Sunday, November 27, 2016

SAGA COLECTIF and BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE present BLACK BOYS

SAGA COLECTIF and buddies
                                                                                 IN BAD TIMES THEATRE 
                                                   present 
BLACK BOYS
It is very important to us that this production of Black Boys brings young queer people of colour to the theatre. As we have discussed in our creative process, the racism that is felt against the black body within mainstream society and the LGBTQ+ community continues. This experience, which is shared by many POC's (people of colour) and QPOCs (queer people of colour) is not recognized by our community at large, much less represented in our theatres...we want to engage an audience that does not go to the theatre, because too often they do not see their lives reflected, and when they do, people of colour are not the ones telling the stories or signing the cheques. This time is different.

We hope to offer ourselves as examples of those who see limits and choose to transcend them...Through this co-produciton with Buddies, a Black queer perspective is found on the main stage of a Toronto theatre when it is deeply needed.
excerpted from Creators' Note, program


DON'T MISS BLACK BOYS, RUNNING AT BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE UNTIL DECEMBER 11TH. A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE BY THREE INCREDIBLY TALENTED YOUNG MEN. 

BREAK NECKING PACING, HEATED DEBATES THAT RAISE SIGNIFICANT QUESTIONS FOR AUDIENCES TO CONSIDER AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR, MUSIC AND EXQUISITELY CHOREOGRAPHED DANCE (BY VIRGINIA GRIFFITH) THAT PUNCTUATES THE ACTION THROUGHOUT - THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE NINETY-MINUTE TOUR DE FORCE THAT RACES BY WITH THE FINESSE AND BEAUTY OF A TRULY ARTICULATE AND VASTLY ENTERTAINING PIECE OF DANCE/PERFORMANCE/THEATRE. 

ALL THREE ACTORS TAKE ON STARRING ROLES AS THEY EXPLORE THEIR OWN PERSONALITIES IN RELATION TO BEING A QUEER PERSON OF COLOUR IN A THEATRE WORLD AND A SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT DOMINATED BY IMAGES OF WHITENESS.

AND SO I INVITE YOU TO ENGAGE. TO ENGAGE WITH THIS SHOW, WITH THE NECESSARY AND CHALLENGING CONVERSATIONS IT MAY PROVOKE. WITH THE ARTWORK. WITH THE COMMUNITY FORUM ON BLACKNESS, QUEERNESS, AND MASCULINITY. AND WITH THIS WORLD OF OURS, WHICH ASKS EACH OF US TO CREATE MORE SPACE FOR THE MULTIPLICITIES OF WHO WE ARE NOW, AND WHO WE CAN IMAGINE OURSELVES TO BE.
Evelyn Parry, Artistic Director, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre




l-r STEPHEN JACKMAN-TORKOFF, TAWIAH BEN-EBEN M'CARTHY, THOMAS OLAJIDE


RUNNING AT BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE UNTIL DECEMBER 11TH

DANCEWORKS PRESENTS tiger princess dance projects/Yvonne Ng

 photos by Cylla von Tiedemann


Yvonne Ng 
tiger princess dance projects


Yvonne Ng's two dances reveal interrelationships of identity, memory and history. The title of the first  piece, In Search of the Holy Chop Suey, is humorous, but it asks a rather profound question. What makes us who we are? - Mimi Beck, Dance Curator


“In the late seventies/early eighties, there was a TV series called In Search of … that focused on mysterious phenomena, e.g. Loch Ness, Holy Grail, Big Foot, etc. But they would never find the ‘thing’ that was the subject of the particular episode. Chop Suey is a dish that reportedly originated from migrant Chinese workers who lived in the U.S.A. in the 19th century. When I was young, living in Asia, I wanted everything Western. I knew about the dish and equated it to something Western/North American. The title is a comment on my belief that each of us has a deep desire to find meaning for our lives — even as that meaning eludes us and/or is not what it seems.”
The two works comprising Yvonne Ng's double bill act as perfect counterparts to the experience of identity in both solo and ensemble formations. In Search of the Holy Chop Suey plays with an elaborate set piece (designed by Silvie Varonne & Yvonne Ng) that Ng inhabits during the entire twenty minute performance. She peeks out, intimately resides within, and humorously penetrates, as she takes part in at times manic, pensive, and all around engaging movement. Utilizing built-in cloth arms on the outside of this gorgeous contraption, Ng and her fabulous installation prop traverse the stage in a playful and mesmerizing manner. Especially engaging when she is peering out of the many surface layers of the tent-like structure, and moving her hands in and out of various arm extensions - Ng becomes a kind of multi-limbed goddess like figure, simultaneously honouring and delighting in humorous poses that reflect the complex identity structures and influences that she works into the overall piece. 

There are moments when one yearns for a break from the elaborate sculptural tent in order to give performer and object a space in which to breathe and separate - possibly enacting  and adding less prop connected choreography to the piece. And yet, in tandem with the second offering of the evening, In Search of the Holy Chop Suey provides a short, delightful, and at times powerfully manic waltzing camp[y]ground that speaks to the act of identity formation in a world where displacement and cultural amalgamation can create a very layered sense of who we are and what our collective and individual lives mean within the larger scheme of things. Visually, Ng's moveable tent is a world, a playhouse, a kind of micro/macro cosmic, blue layered omelette'ish, swiss cheese, hole filled layer of culturally caged and cagey proportions - a  mini paradise of form and substance that dominates yet enwraps the performer in a beautiful and enchanting dance habitat.
















In the second offering of the evening - Zhong Xin (meaning human centre in Mandarin) - Ng further develops the  concept of identity in a less performance/moving insallation mode with three skilful dancers who take on a variety of engaging choreographic sequences. Luke Garwood exemplifies intense varied movement at its finest. The individual performances stand alone as extended examples of identities being formed both separately and as a threesome. MairĂ©ad Filgate, in a b/w patterned dress genders the costuming in a way that elegantly opposes blended identity as the only feminine signifier onstage. And yet her powerful presence acts as a beautifully realized third element of the triumvirate of identity created in collaboration with Ng and the other two performers. Irvin Chow brings a robust presence to an invigorating ensemble, and rounds out the trio with nuanced and layered presence that at times couples in enigmatic ways with Garwood's contrasting physicality. All three dancers inhabit the space with a beautifully conceived sense of finding inidivudal spots to feature themselves within, yet discovering each other by the end within a powerful and layered three pronged display of ecstatically refined denouement - as they stand together and present a final tableau that powerfully ends their diverse search through identity formation and expression.





tiger princess projects presented In Search of the holy Chop Suey & Zhong Xin at Harbourfront  Centre from 
Novemebr 24-26

Thursday, November 24, 2016

George F. Walker's The Damage Done

THE DAMAGE DONE
photos by Michael Cooper

To have seen Tough not so long ago - George F. Walkers first instalment of a dramaturgical triptych, begun in the 1990’s - through the contemporary lens of Ken Gass’ Canadian Rep Theatre, was a refreshing look at the ways in which an older script can begin to reflect epic concerns in a planetary card game of towering losses, frightening trumps, and hard won gains. One upping himself through the use of two decades of aging, maturing, and complex bitterness, Walker’s characters in his newest creation - The Damage Done - have given in to just about everything - except love. Love comes their way and they take it. And from a Marxist, perhaps decaying socialist perspective, filtered through capitalism, well, why the hell not? It’s there for the taking by two physically beautiful people who use their youth and their desperation to make their way through a stultifying world fraught by the allure of drugs, sex, and the agitating numbness of poverty - and relative wealth. 


In last summer’s re-mount of Tough Ken Gass turned a three person play into a multi character ensemble in order to reveal a kind of diversity that struggled but ultimately shone through. It was an admirable attempt that showcased the talents of a large cast of young actors who drove the socially relevant points home in an intense, refracted way within versatile walls of a minimalist set inhabited by the energy of youth, sagging hopefulness, and teenage lust. Eighteen years later, The Damage Done, a two person play is just that - two people onstage for seventy-five minutes trying to sort it all out - all that has happened over nearly two decades - and how to proceed. 


Sarah Murphy and Wes Berger

The set has a stark autumnal flare that serves the purpose very well. And yet, with the ghost of Tough wandering through the space, one cannot help but wonder what this production might have been like if Gass had chosen to use an ensemble instead of a two character format. Fracturing the naturalism into frayed character portrayals, in order to show facets rather than single, finely cut snapshots of two tragicomic characters in search of a play within a play - in search of lives beyond the ones they have already lived - well, it’s complicated. But Tough showed audiences that it can be done. The Damage Done is of course play - a play closer to a sitcom than a drama, yet wobbling a bit uneasily between the two forms. 

Walker has always been a master of this double edged sword, and in The Damage Done there are many fine moments, and a wonderful balance between the voices of two genders at odds with each other - and yet attracted somehow to the unease their roles have demanded of them. They play of sex and gender in a stagey, guarded, infrequently explosive manner - that could have added a touch of libido here and there to heighten the stakes. The performance are strong and yet the sex, although present, seems to live in the past.



Sarah Murphy as Tina possesses a direct, powerful command of the breakneck pacing the quick dialogue demands. Her emotional moments are strong and moving, and yet they tend to belie to some degree the rapidity of her more manic, conversional  strategies. In general, everything needs to be picked up a little. There is a bit too much room to breathe at times during the vocal and emotional pacing. When Tina breaks down, given her recent forays into self examination and a need to recover, her persona might fare better within a less weepy, more layered palette. Crying and resisting crying, simultaneously, could strengthen the colours of her need. Murphy does sob and break down very well, but needs a bit more of the uneven quality common to this kind of pathology. And when she has to physically joust with her ex it is just a case of slightly bungled stage business that needs to be stepped up - faster quicker and far more frenetic than the slow clumsy threat of a kick in the balls that occurred on opening night.

Wes Berger as Bobby parallels Murphy’s powerful and studied performance with many charming moments. His emotional narrative is not written with the same levels as Tina’s. Bobby seems to have mellowed into a bowling loving, aspiring playwright bellowing fellow who finally - at times begrudgingly - seems to get it when his ex lets him know that he has been the proverbial deadbeat dad for almost two decades. Wow! Take your time buddy. She has done all the work, all the good and the bad, and the damage has been done, undone ,and now it’s time for a shift in custodial care. Get it Bobby! Good!

The shadows, or even suggested presence of the two young women, Bobby and Tina’s teenaged daughters - alongside younger versions of the couple traversing the wide open leaf laden playing space - might have shifted a long sitcom’ish dramedy into a somewhat more powerful section of a three part mini series. A version of The Damage Done staged in the way Tough was staged could take the television aspect out of the drama and put it firmly back into the theatre. But as it stands, The Damage Done is an extremely engaging, humorous, and at times moving examination of the ways in which desperation born out of poverty can mature into the fragile compromise of hard won wealth, and then morph into two bitter - frequently sweet - people meeting in a park to talk about their lost youth. And it’s fun, and it’s sad. And now they are back at square one, in a park, and the park is empty. But the dramedy is full, embodied, flawed here and there, but at times rich and layered for the taking by audiences craving more of Walker’s limitless concern for people and their very serious problems.



GEROGE F. WALKER'S
THE DAMAGE DONE RUNS AT THE CITADEL UNTIL DECEMBER 11TH

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

PLAYDAY MAYDAY