S. Bear Bergman has great faith in the power of theatre to make change, and has been putting his money where his mouth is on that one for some time. A writer, performer, and lecturer, Bear works full time as an artist and cultural worker and loves to see as much live performance as possible – making this a fantastic gig for him.
A one night only revue put together by Lady Luck Productions in Toronto.
It feels almost churlish to review Hotel Albergo, a single night of entertainment and dining produced by Lady Luck Productions as a revue, benefit, and calling card all wrapped into one. It’s not a professional production, per se, and as a one-night event it’s also not quite intended to be. More than anything, I feel somewhat as though I was invited to review my favorite nephew’s senior play at Rosedale School for the Arts. There’s a lot to applaud about the enthusiasm and the effort, even if the result lacked a certain polish.
There’s a sense, as A Synonym for Love progresses, that we’ve gone back a bit in time. Not because we’re at an opera written in 1707, but because everything’s so stylish and clever and fresh. I would not have predicted that mixing a lost Handel cantata with Kiss Me, Kate (which is itself mixed with Taming of the Shrew) and setting the whole business in the Gladstone Hotel with a fourteen-piece baroque ensemble (including a theorbo) – well, it could have been a mess. But instead, it was a marvel.
Let me just cop, right at the outset, to my primary disappointment about this piece: Waawaate Fobister isn’t in it. Talented as he is as a writer – and he surely is, as Medicine Boy, part of the 2012 SummerWorks Performance Festival, demonstrates – he’s such a bright, engaging, deeply satisfying performer that when I skimmed the program before the show I had a little frisson of disappointment. No Waawaate on stage. Phooey. Don’t worry, I got over it fast.
A little bit of mist hangs over the stage at the opening of this trio of monologues around the theme of our animal natures, but it’s not a bit foggy, nor cliché either, for which I am grateful (though not surprised, in the hands of Daniel MacIvor). Ultimately, this show hangs together nicely and works, pretty much from beginning to end.
The day after Ajax (por nobody), part of the SummerWorks Performance Festival, I am still having some difficulty organizing my thoughts about it. I’ll be honest: I had a strong reaction, and it wasn’t terribly positive. Post-show, I said to the friend with whom I have seen the show “Well. Unless that was a show designed to make me feel hopeless, disconnected, and mournful it’s a failure.” By morning I think, well? Perhaps it was. And even still, I am not sure I feel any better about it. Continue reading Ajax (por nobody) (Hothouse Theatre) 2012 SummerWorks Review→
