Debts

My review of Itsazoo's Debts is in this week's WE.

DEBTS

A crowd of people in a small room; the doors slam shut behind you and suddenly the lights go out. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, your skin tingles and you realize that it’s mostly strangers, alone, in the dark. The moment lasts probably for no more than 10 seconds, but the panic actually sets in at around three seconds. Seven seconds of increasingly uncomfortable hell is the only transition you need to go from amused, interested observer to tense, uncomfortable participant. Welcome to Debts.

Itsazoo Productions, the young masters of site-specific theatre (Robin Hood; Bridge Mix series), presents writer-director Mack Gordon’s hauntingly cool, existentialist horror story set in the historic Roedde House Museum. Borrowing from “teen slasher” flicks, radio dramas that went bump in the night and Edgar Allen Poe, Gordon’s story covers a lot of ground in its briskly-paced 60 minutes. On the surface, it’s about five teens who crash a wedding at a spooky house, daring each other to go inside, unaware that they probably won’t make it out alive.

But amidst the chills and thrills, the teens have got plenty of baggage of their own to deal with, most notably Annie (Kaitlin Williams) and Pete (James Avramenko), who are nursing the still-fresh wounds from their recent break-up over religious differences. The house’s evil freak-fest becomes the final testing ground for their contentious argument, which isn’t so much about good or evil but about keeping an open mind. It’s a welcome spin on traditional horror conventions, and Williams in particular conveys Annie’s terror with aplomb. The fear is a contact high because the show is so intimate — just 15 people in each audience — which the characters all navigate in and around in close quarters. This plays perfectly to Debts’ strengths: small moments filled with just the right amount of quivering tension, black humour and a ghoulish delight. To Oct. 31 at Roedde House Museum, 7pm and 9pm. $15-$19 from BrownPaperTickets.com. —Andrea Warner

Theatre year-end 2010

Our favourite theatre of 2010 is featured in WE's new issue.

Simply the best: Alex McMorran and Cathy Wilmot in Fighting Chance Productions’ Sweeney Todd

Credit: Supplied

Bringing the curtain down on another year

Posted By: WestEnder Staff

12/29/2010 12:00 AM

BEST SHOW (Large Venue)

Even the most zealous anti-Olympic protestor would be hard-pressed to minimize the arts bonanza of the Cultural Olympiad. Sure, there were questions about whether too much was spent on international touring companies that could have gone to Canadian artists, but any program that brings Robert Lepage’s Ex Machina company to town is a winner. Blue Dragon, the sequel to Lepage’s The Dragon’s Trilogy, finds its central figure living in modern-day China and dealing with his Canadian past. A multimedia feast of dance, music, film, and Lepage’s signature puzzle-like sets, Blue Dragon gave Vancouverites a chance to see a true national hero who has dominated the international theatre world for a quarter century — as opposed to briefly worshipping a 17-year-old who skied a fraction of a second faster than another 17-year-old. —Steven Schelling

BEST DIRECTOR (Large Venue)

Founding member of Electric Company Theatre, winner of the prestigious Siminovitch Prize, and director of this year’s experimental film-meets-theatre extravaganza Tear the Curtain!, Kim Collier is a rare talent. Inventive, surprising, and even-handed, her work is often breathtaking, sometimes cerebral, and never, ever boring. —SS

BEST ACTOR (Large Venue)

Before the curtain went up on Arts Club’s Glengarry Glen Ross, a loosely assembled scrum of media took bets on the fortunes of its star, Eric McCormack. Would an actor known to millions as nebbish, nice-guy gay Will, from the long-running U.S. sitcom Will & Grace, be able to pull off the part of ruthless real-estate huckster Ricky Roma? Within moments, McCormack had sold his sinister performance not just to the cheap seats, but to those on the aisles who’d stopped scribbling on their notepads. It’s one thing to capture an audience in the palm of your hand, quite another to shatter a roomful of preconceived notions. —SS

BEST SHOW (Small Venue)

For two weeks in October, the Jericho Arts Centre became a seedy Victorian-era London alleyway — the setting for the blood bath that is Stephen Sondheim’s macabre masterpiece, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This vibrant revival of the musical about a vengeful barber murdering his clients and turning them into meat pies with his landlady/co-conspirator came courtesy of the brilliant, mostly 20-somethings behind Fighting Chance Productions. The remarkably assured take on this rich, technically complex material (it’s Sondheim, remember?) proved you don’t need huge budgets and big names to craft quality live entertainment. With the right ingredients, producing the perfect piece of theatre can be as easy as, well, pie. —Andrea Warner

BEST DIRECTOR (Small Venue)

Would Sweeney Todd’s audiences ever guess that its director, Ryan Mooney, is still in college? Probably not. Since Fighting Chance Productions’ debut in 2007, Mooney, the company’s founder and artistic director, has proved himself to be a young man with a singular vision. With Sweeney Todd, Mooney hinted at the kind of director he’s growing into: resourceful, innovative, and clever. Commanding a sprawling cast in a small space is no easy feat, but Mooney’s execution made perfect use of the physical contrast, illustrating the all-consuming tension and frenzy of the source material’s tale of revenge and madness. —AW

BEST ACTOR (Small Venue)

As Sweeney Todd, Alex McMorran was glowering, darkly funny, and mad in every sense of the word. A man unhinged by grief and a thirst for revenge, McMorran made Todd’s extraordinary bloodlust utterly believable. While plotting to extract his pound (or more) of flesh from those who’ve cost him his daughter and his wife, McMorran nailed every emotional high and low, subversively toeing the line between empathetic victim and ruthless hypocrite. Additionally, his chemistry with Cathy Wilmot as Mrs. Lovett proved delightfully unsettling and surprisingly sexy. —AW

BEST ACTRESS (Small Venue)

While Sweeney Todd’s Mrs. Lovett is a role many salivate over, her solos have been known to cause more than a few actresses sleepless nights. Doubtless Cathy Wilmot slept soundly, because her voice ran headlong through Sondheim’s trademark counterpoint and syncopation without a hint of strain, all the while infusing every line and lyric with subtext. Her Mrs. Lovett is a manipulative liar, sure, but she’s also incredibly lonely and blinded by her romantic obsession with a psychopath. Wilmot got at the murky heart of Mrs. Lovett’s darkest motivations without sacrificing the wonderful gallows humour that permeates even her bleakest moments. —AW

BEST SITE_SPECIFIC THEATRE

Last May, ITSAZOO Productions’ Bridge Mix transformed a city eyesore (a concrete parking garage in the business district) into a place where anything was possible, including a spontaneous street-hockey game, a confrontation between Robert Pickton and the ghosts of his many victims, a choreographed dance-off, and a hilariously sweet demonstration by a little girl who believes she can collect people’s dreams for interpretation. Bridge Mix’s variety and lack of pretension helped showcase the raw talent of Vancouver and Victoria’s emerging theatre companies. That the audience moved between various spots throughout the parkade, with a roving bar never more than 10 feet away, only sweetened the deal. —AW

BEST COMEBACK

A hopeful sign after a bleak period of restructuring, Ballet BC wowed audiences with Songs of a Wayfarer and Other Works, a season opener composed of three new works. Artistic director Emily Molnar continued in her efforts to transform the once-tired group into a truly contemporary ballet company. Her titular contribution to the programme proved playful and intelligent, while choreographer Kevin O’Day brought a fresh, international sophistication to the Queen E stage. The undeniable highlight, however, was Jose Navas’s dizzying The Bliss That from Their Limbs All Movement Takes. Dance fans will also take delight in Navas’s appointment as Ballet BC’s choreographer-in-residence for the next three years. —Jessica Barrett

Robin Hood at Queen Elizabeth Park

My review of ITSAZOO's wonderful Robin Hood. Go see it now, please.

Kaitlin Williams and Chris Cook star as Marion and Robin in ITSAZOO Productions’ unique take on Robin Hood, which is set in a dystopian Vancouver.

Credit: Supplied

Newfangled ‘Robin Hood’ a biting satire

Posted By: Andrea Warner

08/11/2010 12:00 AM

In the three years since ITSAZOO Productions first staged co-founder Sebastien Archibald’s Grimm Tales at Queen Elizabeth Park, the Olympics have come and gone, homelessness in the city has continued to spread like a cancer, and provincial arts funding has been slashed. And while this never-ending quagmire of hopelessness feels rather suffocating, it’s proved to be just the material Archibald needed to write Robin Hood, his most incisive and cathartic work to date.

Loosely arranged around the familiar premise of the original Robin Hood, which detailed the uprising of the working class against the rich, this production is set in a not-so-fictionalized Vancouver where Mayor Nottingham (Archibald), evil MLA Rich White (David Benedict Brown), and power-hungry, Taser-happy Chief Gisborne (Julie Church) plot to strip citizens of their civil liberties and pump wads of cash into landing the “International Big Deal.”

Robin Hood (Chris Cook) and his band of merry thieves steal from the rich to give to the poor, ultimately kidnapping MLA White’s daughter, the spoiled Marion (Kaitlin Williams), in the hope that her ransom will fund Robin and Little John’s (Colby Wilson) dream: a huge mansion with beds and resources for homeless people. After she’s roughed up by Chief Gisborne’s cops simply because they think she’s homeless, Marion joins Robin and the group to help defeat her father and the Mayor.

As this is a roving-theatre experience, the audience is led throughout Queen Elizabeth Park by Alan (Joel Stephanson), a minstrel-busker whose own story is heartbreakingly familiar: he has kids, loses his job and can’t find another one, which leaves him grappling with a depression that, in turn, manifests as substance dependency. It’s a dark, vicious cycle, and one that’s likely all too real.

The cast is energetic and youthful. Cook excels in his role as leading man, with a cocky charm that doesn’t detract from Robin’s believability. It’s also almost impossible to keep one’s eyes off Wilson in any of his scenes, so compelling is his line delivery and presence.

There’s plenty of bleak humour to be mined from this oft-unfortunate reality, and Archibald is fearless in turning scathing indictment into incisive satire. At times he branches into preaching territory, particularly with Marion, who’s often saddled with spelling out the obvious (i.e., poor people are no less deserving than the wealthy). What Archibald and ITSAZOO accomplish recalls their efforts with last summer’s Canterbury Tales, which also used theatre as a venue in which to call for social change. For those stymied by Vancouver’s seemingly insurmountable social ills, Robin Hood is both a breath of fresh air and a fire under your ass.

Robin Hood runs to Aug. 19 at Queen Elizabeth Park (Main at 33rd; audience meets at Bloedel Conservatory), 7pm. $13-$17 from ITSAZOO.org or 778-888-2435.

Summer stage picks

My summer stage picks are in this week's WE: Summer in the City issue!

Disney's Broadway musical extravaganza, The Lion King, is coming to Vancouver this summer.

Credit: Supplied

Broadway faves and classic plays sizzle this summer

Posted By: Andrea Warner

06/02/2010 12:00 AM

Summer outdoor theatre in Vancouver used to mean one of two settings: the vista of Vanier Park as the backdrop for Bard on the Beach, or the trees of Stanley Park for family-friendly musicals from Theatre Under the Stars. But now the sunny season boasts a bevy of stages — big and small, indoors and out, and some simply metaphorical — many of them home to some of the city’s boldest and most innovative shows. Here are some of our picks to look out for.

Through June:

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

A must-see for the star-making performance from Zachary Stevenson, one-half of the Victoria-based indie-folk band Human Statues, in the title role. And while the story merely glosses over Holly’s fascinating but all-too-brief life, the music is pure magic. To July 11 at Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Tickets from ArtsClub.com.

Bard on the Beach

Alessandro Juliani in Henry V

The Shakespeare festival is full of familiar faces again this year, like local acting treasures Jennifer Lines and John Murray (both on the Mainstage in Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra) and theatre power couple Meg Roe and Alessandro Juliani (Roe directs Juliani in Henry V on the Studio Stage). Where the company breaks from tradition is with the addition of Falstaff, Errol Durbach’s modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I and Part II. Opening June 12, with plays running in repertory to September 25. Tickets from BardOnTheBeach.org.

Dances for a small stage 22

Cori Caulfield performs in Dances for a Small Stage 22

This popular contemporary dance series confines its artists to a 10x13’ stage. June 16-18 at The Legion on Commercial Drive. Tickets available at the door. Info:MovEnt.ca.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

This Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is cuter than Cats and twice as endearing. Follow a group of spelling-bee misfits through the trials and tribulations of pre-pubescence. June 17-July 31 at Granville Island Stage. Tickets from ArtsClub.com.

Imprint

Combining dance, theatre, music, and multimedia technology, this triple bill of Canadian premieres is presented by Vancouver’s famed Turning Point Ensemble. June 17-20 at Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre. Tickets from SFUWoodwards.ca.

July:

Theatre Under the Stars

Old-school charm reigns with alternating nightly amateur performances of Singin’ in the Rain and the Andrew Lloyd Webber family favourite, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. July 9-Aug. 21 at Malkin Bowl. Tickets from TUTS.ca.

Disney’s The Lion King

The touring production of the Tony Award-winning Broadway extravaganza based on the beloved animated film, itself inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Family-friendly fun for everyone. July 13-Aug. 8 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tickets from Ticketmaster.com.

Hair

Fighting Chance Productions tackles Hair

The rockin’, revolutionary musical about peace, love, and grooviness seems the perfect follow-up for the young rebels of Fighting Chance Productions, who wowed audiences with a superb production of Rent last summer. July 21-Aug. 1 at Waterfront Theatre. Tickets from TicketsTonight.ca.

Neanderthal Arts

A brand-new festival featuring independent theatre from four local and two national companies, it also incorporates the Walking Fish Showcase, a series of short pieces by emerging artists. July 21-Aug. 1 at The Cultch. Tickets from Thal.ca.

Cirque du Soleil

The familiar blue and yellow big-top returns with Kooza, a show that revisits the famed company’s circus origins of acrobatics and clowning. July 22-Aug. 22 at the Grand Chapiteau at Concord Place (next to Science World). Tickets from CirqueDuSoleil.com.

Glengarry Glen Ross

This one has plenty to recommend it: Tony Award-winning playwright David Mamet, television star Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), vicious, incendiary commentary on corporate culture, and lots of fucking swearing. (See our interview with McCormack on page 29.) July 22-Aug. 22 at Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Tickets from ArtsClub.com.

August:

Blue Surge

TwentySomething Theatre presents the Canadian premiere of Blue Surge.

A small-town cop falls for an 18-year-old hooker in this Vancouver debut from emerging company TwentySomething Theatre, the brave upstart founded by Sabrina Evertt. Edgy, provocative fare that makes a perfect capper to the last sultry nights of summer. Aug. 24-Sept. 5 at Studio 16. Tickets from TicketsTonight.ca.

Robin Hood

For a third year, ITSAZOO Productions continues its tradition of turning Queen Elizabeth Park into the city’s best roving outdoor theatre venue. Playwright Sebastien Archibald is likely putting a terrifically unique spin on the tale of the lawless folk hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Dates and ticket info TBA. Visit ITSAZOO.org for more info.

Bridge Mix

My review of Bridge Mix appears in this week's WestEnder.

As part of the independent-theatre showcase Bridge Mix, TigerMilk Collective’s Both Are Me transcends the limitations of its venue: a downtown parkade.

Credit: Supplied

Since ITSAZOO Productions’ Vancouver debut two years ago, the young theatre company (helmed by co-artistic directors Sebastien Archibald, Colby Wilson, and Chelsea Haberlin) has been responsible for some of the city’s most consistently entertaining and thought-provoking original works. It’s also created a variety of stages from a slew of unusual spots: Queen Elizabeth Park, a bench at Second Beach, and now two levels of a nondescript parking garage on the fringes of the city’s financial district.

Formerly based in Victoria, ITSAZOO is the collective mastermind behind Bridge Mix, a showcase that boasts eight plays performed in 12 scenes from a variety of innovative, emerging theatre and dance companies. Like other, more established site-specific theatre installations (the HIVE series, Tremors), Bridge Mix is an ambitious assortment of short vignettes. While some are more successful than others, the overall result is nothing short of fantastic.

ITSAZOO’s own Hey Good Lookin’ kicks things off in wondrously random and creepy fashion with two drunken corporate types (Wilson and Archibald) inciting the fury of a clown after stomping on a stray red balloon. Genus Theatre’s Done by Dinner is a raucous experiment in audience participation, with everyone taking part in a street hockey game that’s frequently interrupted by a car and its angry driver. TigerMilk Collective achieves a nearly impossible feat with Both Are Me, whose quiet ambiance transcends the inherent ugliness of a concrete parking structure.

Upintheair Theatre Society’s Borborygmi also transforms the venue by utilizing the parking lot in a surprising, innovative way — one that I won’t spoil here, except to say its humour masks a darker social message in clever fashion. Peter n’ Chris’ The Ballad of Jeff is also a comedy doubling as commentary, with two great performances as a desperate journalist seeks to exploit the misfortunes of an eccentric vagrant.

The gem of the collection, however, is SNAFU’s NOGGIN, a charming one-woman number about a precocious little girl who believes she can collect and interpret people’s dreams.

The other plays aren’t lesser in quality, but feel slightly out of sync with what else is on offer. Slam Ink’s Coincidence Partnerships Parts I-IV revels in a couple’s unfortunate date — as members of the audience! Unfortunately, the male character is written in such a way that it’s hard to believe any woman, sane or not, would want to date him. Spectral Theatre’s Eastside Ghosts, a painfully vivid and gut-wrenching imagining of William Pickton’s reign of terror over sex workers on the Downtown Eastside, is a jarring slap in the face set amidst lighter fare. And, Enlightenment Theatre’s A Situation is pleasantly absurd, but the plot — a fight between two guys from Surrey, one an artist and one a finance professional — feels more like a work-in-progress than a finished piece.

Taken as a sampling of emerging theatre companies, Bridge Mix is evidence of Vancouver’s overwhelming raw talent and ITSAZOO’s continually surprising artistic vision. —Andrea Warner

Bridge Mix runs to May 15 at the parkade located at 1070 W. Pender, 8pm. Tickets $14-$18 from Itsazoo.org

Theater spotlight 2009

Steven Schelling and I wrote a look back at some of our favourite theatre moments from 2009 for WE.

Ken Macdonald’s breathtaking set for The Constant Wife (left) and Itsazoo’s modern, roving musical take on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (right) were two noteworthy 2009 theatre offerings.

Credit: supplied

Dropping the curtain on 2009

By Andrea Warner and Steven Schelling

This past year might be remembered by the theatre community as the calm before the storm: Established and fledgling companies faced the recession head-on, taking over every stage (and park and beach) they could, only to be hobbled at year’s end with potentially crippling government budget cuts for 2010. But if the last 12 months showed audiences anything, it’s that Vancouver actors, playwrights, and directors aren’t backing down.

From innovative staging, to youthful troupes coming of age, to women reigning supreme, WE turns its spotlight on some of the year’s most memorable stage moments.

SISTERS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES

Female performers, playwrights, and directors made major impressions in 2009. Kicking off the year was Arts Club’s production of The Constant Wife, W. Somerset Maugham’s Roaring Twenties-era comedy of manners. A classy middle finger to the notion that women should be reliant on men, this visually intoxicating, well-acted, and deeply subversive disguised-as-fluff comedy was further buoyed by leading lady Nicole Underhay’s portrayal of the nonchalant wife of a cheating doctor, and Moya O’Connell as her tough-as-nails spinster sister. At the opposite end of the theatrical spectrum — but no less effective — was Toronto-based playwright Linda Griffiths’s Victorian-era drama, Age of Arousal. A Touchstone Theatre Company and Arts Club collaboration, skillfully directed by Touchstone’s Katrina Dunn, Arousal explored feminism, women’s burgeoning sexual liberation, and the delicate balance of power between lovers Laara Sadiq and Susan Hogan. Ruby Slippers Theatre’s A Beautiful View featured a powerhouse Colleen Wheeler and Ruby Slippers co-founder Diane Brown blurring the line between friends and lovers. Capping off a phenomenal year in this area is Blackbird Theatre’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (currently running at The Cultch). Meg Roe lights up the stage as Honey, the young wife and comic foil to Gabrielle Rose’s wondrously venomous, gin-soaked Martha.

KIDS!

Well, they’re not really kids, but they are the relatively new kids on Vancouver’s theatre block. The past year offered a stellar showcase of up-and-coming theatre companies defying expectations to put on professional-quality productions that were both thought-provoking and pulsing with youthful energy. Itsazoo Theatre debuted resident playwright Sebastian Archibald’s modernized version of The Canterbury Tales. Entitled The Road to Canterbury, it was an entertaining and sly commentary on our muddy, modern society, with riffs on well-known Bob Dylan songs and jabs at our corporate culture, in much the way Geoffrey Chaucer’s Tales critiqued late medieval England. This was the group’s second summer using Queen Elizabeth Park as the setting for their special brand of roving theatre, hopefully signalling a new annual tradition to replace the summer meanderings of seemingly extinct production company Boca del Lupo. And Fighting Chance Productions — who in 2008 braved the not-so-biblical wrath of Westboro Baptist Church “God Hates Fags” pastor Fred Phelps for their production of The Laramie Project — literally shook the North Vancouver walls of the Presentation House with their brash and bold take on the ’90s Broadway hit, Rent.

SCENE STEALERS

Under Morris Panych’s direction, The Constant Wife was an immediate hit, but credit must be shared with Ken MacDonald and his Jessie Award-winning set design. All eyes were rivetted on the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage’s transformation into an Art Deco House & Home centrefold, featuring austere white pillars, rounded walls, and dreamlike sky-high windows. On a more economical and incongruous note, Vancouver playwright Andrew Templeton’s Fringe Fest hit Biographies of the Dead and Dying employed a rusted cast-iron bathtub as the centrepiece of its bare-bones set. Whether director Jeremy Waller envisioned some sort of overarching metaphor for his salvage-yard find or merely picked it up on a whim, watching cast members Heather Lindsay and Simon Driver lug it to and fro across the stage (or simulate violent sexual encounters on top of it) was, to say the least, unforgettable. But sometimes it’s the smallest details that stand out, even when watching an overblown musical comedy. Such was the case with Playhouse Theatre’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in which a boardwalk bicycle transformed itself into the roulette wheel of a French Riviera casino. You may have missed the moment if you blinked, and yet, for those fortunate enough to catch it, it encapsulated in miniature all the innovation, wonder, and surprise that live theatre can offer.

The Road to Canterbury

My review for The Road to Canterbury. Check it out at Queen Elizabeth Park.

THE ROAD TO CANTERBURY

By Andrea Warner

To Aug. 21 at Queen Elizabeth Park (33rd & Cambie), 7 pm (meet at the Bloedel Conservatory). Tickets $10-$17 from 604-221-6604.

Turning public spaces into theatres is one of the things the Itsazoo folks do best. Last year’s Grimm Tales took audiences over the hills and dales of Queen Elizabeth Park, satirizing the familiar (and often disturbing) fairy tales of our childhood. This year, they return to the same stomping grounds as Itsazoo’s resident playwright Sebastien Archibald tackles Geoffrey Chaucer’s sprawling English-lit epic and high-school staple, The Canterbury Tales. Re-imagining five of its most famous characters, including the Knight and the Lady of Bath, The Road to Canterbury cleverly incorporates contemporary pop songs and moments of brash humour, all the while making each story a broad social commentary on how fucked up life is.

The cast is up to — and seemingly eager for — the challenge of bearing the worldly burden Archibald has set out for them to carry. In this make-believe universe, the audience follows the Host (a thoroughly charming and inexhaustible Peter Carlone), as he leads the audience through the park like members of a Chaucerian tour group, pointing out landmarks of interest and areas allegedly graced by Chaucer himself. Five other actors are planted among the tourists, and are selected to compete in a Chaucer-inspired tale-telling contest. The Preacher (Colby Wilson), the Teacher (Katie Takefman), the Dowager (Ella Simon), the Mercenary (Jason Moldowan, boasting a beautiful voice), and the Bohemian (Amitai Mormorstein) each get their turns spinning yarns that reference everything from the economic crisis to body-image obsession to racial profiling. Each actor is responsible for playing numerous characters in every remarkable, refreshing, wholly immersive vignette.

The stories range from black humour to bleak, with a finale that’s thoroughly jarring. One of the city’s best young playwrights, Archibald’s voice is a welcome throwback to rabble rousers like Bertold Brecht — though perhaps not quite as nuanced yet. He’s spent the last year echoing the social discontent of the masses (as with his corporate satire, Death of a Clown), but his work never feels like it’s trumpeting the death knell of civilization. Even Canterbury’s final scene, set to a reworded Bob Dylan classic, “The Times They Are Not Changing,” feels like a call to action.

And, since the show ends at the bottom of the Queen Elizabeth Mountain, righteous indignation is welcome fuel for the hike back uphill.

Four Course Meal

My review of Four Course Meal appears in this week's WE.

Ryan Hauser (left)and Sebastien Archibald in Four Course Meal.

Credit: Supplied

Four Course Meal
By Andrea Warner

ITSAZOO Productions, a Victoria-based non-profit theatre company, has a reputation for presenting innovative theatre in wildly inventive settings. The group made its Vancouver debut this past summer with Grimm Tales, which turned Queen Elizabeth Park into the secret enclave of fairytale characters with more problems than an entire season of Jerry Springer rejects. The company’s youthfulness (the founders are a few fresh-from-UVic-theatre grads) makes its accomplishments all the more rewarding.

Four Course Meal, the company’s second offering of its first full season in Vancouver, incorporates four one-act plays, all of them written by a variety of new voices. The evening starts off on a tasty note with the quaint fairytale, Milmish. The titular character is part frog, part human, whose parents disagree about how best to socialize her in the “new world,” where most children are perfect, conceived through the “miracle” of mail-ordered gene-selection. The cast is funny and sweet, and Colby Wilson’s particularly hilarious turn as the professor is not to be missed.

Baggage, the second piece, is at turns brilliant and vulgar, but it’s the most nuanced and accomplished of the four. Written and directed by Sebastien Archibald (writer of Grimm Tales), it depicts the entirety of an imagined relationship between two people who have just met, plus all of the hang-ups, insecurities, and, well, baggage that have brought them to this point. It’s hilarious and heartbreaking.

The second half, unfortunately, falls flatter than a soufflé cooked in the midst of a demolition derby. Indiana Jones and the Wannabe Nemeses is a one-man show that strives to be meaningful, deep, and funny, but comes off as bitter, manipulative, and boring. Five Red Balloons fares better, but its high-concept meditation on the inherent evil of man feels more emo than avant-garde. The cast is great, but overall, the piece never resonates as loudly as its writer clearly wishes it would.

Ultimately, Four Course Meal isn’t quite ready to serve as is. But, given the lively sparkle of the first half of the evening, this might be an exercise in restraint: the company offers a lower admission fee if you want to see just the first two acts. Practice quality over quantity and get your dessert somewhere else.

Grimm Tales

My review of Grimm Tales appears in this week's WE.

‘Grimm Tales’ mines the macabre in children’s lit

By Andrea Warner

They say youth is wasted on the young. Try telling that to the innovative crew behind Grimm Tales, a loved and lauded play from Victoria, who are now chasing each other from scene to scene through one of Vancouver’s most challenging new “venues.” Perhaps only a fledgling theatre company like ITSAZOO would be so ballsy as to stage a two-hour walking play through the manicured but steep terrain at Queen Elizabeth Park. (Word to the wise: wear comfortable shoes to fully embrace this wacky forest of fun.)

Grimm Tales, written by Sebastien Archibald, who is also part of the ensemble, revisits the most traumatic, familiar, and eyebrow-raising of fairytales. The tales on their own are often macabre and scary — complex lessons in morality, ethics, and evil. It’s like CNN, but with better writing.

In Grimm Tales’ twisted take, Hansel and Gretel are tour guides through the Enchanted Woods, a dark place that’s home to a multitude of strange people, all of them looking for a happy ending. Funny, cute, and nicely paced, it works like a well-oiled machine, entertaining adults and kids alike. Under Chelsea Haberlin’s direction, the talented cast keeps everything moving at breakneck speed.

Ryan Hesp’s Prince craves adventure and has an insatiable eye for the ladies, constantly finding himself engaged to needy princesses. Hesp brings great moments of humour to his arrogant and entitled alter-ego. Peter Carlone is suitably creepy as Fred, the sinister fellow based on the story of Bluebeard, who warns his ladylove not to look inside his secret room. Carlone also plays band member Donkey with a gleeful dazedness. Ingrid Hansen’s physical transformation into the Cat is a neat combination of hands curling into paws and long legs moving with feline agility.

If watching Colby Wilson and Katie Hood interact as German siblings Hansel and Gretel doesn’t bring a smile to your face, check for a heartbeat — their enthusiasm is contagious. Wilson’s comedic timing and off-handed improv style elicit bursts of unrestrained laughter, particularly when catching the small bits he mutters offhandedly. His wide, innocent eyes and loose attachment to his accent are incredibly charming. Hood is a tiny terror, and she perfectly captures the older-sister vibe, half-heartedly attempting to reel in Hansel’s impulsive whimsy, playing the perfect straight woman. She gets to show off her kick-ass girl power as well, as she questions why only pretty girls get happy endings before facing off against her evil stepmother in the candy-coated gingerbread house.

Some of the fairytale adaptations are particularly ingenious: The Princess and the Frog is given a modern twist to mock society’s predilection for reality television — it’s knowing and clever without being too moralistic. The Bluebeard adaptation is a curious inclusion, since it’s unlikely to ring familiar to most people, but it’s so supremely creepy and dark that it stands out as one of the play’s most memorable moments. Plus, some of the female characters that get short shrift in the original versions of these stories are now empowered 21st-century types. (But only some. Others are firmly rooted in a permanently shallow state.)

The ragtag group of musicians that follows the action of each vignette make for a great addition to Grimm Tales. The band is composed of animals casually referred to as Puss, Buns, Cock, and Ass (though not credited as such in the program), and it’s this sly combination of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll that glides over little ones’ heads and right into the heart of the dirty 12-year-old inside us all.

That lack of finesse sometimes extends to Grimm Tales’ unsubtle social commentary, which needs more refinement so that the play feels less like a PSA. Set in a war-torn Enchanted Woods, the peasants are starving while the King feasts. The King has also paved over nature, reared a shallow and shrill daughter, and boasts a Southern accent. And the band’s politics, while funny, segues into a ‘Don’t Do Worms’ (which is to say, drugs) campaign that feels a bit tired.

Grimm Tales is an eventful walk in the woods, made far more interesting by its myriad moments of magic and malice — a welcome end to the summer theatre season.