CPM's Picture (Video) of the Week, February 2, 2012

Chekhov's masterpiece, Three Sisters

closing this weekend at Dawson College

(Read our review)

Beyond Our Fourth Wall, February 1, 2012

Remount of an unforgettable piece by Denis Marleau, A/D Ubu Theatre,  presented ten years ago. Accurately described as technological phantasmagoria.

Les Aveugles

Feb. 22-Mar.11 Musée D’art Contemporain de Montréal

(photo credit: Stéphanie Jasmin)

Theatre…en français

by Estelle Rosen

Where the title tells you all...and not much!

Caligula (Remix) 

Feb. 15-17

Gésu 

Focus on  moments from classic Cyrano de Bergerac.

Pour en finir avec Cyrano

Feb. 17-Apr. 21

Maison de la Culture

Shadow and light are in a constant battle.

L’Oratorio de Noel by Michel Tremblay

Feb. 15-Mar.24

Cie Jean-Duceppe

After Dark, January 31, 2012

Playwriting for Today's Canada
How should artists create when there is no money?
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

When I was 13 my father gave me a Brother portable typewriter for Christmas. On New Year's day, following, I spent the entire day on the machine writing my first full-length play: A Time For Madness. A woman is alone, her husband and two friends have escaped from prison and hole up at her place. Somehow it turns into a bloodbath with woman covered in her husbands blood and - like Lucia di Lammermoor (opera influenced by early writings - she does a long-ass mad scene. The only thing it had going for it was that it was a small cast and one set - cheap to produce. My next full-length play would have required 40 actors, was about six hours long and had a similarly pretentious title: A Life in Damascus. I dreamed as I wrote it, almost certainly aware it would never be done as we descended into a recession.

The Upstage Interview: Jade Hassouné

Nobody knows who my character is.

Upstage and CharPo contributor Sarah Deshaies  spoke with actor Jade Hassouné about  In Absentia playing at Centaur Theatre.  Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE

Our first guest Jade Hassouné has been referred to as the collector of talents in the 2012 Montreal Mirror Noisemakers. Jade Hassouné joins us in studio. I hope you liked that introduction!  

HASSOUNÉ

I’ve never had an introduction before! Thank you. 

The Sunday Read: Part V - Iris Lapid on MAP

Part V: January, 2012

The clown in me

by Iris Lapid

I recently finished Clown 2, a workshop taught by Francine Cote in which we developed our own unique clown through emotional state and physical gesture. The goal of Clown 1 was to open up and let what already exists within us come out, and in Clown 2 we worked at accepting it and developing it. Clown is all about discovering what you personally have a lot of, and then finding a way to let people laugh at that. I, for one, had a lot of difficulty understanding this concept in the first workshop because I had all sorts of ideas about what I wanted to play or how I wanted to be seen, without being able to simply let out what was already inside myself. 

Theatre For Thought, January 28, 2012

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: Carmen Aguirre and Blue Box

joel fishbane

Even the briefest of chats with playwright / actor / novelist Carmen Aguirre can be a refreshing experience. “I do not write for personal catharsis,” she told me in an all-too-brief email exchange. “I haven’t been trying to tell my story. I have been telling stories.” 

All her answers are like this: precise and taut, like a fine haiku. 

The Friday Five, January 27, 2012

FIVE THINGS TO DO WHEN A BLACKOUT OCCURS DURING A PLAY

by Matt Raudsepp of Matt and Kyle and Matt

Give someone near you the middle finger

We've all been there before... you arrive at the theatre and run into that acquaintance you secretly despise. You're forced to be pleasant with them before the show begins, making small talk, secretly interior monologuing pure hatred and anger at your misfortune. Well, when the house opens, mark where your "friend" sits down. At the first blackout, stand up in your seat and violently flip the bird at your unassuming target. Do it stealthily and silently, but extremely forcefully for maximum enjoyment.

CharPo's Real Theatre!, January 27, 2012

Review: Phone Whore

Into the Electronic Brothel...

...eyes wide open...

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

The way I have covered the Montreal Fringe is to split the venues up among reviewers; each has to cover everything, for good or ill, at their venue. So I did not get to see one of the hot tickets of last year's edition, Cameryn Moore's solo Slut (r)Evolution. Nor have I seen Phone Whore (which toured - and will be touring - the North American Fringe circuit). When I mentioned into Twitter that PW was coming here this week, the Twittersphere ignited and I was told (nay: ordered) to see it.

Review: Three Sisters

Mara Lazaris, Kayleigh Choiniere, Chantale Demole as the sisters (Photo credit: Hombeline Dumas) 

CHEKHOV'S MIX OF SADNESS AND HUMOUR STILL APPEALS

Someone takes on Chekhov...finally!

By Byron Toben

The Dawson theatre program strikes again with a classic revisited. After staging Shakespeare's “Merchant of Venice” last November, it has now mounted a fine “Three Sisters” by Chekhov. These classics still resonate with us despite the distance of place and phrase. That's  why they are called classics (it also helps no royalties need be paid).