Apart from his (pathological?) obsession with airplane disasters, Istvan is a filmmaker and film enthusiast, but began his creative adventures in theatre. Starting out as an actor, he soon discovered a preference for life behind-the-scenes. He has experience in lighting design, stage management and production management, but his passion is writing and directing. With several short films and an indie feature under his belt, film has been his focus in recent years, but theatre has been calling him back. You see more of his critical writing at his film reflection blog: http://captiveviscera.wordpress.com/
At the Harbourfront World Stage, vox:lumen is Thoughtful but Accessible
I don’t know much about dance and rarely seek it out, but it has always intrigued me, crouching at the fringes of my theatre-going experiences. Every now and then, the concept of a particular dance piece will catch my attention. This is how I came to see vox:lumen, Zata Omm Dance Projects‘ ode to sustainable technologies currently playing at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
Anita Majumdar brings her one-woman theatre-dance show Fish Eyes to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto
Anita Majumdar’s one-woman show, Fish Eyes, has been on my radar for a whole decade. A friend of mine saw the premiere back in 2005 and I still recall her enthusiasm for it. I finally had the opportunity to see it myself at the Aga Khan Museum where it is playing this weekend as part of its Canadian tour.
Majumdar has written, choreographed and performs this dance-theatre show. She tells the story of Meena, a teenager trained in classical Indian dance who just wants to fit in to cool high school society. Being seventeen, she desperately wants to let her teenage hormones run rampant, but her “Auntie” expects her to take part in a dance competition back in India… just when poor Meena thinks she has a shot with her heartthrob obsession, Buddy. Continue reading Review: Fish Eyes (Nightswimming)→
With an audience of only sixteen people, Janek Turkowski’s Margarete, curated by SummerWorks for the Progress Festival, is an exceptionally intimate presentation. I was made to feel like an invited guest. After accepting an offer of coffee, I took my seat in front of Turkowski, who greets each member of this small gathering.
The set-up is very cosy. Amidst some cushions and a throw rug, the audience sits just a few feet from Turkowski and his odd assortment of props: some spools of 8mm film, two projectors (one film, one digital) and his laptop. Over the course of an hour, we will learn a little something about the mysterious Margarate… and even more about our own imaginations. Continue reading 2015 Progress Festival Review: Margarete (SummerWorks)→
Nightwood Theatre’s production of HER2, currently playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, is the second play about cancer I’ve seen this week; it is also the least satisfying. Despite the astounding ensemble cast, this show just doesn’t pack the emotional punch I was expecting.
HER2 is the name given to a protein that promotes the growth of cancer cells. Maja Ardal’s play explores the relationships between seven women—a diverse array—who have tested positive for this protein and have been selected to undergo a clinical trial for a new drug treatment. While these women bond over their shared experience, the lead researcher and her assistant have that age-old argument about science versus sociology. Each woman’s unique personal journey is framed by this question: can hard science be strengthened by unquantifiable human factors like a sense of community? Continue reading Review: HER2 (Nightwood Theatre)→
