As of January 7, 2013, this website will serve as an archive site only. For news, reviews and a connection with audience and creators of theatre all over the country, please go to The Charlebois Post - Canada.
By Gaëtan L. Charlebois (Editor-in-Chief)
I could not think of a better time to return to reviewing theatre than right now, as the second half of the season explodes into being. I have been away from my first love of theatre for an awfully long time. I was TV and pop culture critic at the Gazette for seven years or so, then illness hit and now here I am...slowly going back in.
Going to the theatre, for me (a hardened, though not jaded, observer and critic) is like going into battle. Ostensibly I am in the theatre to take notes, form an opinion and leave as quickly as possible to meet a deadline. But let me confess: those three minutes or so before the lights go down and the play began were (and I suspect, will be) hell for me. It is not that I anticipate there will be a couple of awful hours ahead, it is that I can feel the hysterical energy that is backstage on an opening night. I can feel it. I...am...there. (A friend once joked that it was a damn good thing I was Gay because I could never survive watching my wife having a baby; I'd be on my back in the delivery room shrieking louder than her with the empathy pains.)
Gaëtan Charlebois
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
When I saw the raw, unpleasant, hilarious power of Martin McDonagh's first play to be presented here, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and then his brilliant film, In Bruges, I knew he was writing for me. This, from all reports, is a similarly difficult night of theatre but I bet you won't leave the theatre unmoved. Absurd Person Singular Going to a play by Alan Ayckbourn is like opening a Christmas present from a dear friend; it will always be a surprise, sometimes make you laugh until you cry...or just cry but it will always be something you really wanted.
(BTW: You still have a chance to win tickets to this show)
BARBARA FORD
It’s a no-brainer … Centaur’s Wildside but don’t ask me to choose one play out of the lot! Just buy that special someone a pass so they can go nuts and see everything … best deal in town AND you can work off the turkey, mash potatoes and gravy walking up that hill from the Place d’Armes Metro to get there! If I HAVE to choose, either Miss Sugarpuss Must Die or Hynogogic Logic to inoculate against the inevitable onslaught of winter blues.
PATRICK GODDARD
Neon Nightz at WildSide. Give your loved one a table dance at Centaur!
