Day: April 23, 2018

“Blink” An Unblinking Look At The Pitfalls Of Electronic Romance

Posted by Jamie Portman | 23rd Apr 2018 | Canada, Review |

Blink by Phil Porter, A Plosive production. Directed by Teri Loretto-Valentik Back in another era, dramatist Harold Pinter used to contend that his often enigmatic plays were really about the breakdown of communications between human beings. But that was well before the dawning of a new electronic age, before the advent of smartphones and digital cameras, Twitter and Facebook. A play like Phil Porter’s Blink wouldn’t have been conceivable a couple of decades ago. Its vision of the way people choose to communicate would have seemed the stuff of science fiction. Yet the piece now on view in an...

“Pressure” at The Park Theatre: New Play on D-Day

Posted by Aleks Sierz | 23rd Apr 2018 | United Kingdom, London, Acting, Review |

There are few things more British than talking about the weather. What makes this play about a meteorologist interesting, however, is its historical setting: the eve of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Although stories from the Second World War are hardly a rarity in contemporary British culture, this one is fascinatingly original and arrives at the Park Theatre after a national tour, having originally been seen at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum and Chichester in 2014. Already on its way to the West End, it is a huge personal triumph for actor and writer David Haig, who stars in...

Bearing Down On The Bechdel Test: Laurie Fyffee At The Ergo Arts Pink Festival!

Posted by Laurie Fyffe | 23rd Apr 2018 | Canada, Festivals, Playwriting, Theatre and Gender, News |

In 2017, I came across the Ergo Arts Pink Festival with a mandate as follows: “Ergo Pink Fest is a 3-day theatre festival of staged readings in Toronto conceived and hosted by Ergo Arts Theatre. The idea for the festival was formed when Ergo Arts Theatre’s Artistic Director, Anna Pappas, read in the 2015 Equity in Theatre study by the Playwrights Guild of Canada that: The greatest disparity in gender equity happens in the playwright category. While some progress has been made over the past two years in changing the dominant voice in theatre, Ergo Arts is committed to continuing the push forward toward equitable and...

The Making and Breaking of a Tyrant: “Dhaad” New Play from India

Posted by Diwan Singh Bajeli | 23rd Apr 2018 | India, Theatre and Gender, Review |

At the ongoing Theatre Olympics, Gujarati play Dhaad brought to fore the making and breaking of a tyrant Jashwant Thaker Memorial Foundation, Ahmedabad brought to the 8th Theatre Olympics Dhaad in Gujarati. It was remarkable for its stark realism about the life of a brute dacoit and his three wives subjected by the dacoit to merciless cruelties. The rich production values, the aptly cast production, and the thrilling dances made the production arresting. Written by Vinesh Antani and directed by seasoned actress and director Aditi Desai, the play is set in the desert of Kutch. Living in a barren landscape with little means...