skill, Summersett more than makes up for in performance. 

Review: The Leisure Society

Beware: Smoking, Nekkid and Angst Ahead

Leisure Society finally hits Montreal in English

by Sarah Deshaies

François Archambault's The Leisure Society has been winning rave reviews here and all over Canada, but it's only receiving its first public outing in Montreal and in English now. 

Good thing, too, since it's actually quite good. 

Review: Ars Poetica

Noel Burton, Danielle Desormeaux, Elana Dunkleman

Carry Me Away!

Fundamental concepts of theatre are raised...especially in winter

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

As I trudged through the ice-slush to get to tonight's opening of Arthur Holden's Ars Poetica, I realized I desperately needed a mood change. I didn't need to roar with laughter (I don't even expect comedies to do that - and Holden's piece is billed as a comedy). I needed what theatre does best: take me and those around me away, make me forget the here and now, put me in a head-place where ideas and visions and emotions swirl together.  Sure, a good laugh would be nice too, but all I wanted was theatre that was theatre and not TV, movies, radio or a book...or now.

News: Infini announces new season

Teesri, Arthur Holden and François Archambault in lineup. 

Review: Joe Louis: An American Romance

Ardon Bess as Joe Louis (Photo courtesy of Infinitheatre)

When one fight should have been enough
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Infinitheatre's production of David Sherman's new play, Joe Louis: An American Romance, which opened tonight, is a perfect symbol of Montreal English-language theatre. It is at once quite thrilling and profoundly dismaying.


The central problem of the evening was that, simply, this was not a play ready to be produced—but produced it was in a pretty but, very often, awkward presentation directed by Guy Sprung. Again, simply, Sprung and his large cast did not know what to do with this play in this space. Elements of the evening—for instance, the beautifully staged interplay of actor and archival film—simply underlined what had gone missing in the rest of the evening: pace. There were very long moments of talking which had to be filled as well and everyone seemed to be at their wits' end as to how to do this because that talking was...well...unscintillating.

News: Fennario going to Stratford

Infinitheatre's production of David Fennario's Bolsheviki, directed by Guy Sprung and starring Robert King, is going to Stratford.

Read the details here.

CharPo's Picture of the Week, January 27, 2011

Ardon Bess (l) and Samuel Platel in David Sherman's Joe Louis: An American Romance opening tonight at Infinitheatre  (photo courtesy Infinitheatre)