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It’s special when we can get to view a play which was honored with a Tony nomination and garnered a Pulitzer Prize.  Glengarry Glen Ross, now playing at the Mainline Theatre (produced by Acts to Grind Theatre), shows off David Mamet’s ability to write profound dialogue.

This story highlights the cynical, difficult, pushy life of real estate salesmen in Chicago. I was not surprised to learn that the play is also often referred to as “Death of a Fuckin’ Salesman”, because it is notorious for its use of profanity. That hardly resonates in today’s foul language world – on the other hand, today’s politically correct society would flinch at the prejudice shown against East Indians and Polish people.

Mamet’s characters are drawn down and dirty as lying, backstabbing, double-dealing tricksters willing to toss out ethical principles to justify their work. Yet they really are passionate about selling, and especially enjoy the nitty gritty details of closing a deal.  One of Mamet’s goal in writing this play was to highlight the plight of so many people who go about their lives performing regular jobs yet often having to endure indignities while doing so.

Actor Zag Dorison (Shelly Levene) does an amazing job of making you feel his nervousness and despair; we twitch and pull on our lapels right along with him. Dorison, commenting on his character, “This play will always be relevant. There will always be those who exploit others and are out
for a buck at the expense of someone’s savings and dignity. Although the character of Shelly Levene is down on his luck, he believes that
it’s just a streak that will break; he had been a shark and wants to be one again. It is interesting that in spite of this, the audience still
sympathizes with him when his whole world comes crashing down upon him.”

Michael Aronovitch (George Aaronow),  Izak Benrobi (Ricky Roma) and Jake Caceres (Dave Moss) have all been cast well for their parts, and they make their distinctive personalities apparent. Bryan Libero (John Williamson) really makes you dislike him while the company man, Olivier Ross-Parent (Blake/Baylen) is properly detestable.  Davyn Ryall (James Lingk) does well as the meek patsy trying to get his money back.

Be prepared for Mamet’s long soliliquys for each of them – with the other salesmen there mostly as an audience for their rants.  Since this is a small theatre, you too feel as though you are right next to them in the room. Be careful though because as Levene says, these guys are so manipulative, they know how to sell you something you didn’t even want.

Location: MainLine Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent, 2nd floor
Dates: Presented in English: Wed-Sat Nov 7-10, 14, 15, 16, 17, at 8pm. Sun matinees Nov 11, 18, at 2 pm
Tickets: (Prices include taxes and service charge) $22 general admission; $20 Seniors; $18 Students
Tel: 514 849-3378
e-mail: boxoffice@montrealfringe.ca
www.mainlinetheatre.ca/en/spectacles/glengarry-glen-ross
youtu.be/kQOG32GINho
NOTE: mature language. Recommended ages 14+

Tags: audience, backstab, Bryan Libero, buck, cast, closing, Dave Moss, David Mamet, Davyn Ryall, deal, destest, East, estate, ethical, George aaronow, Glengarry Glen Ross, Indian, indignities, Izak Benrobi, Jake Caceres, james Lingk, job, John Williamson, language, lapel, lying, Mainline Theatre, Michal Aronovitch, money, nervous, NYC, Oliver Ross-Parent, part, people, play, polish, politically, prejudice, principle, prize, Pulitzer, rant, real, Ricky Roma, room, salesmen, sell, shark, society, soliloquy, TONY, Trickster, world, Zag Dorison

Let’s start with the aim of the Teersi Duniya Theatre group itself, which is to highlight theater focusing on social justice. Different cultures get to take the stage, whether they be Indigenous, Palestinian, Israeli, Armenian, Rwandan, Iranian, Turkish or whatever. The theatre’s goal, as mentioned by their artistic director Rahul Varma, is that we are all one people and it takes stories of everyone else to see ourselves.  Varma says, “the only way to tell stories in a new way is to get new storytellers into the room”.

So Stephen Orlov’s story Birthmark is about families. In writing this, he was asking himself why Jews who founded Israel to end their centuries of oppression were now dispossessing another people that had lived there for centuries. Michelle Soifer, the director, says we have in this play, “two young adults filled with passion and drive…  and the chutzpah to do something about it”.

Canada as a nation is made up of many communities of people who may have been displaced by war and conflicts. Living here in Montreal we have Jewish and Palestinian cross currents. Though families  may have immigrated here and now raise their families in this safe haven, the memories of their living history or those of their parents will always shape them. The children get stuck between the two solitudes: perhaps the need to avenge their families’ past or to just ride along safely here for their future.

Though this is a story of the Israeli vs. Palestinian conflict, it raises the universal problem of parents or caregivers who live with a family member who thinks differently, or even perhaps might be mentally challenged or elderly, and the parent must learn to live with the pain of not being able to fix things (which they might have caused), or even change them.

Natalie Tannous gives a strong performance as a mother conflicted by secrets in the past and fears for her child ‘s future.  Howard Rosenstein is her gentler counterpart, with his own untold secrets and the consequences of not listening to a child. Stephen Spreekmester creates two very different characters, and does them well – one of an observant Rabbi and one of a tough RCMP officer.  Patrick Keeler  as Nelson, the Jewish child finding solace in religion, and Dalia Charafeddine as Karima secretly planning revenge for her parent’s death, give us two very realistic diametric opposites on both sides of this divide.

The simplicity of Sabrina Miller’s set design, using floor squares and wall hangings to identify rooms, walls and doorways was very effective.

We learn that words matter: why do we refer to the Israelis as extremists but the Palestinians as terrorists?

Location: Mai Centre, 3680 Jeanne-Mance
corner: Milton
Dates: Nov 3-18, 2018
Price: $17 – $25
Tel: 514-982-3386
www.m-a-i.qc.ca

Tags: adult, Armenian, artistic, Birthmark, Canada, children, culture, director, families, future, haven, History, Indigenous, Iranian, Israeli, justice, Michelle Soifer, Montreal, nation, Palestinian, parents, people, play, Rahul Varma, Rwandan, safe, solitude, stage, Stephen Orlov, stories, Teersi Duniya, Theatre, Turkish, war

A half century ago, a creative actor/director and immigrant (from South Africa via England), Maurice Podbrey, together with his equal half, Elsa Bolam (and Herb Auerbach and Peter Duffield) managed to knit together a theater company, Centaur, which was and is no easy feat. If that wasn’t nerve wracking enough for a person, Bolam then went on to start another successful one, Geordie Productions.

In an unintentional but perfect nod to the past, Eda Holmes, Centaur’s new artistic director, brings us Choir Boy set in a boys’ prep school while Podbrey’s first production, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, took place in a girl’s school. The play is written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who comes with a pretty flashy CV: he’s the Chair of Yale’s School of Drama, where he is also the Playwright in Residence at the Repertory Theatre. and he was also Playwright in Residence for Stratford-Upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Company – and happens to be a member of the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble. And let’s just throw in here that he wrote the story of Moonlight which won Oscars for best picture and for the writing.

The story is mostly about Pharus (played by Steven Charles), a gay student making his way through a very traditional private school. Charles commands the stage throughout, and we can’t wait to see where his star takes him (to the Broadway production?). His fellow students talk, yell, fight and sing a cappella as they share intimacies and rivalries when the old school values conflict with our modern world in rules, nepotism, faith, sexuality and school board traditions.  Tight direction by Mike Payette keeps you riveted throughout, while Lighting Designer Andrea Lundy’s magic creatively moves you around the set (loved the purple).

Floydd Ricketts, the musical director and arranger, was the right man in the right place to be able to create new arrangements of spirituals, gospel and jazz songs for a cappella harmonies.  Ricketts notes, “Even though this music comes from pain, there is also joy in it”. Dayane Ntibarikure, assistant director and choir movement facilitator, did a brilliant job of  having the actors move “slave slowly” around the scenes, adding foot stomping  to song and subtly evoking a chain gang in the shower scene.

Holmes has tweaked the play runs slightly this year by adding (less expensive) preview shows to get the performance just that more perfect for opening night. You know how much I like a deal, and Centaur offers much for FREE with behind-the-scenes info to enrich your  theater experience: Talk Back after the shows , Sunday Chat Up, Thursday Pre-Show Convo and the Saturday Salon.

How perfect that this golden Centaur season started by lifting our spirits with the power of music blended with this timely story. See Choir Boy in Montreal before you can’t get tickets on Broadway (Dec 2018)!

Location 453 St-Francois-Xavier
corner: Notre-Dame
Tel: 514-288-3161
Dates: til Oct 28
www.centaurtheatre.com
Metro: Place d’Armes

Tags: a cappella, actor, Andrea Lundy, Avon, behind-the-scene, boy, Broadway, Centaur, choir, Choir Boy, company, Dayane Ntibarikure, deal, director, Drama, Eda Holmes, Elsa Bolam, England, faith, fight, Floydd Ricketts, foot, free, Geordie, girl, gold, gospel, immigrant, jazz, knit, light, Maurice Podbrey, Mike Payette, Moonlight, music, nepotism, night, Oscar, playwright, power, prep, preview, production, purple, school, Shakespeare, shower, sing, slave, song, South Africa, spiritual, star, Steppenwolf, Steven Charles, Stratford-Upon, student, talk, Tarell Alvin McCraney, The Prime of Miss Jean Broday, theater, world, Yale, yell

Entertainment has always been the stars – today it is the movie, TV and sports ones, but yesteryear it was the sky kind. For thousands of years, the night sky was everyone’s television or computer screen.

There were the stars, of course, and then the planets – if you were lucky enough to have a telescope. So it isn’t surprising that there were tales made up of the different formations of stars. Same stars but different tales for different countries.

In Quebec, at National Geographic ObservEtoiles (Night Sky Odyssey) you can enjoy a tiny bit of yesteryear by climbing a mountai

n by car and then walking through the trail to a dark sky summit in Glen Sutton. Then in total contrast, you get to experience

futuristic augmented reality through specially designed headsets. You gaze through them to see 3D digital renderings of the planets or the constellations. The show consists of the re-telling of the tales of the bears, a scorpion, a snake, a hunter, the scales of justice and always, a love affair, of course. Then you see and learn about the colorful planets, that Saturn’s rings are made of ice and Uranus is sitting on its side. Later on, a high powered laser pointer is used to pinpoint objects in the actual sky that night. Now we know that the North Star barely moves (so that’s why it was always used it for navigating!)  and that satellites move in orbital paths depending on their functions.

This was Jeremy Fontana’s idea. He found himself in Glen Sutton, one of the only ten places in Canada with a dark sky designation, meaning there is no light pollution – and then that Quebecois artistic Eureka moment  happened. He realized it was time to demystify the night sky to the generations who no longer knew it. So we are the lucky ones to see this first, as he has partnered with National Geographic to export this to national parks and cruise ships.

If you’re lucky, (we were!) you might get to see the space station toodle along. We learned that it circles the globe 16 times a day, giving the astronauts  sixteen sunrises and sunsets. We waved but couldn’t see if they waved back.

In Quebec:  National Geographic ObservEtoiles at Au Diable Vert
169, chemin Staines, Glen Sutton, (Québec) J0E 2K0 Canada
Telephone: 450-538-5639
Price: $45.99 which includes the headsets to take home along with the app
www.observetoiles.com   www.audiablevert.com

Note: Right now the shows in Quebec are predominantly in French

Many of us enjoy a light read to while away a lazy summer afternoon. At the Hudson Village Theatre, you don’t even have to read to have fun – you can just listen and watch as four women meet, mingle and moan – and become a family of friends.

The director, Ellen David, takes this (Jessie) Jones (Nicholas) Hope (Jamie) Wooten delightful script and gently guides the dynamic quattro of actors as they learn “what is holding you back from one’s past and self-imposed limitations towards a compelling future”.  This could be any one of us.

The performers David chose are as well cast and strong as the four sides of a square. Randa Covington (Jane Wheeler) has defined herself by her work, and doesn’t know how to re-define herself beyond that. She tries to hold on to her safe proper business countenance, but is weighed down by feeling second best in her family. Marlafaye (Lisa Bronwyn Moore) gets the classic “dumped for a younger woman” part, so feelings of anger and rejection are keeping her from moving forward. “I swear the older you get the harder it is to jump start a new life”, she says.

Dot (Kathleen Fee), the oldest of the bunch, has just lost her husband, the only man she has known, and with whom she had planned to retire. She has no idea how to figure out what comes next. Her subtle acting is deliciously wonderful as she delivers many funny zinger lines. Paula Costain as Jinx moves and talks with the right zippy attitude to convince them, as their new “life coach”, to go (as David says)” beyond their comfort zone to a brave new world where they eventually find themselves”. Jinx reminds us that her older sister (now incapacitated with dementia) taught her that “it’s the happy in life that counts”.

The set by Jean-Claude Olivier is a comfortable porch, so the women have an informal place to gently and liquidly reveal their sagas. As this is a “Sipping Society”, drinking props (by Lea Robertson) were a fun challenge due to the many iterations of serving different kinds of alcohol. Marlafaye once toasted, “Girls, here’s to living single and drinking doubles”.

There were more costume changes than you would expect (by Elisabeth De Medeiros), creating a fashion show which helped define the scenes and the forward movement of their lives.

Jamie Wooten, one of the playwrights, was a writer for The Golden Girls, so the quality of their patter and the giggly one-liners is in the same genre of that hysterical show.  When Marlafaye sees Randa’s house for the first time she opines, “Yeah, sure is a pretty place. Everything’s so neat and clean. I’m not like that. Instead of cleaning my house, I just turn off the lights”.  When Randa comments on drinking mead, “This really isn’t so horrible”, Marlafaye responds, “The very words I said on my wedding night”.  Marlafaye also says,  “Sex is like a brownie – when it’s good it’s really good. And when it’s bad….it’s still pretty good!”.

Andrea Romaldi, the artistic director writes, “friendships are our lifelines and support structures. Good friends cheer us, challenge us, bewilder us and irritate us, but ultimately they support and help us grow into our best selves”. Head out to Hudson and lift a glass to friendship.

Location: 28 Rue Wharf, Hudson, QC J0P 1H0
Phone: 450- 458-5361
Dates: til July 22
https://villagetheatre.ca/

Tags: act, afternoon, alcohol, Andrea Romaldi, artistic, bewilder, brave, brownie, business, cast, challenge, cheer, clean, coach, comfort, costume, dementia, director, double, E, Elisabeth De Medeiros, Ellen David, friend, friendship, future, genre, girl, glass, golden, Happy, house, hudson, husband, hysterical, Jamie Wooten, Jane Wheeler, Jean-Claude Olivier, Jessie Jones, jumpstart, Kathleen Fee, Lea Robertson, life, lifeline, light, liquid, Lisa Bronwyn Moore, neat, Nicholas Hope, old, one-liner, past, patter, Paula Costain, prop, read, retire, revenge, Savannah, single, Sip, sister, strong, summer, support, talk, Theatre, village, woman, women, work, world, writer, zone

I have not seen a nasty show since the days of Bobby Slayton, so I wondered how I would find it. I was actually very pleasantly surprised to find that the show was not so nasty,

Ari Shaffer

but WAS so funny. Don’t get me wrong – there was plenty of swearing and 4-letter words, especially f___ heard incessantly, but we found ourselves laughing out loud more than we had at the galas recently.

Ari Shaffir as host was definitely qualified and funny, with some great lines about Orthodox Jews and their clothing, and about New York City.

Robert Kelly was the first performer, and his description of potty-training a toddler brought me all the way back in time, when my toddler(s) resisted sitting down and doing their thing, preferring to sit in a dirty diaper instead. He discussed how he was taken aback when he realized that he probably has only 30 summers left in his life.

Robert Kelly

Yamaneika Saunders, herself a large person, joked about being fat and black, and had the audience in tears, especially when discussing black-boy weed.

Jimmy Carr was next, and he came out with a list of one-liners in a notebook, roasting Montreal, Donald Trump (when Donald Trump took office, little did he know), a takeoff on the word “cunt”, and pedophiles.

Godfrey followed with his comparisons of Trump and Trudeau, a diatribe about vegetarians, and his amazement about vaginas (“people actually come out of there, whole groups of people”).

The show was closed by Big Jay Oakerson covering the topic of buttf__king in prison.

Yamaneika Saunders

Jimmy Carr

Godfrey

Big Jay Oakerson

Happily, there was no serious heckling as happened the day before. If anything, the audience was standing up to urge the comedians on and to show their glee over the performances.

The show continues until Saturday night the 29th at the Metropolis, 59 Ste-Catherine St. E. Prices range from $45 to $60.

http://www.hahaha.com/en/show/nasty-show-0

Tags: Canada, comedy, JFL, laughs, Montreal, nasty

Celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by visiting the our home and native land. Parks Canada is offering all Canadians a FREE 2017 Discovery Pass so there will be no cost to visit any of their sites. You have the option of visiting 148 locations everywhere in the country. You probably think  they’re all about national parks but Parks Canada is way more than that – their mandate includes marine conservation areas and national historic sites.

You could visit the wreck of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in Nunavut, view Canada’s highest peak, Mount Logan in Kluane National park, ice fields in Jasper, our country’s birthplace within the fortifications of Quebec, Alexander Graham Bell’s inventions,  walk amongst the flower pot rocks on the ocean floor in the Bay of Fundy, Haida Heritage sites, or even Anne of Green Gables‘ writer, Lucy Maude Montgomery’s house.

Here’s a challenge: See how many of their iconic red Adironack chairs you can find and Instagram them. If you want to drool – and – plan ahead, get copies of the National Geographic books Guide to the National Parks of Canada and Guide to the National Historic Sites of Canada.

Yes, you can camp, but you can also reserve a yurt, a goutte d’Ô which resembles a water droplet, a micro cube, large modern houses called oTENTiks or be one of the first to sleep in a hanging Cocoon in Cape Breton.

www.parkscanada.gc.ca
Tel: 888-773-8888

Tags: adirondack, Alexander Graham Bell, Anne of Green Gables, Bay of Fundy, birthday, birthplace, camp, Canada, cape breton, chair, challenge, cocoon, conservation, country, cube, discovery, do;;, drool, droplet, field, floor, flower, fortification, goutte, guide, Haida, historic, HMS Erebus, HMS Terror, home, house, ice, iconic, Instagram, invention, Jasper, Kluane, land, location, Lucy Maude Montgomery, marine, modern, Mount Logan, national, National Geographic, native, Nunavut, ocean, oTENTiks, Parks, peak, Quebec, Red, rock, site, water, wreck, yurt

It is really hard to take the boring authenticity-proving side of the modern art world and make it into a delightful audience loving (2 standing ovations on opening night) theatre piece.

Stephen Sachs, the playwright, took on the true story of Terry Horton, a former truck driver who scavenged a painting for $5 at a second-hand shop as a gift for a friend who needed cheering up. Maude Gutman, as she is called in this play, is a lover of kitsch – her trailer is overwhelmed by it (A congratulatory shout out here for the jam-packed shelves created by set and costume designer Pam Johnson, who really needed my Smart Shopping Montreal book to find all that stuff!). At a yard sale, the local art teacher noticed the painting and mentioned it might be a Jackson Pollock; and so begins the tale. Somehow Gutman managed to get a major art house in NYC to send an expert over to check out her claim.

And therein lies this sparring pied-a-deux. A foul-mouthed bourbon drinking trailer park madam vs. the snooty elitist artsy gentleman. Human authenticity versus art authenticity is set to be proven. Nicola Cavendish walks the walk and talks the talk. Her sneaker grounded stalking moves her around the trailer while her expert verbal comedic timing keeps the pace going. She even manages to give the garbage pail “a line”.

Jonathan Monro (Lionel Percy), himself a renaissance man (competitive swimmer, piano prodigy, singer, director, lyricist, actor), glides around her, expertly dodging her verbal and physical attacks. My take-away forever (as a former NYC art teacher) is the exuberant and sexually suggestive way in which Monro teaches us the how and why a Jackson Pollock painting is important – and not just a bunch of paint splashes on a canvas.

Though Percy always trusts his “first blink”, it is Nicola Cavendish who summed it up brilliantly when she observed Pollock’s paintings, “You can see that what emerges is layers and layers and layers. I think it’s a lesson on how we can learn to look more closely, whether we are talking about a piece of art or whether we’re talking about the woman who lives across the street who’s offensive.” Modern art is beyond the understanding of the ordinary citizen, and this play opens the door a crack as to what it is all about, how it works and doesn’t work. The show makes it all fun and drives Maude’s trailer expertly to the end to find out if she goes from rags to riches.

Location: 453 St-Francois Xavier
corner: Notre-Dame
Tel: 514-288-3161
Dates: Jan 31-Feb 26, 2017
Prices $28- $51
www.centaurtheatre.com
Metro: Place d’Armes

Tags: actor, art, artsy, audience, authenticity, Bakerfield Mist, blink, book, bourbon, canvas, Centaur Theatre, citizen, claim, comedic, costume, design, direct, door, drink, drive, driver, elitist, expert, friend, garbage, gentleman, gift, ground, human, Jackson Pollock, jam, Johnathan Monro, kitsch, layer, lesson, lyricist, Man, modern, Nicola Cavendish, NYC, ovation, pace, pail, painting, Pam Johnson, piano, pied-a-deux, play, playwright, Prodigy, rag, Renaissance, rich, Sale, Second-hand, shop, sing, Smart Shopping Montreal, sneaker, snooty, splash, stalk, Stephen Sachs, street, swim, take-away, talk, teacher, Terry Horton, trailer, truck, understand, walk, woman, work, yard

View of the Voiles de voiles Pirate Ship adventure from the SOS Labyrinthe in Old Montreal. The Voiles consists of games, aerial courses and bouncy castles that can keep you occupied for hours.

Tags: Adventure, aerial, attraction, bouncy, Canada, castle, clue, course, drivei95, game, i95, interstate95, labyrinth, labyrinthe, maze, Montreal, old, pirate, port of montreal, Quebec, roadtrip, ship, travel, travelblogger, voile

The SOS Labyrinth is one of the great family attractions at Montreal’s Old Port. Essentially, you have to make your way through this huge complex maze and find 4 items: the Captain’s hook, a pair of Dutch wooden shoes, a travel wallet and a Cuban pitchfork. The stories behind these items can be found on the wall as you enter the labyrinth, and they are also on their web site. Plan to spend about an hour here. 

Tags: #maze #adventure #clue #labyrinthe, Adventure, attraction, Canada, Captain, clue, complex, cuban, drivei95, Dutch, fsmily, fun, hook, i95, interstate95, item, labyrinth, labyrinthe, maze, Montreal, old, pitchfork, port, port of montreal, Quebec, roadtrip, shoe, site, story, travel, travelblogger, wall, wallet, web, wooden