Potted Potter - Theatre Review

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Potted Potter - Theatre Review

I like reviewing shows and doing a deep dive into the symbolism of sets and props, the nuances of language and the layers of a performance. I like getting tangled up in the author’s intentions and how that plays out in the process from page to stage. I like the depth, in other words; it’s the complexity of a theatrical piece or a work of art that gets to me. 

Every once in a while, however, something comes along that is simple, uncomplicated, and absolutely perfect that way. That’s Potted Potter, a rather twee-named show that promises to recap all seven Harry Potter books in seventy hilarious minutes. Spoiler alert - the show is seventy minutes, and it’s hilarious. It delivers exactly what it promises, no more, no less, with a joyous exuberance that’s completely lacking in snideness or cynicism. It’s already one of my favourites of the year. 

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Mixie & The Halfbreeds – Theatre Review

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Mixie & The Halfbreeds – Theatre Review

A woman stands centre stage, wearing a gaudy circus ringmaster’s jacket and a giant banana on her head. Her gaze is direct and frank, even confrontational, as she asks us - a slightly nervous audience packed into a garage-like black box of a theatre - just how offensive we find her costume. It’s a banana, you see. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. The audience squirms a little but is silent. We’re good audience members. We know not to disturb the performers. But the woman in the ringmaster’s jacket doesn’t let up. “So you’re okay with banana? What about halfie? Hapu? Halfbreed?” Cautious hands start to go up and then go right back down again, held tight in laps. The woman with the banana on her head turns to her companion, a woman wearing a similar jacket and a headdress shaped like a fried egg and says, “Really tolerant audience tonight, isn’t it?”

Just like that, the tension breaks, and everyone laughs. Mixie and the Halfbreeds is a play that builds around doubling, contrasts, and opposites - tension and release, realism and symbolism, white and Other. For all that the confrontation I’ve described seems loaded, Mixie is actually a charming, playful, delightfully weird show about the experience of being mixed race. Written, directed by, and starring mixed-race women, the show was originally staged in 2009 and has been updated to be more reflective of the 2018 experience of being both white and Asian. Although the mixed experience clearly isn’t exclusive to that combination, the fu-GEN Theatre Company brings Asian-Canadian voices to the forefront as part of its mandate.

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The Illusionists: Live from Broadway - Theatre Review

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The Illusionists: Live from Broadway - Theatre Review

Professional magic is serious business. 

Magic is a highly competitive field, with performers jealously guarding their techniques and participating in high-stakes competitions. There’s intense self-promotion and branding and a kind of swaggering machismo in this very male-dominated art form, and if I asked you - quick! - to name a modern magician/illusionist, I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the first person that came into your head was Criss Angel, better known for his broody, Goth-y persona than for sunshine and lollipops. 

It was a pleasant surprise to me, then, that The Illusionists: Live From Broadway was so much fun. Seven headliners give us a solid evening’s worth of pure entertainment, doing acts that have very different definitions of what “magic” is. The feeling that links them all, though, is amazement - a pure, exhilarating rush of OMG what did I just see? that far too many adults are missing in their lives. The audience was a mix of magic newbies and dedicated fans, but all of us participated in the same delightful suspension of disbelief.

As you approach the Princess of Wales Theatre, you’ll notice the abundance of promotional material for the show, mostly atmospheric pictures of seven men that could be Doctor Who (quirky suits, funky hair, guyliner,  and so many frock coats. Never let it be said that magic isn’t the most flamboyant of the stage arts). Once settled in your seat, though, you’ll find that many of the performers have a very warm and engaging stage presence. Darcy Oake, who goes by the stage name of The Grand Illusionist, has a very hard-rock aesthetic - leather, tattoos, driving electrical guitar solos - but in one of the most delightful moments of the show, he came down to the front row and made a card appear inside a bottle for an astounded ten-year-old. The glee he took in her obvious wonder made it clear that Oake is still a geeky kid from Winnipeg fascinated by his dad’s card tricks. (Then he made a motorbike appear out of literally nowhere, so perhaps the rock-star analogy is still a good fit for him.) 

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Theatre Review

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Theatre Review

It's not often that I see a show that sends me straight to the internet to look for other people's opinions. I like to see a production without added bias, experience it directly, and try to express to you, my readers, how it felt to be there, what it was like to be immersed in the experience. But this play requires something a little more, because this is a story that has a neuro-atypical person as its lead character, and everything in this magnificently produced show is meant to show us how he moves through the world. 

I'm neuro-typical – that is, my brain works in roughly the same way as those of most people in my culture. Christopher Boone, the heart of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is not. He is fifteen years old, loves animals, math, and machines, and doesn't like to be touched. He embodies some stereotypes about autistic people and is, at the same time, a unique and very real person. His story is one of the struggles and growth that come with growing up and leaving the safety of what's known, and it's also about living in a world that's not made for you. For this reason, I think it's really important that I include the voices of people who actually are on the autism spectrum as I tell you about this show, because it's a beautiful and innovative piece of theatre that I hope will raise questions in the audience about recognizing and acknowledging other voices. And I hope you see it, because whether you're a regular theatre-goer or more of a once-in-blue-moon viewer, I guarantee you won't have seen anything like this. 

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Party Today, Panic Tomorrow - Review

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Party Today, Panic Tomorrow - Review

Theatre is a funny business, funny both in the amusing sense and in the weird sense. Second City’s latest revue, Party Today, Panic Tomorrow, is a blunt instrument of a show that is loud, unapologetic, political and fierce. Unlike the more cerebral and brainy Everything is Great Again, the current show has a more frenzied feel about it. It’s more physical, more hard-hitting, and takes more risks. There are parts that will make you feel decidedly uncomfortable and parts that will leave you scratching your head. And I absolutely loved it. It may not be for everyone, but it was for me. 

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