I have my own life to live
In an uneasy case of “life imitates art”, George F Walker’s play Better Living, currently at Langham Court Theatre, presages by 30 years the reality TV show Doomsday Preppers. Written in 1985 as the first of Walker’s more hopeful "East End Plays", Better Living introduces us to a working class world, with characters trying desperately to get by. Intended to reflect aspects of life in Toronto’s poorer neighbourhoods, there is a … [Read more...]
I don’t remember how or when I first learned of the Royal BC Museum’s Amplification Project (now in its second year and originally called Site and Sound), but I knew I wanted to experience it. Some of my favourite performers have been involved, and the styles of performance span the genres. This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday April 20th and tickets are available here. The Museum Amplification Project is curated by Chris … [Read more...]
In our hectic modern lives, taking the time to stop, breathe in, and listen to the sounds around us seems to be such a luxury. Afford yourself the treat of A Place to Listen 7, a concert for listening in the intimate venue of James Bay United Church. Victoria-area composer Daniel Brandes has been a student of Antoine Beuger's Wanderweiser School and now brings us a different way of approaching music. For our 7th concert, A Place to … [Read more...]
It’s time for some of the freshest and strongest young voices to represent as Victorious Voices comes to the Victoria Event Centre April 15th and 17th. If you think that poetry is only for the printed page, these young poets will show you the power of the spoken word. Victorious Voices is the Victoria-based high school slam poetry competition, which has grown to such an extent that it is now staged in the community. "When I was a … [Read more...]
From the moment we arrived, to leaving, our experience at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel for Will Millar’s Ireland: Where the Song & Dance Began in the David Foster Foundation Theatre was like being wrapped in a long hug from a dear friend. At street level the new Oak Bay Beach Hotel is grand, even imposing, but inside, a warm sense of hospitality and hominess permeates. Impressions are built on the small details – free parking, easy … [Read more...]
“A Theatrical Double Bill” (Ionesco’s The Lesson and Essay by Hannah Moscovitch) marks the first, in what Victoria audiences can only hope will be further, collaboration between Eric Grace (Dandelion Theatre) and Julian Cervello (Scrumpy Theatre). The partners are actors familiar for their roles with the Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Inconnu, and the Victoria Fringe Festival. When Grace decided to mount The Lesson, he … [Read more...]
They’re the neighbours next door and they have terrible, dark and disturbing secrets to hide and to share in Hannah Moscovitch’s psychological thriller, Little One, (currently at the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK Festival). With a creep factor tuned to high, and disorienting sound and visual effects to keep the audience off-kilter, Little One is as far from comfortable as I am willing to accept. Michelle Monteith in Little One. Photo: … [Read more...]
Words fail to do justice to the artistry and precision, the beauty in motion that is Ghost River Theatre’s production of One, currently at the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK Festival. Writ large with an immense physicality that stretches to every corner of the Belfry stage; painting an enormous artistic vision with sound, light and bodies, this atmospheric tale encompasses the beginning of the world, and the awakening of love; soars to the … [Read more...]
Jewel tones pop and cartoon characters come to life in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown at the University of Victoria Phoenix Theatre (March 14-23rd). Full of high energy from the opening number to the close, this show has heart and cross-generational appeal. Audiences will easily recognize episodes from the comic strip Peanuts: Charlie Brown longing to meet the little red-headed girl, the kite-eating tree, Snoopy as a World War I fighting … [Read more...]
It’s a different experience, being welcomed onstage to meet performers Asha and Ravi Jain, the mother and son team behind A Brimful of Asha (currently at the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK Festival). The audience is treated to samosas (very tasty) and invited to take a seat. We’re now members of an extended family, here to help solve a dispute, or, at the very least, hear about it. East/West, old world/new world/, parent/child, young/old – … [Read more...]
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