Entertainment & media
Passion and Performance presents “The Jungle Room”
The Jungle Room, this year’s endeavor of Passion and Performance’s Production Class, hits stages this weekend in Victoria and Duncan, and next month in Kelowna. This piece, with show assembly, story creation, and theatrical direction by Rachel Paish, and choreography by Rachel Paish, Carlene Brick and Jocelyn Johnson, is a full-length narrative dance piece which…
Preview: Broken Rhythms presents “ThySelf”
I recently had the opportunity to attend the preview showing of ThySelf, the latest piece by Victoria-based indie dance company Broken Rhythms. In this new work, the company’s artistic director and choreographer Dyana Sonik-Henderson explores themes of anxiety, identity, self-sabotage, and self-discovery. After the performance, Sonik-Henderson and the six ThySelf dancers (Carlene Brick, Jessica Round,…
Fingersmith: Dickens, but with lesbians and good pacing
I came to Sarah Waters’ 2002 historical crime thriller Fingersmith having already seen Park Chan-wook’s South Korean film adaptation The Handmaiden, which is (loosely) based on the book. While the movie was excellent, I do have to wonder if seeing it first did me something of a disservice. To truly be enjoyed, Fingersmith’s twisting, intricate…
Review: Company C’s “Cabaret”
Company C, the third-year student group at the Canadian College of Performing Arts, presents Cabaret, a sensuous tale of art and love in Germany’s interwar period. Cabaret is the story of Berlin in 1931, examining its inhabitants both native and expatriate as they grapple with the reality of their lives amid the rise of fascism….
A World Not Made for Me: Review of “Gender Failure”
At 5:00pm I began to read a book. Not because I was personally compelled, but because it was an assignment for a class I was taking; an elective class no less, optional. I began reading Gender Failure because I had a deadline the next morning. The class was supposed to discuss our chosen book with…
Review: Langham Court Theatre’s “Les Belles-Soeurs”
Langham Court Theatre recently presented a three-week run of Michel Tremblay’s 1965 play Les Belles-Soeurs. In this production, under the clear and bold direction of Judy Treloar, fourteen local actresses give a strong interpretation of this staple of Canadian theatre. While previously performed at Langham in 1997, the piece originally premiered in Montreal in 1968,…
Review: Arleen Paré’s “The Girls with Stone Faces”
It is a challenging feat to find the words to describe poetry as inspired as Arleen Paré’s. Her work defies description; it wants to be read, not explained. Paré holds the English language in her hand and wraps it around her reader with a profound kindness. Reading her work feels like coming home.
Review: Bitch Planet’s brash, in-your-face feminism is what dystopian lit needed
If you thought writer Kelly Sue DeConnick’s take on Captain Marvel was “too feminist,” Bitch Planet is going to give you an ulcer.
Review: Atomic Vaudeville’s “The Rocky Horror Show LIVE”
Richard O’Brien’s rambunctious, unruly, bawdy cult-favourite The Rocky Horror Show returns to the Metro Studio Theatre this fall under the deft and assured direction of Britt Small.
Review: Langham Court’s “Girl in the Goldfish Bowl”
A young girl wears a diving mask and a Catholic-school uniform. Music swells as she swims around the stage, which is a surreal mélange of seascape and 1960s’ living room, complete with huge stands of seaweed in lieu of houseplants and dock posts in lieu of stair rails. Everything is awash in blue light. So…
