"Her story begins in her childhood, as a little girl inside a little boy’s body who saw a mannequin in a department store and was in awe of her beauty."

Stage Review

Show: The Silicone Diaries
Company: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Created and performed by: Nina Arsenault
Director: Brendan Healy

Dramaturgy: Judith Rudakoff

Venue: The Cultch

Run: Feb 14 – 25 2012

Reviewed by: Tessa Perkins

This intensely personal monologue of a transsexual’s life experiences was extremely captivating, and Arsenault bared her soul for an hour and forty five minutes straight. I was very impressed with her performance as she had great comic timing and was able to hold our rapt attention as she told us her life story with no props and nothing on the stage except a swivel chair and a small side table.

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Ironic, humorous and dramatic!

Theatre Review

Production: Penny Plain

Author: Ronnie Burkett     

Company: Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes

Director: Ronnie Burkett

Principal Actors: Ronnie Burkett.

Venue: Factory Theatre

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Dates: From January 20 to February 26, 2012

Reviewed by James Karas

Ronnie Burkett is one of those extraordinarily talented people that you watch with total admiration. He is a puppeteer, a writer, an actor and a creator of outstanding puppet shows. His talents are currently on display at the Factory Theatre in Penny Plain, a show that he has created and performs.

A puppeteer needs, as a basic minimum, manual dexterity to manipulate all the puppets and Burkett possesses that in abundance. He has a dozen characters (I am guessing) in Penny Plain and they all have to be handled with finesse. No problem here.

Along with the manipulation of body and limbs of the puppets, Burkett has to provide his characters with voices and individual characterization be it an old woman, a dog, children and an assortment of others. Needless to say Burkett provides the vocals for all of them. This is a one-man show that feels like a production by a National Theatre company.

Burkett is always visible on stage, standing on a platform just above the playing area of the puppets. The lighting focuses on the puppets, of course, and we almost forget his presence we are so engrossed in the actions of the characters.

Penny Plain is an old, blind woman who is sitting in an easy chair talking with her dog Geoffrey who thinks he is human and does not want to be treated like a dog. On the news we hear that the end of the world is upon us and the faithful dog leaves Penny Plain.

Penny starts looking for a replacement for Geoffrey and is visited by a large number of eccentric people and animals. We meet murderers, and survivalists, and a woman who cannot bear children and wants a puppet so she can transform it into a child through love. In her search for a replacement for Geoffrey, Penny Plain chooses Tuppance, a young girl who pretends to be a dog.

Any notion that a puppet show is an extended and simple comedy routine should be discarded immediately. True there is humour in Burkett’s work but it is dark humour and there is great depth and disturbing thought contained in it. He examines the classic question of the relationship of the puppet to the puppet maker. Fascinatingly, the childless woman approaches the creator of Pinocchio, surely the archetypal puppet maker, and asks him to make a puppet/child for her.

The play is in turn ironic, humorous, dramatic and in the end provides a fascinating night at the theatre.

"Infused with the powerful songs of Canadian icon Leonard Cohen, this show was a musical treat that brought his spirit to life through a loose narrative of past relationships and heartache."

Stage Review

Show: Chelsea Hotel – Featuring the Songs of Leonard Cohen

Director: Tracey Power

Musical Director: Steve Charles

Performers: Adrian Glynn McMorran, Marlene Ginader, Benjamin Elliott, Steve Charles, Lauren Bowler, Rachel Aberle

Venue: Firehall Arts Centre

Run: February 3 – March 3 2012

Reviewed by: Tessa Perkins

Infused with the powerful songs of Canadian icon Leonard Cohen, this show was a musical treat that brought his spirit to life through a loose narrative of past relationships and heartache. Cohen has just released his twelfth studio album, Old Ideas, he is still writing poetic, emotional songs that get to the core of love and angst.

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"I really loved the raw animalistic nature of the movements in this show and the way Gingras was able to create this piece where the dancers were all letting out their inner beast."

Stage Review

Show: New Animal

Company: 605 Collective and Animals of Distinction

Choreographer: Dana Gingras

Performers and collaborators: Amber Funk Barton, Lisa Gelley, Shay Kuebler, Josh Martin, David Raymond

Venue: The Cultch

Run: Feb 7-11 2012

Reviewed by: Tessa Perkins

I have decided that the 605 Collective are by far my favourite contemporary dance group in Vancouver. They never cease to amaze me with their highly athletic, physically demanding works that are infused with a particular sense of humour and always danced with precision. Beautifully choreographed by Dana Gingras of Animals of Distinction, another amazing Vancouver company, this show explored the idea that we are all essentially beasts, and our daily task is taming the animal within.

The show began with a video sequence of the dances having Lemons thrown at them as they attempted to catch them in their mouths. Accompanied by animal roars and electronic music, it was quite funny. The music really added to the animalistic quality of the show throughout, and I thought it was very well done the way they used various animal noises along with music you might hear if you were watching two lions fight over a gazelle.

The dancers entered slowly from the wings and appraised each other, then they began to gallop around on all fours in a unified group, swiftly moving around the stage. There were many sequences of cool jumps, flips, and rolls that really made it seem like the dancers were animals hunting for their prey. At one point in the show, two of the guys stood at the front of the stage snarling and growling at the audience.

These dancers were incredibly synchronised when dancing as a group, and there was great interaction between the dancers as well. As the girls’ hair whipped around and he sweat flew off the guys’ foreheads, it was not hard to see their animal nature coming through. I loved the whole concept of the show, and I thought the choreography portrayed our animal nature very well.

My favourite part of the show involved lots of lemons flying across the stage. Each dancer came on stage with one lemon, and they took turns with a partner fighting over it using their mouths, once lemon was severed in two, they threw the bits of lemon around the stage and at each other. Those in the front row may have received a bit of a lemon juice shower.

Near the end of the show there was another great video sequence showing the dancers fighting over lemons using only their mouths. This received quite a few chuckles from the audience and was very amusing as they ripped the lemons apart in slow motion. The final segment of the show had one dancer wearing a fur coat, and the others ripping pieces of the fur off of him as if they were about to devour him.

I really loved the raw animalistic nature of the movements in this show and the way Gingras was able to create this piece where the dancers were all letting out their inner beast. I was impressed as always with these dancers’ ability to dance such a physically demanding piece and make it look so easy and fluid, and I hope the 605 Collective and Dana Gingras will bring more of their creations to the stage soon.