CharPo's Real Theatre! November 20, 2012

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.  

The Image, November 29, 2012

Andrée Lanthier's photo of Jesse Aaron Dwyre reaches the heights of the work of the artist who is the subject of Red, at Segal Centre: Mark Rothko.

Beyond The Fourth Wall, November 28

An excursion into collective psyche

Ze Psychotyk Happening Project 

Dec. 7 – 15 

Théatre La Chapelle

Shows of interest
by Estelle Rosen

Artists, Music, Torchlight Walk
Xmas on Avenue Mont-Royal 
Dec. 8  - 31
Place Gérald-Godin (métro Mont-Royal)

Come to ze...
Cabaret  
Dec. 2 – 20h
TMN

Exhibition
Blow Up
To Jan. 12
Joyce Yahouda Gallery

Vintage Poster Gallery

After Dark, November 27, 2012

Lemons, Lemonade and The Sour Taste That Stays

Dutchman hangs around for a bit

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

I have invited the contributors at CharPo to, when the mood strikes them, write what we are going to call "Reconsidered". The idea is that, after thinking about it, many people will revise opinions about a work of art. We come out of a play with friends, we go to a café, and over the carrot cake we parse what we have just seen. The others put ideas into our head, we into theirs and then - hours, days, weeks later - we are hit by a new idea about the show. Those ideas remain largely unexpressed. However, I feel they form the foundations of future considerations not just of the piece seen but of the art itself.

The "Reconsidered" pieces will not be, "I thought it was shit, but now I think it's great!" - though that's okay too. It will be along the lines of a comment a colleague made last year when he was considering his top ten for the end of the year. He said that the plays that he was remembering for his list were, more often than not, the ones he had not raved about. 

The Question, November 26, 2012

The twin loves of theatre and literature grew up together

by Estelle Rosen

An incontournable of Montreal’s spoken word scene since the early ’90s, Catherine Kidd has forged a reputation as one of the nation’s most surprising and inspiring voices for page and stage. Her award-winning multimedia poetry performances have toured in Europe, Asia, Africa, UK, US and Canada. Published works include the poetry collections Sea Peach [2002] and Bipolar Bear [2004], and the novel Missing the Ark [2007], all from Conundrum press. Her latest poem series was launched as the solo show Hyena Subpoena last Fall in Montreal.

CHARPO: You've been straddling spoken word and theatre for many years. I well remember the Sea Peach process for example. Do you know from the start whether a piece will be presented as spoken word or theatre, or is it a process that falls into place naturally at its own pace?

KIDD: I’d say the latter – it’s a process that falls into place naturally at its own pace. I write poems that lend themselves to theatrical presentation; they employ props, costumes, characters, and they’re performed from memory. But my goal has never been to deliberately fiddle with genre, it’s more organic than that. 

The writings that become performance poems are destined to be performance poems from the start. They’re usually inspired by a luminous zoological discovery, which becomes an allegory for some human situation, often my own. I’ll write a prose narrative of 10-20 pages, then prune and condense it into to a four-page, eight-minute poem in verses with shifting metre and rhyme scheme. That’s just how they turn out.

Tour Whore, November 25, 2012

Ado and Farewell

by Cameryn Moore

As I write this, I have been in Boston for two days. It feels all the more unreal because of the way I left New York City, at 4am on the day before American Thanksgiving. I had intended to leave at 4pm, after finishing my phone hours for the day, but the more I thought about the massive pre-holiday exodus that would slam the entire five-borough metropolis into first-gear-all-the-way gridlock, the more I realized that is not the way I wanted to finish the tour. So I packed up my shit, and creaked quietly down the stairs, accelerated out onto the expressway, smiling the whole way. I wanted to fly onward, fast, go go go, ride the momentum a little further.

There was momentum, still. I didn’t think there would be. I expected a shitty turnout for my one full-length presentation of Phone Whore, and I expected to just come down from that with a sad little thud. It could have been that way, too. There were seven people in the audience, counting the bartender and not counting the technician. But five of those people had not seen it before, which made the Q&A session lively still, even at 10:45 at night. Three of those people I really wanted to see it, Fringe friends of mine who had seen at least one of my other shows but not the first. One of those people was a programming decision-maker at the venue and really enjoyed the show, which meant that coming back to this lovely venue should be easier next year; they know what I can do. So that was good.

Review: Loucho

Circus in a small space
Loucho doesn't always succeed, but it's amibitious
by Sarah Deshaies

I’ll admit that at first I wasn’t getting it. Maybe it was me, but it was hard to slip into a fantastical little trip down a rainbow. 

Nice, simple story: a villain steals a multi-coloured machine, and our hero, Loucho, endeavours to save it, the colours and the girl all in one go. Cute. 

But somewhere between the acrobat antics in shades of blue and green, and the louche juggler Claude and some hula-hooping, my heart started to soften. 

Loucho: The Multicoloured Machine is an exercise in small-scale circus within a small space. It’s an earnest little show, the second clown-circus spectacle put on by new theatre company Le Nouveau International.
  

Theatre For Thought, November 24, 2012

SIMPLE TAKES A LOT OF WORK
joel fishbane

Last month, while killing time in New York, I decided to get lost in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After taking the subway to 86th Street, I enjoyed a New York breakfast of street food and coffee on those iconic steps before heading inside to look the painting “Grey Weather” by Georges Seurat. Along the way, I plugged in my iPod and listened to the only musical worth listening to when you’re lost at the Met: Adam Gwon’s song cycle Ordinary Days.

“The Met’s the only place in New York City where the traffic patterns don’t make sense,” sings Deb, one of the four characters in this quirky musical about the crossroads of youth. The show is made up of two completely separate storylines, but the scene at the Met is one of the few times when all four characters manage to break into each other’s lives.  “The show is about how one small thing that one character does creates a domino effect on everyone else,” explains Kayla Gordon, who’s directing the Canadian premiere. “It’s a show about asking ‘what is my big picture? What am I doing with my life?’”

Opinion: Rob Salerno on The Montreal Fringe

Montreal Fringe announces its lineup, milks artists

by Rob Salerno (reprinted, with permission, from Mr. Salerno's blog)

[Publisher: I have decided to reprint this article, which went into circulation last night, to encourage dialogue between artists who have appeared at our Fringe and the Fringe organization. Mr. Salerno's opinion reflects those of several veteran Fringe artists I have talked to off the record. When posted on Facebook, last night, there was a very interesting discussion on the article's many points. I encourage that discussion to continue here. NB: Mr. Salerno has made corrections to his original post. In the interests of clarity, we have removed the strike-outs. GLC]

The Montreal Fringe has announced its lineup after throwing its lottery party earlier this week. I’m not going to do synopses of all of the Fringe lineups, because that would be nuts, but I thought it would be worth looking at Montreal Fringe’s list because it’s the first big one to announce its lineup and also, it reveals some of the less-than-awesome things going on in Montreal Fringe.

The Fringe drew 84 companies in the lottery — 29 local francophone, 28 local anglophone, and 27 Canadian and International companies. This is slightly down from last year’s total, but the Fringe says more companies will likely be bumped up from the waitlist as they figure out the schedule and possibly add more venues. And of course, BYOVs will be added to this list. So it doesn’t appear as if the Fringe has actually learned lessons from last year, and is going to continue to expand beyond its capacity to draw an audience.

You’ll also note that they’ve posted the wait list for each category: 13 International companies are waiting for 13 spots. I guess that’s fair. It means performance poet Jem Rolls in spot #13 is hoping that every other international company drops out of the Fringe so he can get a spot.27 Canadian companies are waiting for the 14 Canadian spots.