Proartedanza

a seamless program of beautifully placed new work

Four exciting and boldly athletic new dance pieces are currently being premiered at the Fleck Dance Theatre by Proartedanza. This one hundred minute tour de force features magnificent choreography and breathtaking dancing that becomes a seamless and enthralling marriage of music and movement.

The North American premiere of Robert Glumbek’s Verwoben (2008) was inspired by “the concept of intertwining or weaving together . . . in response to music, human interaction and surrounding conditions.” Dancers Marc Cardarelli, Mami Hata, and Brendan Wyatt implement these complex movements, to Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A-Minor, with an intricate and breathtaking finesse. In the context of the overall program to follow, the music stands out as perhaps the most traditional, at times belying the fluid, knot-like movement that brings the dancers into a variety of startling configurations that a single same sex coupling literally lifts and carries bodies in and out of. On its own the piece works beautifully as a kind of post-modern semi- balletic study. In the context of the entire evening, it whets the appetite for the very bold and explosive pieces to follow, and stands alone as a beautiful classical inflected piece of choreography. Judiciously placed at the beginning of the evening, Glumbek’s piece excels as a grand titillating preview for the explosive mix of music and choreography to follow.

En Parallèle (2011 - Toronto premiere), choreographed by Proartedanza’s Artistic Director Roberto Campanella, initiates what becomes, over the course of the next hour, a startling at times staccato evening of bodies and dance that embody a truly seamless and stimulating mélange of sound and corporeal image. Dancers Tyler Gledhill and Marissa Parzei create a stunning “universe controlled by fixed physical laws” in a sharply nuanced “encounter [that] hinges on a fleeting moment and absolute blind chance.” The fleeting quality of the movement and the ‘blind’ desire of the tonal gestures brings the duo together in vivid, detached images that separate and commingle throughout, giving the piece a simultaneous sense of both attraction and division, filling the stage with a wonderful sense of individual skill and a kind of contemporary pas de deux. Music by Jóhan Jóhannsson and Marc Mellits provides a wonderfully ambient environment for the fleeting blindness that the narrative embraces.

Pearline (2011), by Kevin O’Day, another North American Premiere, utilizes to incredible effect, the music of Son House, an American blues singer and guitarist who pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, frequently played with the aid of a slide guitar. House’s music often incorporated elements of spiritual and southern gospel that influenced artists Bonnie Raitt, Robert Johnson, and John Hammond, among others. With the support of a very unique and eclectic lyrical soundscape, this is perhaps the most seamless offering of the evening as it represents a truly startling and enigmatic sense of music and dance as they move abruptly in and out of each other. Moments of silence combined with bodies that merge into the musicians innovative and evocative rhythms in an exciting manner, reveal both body and sound as inseparable. Through the impeccable timing, delightful comic innuendo, and the very impressive skill of dancers Mami Hata and Louis Laberge-Côté Pearline brings both grand pathos and light humour to the stage.

The world premiere of Guilluame Côté’s Fractals: a pattern of chaos is beautifully placed as it represents, in the context of the whole program, a volatile culmination of diverse yet complimentary choreography. An ensemble of eight dancers* present a truly eclectic cornucopia of sharp, gestural bravado that moves from a sense of Bob Fosse chorus line tableau to comic, almost Stomp-like finesse, never lapsing into what could have been a kind of laborious kitsch citation. The piece continues the program’s unerring mix of music and choreography as they blend seamlessly. An electronic score by Canadian composer Venetian Snares is the pitch perfect accompaniment for this utterly enthralling climax. Côté’s artistry possesses a deceptively symmetrical framework that brings his dance narrative full circle as bodies represent that elusive and gorgeous natural ‘fractal’ phenomenon of “snowflakes, flowers or cloud” as they mingle in “strict order and unpredictable influence.”

Both strict order and unpredictable influence are the hallmarks of this exciting evening of choreography, running at Harbourfront’s Fleck Dance Theatre until October 8^th.

* Johanna Bergfeit, Valerie Calam, Marc Cardarelli, Tyler Gledhill, Mama Hata, Louis Laberge-Côté, Ryan Lee, Marissa Parzei (Oct 5,8), Erin Poole (Oct 6,7)

SOULPEPPER, TARRAGON, AND FACTORY JOIN FORCES WITH THREE VASTLY DIFFERENT, SURPRISINGLY SIMILAR PLAYS ABOUT UNLIKELY DUOS, GODS, DEMI-GODS AND DILDOS

Bigger Than Jesus is a sexy, engaging and charismatic portrait of a white guy who thinks he’s Jesus, or at least someone who has a lot of fascinating information that tends to dispel the myth of the son of God and locate him somewhere within a chaotic contemporary landscape replete with pop-culture puppet shows starring Homer Simpson and assorted characters from Star Wars. Rick Miller’s collaboration with Daniel Brooks, currently running at The Factory Theatre, is a one man tour de force that shines with both technical brilliance and intellectual intrigue. Miller, in the title role as a larger than life solo artist intent upon shedding light on religious fervor, is one of those performers whose vocal diversity and physical presence makes it difficult to miss a beat of his virtuoso perofrmance as he takes over the stage with the zeal of a lithe thespian demi-god.

Perhaps the most memorable moments occur when Miller simultaneously sings a parodic version of a song from Jesus Christ Superstar as he manipulates a variety of tiny plastic figurines being projected behind him on a large screen. The incredible technical effects make this show into a fine example of mutli-media performance art. This is a re-mount of an award-winning must-see with a slightly disappointing religious message at the end that punctuates the demystifying discourse in a rather Christianized hegemonic way. But the ride all the way to the temple is well worth the slight anti-climax.

running at Factory Theatre until October 9^th

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Soulpeppers’ re-mount of The Odd Couple is a strangely funny study in heterosexual coupling. Neil Simon’s 1965 Broadway hit ages relatively well as one-liners abound and strained conjugal relations take centre stage with the husbands in full regalia and the wives decidedly absent. Albert Schultz as Oscar and Diego Matamoros as Felix match each other with pitch perfect comic difference as this unlikely ‘queer’ couple reveal, in their mismatched bickering, that all relationships, same sex or opposite, can be privy to emotions and contradictions that simultaneously make the individuals involved both the perfect and the imperfect duo. Playing at the same time as Noel Coward’s Private Lives , Soulpepper and Mirvish Productions gives Toronto audiences the chance to compare notes on the writing of two vastly different playwrights who have used comedy in order to show the gaps, the differences, and the commonalities within personalities that are thrown together, and how these personalities frequently test the limits of camaraderie, love, and friendship despite the fact that they simply cannot live without each other.

running at The Young Centre (Distillery District) through October

see review of Private Lives online at In Toronto magazine

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In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play is a hilarious and poetic dramedy that explores the emotional and physical separations that occur between individuals who, given half a chance, may find the intestinal fortitude to actually crawl out from under sexual taboos and ultimately enjoy the fleshy nooks and crannies of each others bodies, rather than resorting to detached, mechanical eroticism that stands in for what they seem to truly desire. But on their way toward actual human coupling of the hot and heavy kind they find an ample substitute within the historical origins of the ever popular vibrator.

David Storch and Trish Lindstrom provide impeccable physical and vocal contrasts to each other as the repressed husband and the sexually ambitious wife. Marci T. House is a wonderful study in mannered, dignified servitude in the role of the nanny who becomes the somewhat hesitant surrogate mother-figure and the objectified muse of an attractive and intrusive artist. Melody A. Johnson’s Sabrina Daldry takes the stage in the form of a prim yet highly eroticized and empowered character, while Jonathan Watton’s marginalized artist character Leo quirkily and frantically reveals the sexual stereotypes and the sexual confines constructed between genders and alternative lifestyles.

Elizabeth Saunders as Annie has truly poignant moments as she allows her character to move seamlessly from the ever faithful medical assistant to the unsuspecting and misled paramour in a wonderfully comic and tender same sex stage moment. Ross MacMillan as Mr. Daldry has a beautifully awkward scene as the irritated husband who boldly misreads the sexual presence of a friend attempting to find her own sexuality within a deceptively sexless environment. Richard Rose's nuanced and physically complex direction brings all of these strained mortal collisions into perfect physical and emotional focus.

And the vibrator scenes are hilarious as sets, costumes, and props by David Boechler provide a truly beautiful, faintly bawdy, and utterly quirky period setting for Sarah Ruhl’s provocative and thought provoking play to blossom, to penetrate, and to climax within.

running at Tarragon until October 23rd

Expect Theatre's glorious production of 'AWAKE' !!!

written & directed by Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley, Artistic Directors of Expect Theatre

The recent production of AWAKE, produced at the Toronto Fringe Festival, was a moving and ultimately exhilarating journey through a series of stories based on the experiences of people living in Toronto’s Jameston/Rexdale area. Inspired by the 2005 killing of Amon Beckles, shot in a church during a funeral service, the play relies upon a series of narratives recalling events leading up to the moment of violence. One very telling moment early on subtly reveals late twentieth-century socio-economic developments that contribute to the creation of a community of people disenfranchised by a racialized past, and present, that once appeared, on the surface, to be hopeful and filled with promise.

A lot of these townhouse complexes were built back in the 60s, back when everybody was um, American families, you know what I mean. It would all be young families, men work, wife at home with a couple kids, everybody's kids playing, it just must have been utopia.

Part of the power of the recent production can be attributed to the incredible site-specific nature of the surroundings. Set in the midst of a funeral, the Fringe venue was the Walmer Baptist Church, set on the edge of a traffic roundabout with a serene parkette commemorating the life of Canadian poet Gwendolyn McEwen as an urban centre piece. On the memorial plaque below the bust of McEwen, an excerpt from one of her poems makes an indirect and poignant connection to the play’s tragic yet life-affirming narrative.

But it is never over; nothing ends until we want it to.

Look, in shattered midnights,

On black ice under silver trees,

we are still dancing, dancing.

Meet me in an hour at the limits of the city.

Despite the great sense of tragedy of losing family members to gang violence, AWAKE never loses a powerful sense of hope and spirituality that infuses the piece from start to finish. Led by the powerful, encouraging words of a member of the clergy presiding over the funeral (played with convincing fervor by Richard Stewart), the play moves in and out of the church setting through vivid tableau scenes that depict moments from the lives of the young men being mourned. Gospel music and hip hop enhance each story and each tableau with a pervasive strength that moves the work to its surprisingly joyous climax.

The ten artists who comprise the ensemble cast are flawless as they collaborate in a multi-disciplinary manner through the use of stylized movement, dance, song, and impressive acting skill. Ultimately, the stories are brought to life through the eyes of mothers trying to deal with the unimaginable loss of a child, and the complex socio-economic events that conspire to trap innocent young people within a cycle of violence and crime.

Quancetia Hamilton and Beryl Bain as the two mothers deliver strong, layered, versatile performances, assisted by the amazing collaborative work of Tazz Blaze (dancer), Raffaele Brereton (dancer), Lauren Brotman (actor), Muoi Nene (actor), Peyson Rock (actor), Richard Stewart (actor), David Shelley (actor), URV (singer/rapper). Writers/directors Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley have assembled a cast and a production team that were able to inhabit a gorgeous old Church in an affluent neighbourhood and blow the roof off of the layers of society that AWAKE attempts to peel away in order to expose the roots of the problems people face when confronted with extreme poverty.

The intricately staged, verbatim interviews that are the foundation of a script taken from hundreds of hours of recordings, represents a detailed and significant tribute to young lives lost, and the family members and friends who move forward despite the disheartening situations they live within.

The final lines attest to this great sense of survival within a community ravaged by violent crime.

What I enjoyed the most was the way everybody was able to get up and be free. If you wanted to cry, you cried. But most of us, by the time the funeral service was over, nobody had a tear in their eye. That’s what I wanted. I didn’t want it to be too sad. It was sad enough, these young people didn’t need to bury that much pain.

As the audience filed out of the Church, a sense of displacement, and a form of conflicted, bittersweet peace filled the air. Considering the final lines from MacEwen’s poem (Latesong), as they suggest a tragic rupture, mixed with a beautiful, elegiac quality that attempts to bring disparate social and emotional narratives together as a way of bringing powerful stories to wider audiences:

When it is all over---the crying and the dancing and the long

exhausting music--- I will remember only

How once you flirted with your death and lifted your dark eyes

to warn me of the world’s end

As wild leaves fell, and midnight crashed upon the city.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

The current production of The Cherry Orchard at the Guild Festival Theatre is a truly unique outdoor experience. Elegant costumes by Bonnie Deakin and atmospheric lighting by Amanda Gougeon provide crisp characterization against the moody grays of an imposing background replete with grand sculpted arches and spectacular chiseled columns. Scenic design (consultation) by Troy Hourie, comprised of pieces of antique furniture set sparingly across the playing space, floats in a kind of classical Greek milieu as Sten Eirik’s direction provides a lively, fast paced spectacle that brings the essence of Chekhov’s pastoral bourgeois drama to life. The Russian playwright's particular brand of dramaturgy runs the risk of becoming a slow moving dirge if it is not directed with an ear to the highs and lows of panicked family members going through a myriad of emotions once threatened with the loss of their ancestral home. Eirik has found a lovely balance between light comedy and class-based tragedy, essential to the success of Chekhov’s lyrical interrogations of the demise of a decidedly aristocratic way of life. Music by David Buchbinder gives the overall production a subtle melodramatic tone that suits the grand setting and provides the production with a powerful ambience.

Dawna Wightman as Lyubov leads a cast that shines as they blend a form of flighty comic realism with lilting playful physicality that has them cavorting around a gorgeous outdoor space that was originally assembled in the 1960s from pieces of old Toronto buildings about to be torn down. This curiously bedecked setting provides the perfect environment for a play about a family who are rapidly losing their sense of history and have assembled one last time in a futile, yet loving attempt to hold what is left of their heritage, and their class structure, together. John Jarvis as Gaev injects a kind of careless paternalism into the cast and portrays the perennial billiard-playing brother with great physical agility and a wonderful stylish vocal delivery. Jesse Dwyre's student matches Jarvis’ thespian skill with a variety of studied and engaging moments of romantic play and political aspiration.

Wightman is superb as Lyubov as she mixes a happy go lucky, scattered quality with a form of altruistic passion that culminates in powerful and moving speeches defining her great attachment to a home and a past she can never fully retrieve, yet longs for through a form of traumatized melancholia. Paul Amato’s Lopahkin complements Wigthman’s performance as he coddles, persuades, and finally surrenders to her double-edged frivolity in a way that ultimately self-satisfies his own great business acumen. Rounded out by consistently delightful performances by Kanika Ambrose, Linzee Barclay, Tamera Broczkowski, Melissa Haddad, Stephen McLarty, James Patrick Pettitt, Bryan Stanish and James R. Woods, the large ensemble cast manages to bring the intricate plot and characters to full fruition as they move toward the end of an era in Russian history, represented in Chekhov’s drama by a single family’s attempt to tie up loose ends before they go their separate ways. Perhaps the most memorable performance comes from Bryan Stanish as Firs, the long suffering, somewhat senile manservant who represents all that is left behind by the rather chaotic ramblings of a family and a social hierarchy in ruins. His performance punctuates the pathos that runs through the narrative as he skillfully fumbles through the maintenance of a family out of sync with the times and utterly beyond repair.

running until July 31^st at Guild Inn Gardens - Greek Theatre, 201 Guildwood Parkway, Scarborough

for directions go to the Company website at

http://www.guildfestivaltheatre.ca/index.php

DOUBLE BILL: (RE) BIRTH: E.E. CUMMINGS IN SONG & WINDOW ON TORONTO

Soulpepper’s current double bill, e.e. cummings in song and Window on Toronto is an ingenious mixture of wondrous whimsy and powerful musical adaptation. The first half of the evening features actors/singers/musicians as they eloquently stumble around a beautifully cluttered stage, utilizing a variety of props and musical forms in order to highlight and feature the poet’s iconic work. Anyone enchanted by cumming’s blend of serious poetic thought and light, layered endearments will be taken in by the sheer skill and commitment this ensemble possesses. Highlights include Ins Choi’s brilliantly sculpted rendition of a cummings masterpiece that begins in a slight, quirky voice and ends with full ensemble support as they poignantly pound out the final lines of a very moving piece of sung poetry.

The second half of the evening, Window On Toronto, although very engaging in its blend of rapid fire, fragmented dialogue and extremely clever staging, could use a little trimming as some of the near slapstick moments appear excessive and somewhat lost through a narrow stage window that excludes parts of the audience. Video projections on either side could enhance a more judicious version of the show. The musical agility of the cummings section might have framed the second half, giving it a more cohesive, less contrasting presence in the overall production/double bill. Nevertheless, all of the strengths of the first half of the evening are apparent in the second half as it contains a series of physically complex vignettes depicting the view of a growing multicultural city through the eyes of a hot dog vendor sitting in his truck and watching the characters and the seasons pass.

All in all, a highly original and entertaining evening of theatre from a company that never fails to rise to the challenge and bring consistently engaging and unique performances to its audiences.

CURRENTLY PLAYING ATTHE YOUNG CENTRE (DISTILLERY DISTRICT)

FACTORY THEATRE

RE-MOUNT

OF ZADIES’ SHOES

The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all. It is true the population has increased.

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

(playwright Adam Pettle)

Immediately struck by the somber tones of a modest set framed by bare wooden ramps and a lone tree standing upstage centre, the current production of Zadie’s Shoes at Factory Theatre does not immediately suggest a fast paced piece of theatre that simultaneously provokes tears and laughter. A bleak version of Waiting For Godot might seem more appropriate for such a stark playing space. But once the action begins in this dramedy about love, loss, addiction, illness, and the precarious nature of faith, one quickly sees how Jackie Chau’s simple, open set design, highlighting words and actions, becomes the perfect environment for the rich layers of comedy and pathos that pervade Adam Pettle’s ten year old script.

The current re-mount, co-directed by Pettle and his brother Jordan, has been trimmed and fine tuned, bringing audiences an evening of extraordinarily well crafted ensemble work. A consistently strong cast presents distinct, complex characters equally comfortable with the required amounts of comic and dramatic interplay. Lisa Ryder, Patricia Fagan, and Shannon Perreault create a fine balance of anxiety, neurosis, and devotion for the trio of sisters. William MacDonald’s Bear and Harry Nelken’s Eli are written and performed as wild and witty characters caught within milieus that seem worlds apart. And yet, as the narrative unfolds, these actors delineate brilliantly the layers of their respective binds and come out of them with a great deal of dignity and strength. When Nelken’s Eli exclaims, “If we weren’t pushy we wouldn’t have Israel” contemporary global concerns resonate through a complex blend of personal, idiosyncratic humour and religious and political conviction. Geoffrey Pounsett as Sean and Joe Cobden as Benjamin round out a superb cast as the two young love interests warring with their own personality quirks in an attempt to save faltering relationships.

Basically a play about three struggling couples and an elderly Jewish man, Zadie’s Shoes bears a universal message regarding specific issues around the frequently chaotic nature of keeping one’s sense of material and spiritual faith intact. Pettle began to write the play as part of a structure class while studying at the National Theatre School. His tightly conceived collection of scenes attests to sheer dramaturgical finesse as the story culminates in a series of fragmented, sharply woven vignettes, providing a perfect climax for this always entertaining and thought provoking play.

And at the end of the day, and the play, as characters scatter and Eli gives some final words of open ended insight, Beckett’s famous line springs to mind in all it’s conflicted wisdom.

“Nothing to be done."

CANADIAN SHEEN

Charlie Sheen and Sky Gilbert have a lot in common. They’re not afraid to say what’s on their mind, and they don’t care if it pisses a lot of people off when they say it. This past week Toronto was treated to brilliant extended tirades from both of these maverick celebrities in an age of rampant moralism and self-righteous Sheen bashing.

Sheen’s two-night stint at Massey Hall was a spectacle to behold, second only to the voracious voyeurism we have been treated to by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Springer over the years. A Queer Theory Professor once said to me that there is a fine line between Winfrey and Springer. I agreed at the time, but now I don’t believe there is a fine line at all. They do the same thing, in different ways. They do what Sheen is doing. They bring trouble onto the stage and screen and they let us become titillated by it and they get paid hefty sums to do so. The difference between Oprah, Jerry, and Charlie is that Charlie does it to himself. Winfrey and Springer do it to other people and play high priestess slash lofty chaperone to the fugitives and the dispossessed.

I was in the second row centre for Sheen’s torpedo tour and two women to my left could not get enough of hearing themselves howl in support of Charlie’s sex crazed drug induced escapades, and they clearly loved both pastimes themselves. They had to be restrained by security guards at one point. Later in the show another woman screamed from the balcony, “Charlie will you go down on me?” Charlie, in a sense, took the moral high road by saying that of course he would never do a thing like that in public, and then played devils advocate by asking the woman what they would actually do if he were to take her up on her seemingly preposterous proposal. Moderator Russell Peters intervened by jokingly suggesting a live sex show, but was overshadowed by the two screaming crack loving sex goddesses to my left who yelled out, loud and clear, “You would spread her legs and eat her Charlie. That’s what you’d do!!!” Wow!!! I was loving every distasteful minute of this horny night in Canada. My own past forays into booze, sex, cock and roll were being pandered to and it felt good - in a strange, uncomfortable and totally satisfying way.

The spectacle at Massey Hall last week was not primarily about Mr. Sheen. It was all about me, and you, and the ways in which we, as a viewing public, play voyeurs to so many acts that we may not want to always take part in ourselves, but many of us love seeing them enacted within the framework of television, film, theatre, what have you. But when it steps outside of those safe, comfortable confines some among us tend to moralize and begin to loathe the same people we loved when they were just pretending. Charlie Sheen never really pretended. As a character named Charlie on Two and a Half Men, where he continually battles with strong, complex, sexy women who frequently demolish his testosterone ridden ways, it is clear that he is playing a version of himself.

If Sheen, in ‘real’ life, chooses to take part in what some people (not me) consider a grave illness that needs to be disavowed, then so be it. I’m not condoning or damning any of his behaviour. I’m devouring it. Clearly some of his behaviour will be up to the courts to judge. But in the final analysis, Sheen is just capitalizing on something that has been going on culturally for a very long time, and whether he knows it or not, he has decided to be one of many glorious sex positive metaphoric pricks attempting to burst our self righteous little bubbles regarding the fine line between art and life - sometimes they are the very same thing.

On the second day of his Toronto visit Sheen publicized a walk from the Rtiz Carlton to Massey Hall, and invited anyone who cared to join him to make the trek with him in support of people struggling with bi-polar disorder, something Sheen has been recently diagnosed with. I was otherwise occupied and not feeling terribly bi-po that day. But if circumstances had been different, who knows, I might have joined the crowd of 200 groupies who graciously accepted his invitation.

And as if that was not enough gorgeous, over the top, sentimentality on Sheen’s part - at the end of the evening when I was at Massey Hall, Sheen invited a Toronto woman onstage who had publicly declared her severe depression over her husband’s sudden death two years ago. She revealed that she had mourned for a year by staying in bed and finding profound comfort in watching Two and a Half Men episodes every single day. Apparently she had sent Sheen a letter asking if it might be possible for him to christen her husband’s ashes onstage during his Toronto visit in order to help her lovingly let the legacy of her hard drinking hubby rest in peace. Her honest disclosure and subsequent ritual were a wonderful testament to the healing powers of televised, hilarious, syndicated mayhem. Charlie and his torpedo team could not have asked for a better finale. It was outrageous and it was moving and I tried not to shed a tear. But I failed, miserably, succumbing to sentimentality in the same way I cry at the end of Extreme Home Makeover or during an especially harrowing episode of The Young and the Restless.

And how does any of this relate to Toronto playwright Sky Gilbert? Well, go to see his current play The Situationists at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and find out for yourself. It sparkles and shines with fabulous vulgarity, glamour and a particular brand of Canadian sheen that Gilbert has become famous for. It is an exhilarating and intellectually stimulating two hours (one intermission) in the theatre with a brilliant cast lead by the magnificent Gavin Crawford sporting a French accent that competes with the comedic genius of Peters Sellers memorable Inspector Clouseau.

Basically, Gilbert’s play does what Sheen is doing, in a different way. It rips the veil off of polite, moralistic discourse and implicates the audience in a complex web of farcical antics that cross sensitive political lines, exposing cultural, social, sexual, and intellectual play as complex social constructs to be reckoned with. The only thing it lacked, and certainly didn’t need, was a running commentary by Russell Peters, the wonderful Canadian comic who came to Charlie’s rescue last week and fended off potential hecklers with his impeccable brand of self mocking, reverse racialized humour that is simultaneously dangerous, uncomfortable, and absolutely hilarious. So if you missed Charlie and Russell, and prefer your farce a little less ‘reality based,’ then there is still time to catch the frightening and delightful antics of Gilbert’s play, running until April 24^th at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre.

What a week! I think I need theatre rehab!!!!