If representational Modernism, as Linda Nochlin suggests, was constructed out of a sense of loss associated with the fragmented bodies of antiquity (Nochlin 8), the Postmodern is constructed out of the urge to gain from the fragmented bodies of the present. Fragmentation within the paradigm of Postmodernism no longer operates on a sense of lack →
Beginning earlier this year with the Police State performance art piece at Dundas Square – in response to what we witnessed during our participation in the G20 protests – Starla Bontecou and I initiated the Change Toronto Performance Series. We recently produced a follow-up piece for this project, turning our focus this time to the historical →
As a self-proclaimed “professional vagrant,” what the kinder people might call an “aspiring poet,” I’ve always been drawn to the performance of poetry. In Toronto there’s no shortage of poetry readings, book launches, and literary events to peak my interest. On weeknights they’re creeping up in every available bar and café that isn’t hosting your →
We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” (The Tempest, 4.1.156-158) With the upcoming release of Julie Taymor’s new film version of The Tempest, I have been thinking lately about Shakespeare and film adaptations. With the widespread adoration of the Bard and his texts, it →
(Please note: the following should be read with intensity, the occasional William Shatner style pause, and rather acrobatic arm movements) The sun sets on Streetsville- and its about to get real. A meeting of minds and mouths, meticulously masticating and spitting out words, almost unheard over the thundering of their own hearts- and this →
The 7a*11d collective, also known as Gale Allen, Annie Onyi Cheung, Shannon Cochrane, Paul Couillard, Jess Dobkin, Adam Herst, Johanna Householder, and Tanya Mars, are descending upon Toronto for the eighth time with the biennial 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art. With 30 local and international performance artists in tow, from October 21st to October →
As a professor of mine once blithely stated, there are only three things that need to occur for an act of theatre to exist: someone, someone doing something to someone else, and someone watching. That is the basis of all theatre, of all life, if one considers. Variety exists in the tone, mood, setting, character, →
We’re surrounded by one-man shows. Episodes of self-involvement have always plagued Toronto, and in election time it is especially present. Although a team of people are behind the political campaigns and speeches, it’s only ever one man we are drawn to. It is always just one man that the audience subjects itself to and we →
Recent performance art in Toronto often favours heteronomous platitudes rather than tackling lofty political subjects. If art can still be viewed as means to accessing truth, performance artists must direct their often jarringly absurd practices at Viagra soft tab no prescription those who enable and subsequently disable the art community from thriving. For those readers →
One of the most well-known concepts in theatre involves the ancient notion of the ‘well-made play’. This concept dates back to the ancient Greeks, a mode of theatre that is defined by a clear beginning, middle and end separated by interludes and all taking place in one location and in real time. That being said, →
Karl Dönitz, ich bin so glücklich, du hast keine 300 mehr Unterseeboots bin, es macht mich wollen lernen, Deutsch zu sprechen. Im Moment kann ich nur zufällig Beitrag in Übersetzern, die mehr oder weniger falsch sind, bieten aber die Freude, sofortige Befriedigung. Ist das nordamerikanischen von mir? Glaubst du, dass wenn Sie hatte 300 mehr →
Mortal Coil Performance Society | Photo by Curran Folkers “Three stilt-walking equine women in white, red and black emerge from nowhere. Amidst fluttering manes and floating silk draperies, the crowd is transported to a world between worlds.” Artist Statement | Mortal Coil Performance Society Oddly enough, experiencing Mortial Coil Performance Society’s Horse Women is exactly →
Electing to mercifully skip my year-old diatribe about how wonderful theatre festivals are, I will begin with a message to those of you who only recently starting reading me: I love theatre festivals. They are concentrated awesome. cheapest viagra uk They are where theatre begins; the hits of tomorrow, today. They are rugged, simple, and →
Rochdale: Livin’ the Dream Everyone’s heard tales of Rochdale College, Toronto’s infamous free-thinking, free-spirited, tuition-free college of the 60s. Residing in an 18-storey apartment building, it was Canada largest co-op housing program and a place for artistic exploration, political discussions, and guerilla academics. Trying to capture all that in a short Fringe show seems an →
Goddess! We seek creative harmony in your sweet, tragic paradox. Our city has fallen into blindness. Raise your mask and sweep from beneath us the demons of our frivolity! INT. GROUND FLOOR APARTMENT ON DUFFERIN – NIGHT The apartment is messy and two or three bugs dart from beneath the sofa. STARLA BONTECOU and THE →
It’s rush hour. You’re packed onto the subway like sardines in a can (with the same tinned-fish smell…). You’re doing your best not to look anyone in the eye, carefully fixating on the floor as you drown out the world with your ipod. As you’re exiting the train, someone bumps into you. You apologize (though →
“The self-image of Modernity that is rooted in bodily experience cannot wholly be grasped in this current preoccupation with the emblematic character of the body as a kind of social advertisement. In fact, the quality of embodiment is almost entirely lacking from this perspective. We might argue that this is rightly so; that Modernity is →
(NOTE: I was also set to review ‘If We Were Birds’ by Erin Shields and directed by Alan Dilworth, on now at the Tarragon Mainspace through May 23rd. Every time I tried to get tickets, however, the show was completely sold out. Encouraging, considering the workshop version I saw two years ago at the SummerWorks →
Last month the Paprika Festival served up some spicy dishes. Founded by Anthony Furey in 2002, Tarragon Theatre’s annual festival provides a unique opportunity for young artists to meet and be mentored by experienced playwrights. It’s actually Toronto’s only free theatre festival for young people, showcasing the talent of those under 21. With this year’s →
As long as there has been popular cinema in North America, there has been a tradition of adapting hits of the stage (especially Broadway) to the screen. Film producers regarded these theatre hits as sure-fire crowd pleasers in the cinema, and they set about committing them to celluloid and releasing them to a mass audience →
It’s always a pleasure when a performer takes a risk, when an artist throws him or herself into wholeheartedly into a project. It’s moments like this that make any kind of art exciting. It’s moments like this that have the potential to change the way the world thinks. Unfortunately, moments like this aren’t always successful. →
Jamee Valin is a veritable bundle of energy sitting cross-legged on the couch opposite me. Moments before she had finished giving final notes on the dress rehearsal of locked on SHUFFLE, Valence Movement’s premiere performance of dance theatre, which received a stunning response after its one-night run at the Winchester Theatre on March 10. In →
The transition from post-secondary education to what many call ‘the REAL WORLD’ is certainly one of the most terrifying concepts young people can face. In theatre school, students are constantly bombarded with the idea that they will never be employed, that they will live below the poverty line, that there is no work to be →
There is a world which exists somewhere between the living and the dead, the real and the surreal, the mundane and the absurd. This is the world in which reside the characters of And So it Goes, George F. Walker’s latest work for the stage which just finished an extended run at the Factory Theatre. →
Those of you who are regular readers of Steel Banana’s Theatre & Lifestyle section are aware of my admiration for the local festival circuit, as well as my high expectations for its role in advancing the state of contemporary Canadian theatre. These festivals bring together artists from all over the country, expose shows to audiences →
Most theatre practitioners (and thus I assume most theatre-goers) like to drink. For most of us it’s a bit of a hobby, so naturally when Mirvish announced that they’re allowing alcohol in their theatres this season I was excited. This combines two of my passions, fine art and fine liquor! Immediately my thoughts drifted to →
Men and women are different. Captain Obvious, right? I mean, everyone knows that. But what is it that makes us different? And why is it that we are different? And how do we define these differences? In fact, how to we define men and women? Sounds like I’m launching into a first-year gender studies class, →
Necessary Angel’s Hamlet, with its recent run at the Enwave Theatre as a part of Worldstage, might be the perfect example of why the world needs at least a ten year moratorium on everything Shakespeare. Don’t get me wrong, this production didn’t bring me to hate Shakespeare. It’s the quite opposite, as I am requesting →
‘Tis the season where commercialism and tinsel take over the city and people who are usually sane become superficially pious and even more obnoxious. The season where society expects you to see your family, even the distant relatives you don’t like, and your mother expects you to do all this with a smile. What’s worse? →
You’ve double take’d at enough adverts by know to know that yes, The Toxic Avenger: The Musical is both very real and very here in the city. After Evil Dead and Reefer Madness, the cult film to stage musical craze is one mad ball that will probably continue to roll. But before we see Manos: →
UNION STATION. Evening. Late summer, 1974. Lights up on a MAN, jeans, scruffy plaid shirt, brown jacket, either drivers cap or short-brimmed fedora perched on HIS head. Suspenders. HE speaks with the drawl and hard ‘R’s of a rural boy from Northern Ontario. HE is 21. HE must picture this GIRL. SHE is burned into →
I took last month off to write a horror-theatre themed article in light of the holiday we just celebrated. That was with regard to an entire genre of theatre; this month, I return to my specifically Canadian critiques. A theatre is a building, a space, a warehouse, any physical structure in which an act of →
Lately, I’ve been considering the possibilities of the universe. Put aside your skeptical post-postmodernist deconstructionist thinking, and consider. Doesn’t it seem ludicrous to assume we know all there is to know about the universe? Despite scientific developments, what we know about the universe is the equivalent of a grain of sand… that leaves billions of →
In the spooky vein of what I suppose is being considered the Metallic Fruit’s ‘Hallowe’en’ issue (that’s how it’s spelled; look it up), I have elected to do a little pondering about the absence of one particular literary genre from the theatrical stage: the genre of horror. While finding its home comfortably for centuries in →
A desk. A man. A radio. Come Together by the Beatles (Aerosmith cover) is heard. I’m telling you, I’m telling you, this is not the Beatles. No, listen – it’s not them! Does that sound like Lennon? Is that John fucking Lennon?! No. You’re a smart man, but you don’t know jack shit about music. →
What do you do when the people can’t come to the theatre? You bring the theatre to the people, of course. How do you do that? It takes guts, it takes gall. It takes reckless abandon. It takes disregard for one’s personal (and financial) well-being. Most of all, it takes an unparalleled dedication to one’s →
Okay guys, so here’s the plan: We get off at St. Andrew station, right? Or Osgoode – what’s closer? We head up to the street-train-thing. You get out your transfers and let me do all the talking. I’ll say, look buddy: these are my friends from out of town. I’m really drunk and forgot to →
More than anything else, the theatre is a community. It is an art form that necessarily involves more than one person working together to create something from nothing; professionals (or no) collaborating, working toward a common goal. It is not an easy industry to break into, and the financial rewards are never nearly enough, leading →
The following piece is being developed as part of “The Beer Show” by 91 Days Theatre Company. “The Beer Show” is intended for performance in a pub. Specifics of performance would depend on the configuration of the pub, but the best configuration would be a thrust performance space, with a section of the bar acting →
Sketch Youth is a wonderful collective which encourages homeless Toronto youth to find themselves through artistic endeavors. The organization is top-rate and its mandate is both unique and inspiring: it attempts to foster hope in a demographic that is often disregarded by the general public. Their collectively created theatre work, Sketch’in Toronto, has become a →
Canadians live in a culture of subscription. We constantly dole out incredible amounts of money for season tickets to watch our favourite local sports teams not make the playoffs… again. We subscribe to ideologies, to political theories. We subscribe, if we are slightly left, to the Toronto Star; if we are slightly right, to the →
If you want to tell the truth, the best way to do it is through comedy. If you want to make people laugh, the best way to do it is through comedy. If you want to write a play titled after psychotic genitalia, the best way to do that is through Fringe. And thus we →
One of the best parts of Fringe is the opportunities it creates for emerging artists, particularly for the playwrights who might otherwise write for years with nowhere to stage their new scripts. Katie Alguire is one of many young artists taking advantage of this in Toronto’s 2009 Fringe festival. As writer and producer of The →
Ah, the paradox of Fringe: on one hand we are finally given a willing audience for all our absurd experimental theatre (albeit for only two weeks); on the other hand, there is never enough time, money, or experience to produce these experimental pieces well. And then, what is supposed to be a quirky, intelligent show →
By the time father tries to fuck son, Icarus Redux has already left its lasting impression on you. From the image of the fabled wings top-lit in eerie blue inside a cupboard up-centre stage, to Daedalus relentlessly searching the stage for buy canadian viagra his fallen son with a lantern just before the final blackout, →
TOM sits USC, nursing a bloody nose. There are a few other bruises and scratches on his face – nothing too bad. His back pack is tossed to one side. A small stack of Tim Hortons-branded napkins lay at his side. He is holding one against his nose. He pulls it away to see if →
Our good friend Shakespeare asserted that “All the world’s a stage”, but now in the age of the technological reproducibility of art and everyday life, what about the virtual world? This is exactly the domain of The Builder’s Association. Founded in 1994 with the aim of using “the richness of new and old tools to →
Forgive me while I indulge in a Curran-esque personal anecdote to start my article this month… When I was little I always wanted my favorite story books to be turned into movies. I could picture them perfectly in my head, devising untold details right down to the colour of dresses the mice at the ball →
Opera on Steel Bananas? Really? I know, opera isn’t something that independent artists in Canada often consider within their realm of influence. Powdered wigs, haughty Italian vocals, fat ladies, and the inevitable presence of the pretense-ridden bourgeois? Our beloved Richard Huelsenbeck is turning in his grave as I write this. Opera, stereotypically, is the antithesis →
As you approach the Club Saw patio from the grungy parking lot on Rideau over to Nicholas Street, the first things that strike you are the light and the noise. Christmas lights hung in the ceiling of the tent on the left give a luminescent glow to t Buy generic Levitra pills online he scene →
Let me make one thing perfectly clear. That Friday night I got there about an hour in, my whole attendance was an impulse move, spur of the moment. This won’t be the most formal capturing of events, but then again I won’t be exactly writing about what Cirque du Soleil did, more like what happened →
It starts with the reinvention of the body, a lone dancer becoming both horse and rider. Barefoot and strong bodied, she is the epitome of beauty and grace as the herd welcomes her. The sun rises on the prairie plane revealing this story of birth and re-birth, a celebration of culture, and the cycles of →
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 In the downstairs of the Doubletree Hotel, an exceedingly nice woman provides us with press tags and Anime North booklets5 and we make our way back to the lobby. A few booths hawk gimmicky merch and beverages across from the Orchid Cafe, where the waitresses are dressed as stereotypical →
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 3:00pm: AH, KF, and I are making our way to the Renaissance Hotel, whose programming is divided into two halls, yaoi/hentai-related panels in the north wing and all types of gaming in the south, and a lobby with a bar20 that’s as orderly and clean as the Doubletree. AH is set on →
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 It’s about 7:30pm and the Pokémon Sealed Deck Tournament has just finished25. On my way I see the most realistic furry I’ve ever seen, complete with a fake putty nose with whiskers and everything, watching the LARP table and looking like she doesn’t want to be talked to. I also meet an →
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Toronto Congress Center, 9pm: another crossdresser, and another that KF tells me I missed for my tally. Back where I heard Crystal Castles at the beginning of the day is what appears to be the j-pop dance off. KF and I dub it, “when the antisocial socialize.” The J-pop is mostly Rotterdam beats →
Photo Credit: Stephanie Loftus We* have all come to the conclusion that most “classic” theatre from the old white males’ traditional canon is boring. Overdone. Uninspired and unimaginative. But what are we replacing it with? Not that Shakespeare is likely top be replaced, but alternative theatre is on the rise. Unfortunately not enough people are →
We are all hardwired to respond, emotionally and physically, to the cataclysmic times we are living in. Amidst global unrest, a recession, and the sickening capitalistic struggle for money and power, we are hardwired to live, to love, and to persevere. Perhaps because this is nothing new. It is, however, new to the stage. Early →
A lone girl walks to the front of the stage. She climbs down softly, into the audience. She takes out a compact, and with a neutral face, applies makeup. She then digs in the other pocket, removes a single bullet, and gently places it at the front of the stage. It is this bullet that →
The Bewitched was once described to me as “A syphilis-ridden carnival of death”… that alone should entice a modern (er, I mean, postmodern, or post-postmodern) audience. The fact that this show is of excellent caliber, with conservatory actors making their debut under the direction of Dora Award-winning Nigel Shawn Wiliams, is just icing on the →
An expressionist drama about zombies and war, what more could you ask for from theatre in Toronto? For one, maybe a better audience turn-out… The best theatre that you weren’t watching last week was Banquo’s Banquet and Back Burner Productions’ portrayal of Irwin Shaw’s surrealist drama, Bury the Dead. With stellar performances by the entire →
(Photo credit: Maxime Côté)< discount soft cialis /p> There’s something to be said about watching a play in a foreign language. Of course, had I been a good and fully literate Canadian citizen, French probably wouldn’t have been a “foreign” language (apparently it is useful after grade 9, who knew?), but I digress: there’s something →
This basement isn’t big enough for the energy it contains. It is bursting at the seams with people from all walks of life who have found their way down dark alleys and stumbled into a haven of emerging artists, I myself had trouble getting here, relying solely upon the kindness of fellow audience members to →
Need a theatre fix? Bored with 2009 already? Check out what the Toronto theatre scene has in store for you this month: Looking for a show that will impress your date? Show: Ubuntu (The Cape Town Project) Dir. Daryl Cloran Venue: Tarragon Theatre Dates: Jan. 28th – Mar. 1st, 2009 Ticket Price: $19 – $38 →
For those of you looking to enliven this nasty winter by indulging in a little more culture, Steel Bananas presents a quick and easy guide to notable upcoming theatre in Toronto. From indie to queer to class canadian pharmacy viagra ical, the city’s theatre scene has it all. Show: East of Berlin Theatre: Tarragon Theatre →
There are two types of people in the world, those that like drafting and those that are sane. I certainly don’t fall into the former category, so I’m putting away my 4H for a while and taking a break. Mainly because I just spilled coffee all over my assignment (I’m seriously beginning to think all →
I am about $20 000 in debt. That’s not rare for a person my age who is attending university, but it still kind of sucks. You see, I’ve recently entered the terribly cyclical world of artistry and debt, in which I learn to create art, which incurs debt, and then continue on with art, which →