Review: Pit and the Pendulum (Wildside)

Dark Poe-try

A short story as theatre is not for the faint of heart

by Christopher Lane

Sometimes torture is violent and physical, and then sometimes it is the emotional state it induces that is the most painful. The Pit and the Pendulum allows the audience to vividly imagine both of these frightful experiences.

Review: Countries Shaped Like Stars (Wildside)

A Constellation of Cabaret

Ottawa's Mi Casa Theatre may give us cavities, but who doesn't like a good love story?

by David King

There's a saccharine charm to Countries Shaped Like Stars at this week's Wildside Festival, right down to the homemade moustache cookies served up to the audience. 

Re-inventing simple objects and flirting with traditions of cabaret, vaudeville and buffoonery, Ottawa visiting performers Nicolas Di Gaetano and Emily Pearlman have been touring this musical storytelling piece now for about three years, along with others in the roster of their newly formed company, Mi Casa Theatre. Part of the mandate of Mi Casa is to break the walls down between audience and performer, and with Countries Shaped Like Stars, they show us how capable they are of doing just that.

CharPo's Picture of The Week, January 5, 2011 - Wildside edition

Trent Pardy, Jean-Robert Bourdage and this year's MECCA winner

for best female actor, France Rolland, in Bliss

part of Wildside

(photo credit: James Lavoie)

Review: Teaching Hamlet (Wildside)

l-r Watson, Cutler

A Lesson on Fixations

Shakespeare simply reveals the actor's lot

By Byron Toben

Keir Cutler, the author/performer of eight widely performed monologues, strikes again, this time with a duologue, “Teaching Hamlet”. This wildly amusing show - aided and abetted with the appearance of Brett Watson and the directoral hand of Paul Hopkins - makes a fine book end to Cutler's “Teaching” series.

Review: blink blink blink (Wildside)

Let Sarah Tonin grab your fears by the balls.
It displays the aplomb that Fringe-style performances can develop with time and repetition. 
by Nanette Soucy

The plucky motivational speaker's book, Skin the Bunny: An Aggressive Approach to Reclaiming Your Life is condensed for your edification into an animated workshop, presented in an exceptionally catered Hotel Conference Room near you, on the occasion of the Centaur's 15th annual WildSide Festival.

Beyond Our Fourth Wall, January 4, 2012

Theatre isn’t theatre if it isn’t also a celebration of human foibles.

Le Dindon by Georges Feydeau

Jan. 17 - Feb. 11

Théâtre du Nouveau Monde

Theatre…en français

by Estelle Rosen

In a world of facebook, twitter, and texting, does literature still have a place?

Musique pour Rainer Maria Rilke by Sébastien Harrisson

Directed by Martin Faucher

Jan. 18 – Feb. 10

Salle Denise-Pelletier

The roar of the 20s, the swinging 30s, Young Parisian girl from good family falls in love with someone who already has a fiancée.

Le Distrait

Jan. 18 – Feb. 4

Salle Fred-Barry

Lorrie wants to change her lifestyle. 

Les Débuts de Loretta

By George F. Walker (part of Motel series)

Jan. 17 – Feb. 4

Salle Intime Théatre Prospero

Video: Wildside Publisher's Suggestions

After Dark, January 3, 2012

The Two Words

A holiday and a biography bring out the past
By Gaëtan L. Charlebois

I am writing this in the waning hours of 2011, when huge numbers of Québécois (including me, my SO and our dog) gather around the electronic fireplace and watch TV. The TV has a theme: the past year. It's not nostaligia so much as a call to reflection.

Best of Real Theatre! 2011, Part IV

Best of Real Theatre! 2011, Part III