LuminaTO

[Urban Shocker]

If anything, Lipsynch reminds me of the television plays of the late British dramatist Dennis Potter - The Singing Detective, maybe. The layering, the collision of different perspectives, scenes of farce, degradation, pathos, tragedy and mystery following on in hot succession, baffling narratives, tangential stories that eventually turn out not to be ... and everything falling into place at the end. No doubt it was frustrating for some audience members to be kept guessing, even about the basic themes of the thing ( Would the unmasking of the real father be part of the drama, for instance? At one point I was sure it was going to be Sebastian's father ... ), with the issues of sexual abuse coming heavily to the fore only near the conclusion. But I had no problem buying into this thing completely from the get-go and being carried along with it.

I particularly liked how they came at the "film" from many different perspectives ( a filmaker's attempt to reclaim his lost past through film; the fraudulently noble nature of that past, which his adoptive mother invents for him, as the basis for that film; the act of filming itself; the back-stories of the actors; the film's voice-dubbing; an attempt by the woman doing the dubbing to recreate a "voice" for her father, etc. ).

And, of course, the lip-synching.

 

[Urban Shocker]

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.

She didn't know what to expect either, but her family lived in a Jewish part of London in the 1930s and she had many Jewish school friends and neighbours as a child - so she thought it might be fun. I saw her checking her watch a couple of times. We agreed it was slight, harmless, disposable and not quite all that it could have been.

She enjoyed the "magic bus" trip along the Esplanade and through the Port Lands back to Riverdale after our Shopsy's adventure.

It was uber-rehearsed, I'll give it that. They could've done it in their sleep. It just didn't seen to go anywhere. The nerdy twin boy was kinda cute in a nerdy twin boy kinda way, though.

We were sitting towards the front, in the centre block, on the right aisle as you face the stage. I was wearing grey jeans, a striped blue and white shirt, and a red jacket. You must've felt the crackle of excitement in the air caused by my presence. You're so lucky.

 

[jn_12]

I watched Cirque do their run through of some stuff on the waterfront last night. Apart from the boat float, no one was in costume so it was weird to see people in street clothes and gym clothes going through their paces. That's as close as I'm getting to this thing other than the view out my apartment window. Plan on leaving the city friday night and not returning until Sunday to avoid the mess that Queens Quay will be for the weekend.

 

[Benc7]

The nerdy twin boy was kinda cute in a nerdy twin boy kinda way, though.

You must've felt the crackle of excitement in the air caused by my presence. You're so lucky.

So THAT'S why there was an air of majesty emanating from the front of the theatre! And as for "the nerdy twin boy", he was kinda cute...maybe 'cause he was the only male on stage. Any port in a storm.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Red balls everywhere

I've wandered over to city hall and FCP to see the Big guy... always seems to be a gaggle of tourists taking cellphone pix of each other. I guess that's 'engagement'...

The 'long wave' in the galleria was quite beautiful, but a little disappointing. How is it different than the geese in the Eaton's Centre? Not much...

I'm going to take the girls down to Harbourfront on Saturday to see the Cirque in the Music Garden. That'll be a family-friendly artspace, bien sur!

 

[Torontovibe]

I waited over 2 hours at the pond to see Cirque, only to be told "the show is over, come back tomorrow", after watching a few people splash in the pond for about 20 minutes, doing nothing. (No acrobatics, no cool music, no sexy costumes, NOTHING!) This was the dullest 3 hours I have spent. What a total waste of my time. Loud boos went up from the crowd when it was announced, "Come back tomorrow". At this point my back was killing me, so I was in no mood. I guess I made the wrong choice, I should have went to the Music Garden.

 

[smuncky]

i was there at 7pm as advertised on the luminato website. nothing happened. then saw a piece of paper taped to a pole saying the show would start at 7:30. again, nothing happened. at 8, i just decided to leave feeling very disappointed about how it was handled.

however, as i was leaving to go to the streetcar, a group of performers were coming down near the wavedeck. though i don't know if they were going to the pond or not. i'm hoping the closing performances will be better.

 

[interchange42]

I went to the music garden, (figured the crowds would be smaller) and it was reasonably fun, but not up to the quality one expects normally from Cirque de Soleil. I'll get some of those shots up later. Meanwhile, here's this from Brookfield Place:

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[smuncky]

LOL!!!

you got me in that 2nd photo! if i only knew it was you i would've said hello.

 

[interchange42]

Dammit! Ditto!

Meanwhile, I was actually willing you up the stairs, and out of my line of sight for my next photo, which I eventually didn't like. Subsequent pics were fab, however.

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PS: Y'know, when I got home and was processing these last night, I asked myself if that might be you or another Forumer in the pic, and so I figured I should post it just in case. Are you going to post yours?

 

[Eastside]

Wow, that installation at Brookfield Place looks great!

 

[Benc7]

Nevermore-Catalyst Theatre

"Nevermore", Catalyst Theatre's contribution to Luminato, was such fun in an “Edward Gorey-meets-Tim Burton-and-they-have-a-baby” kind of way. That poor baby is Edgar Alan Poe, played by Scott Shpeley in a bewildered, frightened and terribly engaging performance. His life goes from bad to worse...to worse. If I may paraphrase one of the lyrics :" some see the glass half full, and he sees it barely wet". As the details of his life unfold, one wonders how he managed to survive at all, much less produce such great works of art. Well, maybe that’s why he did produce them. One sees what might have inspired him in his early childhood traumas: his hated stepfather has a milky glass eye, the grandfather clock's pendulum swings back and forth with a razor sound, the death gasps of his mother, brother and wife etc. But, in this play, his works are subordinate to the tragedy of his life.

The jerky marionette choreography is a standout. The costumes looks as if they came out of Burton’s tickle trunk and the masks and props are Gorey having a nightmare. And there are plenty of funny-macabre (and just plain creepy-macabre) moments throughout. However, the play has its problems: the life of Poe is narrated by various members of the cast, in rhyming couplets, which becomes monotonous and sometimes ridiculous, as they try to make the story fit the rhyme. Also there's so much biographical information thrown at the audience that the musical begins to feel like a lecture. One of the first rules of good writing is to "show, don't tell" and there's far too much telling and not enough showing. This only serves to separate us emotionally from poor Poe and it’s only because of Shpeley’s talent that we care for him at all. The play soars when they sing and though they sing a lot, I wanted more. The set is spare but as effective as any I’ve seen: a number of sliding doors and some excellent lighting mimicking the gaslight of the Victorian stage. (The Winter Garden Theatre was the perfect venue!) This was one of the highlights of Luminato.

The link below has a couple of videos that give a taste.

http://www.luminato.com/2009/events/33

 

[Benc7]

Continuous City-The Builders Association

And I should have quit while I was ahead. After dinner, my friend and I headed for The Isabel Bader Theatre to see "Continuous City" (The Builders Association, New York). I counted 24 video screens on stage (there may have been more) that opened and closed in the most delightful manner. And that was the extent of our delight save for what we experienced as we ran out at the end of an interminable 90 minutes. There was a plot, or rather the banal skeletal outline of a plot: Someone has designed a new social networking site called XUBU. This site is being flogged by a man we see only on screen, in various cities around the world as he communicates his increasing disillusionment with the product to his boss back home. This man has a little daughter who he interacts with only via computer. The little daughter has a nanny who provides us with the local Toronto connection via her Nanny Vlog. She’s an American transplanted to T.O and provides us with her impressions of our city, impressions that might have been written for her by the simple nephew of someone who once worked as a janitor in the tourism office. (Apparently the ensemble do this in every city unfortunate enough to have entertained them). XUBU is meant to be a platform where immigrants from around the world can congregate with their families back home and with each other to form a culture on the net. We see a number of people on screen who have made Toronto there home. Right. So what? The acting is as bad as the script and that’s saying a lot. We would have been content to watch the aforementioned screens broadcast a test pattern. The only thing stretched here were the boundaries of our incredulity: how the hell did this make it into Luminato?.

 

[Benc7]

Great photos, Interchange!

 

[grey]

RedBall at Ryerson on Friday:





Bigger version on my flickr page.