The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
Directed by Ben Barnes.
June 3 - September 2, 2006.
Soulpepper Theatre Company.
Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street, Building 49
Ph: 416.866.8666
TORONTO ON. - “The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.” Oscar Wilde
First produced in 1895, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest hinges on Wilde’s extraordinary use of language. Marriage and mistaken identity, unknown parentage and social mores abound in this farcical romp where everything ends in a happy, neatly coiled bow. The humor comes almost exclusively from the way these characters manipulate and embrace conversational cleverness.
Soulpepper delivers an admirable production, but somehow the awe that I have come to expect from a Soulpepper show seems lacking. Despite being over two hours (with two intermissions) the play clicks along quite speedily, yet it comes just shy of the speed necessary for such rapier wit.
Ten Days On Earth by Ronnie Burkett
CanStage at Berkeley,
26 Berkeley St., Toronto
to June 24, 2007
TORONTO, ON - When I saw my first Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes production I quietly asserted that I never wanted to miss another of his shows. And, happily, I haven't.
While 10 Days On Earth, textually, does not pack quite the punch for me that, for example, Provenance did, Burkett's mastery is undeniable. For those of you who are unfamiliar with his work, he not only writes and performs; he designs, sculpts, constructs, costumes, speaks for and physically manipulates dozens of marionettes per show. But this is not children's theatre. Far from it.
10 Days On Earth follows Darrell, a mentally challenged young man who does not realize that his mother is slowly decomposing in her bedroom of the house they share. For ten days he goes through his routine of work and daydreams until he begins to question the truth.
It is often the mistakes made which give live theatre its supercharged boost. When the strings got tangled on one puppet the night I saw the show, it turned into one of the loveliest and most unforgettable moments. Burkett paused, rubbed his face, laughed, and looked out at the audience with a "of course tonight" shrug. This was, of course, the night when the audience was filled with theatre academics, actors, writers and directors who were attending a conference at York University where Burkett had spoke just that afternoon. A more critical and perhaps understanding audience could not have been found.
TORONTO, ON - I have never thought that Vancouver rain would be something I would miss, but a week spent walking about downtown Toronto, alternatively freezing any exposed extremities and then being baked in overheated buildings, has made me actually miss Vancouver’s weather. However the weather vagaries have been more than compensated for by the range of theatre experiences available in Toronto.
This week Soulpepper Theatre Company opens its first two productions in the new Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Established in 1997 as a classical repertory theatre company, Soulpepper has established itself as a major theatrical force in Toronto. This new Centre, in the historic Distillery district provides the company with a permanent home and a base for their educational and outreach programs. The Centre is so new that there was no signage up to indicate where on the Distillery site the theatre was located.
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