This past weekend I took in four shows at the Next Stage Theatre Festival, on now until January 17. Despite being an avid Fringe Festival attendee, this is the first time I have attended this curated festival which gives promising Fringe artists development opportunities beyond the summer festival. With ticket prices of no more than $15, I have to say, it is an excellent value! But here are the details of what I happened to see:
Up first,
Mockingbird.
Written and directed by Rob Kempson, Mockingbird examines the grey areas between absolute right and wrong. Using a high school teacher’s romantic relationship with a student as the jumping off point, it examines how this event is interpreted and dealt with by others in the school.
What ends up on stage is a fully engaging piece, smartly written, and cleanly executed. While the play certainly builds to an emotional climax, the road to it is fully entertaining. The action takes place in the English department staff room of Toronto high school, and I often found myself thinking “I know these teachers! I’ve been taught by these teachers!” While I’m sure that not all of the dysfunction and mayhem in this particular staff room would have reasonably transpired all at the same time in the real world, I had no trouble believing it here.
Yes, there is much laughter in this play, and also much to consider. The performances were uniformly tight, and while I felt the final emotional release built a touch too quickly, it was still impactful.
Recommended
All Our Yesterdays
I have to admit, I passed on seeing this show when it played at the Fringe festival. The program description seemed over-ambitious for a 60-minute piece. I am tremendously grateful that I rethought my opinion to take it in at this festival.
Inspired by the events of April 2014, the show revolves around two sisters who are removed from their school in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Ladi (Chiamaka Umeh), the eldest has been claimed by one of her captures. Hasana (Amanda Weise), the younger, perhaps due to her autism, is less of interest to the captors. The action moves between their present captivity, and their previous history.
Umeh and Weise both give grounded and full performances. I was particularly impressed, however, by Weise’s portrayal of Hasana, which moved fluently through each moment, investing me in her story without playing in any way to sentiment or sympathy.
A well formed, and well performed two-hander.
Recommended
Agamemnon
This revisiting of The Agamemnon, first play of the Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies, set the time in Ancient Greece and the location firmly in the present day. The juxtaposition works, for the most part: I enjoy the idea of the fall of Troy being discovered over twitter.
Stylistically rich, and playing intelligently with its source material, my qualm with this show was that it played like prequel. These larger-than-life characters seemed to lack emotional depth. That said, Brigit Wilson as Clytemnestra delivers an excellent speech on how she has suffered though the war. Though the characters motivations are selfish, the passion and content raises some interesting questions.
Overall, there is a lot of style. A ghostly Iphigenia on stilts -- Zita Nyarady proving that you do not need lines to have stage presence – stand foremost in my mind. Though the imagery in the direction, and some of the text, point to a larger statement about war, on refection I feel it fell short of the mark.
The result: an engaging performance that feels like a first act rather than a whole statement.
For someone with an interest in the classics, passing or otherwise: recommended.
Heart of Steel
Heard of Steel narrates the experience of four women who apply for work at the Cape Breton steel mill as the men are shipped off to fight in WWII. Not to wave the flag too much, but it was refreshing to see a new Canadian musical telling a story taking place unabashedly in Canada. And it was good. Also, not to play up too much Toronto pride, the talent in this production demonstrates to me what a depth of raw musical theatre talent we have locally.
The script is snappy, and the music shows that Wesley J. Colford (writer and composer) has a lot of potential in this form. If the script and score are ever revisited, I would really like to see the music more fully developed. As it stands, I found myself wanting there to be more music. For example, at a few points in the evening, I felt like the scene work I was watching might have been more effective if sung. Script-wise, I felt that the stakes (emotional or otherwise) could have been higher. We are told often how dangerous the steel plant is, and indeed there is at least one death in the show. However, it landed a bit like the death of a red-suited ensign: it served remind the audience of the seriousness of the situation but didn’t carry enough weight to cause me to fear for the main characters.
These issues aside, the piece is still strong. In particular, the themes of family and friendship (and how those two areas of life can come into conflict with each other) are well explored. It certainly looks at its time period with more than a little nostalgia and plenty of lightness, but these are aspects that add charm.
Overall: recommended and I hope you will forgive my pun, but at $15/ticket, this is a “steel” of a show.
All of these shows run until Jan 17 in repetory at the Factory Theatre. Check the festival website (http://fringetoronto.com/next-stage-festival/) for exact dates and times.
Up first,
Mockingbird.
Written and directed by Rob Kempson, Mockingbird examines the grey areas between absolute right and wrong. Using a high school teacher’s romantic relationship with a student as the jumping off point, it examines how this event is interpreted and dealt with by others in the school.
What ends up on stage is a fully engaging piece, smartly written, and cleanly executed. While the play certainly builds to an emotional climax, the road to it is fully entertaining. The action takes place in the English department staff room of Toronto high school, and I often found myself thinking “I know these teachers! I’ve been taught by these teachers!” While I’m sure that not all of the dysfunction and mayhem in this particular staff room would have reasonably transpired all at the same time in the real world, I had no trouble believing it here.
Yes, there is much laughter in this play, and also much to consider. The performances were uniformly tight, and while I felt the final emotional release built a touch too quickly, it was still impactful.
Recommended
All Our Yesterdays
I have to admit, I passed on seeing this show when it played at the Fringe festival. The program description seemed over-ambitious for a 60-minute piece. I am tremendously grateful that I rethought my opinion to take it in at this festival.
Inspired by the events of April 2014, the show revolves around two sisters who are removed from their school in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Ladi (Chiamaka Umeh), the eldest has been claimed by one of her captures. Hasana (Amanda Weise), the younger, perhaps due to her autism, is less of interest to the captors. The action moves between their present captivity, and their previous history.
Umeh and Weise both give grounded and full performances. I was particularly impressed, however, by Weise’s portrayal of Hasana, which moved fluently through each moment, investing me in her story without playing in any way to sentiment or sympathy.
A well formed, and well performed two-hander.
Recommended
Agamemnon
This revisiting of The Agamemnon, first play of the Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies, set the time in Ancient Greece and the location firmly in the present day. The juxtaposition works, for the most part: I enjoy the idea of the fall of Troy being discovered over twitter.
Stylistically rich, and playing intelligently with its source material, my qualm with this show was that it played like prequel. These larger-than-life characters seemed to lack emotional depth. That said, Brigit Wilson as Clytemnestra delivers an excellent speech on how she has suffered though the war. Though the characters motivations are selfish, the passion and content raises some interesting questions.
Overall, there is a lot of style. A ghostly Iphigenia on stilts -- Zita Nyarady proving that you do not need lines to have stage presence – stand foremost in my mind. Though the imagery in the direction, and some of the text, point to a larger statement about war, on refection I feel it fell short of the mark.
The result: an engaging performance that feels like a first act rather than a whole statement.
For someone with an interest in the classics, passing or otherwise: recommended.
Heart of Steel
Heard of Steel narrates the experience of four women who apply for work at the Cape Breton steel mill as the men are shipped off to fight in WWII. Not to wave the flag too much, but it was refreshing to see a new Canadian musical telling a story taking place unabashedly in Canada. And it was good. Also, not to play up too much Toronto pride, the talent in this production demonstrates to me what a depth of raw musical theatre talent we have locally.
The script is snappy, and the music shows that Wesley J. Colford (writer and composer) has a lot of potential in this form. If the script and score are ever revisited, I would really like to see the music more fully developed. As it stands, I found myself wanting there to be more music. For example, at a few points in the evening, I felt like the scene work I was watching might have been more effective if sung. Script-wise, I felt that the stakes (emotional or otherwise) could have been higher. We are told often how dangerous the steel plant is, and indeed there is at least one death in the show. However, it landed a bit like the death of a red-suited ensign: it served remind the audience of the seriousness of the situation but didn’t carry enough weight to cause me to fear for the main characters.
These issues aside, the piece is still strong. In particular, the themes of family and friendship (and how those two areas of life can come into conflict with each other) are well explored. It certainly looks at its time period with more than a little nostalgia and plenty of lightness, but these are aspects that add charm.
Overall: recommended and I hope you will forgive my pun, but at $15/ticket, this is a “steel” of a show.
All of these shows run until Jan 17 in repetory at the Factory Theatre. Check the festival website (http://fringetoronto.com/next-stage-festival/) for exact dates and times.