SHANIQUA IN ABSTRACTION - REVIEW OF WATSON’S PLAY AT CROW’S THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

Shaniqua in Abstraction is a new play written and performed by bahia watson. It is a solo performance and watson deserves huge credit for a bravura performance. Shaniqua is a woman of mixed race with blond hair and dreadlocks. watson takes on half a dozen or more personalities from a modern woman to a nineteenth century slave, to a young mother and microphone-in-hand performer. She adopts different accents, does dance steps and acts with ferocious energy when necessary and more quietly when need be. The performance lasts about 75 minutes without intermission.    

bahia watson as Shaniqua. Photo by Roya DelSol

What the play is about is more difficult to describe. “In abstraction” of the title may indicate that this is not a straight narrative about Shaniqua. There is much said about black and mixed-race women in an impressionistic way so that we get  numerous vignettes but rarely a concrete picture. Watson deals with the relations between black men and white women, black men and black women and white men with black women.

Like a chameleon, watson takes us through the time periods indicated above and the different personalities but being an abstract or an impressionistic portrait there is no coherent narrative. It often sounded like a stream-of-consciousness recitation of memories, or expressions of thoughts that went through Shaniqua’s mind that she shared with us.

The production is done in the small Studio Theatre and there is liberal use of lighting effects and projected videos including some news reports about black women. Warson wears an orange exercise outfit and portrays the many facets of Shaniqua's life or the lives of black and mixed-colour women but the details provided are too numerous, quick and opaque for me to retain more than an impression of what I was watching.

The set by Echo Zhou consists of a chair and a bench with the rear of the stage  used for projections  of shimmering lights, videos of news reports and some titles designed by Kimberly Purteil.

watson’s performance is worth seeing, otherwise be prepared for impressionistic, abstract, stream-of-consciousness theatre.   

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Shaniqua in Abstraction by bahia watson. a Crow’s Theatre production in association with   paul watson productions and Obsidian Theatre Company,  continues until April 28, 2024, in the Studio Theatre of Streetcar/Crowsnest Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/

ALL IS LOVE – REVIEW OF OPERA ATELIER’S ECLECTIC PRODUCTION OF LOVE SONGS AND MORE

Reviewed by James Karas

No one can overestimate the talents of Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg because you may praise them highly only to see your estimation needing to be amplified. And that’s one way of opening my review of their current production of All Is Love in Toronto. 

They do provide a gorgeous array of arias about love, mostly from the Baroque era with splendiferous daces  by the Artists of the Atelier Ballet. There are 19 pieces of arias and ballet segments that are done in about 75 minutes so exquisitely, that you simply want more. 

Henry Purcell, Handel and Rameau provide four compositions each and several composers from the Baroque era and up to the twentieth century complete the program. There are two pieces by Claude Debussy (the opening scene of Pelleas et Melisande and the haunting “Nuit d’étoiles”) as well as compositions by Charpentier, Reynaldo Hahn, Edwin Huizinga (who also performs his work for solo violin) and Matthew Locke,   

The gorgeously-voiced Measha Brueggergosman-Lee starts off the program with the All is Love, an aria described as a mix of Henry Purcell and Reynaldo Hahn, created specifically for Brueggergosman-Lee by Christopher Bagan (who is also the piano soloist). It is a perfect vehicle for her luscious voice with beautiful arching phrases in praise of sweet and mellow love. She also sings “Nuit d’étoiles”, a poignant reminiscence by their fountain and of her deceased lover whose blue eyes are the stars and the rose is his breath. A superb rendition of beauty in melancholy.

There are eight singers including Measha and they deserve a standing ovation which, together with the Artists of Atelier Ballet, they got.

 

Soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee with Eric Da Silva
 as Amour and Tyler Gledhill as Morpheus. Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Tenor Colin Ainsworth is a veteran singer with Opera Atelier and around the world. He sang “Plus j'observe ces lieux” from Rameau’s Armide and “Where’er you walk” from Handel’s Semele. In the latter aria Jupiter serenades his love Semele and assures her that wherever she sits the trees will crowd to provide her with shade. Beautifully done.

Baritone Jesse Blumberg as Jupiter robustly and authoritatively assures  the mortal Semele to “Lay your doubts and fears aside.” He also sings “L'heure Exquise” by Reynaldo Hahn and the title describes both the aria and Blumberg’s rendition of it.

Soprano Meghan Lindsay and Bass-baritone Douglas Williams perform the touching  opening scene of Pelleas and Melisande. Prince Golaud meets the distraught Melisande by a well in the forest. She is lost and he tries to help her, touchingly done by Lindsay and Williams. Lindsay and Cynthia Akemi Smithers sing the alluring “Two daughters of this aged stream” from Purcell’s King Arthur. The “daughters” try to lure Arthur to share pleasures with them but, like Odysseus and the Sirens, he resists them.

Mezzo-soprano Danielle MacMillan sings “Music for a While” from Purcell’s Oedipus. The melancholy aria assures the unfortunate king that music will beguile all his cares as MacMillan beguiled us. She also sings “Mi Lusinga il dolce affetto from Handel’s Alcina. Ruggiero sings that his beloved delights him but is there treachery as well? A moving and sad aria done by MacMillan.

Some of the arias have dancers participate and the  Artists of the Atelier Ballet perform between the vocal pieces. The choreography, as always and unfailingly beautiful  is by Zingg. 

The Tafelmusik orchestra, a sine qua non for Opera Atelier is conducted by David Fallis. And all adds up to a wonderful, magical evening.

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All is Love is being performed from April 11 to 14, 2024 at Koerner Hall in the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto. www.operaatelier.com/

THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK - REVIEW OF BALLET BY LEPAGE AND CÔTÉ

Reviewed by James Karas

“Who’s there?”

Those are the opening words of Shakespeare’s Hamlet but you will not hear them or any part of the text of the play in Robert Lepage and Guillaume Côté’s brilliant balletic version of the play, Lepage and Côté have codesigned the production and the former directs with the latter providing the choreography to the music composed by John Gzowski.

The story of Shakespeare’s play is danced for us by a corps of nine dancers who must convey through movement in 100 minutes what the bard needed several hours to achive.  It is a fascinating, intriguing and superb production that never lags and always fascinates.

The spare use of surtitles gives us a clue as to what part of the play is being represented. Guillaume Côté as Hamlet dominates the production and we see the Prince as a disturbed young man with his friend Horatio (Natasha Poon Woo), his father’s murderer Claudius (Robert Glumbek), in the furious scene with his mother Gertrude (Greta Hodgkinson) and of course Ophelia (Carleen Zouboutes).

The hot-headed Laertes is danced by Lukas Malkowski and Polonius is done by Bernard Meney. The clownish Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are handled by Connor Mitton and Willem Sadler respectively.

We witness the angry scene in Gertrude’s bedroom where Polonius is mistaken for Claudius, killed and his body is dragged out by Hamlet. Ophelia’s drowning is shown with her fighting against a shimmering sheet, a very effective illustration of her death that we do not see in Shakespeare.

The final scene with the sword fight between Laertes and Hamlet is also shown and we see Claudius’ attempt to have Hamlet poisoned by Laertes’s sword. The stage is strewn with bodies in the end with Horatio as the only survivor.

I cannot comment on the quality of the dancing (I am a theatre critic with scant knowledge of the intricacies of ballet) except to acknowledge its beauty and effectiveness in conveying the story of the Danish prince in a different media with extraordinary beauty and emotional impact.

The largely dark costumes designed by Michael Gianfrancesco and Monika Onoszko convey the bleakness and tragedy of the prince and the entire situation where only one person survives. I would have preferred some more differentiation among the costumes to help identify the characters more readily but it is a small matter.

Gzowski’s music is moving, dramatic, approachable and splendid work that deserves a much bigger audience.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Demark is a big and complex undertaking. This was its first production and it played for only five performances. It is a moving, dramatic and splendid work that deserves a much bigger audience.

Who’s there? Well, it’s a brilliant version of a familiar work.

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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark designed by Robert Lepage and Guillaume Côté, directed by Lepage and choreographed by Côté for Groundbreaking Dance Theatre Productions, Showone Productions et. al. played between April 3 and 7, 2024 at the Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge Street, Toronto.

 

RED VELVET - REVIEW OF ARTS CLUB THEATRE PRODUCTION IN VANCOUVER

Reviewed by James Karas

Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti tells the dramatic story of an American black actor doing Othello in London in the 1830’s. The actor was Ira Aldridge who was successful across Europe but in England he met bigotry and critical opposition on a massive scale and despite his popularity was drummed out of that country. He found great success on the continent and died in Poland in 1867.

English actor and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti has written a paean to Aldridge and the play has received a redoubtable production by the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver. Quincy Armorer plays Aldridge with finesse and resonance. We see the great actor in old age in Poland, cantankerous and arrogant and as a young man called upon to replace the great Edmund Kean. He gained recognition as a great dramatic actor but also attracted the opprobrium of the critics and much of the theatrical establishment.

The play opens in Poland where Halina (Tess Degenstein, who also plays Betty and Margaret Aldridge), a young reporter tries to interview the impatient star. The scene opens with the characters speaking German (or was it Polish?). It is annoying and unnecessary but that is the fault of the author and not of the production.

Quincy Armorer, Nathan Kay, Anthony F. Ingram, 

Kyla Ward, and Lindsey Angell in Red Velvet,.

 Photo by Moonrider Productions for the Arts Club Theatre Company

The stage boards open creating a large hole in which a part of the set is lowered and we next see Aldridge in London. He meets the cast of Othello where he is stepping in as a replacement for Edmund Kean. The deep-rooted prejudices and perhaps loyalty to Kean of the English cast against the newcomer becomes obvious. The most vehement opponent to Aldridge is the arrogant and vicious Charles Kean, the son of Edmund. Sebastien Archibald gives an outstanding performance, nose up in the air, of unrelenting hatred and superiority.

Lindsey Angell plays Ellen Tree, the fiancée of Charles Kean and Desdemona to Aldridge’s Othello. In a superb performance, Ellen becomes attracted to Aldridge and realizes the quality of his interpretation. Aldridge believes in a more realistic approach to the Moor with fewer melodramatic hand motions.

John Emmet Tracy plays Pierre Laporte, the theatre manager and Aldridge’s friend who is forced by management to fire the popular performer, we know, because he is black. There is a riveting scene where Laporte tries to defend the indefensible in the face of Aldridge’s powerful but useless arguments against his dismissal.

The vicious racist attacks on Aldridge in the press and some of the actors are more than management can endure and they decide irrevocably to close the theatre rather than continue with a production that is popular with the audience.

The set by Amir Ofek is excellent. Aldridge and his desk are lowered below the stage boards when the opening scene in Poland is over. Backstage in the theatre and Aldridge’s home scene are intelligently designed and we get the idea of a performance on stage.

Director Omari Newton handles everything judiciously and superbly. He illustrates the overdone acting of the early 19^th century as well as giving a fine reading of the play. The opening scene and the closing scene are unclear and unnecessarily unhelpful to the play. But one thing is clear in the final scene. Watching Aldridge putting gobs of white makeup on his face in preparation for playing King Lear is powerful and bitingly ironic.  Chakrabarti, it seems could not find a satisfactory beginning or ending, aside for the application of makeup by Aldridge. The rest of the play more than makes up for these glitches and are forgivable in a first play.

I should note that I saw the play in its final preview and consider it a polished performance.
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Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti will run until April 21, 2024, at Staley Industrial Alliance Stage, 2750 Granville St. Vancouver BC https://artsclub.com/shows/2023-2024/red-vel.

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press