So I just spent my afternoon sifting through hundreds of photos of gorgeous smiling faces from the 2014 Critter Awards and it was as though I was living that fantastic night of community and congratulations all over again. Thank you to all who came out to celebrate with us. I hope you had as much fun as I did! Sure seems like it. Take a look and see below. All photos by Christina Ryan.

The Winners

Haysam Kadri accepting on behalf of Best Featured Actor in a Play, Graham Percy, Twelfth Night.

Diane Goodman accepts the award on behalf of Best Featured Actress in a Play, Katey Hoffman in You Will Remember Me and Best Actress in a Play, Natascha Girgis, Around the World in 80 Days.

Susan Gilmour accpets the award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Mary Poppins.

Andrew Macdonald-Smith accepts the awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Jack Forestier and Best Director of a Musical, Michael Shamata, both Mary Poppins.

Kyall Rakoz accepts the award for Solo Performance, Ludwig and Lohengrin.

Anton de Groot with his award for Best Set Design, Travels with my Aunt.

David van Belle accepting on behalf of Matthew Waddell for Techincal Design, Tomorrow’s Child.

Christian Goutsis accepts his award for Best Actor in a Musical, Touch Me.

Selina Wong accepts her award for Best Actress in a Musical, Touch Me.

Christopher Loach with many Theatre Calgary awards including the one for Best Touring Production, Kim’s Convenience.

Duval Lang accepting the award for Best Actor in a Play (and giving the best epic acceptance speech EVER), You Will Remember Me.

Steven Owad accepts the award for Best New Script, The Basement Boys.

David van Belle accepts the award on behald of himself, Col Cseke and Christopher Duthie for Best Creative Concept, Of Fighting Age.

Craig Hall accepts the award for Best Director Play on behald of Simon Mallet, Travels With My Aunt.

Joe Slabe (centre) with his award for Best Production of a  Musical, Touch Me.

Ellen Close and Braden Griffiths accepting the award for Best Production of a Play, My Family and Other Endangered Species.

Me, being surprised by an award given to me by the other critics to say goodbye. Sniff!

Mayor Nenshi handing out the Evans Award to co winner, Doug Rathburn on behalf of the Mount Royal Theatre Program for  outstanding contribution to the Calgary theatre community.

Mayor Nenshi award the Evans Award to co winner Vicky Strioch on behalf of ATP playRites Festival.

 

And of course lets not overlook some photos of all the fabulous talent and support  in the audience!

 

 

Our fabulous MC for the evening – the dashing and always entertaining, Dave Kelly.

 

And finally, the Calgary Theatre Critics (l to r) Jenna Shummoogum, Louis B Hobson, Jessica Goldman and Stephen Hunt.

 

This year’s Calgary Critics’ Awards were a huge success with almost 200 theatre-loving Calgarians in attendance to hear us announce our winners for the 2013/14 theatre season.  Truthfully though, all our nominees were winners as each and every one of them impressed us in one way or another gave us those wow moments in the theatre that we live for. So as difficult as it was to pick just one award-recipient in each category – that was our task. Therefore, without further ado, I give you the winners of the 2014 Critter Awards…….

 

Featured Actor in a Play:
Graham Percy – Twelfth Night (The Shakespeare Company)

Featured Actress in a Play:
Katey Hoffman – You Will Remember Me (Alberta Theatre Projects)

Featured Actress in a Musical:
Susan Gilmour – Mary Poppins (Theatre Calgary)

Featured Actor in a Musical:
Jack Forestier – Mary Poppins (Theatre Calgary)

Best Solo Performance:
Kyall Rakoz – Ludwig and Lohengrin

Best Set Design:
Anton de Groot – Travels with my Aunt (Vertigo Theatre)

Best Technical Design:
Matthew Waddell – Tomorrow’s Child (Ghost River Theatre)

Best Actor in a Musical: 
Christian Goutsis – Touch Me: Sings for a (dis)connected Age (Forte Musical Theatre Guild)

Best Actress in a Musical: 
Selina Wong – Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)connected Age (Forte Musical Theatre Guild)

Best Touring Production:
Kim’s Convenience (Soulpepper)

Best Actress in a Play:
Natascha Girgis – Around the World in 80 Days (Alberta Theatre Projects)

Best Actor in a Play: 
Duval Lang – You Will Remember Me (Alberta Theatre Projects)

Best New Script: 
The Basement Boys – Steven Owad (Theatre BSMT)

Best Creative Concept:
Of Fighting Age – Col Cseke and Christopher Duthie (Verb Theatre)

Best Director Musical: 

Michael Shamata – Mary Poppins (Theatre Calgary)

Best Director Play: 
Simon Mallett – Travels with my Aunt (Vertigo Theatre

Best Musical:

Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)connected Age, Forte Musical Theatre Guild

Best Play: 
My Family and Other Endangered Species, Downstag

Evans Award Winners:

ATP playRites Festival

Mount Royal University Theatre Arts Program

Now, no doubt some of you will start to tally up the award counts for this company or that play. Frankly, these stats don’t interest me all that much. What does float my boat is that our winners hail from companies large and small and represent some of our most beloved artists as well as those at the beginning of their careers. This to me is what is so wonderful about the theatre scene in Calgary – the way that established and new co-exist and equally blow our socks off.

As many of you know, this was my last Critter awards due to an imminent move to the USA. Three years ago when I first approached the other critics with the idea to hold these awards, I had no idea if they would bite or if the community would be interested at all. My hope was that the awards would bring us together as colleagues, enable us to laud those productions that spoke to us as critics and most importantly, give back to the Calgary theatre community that were all so privileged to work with. I’m thrilled to say that three years later, all my hopes about the awards have come true.  I’ve heard from so many of you what great fun the Critters are and I can assure you that we have just as much fun discussing the work and handing out the well-deserved kudos.

I feel terribly sad to be leaving Calgary’s theatre scene behind but I’m overjoyed at the thought that the Critters will live on. I’d like to thank my colleagues Stephen Hunt, Louis Hobson and Jenna Shummoogum for helping to make my last Critters my best and I wish them loads of luck with the awards and event for next year.

To the Calgary theatre community, thank you for all your talent and effort and risk. I’ve had many joyous moments watching your work and I feel honoured to have been able to think, write, broadcast and discuss what I’ve seen.  I leave here with a huge respect for the talent in this city and the hope that boundaries continue to get pushed and new ideas work their way onto the stage with even greater force. Now get out there and make the 2015 Critter decisions the hardest ever for the critics!

(L-R) Chris Hutchison as Mike and Elizabeth Bunch as Margaret in the Alley Theatre’s production of Good People. Photo by John Everett.

 

Good People

Written by: David Lindsay-Abaire

Directed by:  James Black

Company: Alley Theatre

Run Dates: June 4  – 29, 2014

 

You have to like a playwright who can go from writing the emotionally heart wrenching drama Rabbit Hole, about parents dealing with their child’s death, to penning the book and score for the cartoon turned stage version of Shrek The Musical. Not to mention that both efforts were prestigiously awarded –  Rabbit Hole with the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Shrek The Musical with a Grammy and two Tony’s, just to name a few. But if you think that David Lindsay-Abaire’s talents are dichotomously enviable based on these two successes alone, then you will turn even greener than, well Shrek himself, after taking in the Alley Theatre’s production of Good People, Lindsay-Abaire’s 2011 Tony nominated comedic drama. Directed with raucous energy by James Black, Good People allows Lindsay-Abaire to terrifically blend his talent for pain and humour while acerbically examining the class divide and considering if we ultimately are where we come from.

The where for consideration in Good People is Boston. And not just any random part of Boston, but rather the ‘Lower End’ of South Boston where poverty reigns, thuggery abounds and those with any chance at all try their hardest to get out. It’s where Margie and Mike are both from, but not where they’ve ended up. Margie (Elizabeth Bunch) got stuck in her 20’s when she became pregnant and gave birth to a mentally handicapped daughter named Joyce. Dreams about getting out were quickly replaced by a series of low paying jobs to make ends meet, none of which she manged to keep for long due to the challenges of caring for a permanently dependant Joyce. Not that Margie ever had any big dreams or real potential mind you. That was the domain of Mike (Chris Hutchinson), a rough but smart boy who, thanks to a father that pushed him and the brains to follow it through, went to College and became a doctor.

Margie leans about “old Mikey’s” good fortune when her friend Jean (Melissa Pritchett) spots him giving at speech at the hotel where she works. Jean mentions Mike because Margie has once again been fired, this time from a dollar store for being “unreliable” and is hairline close to not making rent. Why not ask Mike for a job, suggests Jean. Agreeing that, “Mikey was always good people” and not wanting to have to work the factory line at the Gillette plant, Margie agrees that asking Mike for work is the best plan. But the Mike she knew twenty five years ago (and briefly dated) is the not the Mike she finds in his chic office with the pretty secretaries and a photo of his young and elegant wife and daughter on his desk. Mike hasn’t just moved out of Southie but he’s moved on and while tickled in a kind of nostalgic way to see Margie again, there is no room for her with her rough manners and shabby clothes in his practice. It’s the start of a test of wills based on income divide and life choices that plays out for the remainder of the show. Margie accuses Mike of becoming “lace curtain” while Mike protests  his change while trying to navigate Margie’s accusations which become increasingly problematic for him and possibly his marriage.

The first act of the play is a an entertaining romp through Southie humor filled mostly with light tension and many laughs. Margie and her friends Jean and her landlady Dottie (Jennifer Harmon) provide great chuckles as a kind of anti Sex and the City gal gang. Instead of discussing Manolos and drinking cosmos, these pals drink instant coffee and discuss who’s in jail, who owes who money and whether they can afford to go to bingo. Even Margie and Mike’s interaction stays precariously light-hearted in the first act. They rib each other, they take pot shots and by a turn of saving-face events, Mike invites Margie to the birthday party his wife is throwing him at his fancy house in Chesnut Hill. It’s Margie attendance at the party that kicks off the second act and shifts the tone of the play from blisteringly funny to a still comedic but darker place where both Margie and Mike have to face the uncomfortable truth of their pasts and the choices they’ve made.

Through both tones of the production, Black navigates his cast beautifully. His simple and uncluttered staging allows space for these energetic actors to yell and fight and fill up the theatre with their sass and resentment and hurt. The theatre in the round set up serves as a nice metaphor to Lindsay-Abaire’s notions that people’s lives can be viewed from all sides and that no decision is every truly right or wrong. Kevin Rigdon’s rotating minimal sets function well as place indicators without stealing the thunder of the actors. And ultimately it’s the cast in this play that’s the draw. Yes Lindsay-Abaire ‘s writing here is taut and biting and thoughtful, but in the wrong hands, it could have come off a just another Southie send up.

As the unquestionable star of the show, Bunch’s Margie is the perfect mix of tough and vulnerable, confident and insecure. Affecting a darn good accent, Bunch plays a woman a full of pride, beaten down by poor decisions but still swinging with suck pluck that we love her even when we want to strangle her. Hutchinson gets off to a somewhat shaky start accent-wise but blows the roof off the theatre once his indignation and discomfort gets going in the second act. Utterly believable in his squirming, Hutchinson takes the play up a notch and never lets it come back down. Krystel Lucas as Mike’s wife, Kate, does an impressive job playing the woman out of the loop but knowing too much. Her dressing down of Margie near the end of the play is one of the highlights of the evening. Margie’s ex-boss and now Bingo buddy Stevie is sweetly played by Dylan Godwin who gives the surprise punch at the play’s conclusion none of us saw coming. As Jean, Melissa Pritchett affects her best Rosanne Barr (if she were from South Boston) with perfect comedic timing and Harmon as the clueless but mouthy and nosy Dottie keeps us in stitches throughout the play.

By the time we get to the unfortunately too hermetically sealed ending (why oh why couldn’t have Lindsay- Abaire left us to wonder at the end of his splendid script?) we have laughed, changed our minds about characters and had our hearts broken just a little. Mostly we realize that while some people are called ‘good people’….nothing is quite that simple.

 

RATING

For comedy lovers – The laughs are fast, frequent, sometimes foul-mouthed but always genuine in this witty play. Yes the comedy has a darker more meaningful undertone as the play rides along, but that won’t stop you from laughing along with a deeper thought or two. SEE IT

For the occasional theatre goer – This show is a powder cake from start to finish that will sweep you up and entertain you at every turn. The play may be set in South Boston, but the questions raised and the themes explored are universal. SEE IT

For the theatre junkie – Lindsay-Abaire’s way with words – rough on one level but tenderly telling on another is a gift worth investing in. Yes, the ending is far more tidy that was necessary, but it’s a small flaw that an extraordinary cast and some strong direction overcomes with ease. SEE IT

 

 

 

(L-R) Jay Sullivan as Spike and Josie de Guzman as Masha in the Alley Theatre’s production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Photo by John Everett.

 

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Written by: Christopher Durang

Directed By: Jonathan Moscone

Company – Alley Theatre

Run dates: May 23 – June 15, 2014

http://www.alleytheatre.org/Alley/Vanya_and_Sonia_and_Masha_and_Spike.asp

 

“Beware the Ideas of March…..beware the middle of the month…..beware of Greeks bearing gifts…..beware of chicken with salmonella”. The warnings come fast and furious out of the mouth of Cassandra, the sassy, voodoo practicing black housekeeper employed by 50-something brother and sister Vanya and Sonia in Christopher Durang’s 2013 Tony-winning Best Play, Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike now playing at the Alley Theatre. But if Cassandra was dolling out warnings, a more pressing one would have been, beware the shiny allure of award-winning plays as they are not always the gems they’re made out to be. Such is the case here, despite some sure direction by Gregory Boyd, a gorgeous Pennsylvania Farmhouse set by Douglas W. Schmidt and a cast that does it’s best to please us.

The overly obviously comedic Chekhovian homage centres around three middle age age siblings. Vanya (played with affable crankiness by Jeffrey Bean) and Sonia (Sharon Lockwood channeling a sweet but resentful spinster nebbish) have wasted their lives caring for ill parents and now shuffle the days away inside their family home with nothing better to do but bicker and sit in the morning room looking for blue heron. Their lives, such as they are, become disrupted when their third sibling, aging B-list movie and theatre star Masha (the gratingly Gloria Swanson-esque Josie de Guzman) and her young air-headed lover Spike (the washboard-stomached Jay Sullivan) come to visit. Masha is there both to attend a costume party and inform Vanya and Sonia that she is selling the home. After years of paying all the house bills (perhaps as penance for leaving the care of her parents to her siblings) Masha claims that the financial burden is too high for an actress on the down slope of her career. Add in additional characters, the voodoo housekeeper Cassandra (Rachel Holmes making the best out of an ill-fitting character) and Nina (the peppy Sarah Nealis) the pretty, young wanna-be actress from next door and that’s about as interesting as it gets.

Apart from the in your face Chekhov nods (the names of the characters, the farm near a pseudo a cherry orchard, the selling of the family home as subject etc.) there is little of the great writer in the script. Sure there are some giggles to be had (in fairness there were ribald clucks of laughter all around me). Spike’s constant need to disrobe is mildly amusing if not visually appealing. Masha’s Maggie Smith costume for the party and resulting impression is terrific. Cassandra even manages to hit occasional comedic notes despite the unnecessary and uncomfortable inclusion of her character in the play. But even in these mildly humorous instances, there is a distinct sense that no moment in the play feels unplanned or far enough away from the mediocre fare on sit-com television to warrant our attention.

Worse still is the out of left field inclusion of an overly long and angry rant by Vanya about the good old days that includes everything from licking stamps to Ed Sullivan to Ozzie and Harriet. Bean handles the befuddling monologue with aplomb but even he can’t make the writing feel like it has any business in this play. Nor to my mind can Boyd or his cast make it feel like Durang’s Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike has any business commanding such a lauded place in theatrical history. Beware the promise of the Tony, my friends. Beware.

RATING

For Chekhov lovers – If you’re idea of a clever homage is having Vanya be referred to as “Uncle” at some point in the play, then I guess you’ll be pleased. But with nods this obvious and unoriginal, there is little to be impressed with. SKIP IT

For Chekhov newbies – There is no need to have read one word of Chekhov to get what you need out of this play. Which isn’t a recommendation so much as a fact. Your enjoyment will all depend on your palate for “see the joke coming a million miles away” type humour, nicely acted and neatly packaged. MAYBE SEE IT

For the occasional theatre goer – With humour that requires you do nothing but sit back and let the easily digestible story amuse you, this may very well be your cup of tea. Add in a beautiful set and a decent cast and money’s worth entertainment might be the verdict.  SEE IT

For the theatre junkie –  What’s worse? The overly broad humour? The painfully obvious dialogue and story arc? The limp noodle Chekhov nods? Or the inclusion of characters and monologues that simply don’t belong? SKIP IT

 

 

 

 

Rutherford Cravens (top) and Kyle Sturdivant (bottom) in Wil Eno’s, Middletown.Photo Credit: Anthony Rathbun

Middletown
Written by: Will Eno
Directed by Kyle Sturdivant
Company: Catastropic Theatre
Run Date: May 23 – June 14, 2014

http://catastrophictheatre.com/shows/middletown/about

 

Is it really necessary to leave the gravitational bonds of earth to fully understand that human loneliness is a beast of our own making? In Will Eno’s 2010 play, Middletown, directed by Kyle Sturdivant at The Catastrophic Theatre, the answer seems to be decidedly yes. It’s a lesson served up to us near the end of the second act when a lone and isolated astronaut (Greg Dean) waxes poetic to ground control from his ambiguous orbit above earth. Our planet, he declares, is not only beautiful in its perfect roundness, but in the people down there all one breath away from connecting and being and living. But make no mistake, Middletown, is neither space age fantasy nor hokey Hallmark musings. This is a play set firmly on the ground that examines the eccentricities of human birth, death and everything in between with pathos, humour and at times a tongue very firmly planted in its own cheek. It’s also a play that has been beautifully and simply brought to life by Sturdivant and his stellar cast.

The play unfolds in a succession of interactions between the quirky characters of the nowhere and everywhere town of Middletown. The houses may look like they come from the set of Leave it to Beaver and the music that populates the play might have come from a 60’s Tupperware commercial, but the townsfolk of Middletown are anything but shiny, happy people. There’s newcomer Mrs. Swanson (the soothing and lovely Patricia Swanson) who is attempting to have a baby despite her husband’s more than frequent business trips and her own fears of motherhood. For friendship she turns to John Dodge (a wonderfully anxious yet tender Kevin Lusignolo), the sweet but smart loser endlessly between jobs and ill-equipped to deal with life’s bumps on his own. It’s these two that Eno focuses our attention on as a kind of grounding relationship by which to measure the rest of the town.

These other characters fall neatly within the usual suspects category if the usual suspects all had their manufacturer’s warranty expired and experiencing an electrical short of one kind of another. A prickly fourth-wall breaking cop (played with wonderful contained boil by Rutherford Cravens) craves human connection despite his distance, violence and disgust. The mother figure librarian (a wonderfully saccharine Lyndsay Sweeney) gives to everyone but has obsessions of her own. An obstetrician (the hilarious Xzavien Hollins), jas a bedside manner that alternates between soothingly informative and existentially alarming. Most attention grabbing however is Craig (a spectacular Kevin Sturdivant doing double time as Director/Actor), the drug addicted town mechanic/nut who has the singular ability to rifle through garbage for pills while  articulating with heartbreaking suscintness what he wants out of life. “I want to be beautiful….I want to know love.” It’s a line that hits up between the eyes as tragic in equal parts because we know Craig will never find either of these things and because while other townsfolk may, their ignorance of the desire might keep them from it.

Smartly Eno doesn’t bog us down with the sadly deep and profound to make his point. Middletown finds our funny bone in enough places to keep us interested and out of the human existence doldrums for too long. Of particular note are a pair of jaded dilettante tourists (played with perfect comic timing by Kevin Jones and Amy Bruce) who collect esoteric meaning in travel experiences which they then wear like a gifted jewelry they may exchange for more expensive bobbles. Lonely and disconnected this couple may be, but damn if we arent’ going to laugh at them anyway. Additionally, Eno inlcudes a brilliant playwright “screw-you” just before intermission that loops the time continuum by including a scene of audince members at the  intermission of a production of Middletown. “I think there may be a romance brewing between Mary and John”, one patron says. Oh dear we think. Are we really going  to end up in cliche land in the second act. Rest assured, Eno is in on the jokle and very happy not to go there.

Sturdivant matches Eno’s witty script and loopy arcs with elegantly efficient direction that intelligently brings simplicity to the stage and gets out-of-the-way of the play. The juxtaposition of the controlled zaniness in the script and Sturdivant’s pared down direction and Ryan McGettigan’s set design elicits a deliciously surreal effect that serves not only the dialogue but generously lets each one of thecast members shine. Middletown may be a musing on human connection and our ability or inability to find it, but this terrific production has no problem connecting with the audience, our funny bone or our thinking cap.

 

RATING

For comedy enthusiasts – I suppose the comedy could be described as a cocktail blender of Wes Anderson meets Wallace Shawn with a soupcon of Nietzsche thrown in. However that doesn’t quite cover it. Point is, yes you’ll laugh if your sense of humour runs in the eccentric direction. But be warned that things take a darker  turn in the second act. However, sometimes it’s good to get a little vegetables in with your sweets. SEE IT

For drama enthusiasts – Yes there is meaning galore in this philosophically circular play. After all, you can’t write a play about loneliness and human dis-connection and not have something to say. But deep doesn’t mean dour in this play. Humour abounds and laugh you will. But after all, all work and no play makes for a dull boy. SEE IT

For the occasional theatre goer – I’m not sure the words eccentric, esoteric or philosophical are bull’s-eye to your theatre preferences. Yes the narrative is more or less linear, the comedy is accessible and there is a plot to be had, but the packaging of this play may be too off the beaten track for your liking. SKIP IT

For the theatre junkie – OK smarty-pants – yes you’ll see the cheeky nod to Thornton Wilder’s, Our Town. And yes, Eno was intentional in his send up of the genre. But Middletown deserves to be enjoyed on its own merits. It’s an intelligently wry and clever look at the human condition directed here with panache and performed with immense talent. SEE IT