From exploring dusty old houses in A Farce About Time Travel to a complicated reunion with old friends (or more than friends) in Coping Mechanisms, the McGill Drama Festival (MDF) had something for everybody. With prizes handed out for Best Script and Best Directing, the festival’s only real loser was[Read More…]
Tag: Student Theatre
‘Medea’ perfectly blends classical tragedy with the contemporary
Continuing its acclaimed annual tradition, the McGill Department of History and Classical Studies held its McGill Classics Play, Medea from Feb. 5-8 at the Mainline Theatre. This classical text, written by Euripides, is a sequel to Jason and the Argonauts—the Ancient Greek myth where he finds the golden fleece. This time,[Read More…]
Gilbert and Sullivan remain fresh in ‘The Gondoliers’
Gilbert and Sullivan are ubiquitous in the theatre world and beyond. Their songs appear in television shows both in their original form and in parody, in shows like Star Trek and Family Guy. Yet while other productions play with their time period, projecting plot and characters into modern scenarios, much of the charm[Read More…]
Tuesday Night Café Theatre hosts 24-Hour Playwriting Competition
The competition’s rules are straightforward: Twenty-four hours to write a play, 24 more to rehearse, followed by their performance. On Jan. 25, an eager audience filled up the Tuesday Night Café theatre, witnessing four concise and fully-realized plays. Each performance ran about 20 minutes. Sam Katz, U0 Arts, directed the[Read More…]
‘Ti-Jean and His Brothers’ brings Satan to centre stage at TNC
Tuesday Night Café’s (TNC) performance of Ti-Jean and His Brothers, a modern Caribbean folktale written by Derek Walcott and premiered at Morrice Hall on Oct. 16, is enticingly bizarre. The production is the first of the year from the entirely student-run theatre company and features plenty of up-and-coming actors from[Read More…]
McGill Drama Festival showcases all that McGill student theatre has to offer
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…]
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…]
‘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…]
