Take a Walk on the Wildside

These articles can also be found at http://thelink.concordia.ca/view.php?aid=40336 and http://thelink.concordia.ca/view.php?aid=40333 respectively or on Link News stands this week.

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Taken to the land of the tales Grimm

The Girl With No Hands

By Elisabeth De Grandpré

The Girl With No Hands is a wonderfully woven tale based on the Grimm narrative of the same name that explores how stories are told and collected.The story of the girl in question is subtly yet powerfully performed through the movement of author and actress Talya Rubin. But the play isn’t just a simple re-telling: Rubin embodies a multitude of rich characters, ranging from the sometimes brutal comic storyteller to a Grimm brother collecting the stories. As she continues to weave deeper with twists and turns the play will surprise you, whether or not you’ve ever read the Grimm tale before. 

Accordion player Julia Kater accompanies Rubin onstage, creating a vivid score that surrounds the piece with an old European feeling, tugging it back in time. And Rubin’s command on the audience keeps you in that past.

The play has changed since its original debut in 2006. Director Jodie Essery and Rubin worked on refining the production and deepening the characters.

“Because it is such rich, dark, intense and beautiful source material, it took a few versions of refining to get to the story we wanted to tell and it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to do that at the Wildside [Festival],” commented Rubin.

Rubin worked with director Essery and lighting designer Paul Chambers to design the set. It is comprised of branches attached to chairs standing in for trees, along with key prop pieces. The lighting is sparse, allowing darkness to surround the action. The beautiful detail turns the Centaur Theatre into a forest, such as the shapes of what looked like the rounds inside tree trunks shining on the sidewalls.

This piece will move you, and make you laugh. If you enjoy fairy tales and their grim origins, make sure to catch this gem.

Letters from the war

“…and stockings for the ladies.”

By Elisabeth De Grandpré

The one-man show “…and stocking for the ladies,” is based on playwright Attila Clemann’s stepfather’s father Ted Aplin’s letters home during World War II. The story follows Aplin and the people he touched after the war while the Royal Canadian Air Force occupied liberated Celle, Germany.

Aplin’s tale tracks him taking a stand against his own government by helping displaced people at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp recover, instead of just occupying the country.

Actor Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, who is in his final year at the National Theatre School, performs this solo piece with to-the-letter accuracy. He switches characters and accents with such ease at times that one feels like the play is an ensemble piece with a multitude of characters. There are only a couple of instances throughout the play where one can’t be sure of McMurtry-Howlett’s accent, which throws off the actor’s otherwise electric performance. He makes captivating use of sallow-faced puppets—designed by playwright Clemann—to tell the stories of the displaced persons.

Lighting and sets are executed by Paul Chambers, a sculpture major at Concordia University. The set itself is decorated with a mix of crates and opened and closed luggage. The elements of the set weren’t always clear because McMurtry-Howlett generally mimed, even when objects were on the set. He does, however, use a real pipe when embodying Aplin. The old-time music of the ‘40s sets the pace and speed of the hour-long piece.

This WWII drama with bits of comedy spattered all around is sentimental, and although a strong piece of theatre, isn’t exactly wild. It’s a modern take on a period-war-drama. The sentimental genre suited the audience, most of which seemed to have experienced the war first hand.

Centaur in the Wild

This article can also be found at http://thelink.concordia.ca/view.php?aid=40311 or on Link News stands this week.

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Centaur in the Wild

The wild side of Montreal theatre

By Elisabeth De Grandpre

What do a substitute Shakespeare teacher, a girl without hands, a Cyclops who can only see his own future, two Canadian airman in the aftermath of the Second World War and a veteran of that same war have in common? They will all be a part of the 11th season of Centaur Theatre’s annual Wildside Festival.
The festival’s goal is to give a little something back to the community they cater to year-round. Every year the theatre selects a number of shows, mostly from the Fringe circuit. The artists get invited to join the festival on the basis of how innovative and entertaining they are.
“We try to seek stuff that is new and different to out regular audience,” says Centaur’s Director of Communications Kika Armata, “It’s a little bit more edgy then our regular programming.”

Artists who accept the invitation are given space at Centaur Theatre and publicity, giving them wider resources. Centaur doesn’t make any money from the festival and all profits go to the individual theatre companies during the run. The festival draws in a diverse audience “a mixed bag,” according to Armata.

Each year they emphasize choosing a wide variety of pieces and this year is no different. The festival consists of five shows, which are advertised as “Five Hot Plays In the Middle of Winter.”

Wildside was founded 11 years ago by previous artistic director Gordon McCall. McCall who stepped down this year, curated the festival that has been co-produced with Andrew Shaver from Sabooge Theatre. Next year’s festival will be in the hands of the new artistic director Roy Surette.

This year all the productions involved have Canadian roots. In previous years the shows have come from across the globe, or at least across the pond.

Performing the third part of the Teaching Shakespeare series is Montrealer Keir Cutler is his solo piece Teaching As You Like It. It’s a show about an inept substitute teacher teaching As You Like It to an audience that represents his class of high school students. Controversy erupts with rumours of him being sexually involved with a 15-year-old student. This tawdry tale is juxtaposed with the playful romance of As You Like It.

Last month in Winnipeg, two letters from women who believed Cutler’s monologue was about teaching how to seduce young girls rather than Shakespeare went to the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival and Child Find Manitoba suggesting that Cutler himself could be a threat.

In the Winnipeg Free Press Cutler was quoted saying in his defence, “Theatre is a safe place to talk about unsafe things.”

Also native to Montreal is Talya Rubins. Rubins explores the Grimm tale The Handless Maiden in the one-woman show The Girl With No Hands. The fairytale is about a girl who figuratively and literally can’t hold onto to what she wants, her hands chopped off by her father to save her from a trickster devil. But the show has incorporated different versions of the tale to find a story closer to our time.

The show has been significantly reworked and rewritten since its debut at the Montreal Fringe 2006. The reworking has been to develop and deepen the already intense tale. Rubins wants to bring to light what the tale means on both a personal and boundless level as well as exploring what it means to tell, collect and hold stories.

Cyclops is a musical freak ensemble piece written, directed and composed by Montreal favourite Paul Van Dyck. The story follows Ballor, a man who trades one of his eyes in order to see the future but who is ultimately only able to see his own demise. Ballor joins a freak show and falls in love with a bearded lady. The ensemble uses masks, puppetry and live music to tell this fantastical tale.

Winner of the Centaur’s “Best English Production” award at this year’s Montreal Fringe Festival is …and stockings for the ladies. This is a true story about two Canadian airmen sent after Victoria Day to occupied Germany in the Second World War. The play illuminates their struggles while helping rehabilitate refugees.

Lastly is the one-woman show Jake’s Gift, inspired by writer and performer Julia Mackey’s visit to Normandy, France for the 60th Anniversary of D-day. Her show is about a surly veteran and his meeting with a quick-witted 10 year old. Mackey was moved by how much the children knew about the war and their liberation due to a strong oral tradition in Normandy.

The Wildside Festival runs from January 8-19 at Centaur Theatre. For more information, including a full schedule, visit: centaurtheatre.com/wildside_festival.html

Check out The Link next week for reviews of select plays running in the festival.

the TV Report

I wrote this piece on spec- for a school paper, but alas there was no room. So I post here- the TV Report.

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by Elisabeth de Grandpré

Television was first made available in the 1930s, and broadcast TV came in 1965 to Canada. It’s a young invention but think, who doesn’t have their favourite TV show? Whether you buy DVDs, watch it broadcast live or rerun, or even download them onto your computer of choice- TV is everywhere.  And whether it be Crime, Law, Comedy, Satire, Lifestyle, Daytime- the list goes on- there is something for one and all.
New this week (as of January 8th) to TV DVD are The Riches, staring Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard as the head of a Gypsy Traveler family who are the victims of a car accident- which leads to the deaths of another couple- aptly names Mr. and Mrs. Rich. They decide to live the good and upholding citizen life for their children and take over the identities of the late Riches in a wealthy gated community where coincidently the Riches were just moving.
The comedy melds with the drama as the new family Rich struggle to stay on the right side of the fence while constantly conning and thieving to keep their biggest con up. The setting of Louisiana creates a lush atmosphere- and the Traveler lingo keeps you watching. Although Eddie Izzard’s American accent can leave a little to be desired- Minnie Driver will continually blow you away. The DVD boasts episode commentary by Izzard and show creator Dmitry Lipkin and a slew of features, including a token gag reel. All 13 episodes are in widescreen format as originally aired. It currently airs on FX, and Showcase is you want to tune in instead of committing to a purchase.
Mentions this week include the release of CBS favourite Two and a Half Men Season 2 staring Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer (Ducky grown up) which comes out only 4 months after it’s season one release, as well as the BBC undercover spy drama MI-5 Season 5.
On the Writer’s Strike front, Grey’s Anatomy will air it’s last filmed episode “Lay Your Hands on Me,” Thursday January 10th which is rumoured to combine different episode arcs so to tie everything up as a pseudo season finale. On another hospital front the second to last episode of ER “Believe the Unseen” airs the same night.  New guilty pleasure Gossip Girl airs its last written episode “The Line Between Chuck and Nate,” on the 9th on the CW and the 8th on CTV.
With a lot of shows calling it quits early this season, there are really only mid-season replacements to count on and DVDs. One show starting it’s run Sophie a series based on the Francophone Radio-Canada show Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin. From it’s previews it seems to be a high physical comedy show about pregnant women who runs her own talent agency and is left by her cheating boyfriend. The shining light is that Montreal theatre favourite Catherine Bérubé as Sophie’s assistant. It’s an interesting show to watch- to see if it lives up to it’s counter-parts popularity.