drama
University Players end their year with an impactful lack-of-love story Tita Kyrtsakas LANCE WRITER n their last show of the 2011-2012 season, the University Players perform Niel Labute’s Some Girl(s), a play with only five actors that reveals the emotional damage the sole male character is capable of. The short play starts with “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele’s heartbroken song about losing her love, instantly foreshadowing what to expect with this production. Guy (Sam Muir), a recently betrothed writer, sits in a hotel room waiting for the first of four women he is travelling to see across the country in...
Production of The Seagull does its high-calibre origins proud Tita Kyrtsakas LANCE WRITER he University Players presentation of The Seagull, David French’s adaptation of the Anton Chekhov classic, is full of devastating and sweet performances that cover every angle of obtaining one’s desire. The play opens with the main character Constantine (Will King). He is about to present a play he has written and although he is nervous, there is a beautiful flicker of hope in his eyes. His life is beginning; he is creating his identity in this world. King expresses genuine feelings of the dreamer— one who longs...
Despite its age and sentimentality, Emma plays genuine Tita Kyrtsakas LANCE WRITER n their fourth play of the season, the University Players sweep you into Jane Austen’s heart as they present Michael Bloom’s adaption of Emma. This whimsical play offers humour, conflict and warmth, like an 1815 version of a present day romantic comedy. Emma’s playful plot is overflowing with simple truths that remind the audience of the sometimes-foolish lengths people go for love. The play opens with a marriage brought together by the title character. Despite her rosy-eyed goals, Emma Woodhouse is everything a main character should be: sweet,...
Crosstown Players stay factually accurate and emotionally poignant in Sarah Girty’s War Micaela Muldoon LANCE WRITER he Crosstown Players’ latest project is a story of family turbulence and the struggle to maintain a familiar way of life in the midst of mass, adverse change– or to find a better life altogether. In this case, that change is the War of 1812 crossing the Canada-United States border and taking over the properties and lives of Canadian civilians. Sarah Girty’s War, written by Crosstown Players’ artistic director and co-founder James Mays and set in the Windsor area, is the first of their...
Tita Kyrtsakas LANCE WRITER he University Players shine once again in their third show of the season, Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart. This melancholic, tragic comedy reflects the aching effects of life’s torturous troubles on the heart, but Henley’s intermittent witty banter provides bouts of comic relief and when coupled with strong direction, performances and art production, produces a genuine emotional play. From the moment the play begins, the audience is swept into the small southern town of Hazlehurst, Mississippi. The year is 1974, exactly five years after the treacherous Hurricane Camille flooded its way into the lives of...
Does setting A Clockwork Orange to music dull its edge? Shane Lange LANCE WRITER ate in life, Anthony Burgess expressed his regret for having written A Clockwork Orange because he believed its message had been obscured by the depictions of “ultra-violence” in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation for film. In a play based on Burgess’ own adaptation for the stage and here directed by Jeff Marontate, Windsor’s Korda Artistic Productions has taken care to restore the novella’s meaning and to add a few flourishes of music. While the Korda production has a recognizably antiquated, steam-punk aesthetic (and Burgess’ novella will be 50...
Survive Another Day is original,creative and above all, fun Josh Kolm ARTS EDITOR ust in time for the year’s spookiest season, Theatre Windsor delivers the world premiere of Survive Another Day, a one-of-a-kind zombie stage comedy. Director Tim Marshall delivers a production that is not only hilariously written and capably performed, but creative and engaging in ways that go beyond the stage, creating a fully immersive and unique dramatic experience. The play opens on a flat in London, where Barbara (Monique Formosa) is rushing to make a flight for Spain, while her husband David (Paul Salmon) and his “best mate”...
Despite some heavy-handed problems, Chameleon has undeniable charm Matthew A. Terry LANCE WRITER girl with dreams, and no resolve to execute them, a crippled boy in unrequited love, a widowed woman with a take-charge personality, a lonely southern American shop owner and a mysterious stranger with a mission. A number of archetypal characters populate University of Windsor drama professor William Pinnell’s first full-length play Chameleon, which premiered at Essex Hall Theatre last Thursday as the first University Players in-house production. For the most part, the actors performances were well executed. Michael Adam Hogan was brilliant is his portrayal of the...
Tita Kyrtsakas LANCE WRITER he University Players have started the school year with the premiere show of their 2011-12 season, William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Between the engaging cast, competent direction and professional technical production, the play exceeds all expectations. The play follows the prince, Don Pedro, and his two companions in Sicily. Claudio is madly in love with Hero, while Benedick runs from love and sarcastically mocks it. Don John, the prince’s malicious brother, tries des- perately to destroy the happiness of the character’s lives, but as in most Shake- spearian comedies, good triumphs over evil. From the...
Josh Kolm ARTS EDITOR he folks at KordaZone Theatre, Windsor’s premiere independent theatre company, have always had a knack for picking out plays centered on the potentially offensive. Entertaining Mr. Sloane certainly has its fair share of near-nudity and blatant innuendos, but it also exhibits Korda’s other strength—character-driven drama that pulls in the audience, no matter how dislikeable those characters may be. Written by British playwright Joe Orton and first produced in 1964, Entertaining Mr. Sloane is a response to the repression and dishonesty that could thrive in English societal values. When Mr. Sloane (Brian Bishop) arrives as a border...
