Category Archives: shaw festival

TOP GIRLS, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, THE BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC AND A VEGAN WEEKEND AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL PART I

Posted on July 28, 2015 by strecker

Photo by David Cooper Top Girls Not long ago, I met a university student who very confidently declared, “I like Stephen Harper.” “And why is that?” I asked, incredulous. “Because he gets things done,” was his answer. “And at what … Continue reading →

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SWEET CHARITY AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL: ENERGY WITH A HUMAN HEART

Posted on July 18, 2015 by strecker

In the Shaw Festival production of Sweet Charity, director Morris Panych and his impressive cast reach under the stylized and safely distant entities that musical characters can easily become and find there a vibrant and unforced humanity. I took almost … Continue reading →

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IBSEN’S THE LADY FROM THE SEA AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL: ANOTHER MUST-SEE GEM IN THE COURTHOUSE THEATRE

Posted on July 3, 2015 by strecker

A naked woman lies atop a solitary, eroded, but commanding rock formation. A duet of female voices is gradually consumed by an electronic soundscape. The woman turns away from the spirit-dominating darkness around her and, looking toward us, seems consumed … Continue reading →

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LAUGHTER UNCONFINED: SHAW’S YOU NEVER CAN TELL AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL TO OCTOBER 25

Posted on June 12, 2015 by strecker

A few seconds of animation footage of a boat directed full speed ahead at the audience, a floating inflated fish and bubbles ascending merrily, and one feels present here the spirit, perhaps, of Terry Gilliam of Monty Python days. And … Continue reading →

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THE PHILADELPHIA STORY: MOYA O’CONNELL CLAIMS TRACY LORD AS HER OWN

Posted on August 15, 2014 by strecker

On the day of Tracy Lord’s second shot at marriage, we have a diverse bunch of mostly upper crust folks before us. Little sister Dinah is played bubbly with existence and prone to mispronunciation, in her saddle shoes, by Tess … Continue reading →

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A POIGNANT AND FINELY MODULATED JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL

Posted on August 15, 2014 by strecker

These are poor people in “the Boyle family’s two-roomed flat in a tenement house in Dublin,1922” and at the outset of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, Marla McLean as daughter Mary spiffs up her shoes with her bare hand. … Continue reading →

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A LOVELY SUNDAY FOR CREVE COEUR BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Posted on August 15, 2014 by strecker

The stage brightens up twice for Tennessee Williams’ A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, first through Louise Guinand’s lighting design and then, again, with the appearance of Deborah Hay as vulnerable Dorothea. Dorothea is wide-eyed and comically light doing her … Continue reading →

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SMALL TOWN SNOBBERY AND SCANDAL IN SHAW FESTIVAL’S WHEN WE ARE MARRIED

Posted on August 12, 2014 by strecker

Three decidedly Yorkshire couples, with each celebrating twenty five years of matrimonial union, are informed that, officially, they are not married. Prior to this shattering revelation, pretty devastating stuff for when the play takes place, it has been obvious to … Continue reading →

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THE CHARITY THAT BEGAN AT HOME: CAST AND DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NEWTON IN BRILLIANT FORM AS THE SHAW FESTIVAL RETRIEVES A FORGOTTEN GEM

Posted on August 5, 2014 by strecker

If The Sea, though first produced in 1973, is set in 1907, the rarely produced The Charity that Began at Home by St John Hankin, another theatrical gem at the 2014 Shaw Festival, was actually mounted on stage a year … Continue reading →

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THE PHILANDERER BY SHAW AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL: “I LAUGHED WITH DELIGHT FROM BEGINNING TO END”

Posted on August 5, 2014 by strecker

OR THIS….. For maybe four decades, on every trip to London, I have made it a point to visit the National Portrait Gallery and sink, each time, into the gaze of one or two different female subjects who hang there … Continue reading →

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