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.

Profile: Arthur Holden on his play Ars Poetica

POETS DO IT IN RHYMING COUPLETS

Arthur Holden and his new play Ars Poetica

joel fishbane

“I can think of nothing more completely useless and utterly indispensable than a poetry magazine,” says playwright / actor Arthur Holden. “When the stakes are simultaneously high and low, people get twisted in knots.”

The remark is typical of Holden, whose wry tone often hides a clever theatrical mind. A Montreal success story, Holden is putting his pithy observations about poetry magazines to the test with Ars Poetica, his latest work which will have its world premiere at the Bain St. Michel at the end of January. The comedy pits the employees of the eponymous magazine against one another as they try to save their beloved magazine from the slaughter.