News: Upstage and CharPo become media partners

The Charlebois Post is happy to announce its media partnership with Upstage—Theatre on Radio on CKUT.


The fruits of that partnership will be clear in the upcoming days.

Sunday Feature: Toward Inishmore

Thomas Preece (Padraic in ...Inishmore)
(photo credit: Antonio Starnino)

By Kate Bligh 

(Special to The Charlebois Post)

I first saw The Lieutenant of Inishmore in New York five years ago.  I had seen McDonagh’s work before, and thought I knew what to expect.  Five minutes into the play, I was laughing and crying at the same time: this piece was darker, funnier, more insightful, and more brutal, than any of his previous offerings.  In this very tightly written and apparently simple piece, McDonagh takes a scalpel to the Irish psyche, slicing off the top layers of flesh and smearing the resultant mess all over any sentimental notions of ‘Irishness’ his audience members might have.

I knew from about half-way through the performance that I wanted to direct the play myself, sensing that its preoccupations with identity in so many of its forms – national, gender, and sexual - would have resonances with the unique cultural reference points of Montreal theatre-goers.  I also felt that the play would provide an ideal vehicle for some of the young and incredibly talented performers that I work with.  Last and not least, it’s a spectacular piece of theatre written in a knowing, virtuoso style, that really lends itself to stage performance, by someone who knows that live theatre can really pack a punch, even at the beginning of the 21st century.  How could I not take it on?  

Second Opinion: Silicone Diaries

(Editor's note: The Charlebois Post encourages its contributors to share opinions even on productions for which reviews have appeared on the site.) 

by Richard Burnett

For audiences outside Toronto, the hometown of Canada’s most celebrated transsexual Nina Arsenault, the thrill of seeing Nina step onstage for the first time is pure voyeurism. This thrill cannot be duplicated with mere videos or photographs. Observing Nina’s body and what she has done to it is a voyeuristic sensation completely rooted in the real. And by god, with her eye-popping 36D-26-40 figure, Nina Arsenault could pose in Penthouse.

News: Galluccio's Mambo hits West Coast in April

Steve Galluccio's mega-hit Mambo Italiano will be playing Vancouver in April. Galluccio, a CharPo contributor, has seen the play performed worldwide. It was a hit here both in French (Cie Jean-Duceppe) and English (Centaur)

Details of the Vancouver production here.

The French-language Press: Silicone Diaries

"In the mouth of your average drag queen, the superficiality, the futility, the gossiping would be funny, folky even. But Silicone Diaries, despite some smothered laughter here and there, disturbs, especially by its terrifying currency."


Sylvie St-Jacques, La Presse (translated by GLC)

News: Stratford Star, Domini Blythe, dies in Montreal at 63

Domini Blythe, a favourite of The Stratford Festival, has died.

Read the Toronto Star article.

CharPo's Picture of the Week; December 17, 2010

Nina Arsenault in Silicone Diaries. Read all about it in CharPo: reviewed by David Allan King; profile by Richard Burnett.

The Post-ian Question - December 15

The prize: The winner will receive one pair of tickets to Griffintown Theatre opening night of Absurd Person Singular by award winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn. 3 couples - 3 Xmas Eve's - 3 hysterical disasters. In the 1970s Absurd Person Singular became the longest running comedy on Broadway. Directed by Corey Castle. Opening Night Fri. Jan. 14 The Rialto 5723 Park Ave. Tix will be left at door. Play starts at 7:30; winner should pick up tix 7pm.


The challenge: In 140 characters (Tweet-length) write a rave review pull-quote for a play that would keep the audience away in droves. (Example: I was particularly fascinated by its dissection of Zoroastrian theology and how it led to the conclusion that God is a construct. Go!)

Add your entry as a comment to this post with your real name. You may also comment on other entries...play nice. The deadline is midnight, Monday, January 6. The winner will be announced along with the next challenge Wednesday, January 8, along with the next challenge. Judges are CharPo contributors.

Now...go!

First Person: Anna Papadakos

Dear Montreal Theatre,

The year is coming to a close.  This is the time to reflect, to make promises for what we will both do and will never do again in 2011. Today, I would like to take a pause in the hectic life of a Montreal artist to write about all the English Montreal plays I have not seen.  

Obviously, I would not have made a good critic in 2010 since one has to see the work to critique the work, right? Although, I must admit that at times I have read critiques, of works that I did indeed attend and the reviewer appears to have seen a very different play.

News: Robert Lepage slated for Metropolitan Opera premiere

Radio-Canada reported Robert Lepage - whose Ring Cycle is unfolding this season and next - is returning to the Metropolitan Opera to stage an operatic version of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.