For thirty years, Players’ Theatre has played host to the annual McGill Drama Festival. The 2018 edition featured six student-written, -directed, -produced, and -performed plays, with three running each night. Tackling themes ranging from religious fanaticism to quarter-life crises, these plays exhibited an energetic, bold diversity representative of Montreal student[Read More…]
Theatre
Poignant opera on the Kennedy family debuts in Canada
An opera in three acts, JFK offers a compelling insight into the private lives of the fabled Kennedy family. A collaborative undertaking by the Opéra de Montréal, the Fort Worth Opera, and the American Lyric Theater, JFK is a personal drama exploring the costs of being a public figure. The narrative traces[Read More…]
AUTS’ ‘Into the Woods’ offers comical and action-packed escapism
Lately, it seems we’re all forced to face a little darkness every day. When the sun sets at 4 p.m., and January feels never-ending, students can use a good chuckle and a few dance numbers—all of which the Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society (AUTS) provides in spades with its wonderfully charming[Read More…]
TNC’s FUSE finds meaning in confusion
Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre’s (TNC) FUSE is a confusing play. It includes little in terms of conventional plot structure or character development, and several days after seeing it, I am still having a hard time knowing what to make of it. If you like linear narratives and happy endings, this play[Read More…]
Rhinoceros tramples into Players’ Theatre
Rhinoceros begins with stillness. While the rest of the production is full of chaotic and frantic energy, the play opens simply, with all seven cast members onstage, clad in identical white jumpsuits, eyes closed, exemplifying the ideal tabula rasa—a blank slate. As a green light dims, Berenger, played by Emily Sheeran[Read More…]
‘The Cradle Will Rock’ offers a snapshot of American socialist history
The McGill English Department’s production of The Cradle Will Rock will show Thursday, Nov. 30 to Saturday, Dec. 4. at Moyse Hall. Today, Marc Blitzstein’s musical The Cradle Will Rock (1937) is remembered not for its content, but for the outrage sparked by its original production. Directed by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane),[Read More…]
‘Fables’ teaches us about the beauty in life’s relationships
One of the most beautiful aspects of life is our ability to form relationships with the people around us. Whether they be platonic, professional, or romantic, these relationships shape who we are and determine who we will become. Players’ Theatre’s production of Fables explores interpersonal dynamics. Canadian playwright Jackie Torrens depicts[Read More…]
McGill’s first all black play tackles injustice with poetry without mincing words
“I was missin’ something,” begins Munyaradzi Guramatunhu’s note, introducing her rendition of the play for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf in Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre’s (TNC) black and white program. “Something so important, something that ought to exist.” Though the words were adapted from the play’s[Read More…]
“The Violet Hour” provides marginalized voices with a spooky platform
The Violet Hour, founded by Christopher DiRaddio, is a bi-monthly reading series that showcases both established and emerging LGBTQ writers and performers. The reading series gives a platform to otherwise marginalized voices. Hosted in the Montreal Gay Village’s Stock Bar, attendees were also given the option to participate in a[Read More…]
Cristina Cugliandro’s spin-off adaptation asks pertinent questions
Montreal-based director Cristina Cugliandro, co-founder of Odd Stumble Theatre, is staging What Happened After Nora Left Her Husband on Nov. 3 and 4. A part of Imago Theatre’s forthcoming Her Side of the Story: Revision to Resist theatre festival, taking place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5, Cugliandro’s story holds relevance[Read More…]
