Showing posts with label Sound. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sound. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 February 2013

End Game: Soulpepper 2012


So you know when you do an assignment in high school on a book, movie, historical event and you beginning to hate everything about it because of the people you work with, your teacher pressuring you or even plainly the content got boring? Well, that's how I started to dislike Beckett. It didn't have anything to with my group members or my teacher, but more of the content becoming very over extended. I had to remount an edited version of Waiting for Godot and it wasn't my favourite unit, and Samuel Beckett's work made me a little uneasy until Soulpepper presented Endgame in 2012.

I quickly fell back in love with Beckett and apologized for my quick dislike of his work thanks to Soulpepper. This piece of theatre is bleak but so full of complexity and thought. Daniel Brooks direction was absolutely fabulous and was evident from beginning to end. Diego Matamoros played Clov to Joseph Zielger's Hamm, which has probably been one of the richest relationships I've seen in theatre. Eric Peterson also graced the stage as Nagg with Maria Vacratsis' Nell. The presence was so alive in all four of them even though two of them were in a garbage can for their performance. And even when characters weren't on stage their energy was still present. 



Julie Fox's dry walled set design appears as almost like a supporting character for the cast, give such a definite texture and feel to the piece. Richard Feren’s sound design and placement and everything he did with the echoes and faint wind sounds were the cherry on the sundae.

Kelly McEvenue also worked as an Alexander Technique coach with the cast to help them endure the slanted stage and unnatural physicality. And since she's been one of my instructors at Humber it was a pleasure to hear about the process and thoughts behind the piece.

It was such an engaging piece of theatre that I would have loved to see again and again to pick up on the things I missed. It was a knock out that made me appreciate Beckett more than I ever had. 

You can get a season subscription to Soulpepper's 2013 season through their website, if you want to see fabulous productions like Endgame

Soulpepper

If you had a chance to see Endgame, let me know what you thought in the comments!

With love, 

Lisa Alves



Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Spent


A 2010 Dora Award-winner and a hit at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and was originally produced by Theatre Smith-Gilmour, TheatreRUN and Why Not Theatre.

Well this play certainly has a great reputation already! Spent was created by four artists who are really impacting Canadian theatre; Dean Gilmour, Michele Smith, Ravi Jain and Adam Paolozza. I might have a bias due to the fact that Gilmour was my Neutral Mask instructor last semester, but in all honesty this play was full of life and energy. 

The entirety of the play was intelligent and poetic while focusing on the greed that resulted in the recent financial crisis. Jain and Paolozza perform about 20 characters from around the world, all by themselves. The use of physical theatre was such a pleasure to watch and probably the best I've seen so far this year. 

This production was so well-paced and explored a great deal surrounding the economy within 70 minutes. 

I also want to highlight the music and the sound that this production used. The selection of songs added to the texture of the piece as well as the changing tones and pace. It was very satisfying. 

I highly recommend everyone to go see the show. The run ends on Friday February 22nd at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, so try an get your tickets at http://tickets.youngcentre.ca/single/psDetail.aspx?psn=6554

Theatre Smith-Gilmour
Twitter https://twitter.com/theatreSG
Website http://www.theatresmithgilmour.com

TheatreRUN
Website http://theatrerun.wordpress.com

Why Not Theatre
Twitter https://twitter.com/theatrewhynot
Website http://www.theatrewhynot.org

Ravi Jain
Twitter https://twitter.com/instantravi

Adam Paolozza
Twitter https://twitter.com/adampaolozza

With love,

Lisa Alves