Either way, it would certainly be cheerier than King Lear. (Which we may still see, in the fall. Although Stratford plays aren’t exactly cheap, are they?)
This production of Midsummer’s Night begins with a same-sex, mixed-race wedding, then presents the familiar Shakespeare play with the premise that Lysander is a woman, and hence not the suitor Hermia’s father prefers. I thought this was a rather effective retelling in our time, and interestingly, it was one thing that both Star and Globe critics appreciated as well.
It’s everything else that also gets thrown into this version of the play that the critics didn’t agree on. For example, that isn’t the only gender switching that goes on: most notable of the others is that the Fairy Queen is played by a gent, and a hairy one at that. And the play seems to be set (somewhat) in modern times, featuring modern pop music (most effectively, “Bizarre Love Triangle”) and a scene where the characters gather around a cell phone to look up the phases of the moon (though the answer is ultimately found in a paper almanac). And there is a whole lot of slapstick, physical humor: cake fights, slipping into water, almost-sex in a tent.
It’s certainly a memorable version of Midsummer Night’s Dream. And a funny one–especially the second half. I don’t know that I loved it quite as much as the Globe critic, but I most certainly didn’t hate it as much the Star one. Though if I have to pick between love it or hate it, as they say, then I’m going with love.
As previously mentioned, May was a big concert month for us. Unusually for us, we went out to eat before three of these outings.
1. Food trucks and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are a band who play retro, swinging jazz music. Before their concert at Centre in the Square, the Waterloo Hep Cat Hoppers were offering a dance lesson in the lobby. We wanted to take part in that, but it was at 6:30 pm on a work night, which seemed a bit tight.
So when Centre in the Square announced they’d have a couple food trucks there that night starting at 6:00, that seemed like a good option.
Seemed. But while food trucks are a whole big thing right now, they have a few problems.
Weather. At least the rain held off until we’d gotten our food and eaten it, but it was windy and cool, making it less than fabulous for eating outdoors.
Eating standing up. I’m a big fan of working standing up, but eating a meal is best enjoyed sitting down. Using metal and not plastic cutlery.
Standing in line. Just not my favorite activity. Made worst by the fact that while we were there promptly at 6:00, the trucks were not really ready until 6:15, allowing other people to get ahead of us in line, and making us a bit late for the dance lesson.
As for food quality… Meh… Jean didn’t particularly enjoy his Tandoori grilled cheese. I thought my Mediterranean crepe wasn’t bad, but not really worth braving weather / eating standing up / standing in line for again, unless I was stuck.
The dance lesson, though, was fine. What we were taught was very similar to the jive that Jean and I know well, only instead of backstep / step / step (or triple step), it was back-step / kick / kick. It was really hard to remember to do the kick / kick when we were so used to the step / step. Occasionally we just rebelled and reverted to jive dancing. But a good time.
As for the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy performance, that was hard not to enjoy also, as the music is so lively and fun. I hadn’t known that the band, the same group of people, had been together since 1995. Jean wasn’t in the greatest mood that night (and I’m sure the grilled cheese didn’t help), but he could still recognize that they gave a really good show. (Should point out that this concert was his idea for a change, rather than mine.)
Three Kretans is a Greek restaurant very close to Centre in the Square. For the past year or two, Centre in the Square’s parking lot has been under construction, making it a challenge to find a spot to leave your car before shows. So Three Kretans has come up with a pretty smart offer: Have dinner there, leave your car in their parking lot (for free), and walk to theatre. They have a pre-theatre menu that gets you to the show on time. With the ballroom concert at 7:00 on a week night, we decided to go that right.
The food isn’t bad. It is a casual Greek restaurnt, so you get your lamb, chicken, or pork skewers with potatoes and rice and Greek salad. And baklava-type dessert, if you want.
But Jean was underwhelmed. “I get better food than this at home,” he pointed out. [Ah, the perils of being such a fantastic home cook! 🙂 ]
The show, fortunately was in no way disappointing. Music was all provided by the KW Symphony, and the evening was hosted by Kym Johnson and Tristan MacManus of Dancing with the Stars, and also featured other dancers that show. That fact probably would have been more exciting if I watched Dancing with the Stars. (By the way, everyone in our ballroom dance class thinks it’s highly peculiar that we don’t watch that show.) And there were a couple singers from American Idol, which, again, I don’t watch, so I didn’t know who they were. But while the woman certainly had a nice voice, I will admit to being particularly impressed by the dude, one Von Smith, who had most impressive range and control.
Mainly, though, this was about dancing. It featured group numbers, solos, duets, mostly in the Latin and ballroom genres (though in that showy TV style with all the lifts and whatnot), but the twist was the inclusion of some modern and hip hop dancing as well. This was largely due to the inclusion of a couple dancers I had heard of: Legacy and Randi Lynn Strong, from So You Think You Can Dance. Their numbers were definitely my favorites. Very cool how the So You Think… training allows them to join the ballroom dancers in that genre, but also shine in their own.
At one point, the hosts even got the audience up dancing! All very fun.
Afterward we got to attend a reception with the performers, though I continued my tradition of never knowing what to say when in these situations. Still, what we learned from other people’s question were:
This was their only Canadian performance.
They don’t always get to perform with a live symphony, but like it when they do
… except when the symphony can’t keep the beat. But apparently, that was not a problem with the KW Symphony.
Randi Lynn Strong at Centre in the Square reception
After taking a few crappy phone photos, we headed home.
3. Marisol and KW Symphony Superheroes
Jean pointed out that Marisol restaurant is also close to Centre in the Square, but offers better food than Three Kretans. So though I hadn’t planned to go out to eat again this month, as we hadn’t been there in a while, I made a reservation before the final month’s concert.
It was a very enjoyable dinner. As an appetizer, we shared six small but delicious raspberry point oysters (they actually gave us seven, probably due to the size) and marinated sardines, served with a salad. There’s no beating fresh sardines from Portugal, but marinating them proved a rather good choice for those of us farther from the sea. We were so excited about these, we forgot to get a picture until almost done:
The remnants of our appetizers
As the wine, the waiter suggested a Portuguese Viognier-Sauvignon Blanc blend that was lemony and well-suited to the food.
I continued the seafood theme through dinner, having the fish of the day, which was sea bream. Served whole, it was really easy to fillet, and had been cooked very nicely. The side was a pasta made in-house, dressed simply with lemon, olive oil, and parsley.
Jean went with the lemon-tomato gnocchi. The texture of the pasta was perfect, and the flavor was more subtle than one usually gets with gnocchi. Not a bad thing.
For dessert, we share a creme caramel and forgot to take pictures, again.
We were in plenty of time to walk over for our concert, which the KW Symphony performing music from Superhero movies. This was conducted by John Morris Phillips, Cincinnati Pops conductor, who is always a lot of fun.
The only themes I knew in advance was Darth Vadar’s from Star Wars, but I found most quite engaging. The themes from Dark Knight, Supergirl, and X–Men were particularly striking. A lot were almost hilariously short, though; just the length of the opening credits, I guess! In some cases they put a few scores together to make a somewhat longer “theme” piece. Nothing that ever really taxed the attention span, though.
It was a great way to showcase the symphony’s skill, and it was nice to see a very full house in attendance.
We somehow ended up with quite a few cultural activities booked in May, the most recent of which was an outing to see the Drayton Festival production of Legally Blonde: The Musical.
And it was heck-a enjoyable. Sure, as in the movie, the perky cheeriness of Elle and her sorority sisters can be a little too much at times, but overall it was really funny, the story moved along well, it still had that satisfying arc of female strength and friendship, all with catchy songs and great choreography mixed in. Not too mention two very cute dogs (one of whom nearly stole the show). What’s not to love?
(Jean quote: “I enjoyed that way more than I thought I would. I’m shocked how much I enjoyed that.”)
But it reminded me just how bad I am at remembering plots of movies (books, too). All I could remember about the movie (apart from the fact that I’d liked it, and that it wasn’t a musical) was that it was about a blonde sorority girl who gets into Harvard Law to try to win her boyfriend back, but who then discovers she’s way more intellectually capable than anyone had given her credit for.
All of which happens in the musical as well, only with more songs. But the hairdresser character? The internship program? The exercise video queen on trial for murder? I had no recollection whatsoever of any of those plot details.
So yesterday I watched the movie again, courtesy iTunes. (By the way, it’s not on Netflix, not available on redbox rental, nor at zip.ca. And iTunes / Google Play / Rogers on Demand all charge the same $5 to stream it, which seems a bit expensive, given you can buy the DVD for the same price. Anyway…) I quite liked it, again. And it turns out that an awful lot of the movie did make it into the musical. But the differences were interesting.
The hairdresser, Paulette, is a more major character
In the movie, her part is pretty small and a bit sad. In the musical she’s one of the best characters, the center point of a couple very fun numbers. And it’s clearer that Elle helping her get custody of her dog back is motivation for Elle to become sincerely interested in the law.
The new love interest, Emmett, is a more major character
This one is a bit more of a hmm. In the movie Emmett’s part is really quite small, and their entire relationship takes place in the dying seconds of the movie, via “Where are they now?” captions. So I can see why they wanted more of a budding romance within the musical. Emmett is definitely fleshed out into an appealing and interesting character. Their subtextual shopping expedition is another highlight of the musical, one that wasn’t in the film at all.
The troublesome part, to me, is that in the musical Emmett is the one who coaches and encourages Elle to buckle down once at Harvard. In the movie, she’s completely self-motivated to do so at the same point: already suspecting it will never be enough to win back Warner, her ex, but wanting to prove herself capable anyway.
So it’s a bit of a dilution of her empowerment, I think.
Though I did like that, in the musical, she’s the one who proposes to him, at the end.
The musical is more gay-positive
Maybe that’s just the difference 13 years makes? Certainly the lesbian law student is much more likable in the musical, no longer seeming as militant and angry as she does in the movie. And the stereotypical gay pool boy earns an entire, completely hilarious, song about those stereotypes: Gay, or European?
The musical has only the one law professor character, Callahan—the one whose sexual harassment makes Elle doubt anyone will ever see her as more than a “piece of ass”. But the movie has another professor character, a woman, who meets Elle after this incident and motivates her to fight back with: “If you’re going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, you’re not the girl I thought you were.”
In the musical, Vivian, Warner’s fiancee is the one who talks her into fighting back. In both movie and musical, it’s great that the two rivals for Warner’s affection become friends, though this is given more time in the movie. And, it’s not that it doesn’t work for Vivian to be the motivator here; it’s just that Professor Stromwell was a great character also (albeit in another very small part).
In conclusion
Basically, Legally Blonde, musical and movie, is just meant to be fun, and it is. But behind that is a decent message about female power and independence. It’s not perfect feminism, but it’s feminism nonetheless. (Notably, original novel, film script, and musical book were all written by women.)
A guilty pleasure, only without the guilt. Oh, my God, oh my God, you guys!
I bought Wonderful Tonight, Pattie Boyd.s autobiography, very much on a whim, from a used bookstore. I was just curious about the woman who married George Harrison (of The Beatles), inspiring him to write “Something”, then left him for Eric Clapton, after he was inspired by her to write “Layla”. That George and Eric remained friends through all this was just one of the things that seemed odd.
When you hear that Pattie Boyd was a model when she met George Harrison, that gives you the impression (based on today) that she was already leading a glamorous life, but modeling wasn’t the same back then. She talks of having to do her own makeup and hair, and running around to various appointments on public transit. She enjoyed it, but it didn’t make her especially rich or famous.
Her childhood was even more austere. She grew up in Kenya, her father a damaged, injured war veteran who eventually abandoned the family. Her mother then remarried to an abusive, unfaithful man. Pattie and her siblings were shuffled off to boarding schools, and eventually were literally abandoned, left in Kenya while her parents moved to England.
Hence, the lack of life model for what a good marriage is.
Because, in case you were wondering, this book gave me the impression that it wasn’t much fun being married to rock stars.
Of course, the relationships started out well. With George, the biggest problem in the early days were the insane Beatles fans. But over time, as The Beatles dissolved, their relationship grew more rocky as well. I found myself rather disappointed to find out that George cheated on Pattie constantly. Yes, I know he’s a rock star, but this is after The Beatles stopped touring, and after George has taken up religion and meditation and is trying to be this very spiritual person.
And one of the people he had an affair with was Maureen Star, Ringo’s wife! I mean, seriously dude, that’s just not right.
But it wasn’t just the infidelity that challenged the relationship, but also George’s mood swings and self-absorption and disregard for what made Pattie happy, such as being able to cook for him.
So yes, she was susceptible when Eric Clapton took an interest, and starting writing her passionate love letters—and one really great song. But it was a long, slow build-up before she was finally ready to leave George. At one of these junctures, Eric threatened to take heroin if she didn’t leave with him then. She didn’t, and he did.
Talk about alarm bells, eh?
Though she’s discreet in terms of details, it’s clear that the Pattie / Eric relationship was a very passionate one once it ignited. If “Layla” was a kind of foreplay for them, “Wonderful Tonight”—which I hadn’t realized was also inspired by her—is indicative of their happy early days together.
But it doesn’t last. Though I think he was off heroin by this point (?), Eric was still an alcoholic. And a slob. And unfaithful. And self-absorbed. Though here I’m making it sound as if Pattie does nothing but complain about her husbands, which isn’t the case. She’s pretty fair. I think I’m the judgmental one.
Pattie also tackles subjects like her infertility (she has no children, despite attempts at in vitro), her failed attempts to help her drug-addicted younger sister, and the challenges of building a life as an ex-wife who didn’t necessarily get a big financial settlements from her rich ex-husbands. Throughout, the writing style is very conversational. I suspect that, in fact, it was actually written by named coauthor Penny Junor, based on interviews with Pattie.
You also, inevitably, get a bit of rock history from an unusual perspective: the Beatles trip to India, drug busts, Live Aid, the murder of John Lennon. She was also friends with members of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen, Rod Stewart, and others; her sister has long-term relationship with Mick Fleetwood.
I wouldn’t say this is a book of general interest, but for for those wondering about the lives of rock stars, it certainly provides some insight.
Roger Daltrey, Janet Baker, Carol Hall. BBC adaptation of John Gay’s 18th century opera about greed, lust, and corruption among the working class of London.
She says: Sometimes, when I get a new movie from zip.ca, I can’t even recall why I wanted to see it in the first place, but with this one it was obvious: It stars Roger Daltrey. Furthermore, unlike many movies featuring Mr. Daltrey, it was supposed to be decent.
Still, it is an opera, and it does run 2 hours 15 minutes. I didn’t actually watch it all at once, but in segments, over a weekend.
Though he’s the lead character, MacHeath, Daltrey doesn’t appear for the first 50 minutes of the movie. His character is being discussed (or sung about) that whole time, but in a way that just left me baffled: First, Polly’s parents are upset she’s married MacHeath—they see it as a wasted opportunity. But then she sings about how much she loves him, and they’re OK with it. Briefly. But next thing you know, they want him dead. They suggest Polly kill him, but she’s not down with that idea, so the parents conclude they’ll have to do it themselves.
Then the parents leave, MacHeath arrives, Polly tells him he needs to run away, but instead they just make out.
So here I paused the DVD and went to look up a Wikipedia synopsis. And not just to figure out what the heck had just happened; I decided I might as well look ahead at what was to come as well. Plot, after all, isn’t really the point of opera.
So from that point on, I was able to follow along despite the thick Cockney accents, and found it be a pretty enjoyable piece.
My raison d’être for watching the movie, Mr. Daltrey, looked very fine indeed, all long curly very blonde hair, blue eyes, and tanned—definitely the prettiest thing in the movie. He sounded good, too. Now, I don’t what MacHeath’s songs were supposed to sound like, and Daltrey certainly doesn’t have the “traditional” operatic voice that some of his co-stars do, but he is one those rock stars who actually can sing, on-key and with power and control. His acting also seemed just fine; one of MacHeath’s major problems is balancing the many, many women who find him irresistible (and that he, in turn, also can’t resist), and perhaps, just perhaps, Daltrey was able to draw on his own rock-star life to depict what that’s like.
And as opera’s go, it all moved along pretty quickly, and was quite entertaining, with its plot of lust and deceit, with crimes and lies a-plenty. Though none of the characters were that sympathetic, in the end, except, perhaps, Polly.
The only disappointment was that, having read the synopsis, I was looking forward to seeing the opera’s trick ending played out. Only, this movie had a trick ending to the trick ending.
No, I’m not insulting anybody. I simply went out with two friends to see a production of Green Day’s American Idiot: The Musical.
Of the three of us, I was the biggest fan, in that I actually own the entire original album, not just the hit songs from it. But I don’t know it that well. Like, I only know the lyrics to the hit songs from it, and I’ve never taken the time to try to figure out what the plot or concept behind it actually is—though it appeared to have something to do with a young man’s angst.
So we were all going in blind, not knowing what the story or characters would be.
It turned out to be centered around the character of Johnny, who plans to escape suburban dreariness and do something wonderful and revolutionary in the city. His friend Will has to stay behind because of his pregnant girlfriend, Heather. His other friend Tunny does go with him, but they have a falling out and choose different paths. Then Johnny meets and falls in love with Whatshername. [No, I didn’t forget her name; that is that character’s name.]
Green Day’s music is absolutely front, center, essential, everything to this production. Spoken dialogue between songs is limited, mainly consisting of Johnny’s dated monologues or letters letting us know how much time has passed and the character’s reaction to what happened in the last song. And though I had to look this up to confirm, it does include every song from the original American Idiot album, in order—but it uses some additional Green Day songs from that period of their career to round out the story
There’s no orchestra with this; it’s truly a rock musical, to the point where the guitarists, bassist, keyboardist, and drummer are actually up on stage, in the open, with the actors, through the whole production. The cast also sometimes joins in on guitar (on a couple tunes Johnny sings with himself as accompaniment on acoustic), and their voices—oh my God! What amazing singers. (Somewhat better than Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, I would say.) But they have voices suited to rock, not Broadway, if you know what I mean.
(And on a shallow note, they were quite a nice-looking and fit bunch as well, which made for some pleasant viewing from our excellent sixth-row seats.)
It was a super energetic production, 110 minutes, no intermission. The dancing features a lot of head thrashing, fist pumping, and running and jumping. The staging was industrial-looking, featuring a lot of TVs that helped propel the mood of the story, with occasional strobe lighting and glitter.
So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you aren’t a fan of guitar-heavy, potty-mouthed, angry /angsty rock music, this is not the musical for you.
But we quite enjoyed it. Though it has to be said [do I have to give spoiler alerts on a musical?], the ending is not of the triumphant, feel-good sort. Love does not conquer all. Dreams are not realized. The world is not a better place at the end than it was at the start.
I thought that was brave, but also couldn’t help wishing it could end on a bit of a happier note.
Which is why the cast encore was so brilliant, and perfect, and not really cheating at all: Green Day’s “Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life)”.
It’s something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life!
Last weekend we attended a KW Symphony concert called Sound in Motion: Music and the Body. This was part of the Intersections series, where the orchestra combines with something; this time, with a yoga instructor or “mindfulness educator”. The evening began with only her, actually, leading us through some breathing and stretching exercises. Of course, we were in street clothes and sitting in concert seats, so we weren’t exactly doing downward facing dog, but she adapted to the space we had and the fact that we could stand up.
During the first few pieces the symphony played, she continued to interact with us in various ways, leading us through movements and breathing in conjunction with the music. We weren’t to clap between pieces, but to just keep focusing inward.
For the last two pieces all was quiet, though, as we were to try to stay mindful as we just listened to the music (which were a couple of more modern classical music pieces). It was amazing how well that worked at quelling the problem one usually has at classical concerts, that the mind has a tendency to start wandering off at certain points. Maybe, if you can manage to go right from yoga class to a classical concert, you’ll get more out of it.
That was Friday. On Sunday I was registered into this program called Flirting with the Arts. It offered 12 half-hour arts-related sessions, of which you selected 6, to give you just a taste of what they’re like. It was held at a volunteer-run coffee shop in downtown Kitchener (itself an interesting place).
Although I thought I’d allowed myself sufficient time to get there for the 10:00 start, I was wrong. Between snow making the drive slower and the nearest parking lot being full, I arrived at about 9:59. Thanks to some jogging to get there.
My first session was by an art therapist, so focused on creating really personal art, not intended for display to others. It was interesting, but not ideal as my first one, as I was still stressed from the lateness and had trouble getting my heart rate back down to normal enough to really focus, as was the point here.
The second was on slide guitar playing. I quite like the idea of playing guitar, as it’s so much more portable than piano, and some songs I like simply sound better on guitar than piano. But I don’t know that I like the idea enough to spend the time it would take to learn.
Slide guitar playing means, basically, putting a tube on your finger and sliding that down the strings to play, rather than pressing the strings down at certain positions to strum chords. In a half hour, we just got the basics of what you can do with that sliding technique. I didn’t seem to be a natural, so I think the instructor was just being polite when he said my first efforts sounded great. But I did get better by the end.
Not destined to be the next Bonnie Raitt—note the tube on her finger, here?
Next up was acting. The lesson here was that you don’t inject emotion into words when acting; you feel emotion and project that outward, regardless of the actual words. This was explored in exercises where you had to convey a message using gibberish, and another where you had to convey an emotional backstory into truly prosaic dialogue. It was a cool session with a very enthusiastic instructor (a playwright).
We had lunch break then, which Jean came to join me for. (We went to another little restaurant rather than eat this cafe.) Then he ran away and I continued with afternoon sessions.
The first was landscape painting, and the idea was to try to paint the outline of a landscape you were imagining. My main problem was I’m not any kind of good at just imagining a landscape, so was never really sure where I was trying to go in that half hour. The results were therefore less than impressive.
Next up was portrait painting. We were instructed to bring a photo of ourselves to work from. It was the fifth time of day this artist had been teaching amateurs, and she was getting good at helping us avoid the pitfalls. It was all step by step: the head shape, eye position, and nose position in pencil outline; colour in the shadows of the face using various shades of some kind of pencil; don’t spend too long on the eyes, and don’t draw them too big (though I still did); and then take wet brush to the color and bring it life.
It was surprising how well that turned in just a half hour. Mine actually looked like me.
Finally, I had a writing session. That one was right in my comfort zone, so wasn’t as enlightening. But it was fun, especially the session in which we had to create stories by adding a sentence to what other people. One turned out quite hilarious.
So not sure if any of these flirtations will turn into longer-term relationships, but it was certainly an interesting Sunday.
Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan. A look at Allen Ginsberg’s first year of university, where a friendship with classmate Lucien Carr brings him excitement, exhilaration, and turmoil, until a murder puts an end to it.
She says: I found myself caught up in Ginsberg’s journey from his troubled home life with his mentally ill mom to the freedom and excitement of university life. As Lucien Carr draws Ginsberg into his world of artists, drugs, and parties, you can see him flourish with inspiration—a sort of Dead Poet’s Society, only rather more corrupt. And it was nice to see the written word take centre stage: their big caper is to break into a library and steal some of the naughty books; their great goal is to “write something beautiful”. (Rating: ***)
He says: Oh my God, that was so boring. (Rating: *)
As a fundraiser, Fair Vote Canada sponsored a production of James Gordon’s one-man show, Stephen Harper: The Musical. I got curious about it, and Jean agreed to go with me. (This was last weekend; this weekend we went to the lovely Yuletide Spectacular Christmas concert with the KW Symphony, like normal people.)
The location was kind of neat and one I hadn’t previously known about: A former shoe factory now repurposed as a cultural center—the Courtyard at Bonnie Stuart. The room where the show was performed was on the small side, but they did manage to pretty much fill it.
James Gordon with the Stephen Harper puppet
I really didn’t know what to expect from this show, except that it would be critical, have music, and feature a Stephen Harper puppet.
For the critiquing, some I certainly agreed with it, but some was more anti-corporate, anti-capitalist than I was totally comfortable with. Bit too hippy-trippy, even for me.
But the songs weren’t half bad, making for a pretty entertaining show, overall. It was also supplemented with some video segments. One of my favorite bits was a discussion of the church Mr. Harper belongs to, an area rarely covered in the media. That featured a video cameo by “hippie Jesus”–that is, the actual peace-loving, money-damning dude of the Bible, as opposed to the distortion version espoused by some churches (whom “hippie Jesus” disavowed).
Given the subject matter, Gordon also strives to keep the material updated. There was a segment on the Occupy Movement, but he acknowledged that now seems kind of long ago (doesn’t it?). But it also included a very funny “Thank God for Rob Ford” song, so new he needed to refer to the lyrics sheet, that opined that Harper had quite appreciated Ford’s antics this fall drawing attention away from what the CPC government is up to.
As Fair Vote Canada is supposed to be non-partisan, I wasn’t sure about the fit with this show, until we got to the “What can you do?” segment. One suggestion was a change in the voting system to be more proportional. The whole last bit is meant to be something of a motivating call to arms, that didn’t entirely work on me.
While awaiting the start of this performance, Jean and tried to think how many other live dance performances we’d seen. It’s not that many, way behind live music and drama. For whatever reason, I went far more often back when I lived in Montreal, as a student. And Jean and I once saw Ballet Béjart on a trip to Montreal. They’re a Swiss company, and they were presenting a very modern ballet inspired by life of one Freddie Mercury. (Jean wasn’t sure to make of it immediately afterward, but it has aged well in his memory, and he now thinks on it fondly.)
But outside of La Belle Province, we’ve mostly experienced less arty dancing, like a “Riverdance” kind of show in Toronto (only more with tango and Latin and not so much Irish step dancing) and the So You Think You Can Dance: Canada tour stop in Hamilton (and actually, that was just me).
So it was nice of Montreal to bring the jazz ballet right to us.
They performed three pieces. The first was a sensual duet to a Phillip Glass soundtrack. The second was a longer piece featuring the whole company. It used an electronica soundtrack to present “scenes from a city”, starting with dancing at a club but moving on to various other scenes and themes. I’m not going to pretend I interpreted it all correctly, but I found the energy, beauty, and musical interpretation quite riveting.
After intermission, they performed the final, longest piece, Harry. This was presented as a sort of danced play, complete with the dancers speaking lines of dialogue (in English). But it was not a linear story; more of a revisiting of the themes of war, love, destiny, and determination. Which makes it sound all dour and serious, but it was neither; it was very funny at times and always entertaining, incorporating all kinds of dance styles, even ballroom.
And tickets were only $35 for this! If you could have gone to this, and didn’t… That was a mistake.
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