| Summer flings >>
Two young playwrights provide by AMY BARRATT
In just two seasons, ARGGL!’s Théâtre d’été urbain has become a familiar and popular diversion for the dog days. In 2000 there was Tsé-tsé, a spoof of ’50s B-movie The Fly, and of the genre in general. In a similar vein, last August the company presented Agromorphobia, a B-movie take on genetically-modified organisms. Both pieces were written by Choinière-who also has a more mainstream career-under pseudonyms. This year, the unassuming young man has decided to come out of the shadows and take credit for both writing and directing Jocelyne est en dépression, billed as “une tragédie météorologique.” Choinière hints that he is branching out somewhat with this piece by billing it not as “de série B” but “de série H,” whatever that is. The style is apparently a cross between ancient tragedy and TV news, which sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered for a sultry summer weeknight. The cast consists of Céline Brassard, Valérie Cantin, Simone Chevalot, Jean-Sébastien Lavoie and Sonia Vigneault. The terrasse high above St-Denis is a delightful place to have a drink and enjoy the view of the mountain. But bring a jacket because it does tend to get breezy up there after dark.
With Conditions Peculiar to Women, being staged at the Atwater library August 9 and 10, Joel Fishbane brings the number of original plays he has produced in the past four years to five . The author of Rhapsody: The Final Days of George Gershwin, which played Centaur’s Wild Side Festival last February, is not just prolific, he’s talented. Rhapsody was easily one of the best new plays of the season. Fishbane again ventures into historical territory with Conditions Peculiar to Women, set in the New York City of 1876. It is a town rife with corruption, from city hall on down, and teeming with houses of ill repute. Our heroine is a young working girl named Leda and Conditions is about what happens to her in that Centennial year when, for political reasons, the powers-that-be decide to “clean up the city.” Pumpkin Theatre’s mandate is to produce works by new and established artists, “so long as the work serves both as diversion as well as illumination.” Their attitude seems to be that theatre artists need to get over themselves. They believe theatre can only return to its former glory when it remembers that, like film and TV, it is primarily an entertainment medium. The staged reading features actors Shawn Baichoo, Heidi Besner, Scott Faulconbridge, Jessica Mackenzie and Ian Young. Pumpkin Theatre is planning a full-scale production of the play for the 2002–03 season. : Jocelyne est en dépression shows on the terrasse of the Theatre d’Aujourd’hui (3900 St-Denis, side entrance), Aug. 6–31, Tue–Fri, 9pm, $17 Conditions Peculiar to Women runs at the Atwater Library (1200 Atwater), Aug. 9–10, 8pm, pwyc. Info: 931-5449 >> Stage Listings |
Two
clever young playwrights and their cocky young companies are returning
to brighten the scene this summer. ARGGL!, Olivier Choinière’s
company, returns to the rooftop terrasse of the Théâtre
d’Aujourd’hui. And Joel Fishbane’s Pumpkin Theatre
introduces a new work which, in keeping with the company’s mandate,
promises above all to keep us entertained and awake.