Lake Nora Arms

APRICOTS ***
Featuring Lauren Brotman, Evan Webber, Pierre Simpson, Kevin Sheard, Melissa D’Agostino, Allan Michaels and Kwame Kyei-Boateng. Written by Misha Shulman. Directed by Adam Lazarus. Presented by QuipTake. Aug 8, 8:30pm; Aug 10, 6:30pm; Aug 12, 10:30pm; Aug 15, 6:30pm; Aug 16, 12:30pm. Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst. 
In an effort to be honest yet lighthearted about the complications inherent to the Israel/Palestine conflict, QuipTake’s Apricots sacrifices some of its criticism for comicality. This bouffon-inspired work is quick, casual, tends to trade character for caricature, and manages to be more absurd than the situation on which it’s based. Indeed, the piece’s main push is essentially one long crap joke that operates as both its story line and its major metaphor. While there are definitely real offstage stakes for its creators, with so much silliness onstage, the bouffon’s satirical bite (and resulting social commentary) is missed. BL

BENU ****
Featuring d’bi.young. Written by d’bi.young. Directed by Natasha Mytnowych. Presented by anitAFRIKA! Dub Theatre. Aug 9, 12:30pm; Aug 10, 10:30pm; Aug 13, 8:30pm; Aug 14, 10:30pm; Aug 16, 4:30pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson.
Few performers have the raw charisma of d’bi.young, her ability to command attention every second she’s on stage. In this exploration of the manic power—joyful, tragic and otherwise—of childbirth and mothering, she glides effortlessly between characters, moments of time and emotional temperatures. In this early draft (what’s amazing is that although there’s a script in young’s hand, this is far from a workshop performance), we may not get the big picture of the world of benu, a young woman and mother who adores her storytelling granny. What we do get is a riveting journey through her psyche, equal parts blood and magic. PG

CARNIVAL KNOWLEDGE ***
Performed, written and directed by Rob Faust. Presented by Faustwork Mask Theatre. Aug 9, noon; Aug 10, 8:00pm; Aug 14, 8:00pm; Aug 15, 2:00pm; Aug 16, 4:00pm. Theatre Centre, 100-1087 Queen W.
Set in New Orleans, Carnival Knowledge is a difficult piece to embrace fully. Based on creator Rob Faust’s childhood experiences, the show floats atop a paper-thin story arc with moments ranging from banal and kind-of boring to bizarre and arrestingly brilliant. The magic here comes mostly from the reveals: the instant of transformation when the man melds with his masks. It’s a shame that the chunky structure and wandering narrative interfere so often with the darling, devious or even disturbing characters Faust excels at constructing. BL

THE ART OF CATCHING PIGEONS BY TORCHLIGHT ***
Featuring Amelia Sargisson, Marika Schwandt, Tawiah M’carthy. Written and directed by Jordan Tannahill. Presented by Suburban Beast. Aug 10,  6pm; Aug 11, 8pm; Aug 12, 8pm; Aug 13, 8pm; Aug 14, 8pm; Aug 15, 10pm; Aug 16, 8pm. Rolly’s Garage, 124 Ossington.
Verbatim theatre is a tricky beast. Though staging the musings of real people turns the concept of fictionalized drama on its head, there’s always the risk of missing the heart of what someone really meant. Jordan Tannahill’s project stages the night-shift stories of prostitutes, Tim Horton’s employees and biker thugs, based on interviews conducted with these subjects. Set in a blanket fort with real flashlight theatre (the audience is encouraged to make shadows and simulate stars with their flashlights), the work has a cast that commits wholeheartedly to the premise, though the interrelated monologues and Neil Young singalongs seem endless. A captivating, though not entirely cohesive, performance. CL

THE ECSTASY OF MOTHER TERESA OR AGNES BOJAXHIU SUPERSTAR ***
Featuring Matthew Boden, Kaitlyn Regehr. Written and directed by Alistair Newton. Presented by Ecce Homo. Aug 8, noon; Aug 9, 6pm; Aug 11, 8pm; Aug 13, 8pm; Aug 14, 6pm. The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen St. West.
The Ecstasy of Mother Teresa mixes cabaret-style comedic and dramatic sketches with song-and-dance numbers in too scattershot a fashion either to illuminate or satirize its subject. Is it surprising a devout Catholic nun should espouse Vatican doctrine against birth-control and abortion or regard the poor as blessed? Performers whose forte is singing, not acting, give lively accounts of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s reworded “Mother T. Superstar” and several versions of Tom Lehrer’s “Vatican Rag.” However, Kaitlyn Regehr’s portrayal of Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith is so quietly moving and so deeply felt it undermines noisy attempts around it to debunk the woman. CH 

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH **
Featuring Frank Cox-O’Connell, Carlos González-Vio. Written by Erin Shields. Directed by Gideon Arthurs. Presented by Groundwater Productions. Aug 8, 4:30pm; Aug 9, 8:30pm; Aug 13, 6:30pm; Aug 15, 12:30pm; Aug 16, 8:30pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Ave.
The subtitle for The Epic of Gilgamesh is “(up to the part when Enkidu dies)” meaning that Groundwater Productions is staging only half of the original Babylonian epic. The primary flaw is that neither playwright Erin Shields nor director Gideon Arthurs has decided if they are presenting an important story or sending it up. Shields’ language vacillates between anachronistic jokiness and attempts at poetry. The action is a quick, superficial dash through the story with the many characters poorly introduced. Frank Cox-O’Connell is too weak as Gilgamesh, the world’s mightiest king, but Speedo-clad Carlos González-Vio is quite effective as the half-wild Enkidu. CH

EVERY TIME I SEE YOUR PICTURE I CRY ****
Featuring Daniel Barrow. Written by Daniel Barrow. Music composed by Amy Linton. Aug 11th 8:30pm Aug 14th 8:30pm Aug 15th 2:30pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson.
Overlapping, drawn-and-photocopied transparencies on an overhead projector tell the semi-autobiographical story of illustrator Daniel Barrow’s transformation from a neurotic art student to a bathroom janitor. Lonely and confused, Barrow sketches the faces of his sleeping neighbours for a makeshift phone book he thinks will be his greatest work. Reflecting on a childhood masked by a blindfold (christening him with the nickname “Helen Keller”), Barrow’s personal mythology is outlined by his immense talent as an animator. The Luba title reflects the effectiveness of the piece: Barrow’s pictures will literally make you cry. This memorable theatrical experience will leave you changed. CL

FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH  ****
Featuring Marjorie Chan, Ash Knight. Written by Bertolt Brecht. Directed by Esther Jun. Presented by Deus XM. Aug 10, 10pm; Aug 11, 6pm; Aug 12, 4pm; Aug 15, 6pm; Aug 16, 8pm. The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen W.
A democratically elected government demonizes an ethnic group, creates a concentration camp, allows dogma to influence science and spies on its own people. If only this had died out with the Third Reich, but Deus XM knows it hasn’t. A highly talented, racially diverse cast immediately universalizes Brecht’s 1938 critique of governments that use fear to quash dissent. Though director Esther Jun stages only nine of the standard 27 vignettes that comprise the play, she fully captures its essence. The cast works as a true ensemble, but one must mention Marjorie Chan’s outstanding performance as “The Jewish Wife,” making her final phone calls before she flees the coming horror. CH

FORGET ZIS EXPERIMENT **
Written and performed by Bembo Davies. Directed by Andrzej Sadowski. Presented by The Institute for Non-Toxic Propaganda. Aug 9, 4:00pm; Aug 10, 6:00pm; Aug 12, 10:00pm; Aug 15, 10:00pm; Aug 16, 2:00pm. Theatre Centre, 100-1087 Queen W. 
A piece of theatre that sabotages its own theatricality, Forget Zis Experiment is an exercise in extemporization taken to the exasperation point. As a bumbling brainiac seeking the perfect gathering to examine our perpetual human dilemma, writer/performer Bembo Davies hosts a stream-of-consciousness seminar on misery that has two effects: straining the politeness and patience of its audience while also managing, perhaps only as an afterthought, to subvert the theatrical relationship it — by either accident or design — struggles to develop. An inward spiral of futility, this is one big wind-up that never really makes its own pitch. BL 

GREENLAND  ***
Featuring Claire Calnan, Andrew Musselman. Written by Nicolas Billon. Directed by Ravi Jain. Presented by The Greenland Collective. Aug 9, 2pm; Aug 12, 6pm; Aug 13, 8pm; Aug 14, 10pm, Aug 15, 4pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, 14 Ryerson.
Greenland consists of three chilly monologues directly addressed to the audience. The subject is personal isolation. The problem is we don’t care. Glaciologist Jonathan (Andrew Musselman) has discovered a new island revealed by the receding ice off Greenland. The playwright makes him so nerdy he actually is as boring as he claims. Jonathan’s wryly comic actress wife Judith (Claire Calnan) bitches unsympathetically that the price of stability with Jonathan is boredom. The school project on Greenland of step-daughter Tanya (Jajube Mandiela) makes her realize (symbolism alert) how isolated people are there. Beautifully acted though the piece is, only Tanya’s last speech about missing her dead brother arouses any emotion. CH

LAKE NORA ARMS *****
Featuring Neema Bickersteth, Alex Fallis, Susan Henley, Ken McClure and Jane Miller. Adapted by Jane Miller and Brian Quirt from the book by Michael Redhill. Music by Jane Miller. Directed by Liza Balkan. Presented by The Lake Nora Collective. Aug 10, 10:30pm; Aug 13, 8:30pm; Aug 14, 10:30pm; Aug 16, 4:30pm. Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst.
Comfy as a Muskoka chair, soul-nurturing as an August sunset and as elegantly poured as the perfect cottage-country cocktail, this adaptation of Michael Redhill’s 1993 book of poetry conjures rustic nostalgia amidst the clamour of city life. The relaxed and good-natured performances — the verse is spoken and sung a cappella — come together as if friends were jamming in the backyard after dinner. But, oh, what talented friends. Composer Jane Miller, especially, sings with the crystal clarity of the water tidily breaking for a diving bird. The unfulfilled yearning and uncertain future raised by the text thankfully prevent the project from sliding into Stuart McLean–land. PG

MELANCHOLY PLAY ****
Featuring Salvatore Antonio, Ingrid Doucet, Ennis Esmer, Pamela Ferguson, Anna Hardwick, Melissa-Jane Shaw, Cheryl Ockrant. Written by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Rosa Laborde. Presented by Project Undertow. Aug 8, 2:30pm; Aug 9, 10:30pm; Aug 12, 6:30pm; Aug 13, 4:30pm; Aug 15, 10:30pm. Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst.
Sarah Ruhl’s gorgeous script is captivated by the nuances of sadness: the way rain falls from a window, mournful cello music, strands of hair abandoned on the floor after a trim. Staging the work with good humour and aesthetic glee, Rosa Laborde drapes the set and actors in shades of black, white and red, while the actors work to find the sex in Ruhl’s farcical melodrama. Risky performances — including Salvatore Antonio as an over-the-top Lorenzo, Ennis Esmer as the comely Frank and Anna Hardwick’s lovely nurse Joan — as well as the decision to cast two separate actresses for main role of Tilly, complement Ruhl’s sardonic script. A rare (Canadian) opportunity to see a Ruhl play done right. CL

MONTPARNASSE ****
Featuring Maev Beaty and Erin Shields. Written by Maev Beaty and Erin Shields. Directed by Andrea Donaldson. Presented by Sheep No Wool Theatre Company. Aug 12, 8:30pm; Aug 14, 6:30pm; Aug 16, 2:30pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson.
Festival theatrical productions often traffic in lustful themes and nudity, but in Montparnasse, the sex and skin are crucial means of mapping the complicated friendship between two women who arrive in 1920s Paris to pursue their artistic and erotic ambitions. Erin Shields, the woman behind last year’s Summerworks break-out hit, If We Were Birds, wrote the script with costar Maev Beaty and the two of them have total command of the compact scenes, multiple characters and balance of comedy and relationship politics. The limiting roles of prude and party girl are cleverly exploded but the ending gets too tied up in the clunky idea of the rivalry between artist and inspiration — of course you can’t have one without the other. PG

THE NICK DRAKE PROJECT ****
Featuring Ryan Ward, Ryan Tilley, Melissa-Lynn Dozois, Jonathan Seinen, Justin Tilley, and Julian Dezotti.  Written by Matthew Heiti. Directed by Ryan Ward. Presented by Picture Box Theatre Co. Aug 9, 6:30pm; Aug 11, 8:30pm; Aug 14, 8:30pm; Aug 15, 2:30pm. Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst. 
The Nick Drake Project feels like two plays played two different ways. There’s the Spartan, docu-drama-esque interjections that hint at the real-life of 1960s/70s folk musician Nick Drake. There’s also the more frequent, fantasy-fuelled, Wizard-of-Oz-meets-Alice-in-Wonderland tale chockfull of odd figures, mist and guitar-playing puppet goblins. Drake haunts the stage but more as a driving force than a distinct figure. With good use of the Factory Mainspace’s technical endowments, and despite some overwritten dialogue, this work grows out of an enjoyable eagerness combined with a commitment to overly theatrical creativity. BL

NOHAYQUIENSEPA ****
Featuring Carlos Gonzalez-Vio, Ravi Jain, Victoria Mata, Beatriz Pizano, and Mayahuel Tecozautla. Directed by Trevor Schwellnus. Choreographed by Olga Barrios. Presented by Alum Theatre. Aug 8, 12:30pm; Aug 10, 8:30pm; Aug 11, 10:30pm; Aug 14, 4:30pm; Aug 15, 8:30pm. Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst.
A physical/visual/aural palimpsest that privileges expression over representation, Alum Theatre‘s Nohayquiensepa has a title that translates into “nooneknows.” Evoking the vulnerability of those living in a Columbian community surrounded by death, the piece eschews a linear narrative for a world of gesture and shadow. It’s as technical as it is textured, overlaid with polarized video projections and underscored by a tense soundscape and Spanish singing. Nohayquiensepa’s only drawback is that it sometimes loses energy through repetition. Still, it dances across the divide that separates theatre from performance, and is intriguing to try to unravel. BL 

THE PIANO TUNER **
Featuring Tyler Séguin and Miranda Calderon. Adapted by Birgit Schreyer Duarte and Natalie Corbett from the novel by Pascal Mercier. Directed by Birgit Schreyer Duarte. Presented by TWINWERKS. Aug 8, 8pm; Aug 9, 3:30pm; Aug 13, 8pm; Aug 14, 8pm; Aug 15, 8pm; Aug 16, 3:30pm. The Cameron House, 408 Queen W.
“He has always been susceptible to kitsch and cliché,” says one character about the opera tenor whose onstage murder sets this drama rolling. Well, this play is not immune, either. Taking a page from the Wes Anderson school of family dysfunction, The Piano Tuner’s stylized quirkiness stops just short of comedy, as if glamorous locations, romantic intrigue and verbose dialogue could pass for philosophical depth. The two leads are charming, though, scurrying about the theatre as the yearnings of their characters, twin children of music-obsessed parents, pull them together, apart and then, maybe, back together again. PG

LA SEÑORITA MUNDO — AN OPERATIC ALLEGORY ****
Featuring Keith Klassen, Vilma Vitols. Written by Njo Kong Kie. Directed by Kico González-Risso. Presented by Music Picnic. Aug 9, 2pm; Aug 10, 6pm; Aug 12, 6pm; Aug 15, 4pm; Aug 16, noon. The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen W.
Don’t let the words “operatic” or “allegory” put you off this immensely entertaining musical gem. Njo Kong Kie’s electronic music, played on a laptop, is full of good tunes and dance beats with wonderfully rich voices floating on waves of techno and trance. Julius (Keith Klassen) is celebrating his 40th birthday, but an uninvited guest (Vilma Vitols), the Spanish title’s “Miss World,” drops in. We can guess the many things she might represent long before her unmasking, but the fun is in the duo’s sizzling flirtation and Julius’s sudden awakening from party-time narcissism to a glimpse of life’s mystery. Let’s hope for a second run. CH

SKETCH’IN TORONTO **
Featuring Bryanna Carter, Leah Stinson, Cassandra London and Jocelyn Segal-Townsend. Facilitated by d’bi.young. Music by Abstract Random. Presented by Sketch Working Arts. Aug 8, 4pm; Aug 10, 8pm; Aug 11, 6pm; Aug 12, 4pm; Aug 14, 8pm; Aug 15, noon. As a response to the infamous and senseless “911 murders” of two Aboriginal sisters in Winnipeg in 2000, four women perform interwoven monologues channeling the experience of characters before, during and after the murders. They’re connected to each other and to the murder victims only in their oppression. Three are involved with sex work; the fourth endures less marginal but equally brutal sexual relationships. You can imagine that collaborative theatre around a serious social issue is thrillingly cathartic for its creators, but you are also tempted to imagine, as you sit through the muddled incoherence and platitudes, what it would look like if the material had been given the shape and structure the ideas merit. PG

UNDER THE PARROT/OVER TENNESSEE **
Created and performed by Gail Hanrahan and Val Campbell. Directed by James Fagaon Tait. Presented by Theatre in Exile. Aug 11, 8pm; Aug 13, 6pm; Aug 15, 2pm; Aug 16, 6pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson.
Unsure of what to be, or unwilling to be any one thing, Alberta-based Theatre in Exile’s under the parrot/over tennessee has Gail Hanrahan and Val Campbell, its two creators/performers, switching from ultra-childlike clowns to characters from titular playwright Tennessee Williams’ works to themselves as actors trying to play the scene. This makes it difficult to understand fully the over-arcing story: such severe shifts in pathos impede sustained connection with what’s happening at any one time. The Williams sections are stronger — weighted down with his despairing psychology — than the clown ones, in which gibberish, in a range of accents, only scatters the show. BL

WINDOWS ***
Featuring Chad Dembski, Liz Peterson, Amy Bowles. Written by Liz Peterson. Directed by Alex Wolfson. Presented by Ammo Factory. Aug 8, 12:30pm; Aug 10, 8:30pm; Aug 11, 10:30pm; Aug 14, 4:30pm; Aug 15th, 8:30pm. Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson.
Though the script was penned by collaborator Liz Peterson, Windows couldn’t be anything but an Alex Wolfson joint. His aesthetic signatures, including dreamy discordant music by Matt Smith, an enigmatic set of white squares and the director’s voice in offstage voiceover fuel a highly melodramatic tale about a suburban family under surveillance. Accomplished performances, particularly Peterson as a paranoid matriarch and Amy Bowles as a jazz singing misanthrope, make up for a work that seems drowned in its symbolic subtext. Look for thematic cues in the play’s staging, an intertexual soap opera and the screen-laden set: these make Windows’ outside-looking-in premise gel, even if piece leaves you with the feeling of theatrical amnesia. CL

XXX LIVE NUDE GIRLS ****
Featuring Steve Ward, John Lettieri, Mary-Katherine Finch, Max Christie, Patricia O’Callaghan, Christine Duncan, Ginette Mohr, Kate Fenton. Directed by Graham Cozzubbo. Presented by Toca Loca. Aug 10, 6:30pm; Aug 12, 10:30pm, Aug 15, 6:30pm, Aug 16, 12:30pm. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson.
XXX Live Nude Girls turns the Barbie dollhouse into a hedonistic pleasure dome, as Barbies are beheaded, undressed and sexually abused by their puppeteers, two actors dressed like children who move the dolls onstage. With live video interfacing and an interpretative jazz combo, Christine Duncan of the Element Choir and Patricia O’Callaghan reinterpret the opera component of the piece, singing and screaming out errant pieces of a projected text. While the narrative — Barbies withhold sex from their fighting Ken dolls with the drive to kill — gets lost with Cozzubbo’s extensive staging (there’s a lot going on here), XXX Live Nude Girls is a funny and sophisticated piece that could only be done at SummerWorks. Depending on your feelings towards Barbie rape, it’s either the best or worst of the fest. CL