LuminaTO

[Benc7]

Lypsynch

Forgive me if I differ with you, Urban Shocker; I thought Lypsynch was, if not the biggest mess I've seen on stage, certainly the longest. If there was a star that stood out it was the set: complex, slick, sophisticated, and far too good for the play that it accommodated. I was expecting something different, something new, something challenging and what I got was a narrative worthy of a movie-of-the-week, housed in some very slick stage gimmickry with some really bad acting to go with it. There were moments that resonated: that first scene on the plane that you mention, set me up with the false hope of great things to come. The "rape" scene near the end and the very good scene with Michelle in the book store, shown from the outside in and then repeated again from the inside out, was clever. Henryk Górecki's 3rd is one of my favourite pieces of music; Rebecca Blankenship (no Dawn Upshaw) should have just sung and not bothered trying to act; I saw no evidence that she can. But a few moments, scenes, and musical interludes over so many hours do not a good play make.

Time is one way to enforce discipline in an artist, funding another and the actual stage itself, a third. Robert Lepage did respect the stage, but with all the money he was given and all the time (nine freakin hours!) he took, he also got enough rope to hang himself. My friend and I tossed a coin at the dinner break to see who would get to go home and who would have to stay until the bitter end to report back. I lost.

 

[Benc7]

Really cut back on the art exhibits this year. I was hoping they would have had something at the harbourfront like they did a few years back with the light beams. Also nothing in yorkville or the distillery district.

You're right, Year One of Luminato was still the best for art exhibits. Apart from the red balls in Brookfield Place and THE RED BALL, there's nothing to equal the lights at Harbour Front or those gigantic four horseys at Union Station. Maybe next year!

 

[interchange42]

Well anticipate Lipsynch with both dread and excitement! I'm going over three nights...

In regards to the visual arts extravaganza, I called Luminato's offices today to voice my disappointment over the lack of a big light show of some kind this year. With year one's searchlights at Harbourfront, and year two's coloured glowing balls at Dundas Square, and 'light' implied in the word Luminato itself, I have come to expect some kind of visual-cortex-blowing eye-freak, and I'm not getting it this year.

Do we blame the economy? Crummy economy!

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[Benc7]

Light Installation Thwarted

Well anticipate Lipsynch with both dread and excitement! I'm going over three nights...

In regards to the visual arts extravaganza, I called Luminato's offices today to voice my disappointment over the lack of a big light show of some kind this year. With year one's searchlights at Harbourfront, and year two's coloured glowing balls at Dundas Square, and 'light' implied in the word Luminato itself, I have come to expect some kind of visual-cortex-blowing eye-freak, and I'm not getting it this year.

Do we blame the economy? Crummy economy!

42

Good luck with "Lypsynch". Please share your thoughts on it after you've seen it. I'd be really interested.

This may interest you: from today's Globe. An installation that would have brought more light to Luminato is nixed.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ors-nix-luminato-installation/article1172715/

 

[interchange42]

Thanks for that link Benc. The person I spoke to at the Luminato office today said nothing to me about that installation, which would qualify as this year's light component. Let's hope they get it up and running.

I'll write in about Lipsynch.

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[FutureMayor]

Cirque du Soleil Lights up the Waterfront

The big illumination for this year's Luminato will be the Cirque du Soleil performance this coming weekend.

I've been watching them build the stagging along the waterfront sites and it appears to be quite an elaborate presentation complete with several light towers.

Queen's Quay will also be simultatiously be closed on Saturday and Sunda as the 1000 Tastes of Toronto will accompany the weekend performance of Cirque du Soleil .

I'm also hoping they will still be able to mount that Binary Waves installation along Bay Street.

Louroz

 

[Tewder]

Any idea how long cirque will be in town? Is it just for Luminato?? I'm hoping it would last through Pride because I have friends visiting. They seem to have expectations of theatre in Toronto but I don't really know what to recommend. They don't like musicals and so Sound of Music/Jersey Boys is out. Help, any ideas?

 

[gabe]

Any idea how long cirque will be in town? Is it just for Luminato?? I'm hoping it would last through Pride because I have friends visiting. They seem to have expectations of theatre in Toronto but I don't really know what to recommend. They don't like musicals and so Sound of Music/Jersey Boys is out. Help, any ideas?

It only runs june 12 to 14 and shows run every 30 mins, It's not your typical Cirque du Soleil show but it is free. i wont be wasting my time going, Lumanto has been a huge disappointment this year with all the cut backs, i really hope nuit blanche doesn't cut back this year.

 

[AGTO]

there was a fear the exhibit's LED lights could melt the plastic panels

A quote form the ESA...you'd think that members of the Electrical Safety Authority would have at least a slight clue that LED's don't produce a lot of heat.

 

[jn_12]

I live across the street from HtO so I can pretty much say I have cirque du soleil playing in my backyard. Oddly, they tested the bright stage lighting at midnight last night. It lit up our living room 200metres away. They've also been testing out the sound system with some music last night and some heavy bass/drums today which rattled our window.

 

[interchange42]

Lipsynch Day 1:

So far I'm not responding the way the Benc did: it's not perfect, but overall I am more than satisfied with what we saw.

While the theme is the voice, (the explorations of that so far have been uneven, but engaging if not challenging) Lepage has always got some visual treat for us on stage if the narrative falters. With the Ada story we have the many permutations of that fuselage to marvel at (what an efficient piece of set design that is), with Thomas we have a marvelous couple of forced perspectives that resolve only in a projected background, and with Marie we are treated to the heretofore hidden visual world of the film dubber to consider... which keys right back in to the theme of the voice.

So far it's Frederike Bedard as Marie, a singer and voice actress, who has impressed me the most. Bedard literally gives a breathtaking performance - we get to watch as Bedard reads a rapid fire written dub track that speeds across the top of a movie scene replete with lots of gasps and deep breaths - which Bedard delivers impressively. Besides that, she's just plain fun to watch and has had the most emotionally engaging of the story lines so far.

On the other hand Rebecca Blankenship as Ada, an opera singer and adoptive mother, has seemed briefly lost a couple of times with her lines. Maybe it's the three languages she has to deliver her performance in. Maybe she's not as capable an actress as she is a singer. With all her part demands though I imagine it's a very tough role to cast without bringing in one of the great divas of the operatic world (and it's too bad that there wasn't the money for that) but neither is Blankenship terrible: she's just the weak link in the acting department.

Gotta go. More tomorrow.

42

 

[Benc7]

Zisele-Jane Mallet Theatre-St.Lawrence Centre

I moseyed over to Elm Street, looking for that Red Ball; I found him, stuck again, across the street from the Arts and Letters Club. There's something just so funny about this hapless creature. I tried to free him, but the crowd intervened and held me back.

At TIX, there were a number of things to choose from, including a block of full-price tickets to tonight's Canadian Song Book concert. I remembered my vow and got a 20 dollar ticket to an afternoon performance of Zisele instead. It's 75 minutes long, with no intermission. After some of the heavy, grand, and pretentious things I've seen over the last few days, this was a refreshing little break. There are few words spoken by the eight woman, one man cast, and all the songs (pre-recorded,save one) are in Yiddish, a language I don't speak or understand. But the simple tale of mothers and their children (no fathers in this at all) is understandable to all, danced and acted across a stage that features no complicated sets, just a few chairs, some picture frames and a couple of tables. I laughed, clapped and cringed in recognition; these mamas are found in every society(there just may be an "uber-mama" culture in which all mothers are members). This was plain fun and in just the right amount.

Interchange42, I'm glad you're enjoying Lypsynch; there are many really good moments in it and the best is yet to come. Keep us all posted!

http://www.luminato.com/2009/events/54

 

[interchange42]

Day Two of Lipsynch did not fare as well as Day One as far as I was concerned. Still, I am glad to have seen it.

Part 4 - Jeremy - had too much jabbering all at once for too long not to try my patience. This was a scene where five people who speak four different languages meet for the first time over a dinner to try to finalize plans for a film. With everyone simultaneously translating for each other, a veritable cacaphony is sustained for about 5 minutes, whereas the point of colliding language is understood after about 5 seconds. My companion pointed out that Lepage had compassionately compacted a whole meal into 5 minutes for us nevertheless. Still, that wasn't fast enough food for me.

Otherwise, the piece was fun to watch, as per usual with this production. While Jeremy's film comes together the sets change more quickly and completely than any other story up to now, and the stage crew, who number twice as many as the cast, and who have been slinking about unobtrusively 'til now, finally explicitly join the action here.

Sarah: our fuselage is back, upended, and functioning as a BBC Radio studio now. I love this set. Story-wise, fun entanglements with other plot lines continue, but we're getting the feeling this story is pretty tangential, a bit of a diversion.

Sebastian: very tenuously connected to the rest of the pieces, and just silly really. Not that it wasn't fun at times, and being behind the niche wall of a mausoleum was a pretty memorable visual (and well-done sound-wise too) to end the day.

Meanwhile, Ms. Blankenship continues to trip through her dialogue, while Rick Miller is emerging as a standout.

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[Urban Shocker]

Went to Zisele yesterday afternoon with my Mum ( her choice, not mine ).

The good news: this "75 minute" show ran for only 55 minutes.

The bad news: The last 50 minutes.

Then across the street to Shopsy's ... for the gastronomic equivalent of this supposedly amusing little entertainment. Oy!

 

[Benc7]

Went to Zisele yesterday afternoon with my Mum ( her choice, not mine ).

The good news: this "75 minute" show ran for only 55 minutes.

The bad news: The last 50 minutes.

Then across the street to Shopsy's ... for the gastronomic equivalent of this supposedly amusing little entertainment. Oy!

LOL! We must have been at the same performance. It was an amusing little thing, but really shouldn't have been part of Luminato. Did your mother like it? The mothers and grandmothers sitting around me LOVED it. They loved it LOUDLY and all through the play! The sort of thing that drives me crazy ordinarily but seemed like an extension of the action on stage. Mothers in surround sound.