Author: Jessica Kinnari

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Arts

The Watershed sheds light on political issues

Politics, water and the Experimental Lakes Area take centre stage at the Centaur Theatre

Have you ever heard of the Experimental Lakes Area(ELA) near Kenora, Ontario? Have you ever thought about how much clean water is worth? Are you willing to find the answers by driving across the country in a Winnebago crammed with three children, a husband and a bacon-loving dog? Maybe not, but thanks to Montreal playwright Annabel Soutar, you can experience that journey from the comfort of the Centaur Theatre.

The Watershed is Porte Parole and Crow Theatre’s newest venture in documentary and political theatre. According to the Porte Parole website, documentary theatre is a creative process whereby artists record current event stories from many different perspectives, such as TV segments, in person interviews, radio and online sources. They then sort and mediate those perspectives for an audience in the form of a play. All of the dialogue in The Watershed came from recorded interviews and family conversations about water and the ELA. The Watershed explores Soutar’s journey to find answers about why the Canadian ELA the world’s only freshwater research site, was shut down by the Harper government in 2013, after a scientist who worked there published an unflattering review of the Oil Sands.

The Watershed follows playwright Annabel Soutars family as they journey across Canada to find answers about the ELA. Photo courtesy of Porte Parole Productions

Commissioned for the 2015 Panamania Festival, the play begins with Soutar speaking to a local plumber about how water comes into the home. It then grows to become a cross-country journey to find out why the Harper government cut funding to the ELA, which had an annual budget of about $2 million.

The greatest part about this play is its documentary style, specifically the dialogue and characters. The play’s characters range from Soutar’s hilarious children to former Prime Minister Harper and scientist Diane Orihel, who put aside her research to fight for the ELA. The documentary style gives the characters depth, reliability and reasoning since they are real people speaking their own words, rather than ones made up by a playwright to go along with a story.

Soutar’s children, Ella and Beatrice (the third child on the trip, Hazel, is director Chris Abraham’s daughter), played by Amelia Sargisson, and Ngozi Paul, are almost like average audience members within the play. They begin the journey with little knowledge about water, watersheds or where freshwater comes from. As the play continues, the girls become more and more knowledgeable as they sit in on many of the interviews—which the audience also witnesses as they are reenacted on stage.

By the end of the play, the children are conducting their own interviews and learning more about how different people view the oil sands—for example, as a vice president of sustainability for a Montreal oil company said in her interview with Soutar, “People who are for it call it the oil sands. People who hate it call it the tar sands.”

Both The Watershed and Soutar’s previous documentary play, Seeds, have definitely solidified documentary theatre as my favourite style of theatre. While traditional playwriting definitely has its place, this new documentary style feels much more sincere and appeals to modern-day audiences. The Watershed runs until Dec. 4 at the Centaur Theatre. Tickets are available online, at centaurtheatre.com.     

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Arts

Concordia grad joins Second City’s holiday show

Aimee Ambroziak joins the famous Second City Touring Company in Eat, Buy, Repeat

Aimee Ambroziak joins the famous Second City Touring Company in Eat, Buy, Repeat

As of Monday, Nov. 21, Concordia theatre grad Aimee Ambroziak will be joining the ranks of hilarious female comics. Ambroziak will be a part of the Second City Touring Company’s new holiday show, Eat, Buy, Repeat: The Second City’s Guide to the Holidays.

The Second City opened in 1959 and has since become a world-renowned comedy club, theatre and improvisation school. Its notable alumni include Tina Fey, Catherine O’Hara and Bill Murray, all of whom Ambroziak said are her heroes.

“While theatre is my first love, I started thinking about who my heroes are, and I realized that all of them had something to [do] with improv at Second City,” she said.

Ambroziak grew up in Hudson, Que. and was a member of the Hudson Village Players theatre group, with whom she performed with throughout her teenage years. After graduating from Concordia in 2007 with a BA in theatre performance, Ambroziak immediately found work with Geordie Productions. For a year, she toured Eastern Ontario elementary and high schools, performing various children’s theatre plays, including a Robert Munsch adaptation.

After attending a Level A improvisation class—a weekend-long, entry-level intensive course—at the Second City in Chicago, Ambroziak auditioned for the Second City in 2013. For the past three years, Ambroziak has been a part of the Second City’s Boat Company, performing on Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Pearl and Epic ships, as well as the Second City’s Family Company, which performs children’s shows. She is now making her debut with the Second City’s touring group in Eat, Buy, Repeat: The Second City’s Guide to the Holidays.

Ambroziak said the show draws inspiration from world events, as well as themes like consumption. The show was created through various improvisation sketches performed in front of a live audience.

“We got to see what worked and what didn’t,” she said. The show includes original songs and some Second City favourite performances from past holiday shows. Because the show draws inspiration from world events, some of the sketches have evolved to fit the changing news, particularly after the U.S. election on Nov. 8. “There is actually one scene where, as I was doing, I thought ‘I wonder if this will change when Hillary wins,’” Ambroziak said. “Evidently, it didn’t.”

The show is now all planned out, excluding a few scenes that require audience interaction. Ambroziak said if there is time after a performance, the troupe will perform a completely improvised third act. As this is a comedy show, Ambroziak wants the audience to enjoy themselves and feel refreshed. “I want them to leave the theatre having laughed a lot,” she said “Ideally, I hope they feel like it is something they haven’t seen before.”

Eat, Buy, Repeat: The Second City’s Guide to the Holidays runs from November 24, 2016 to January 5, 2017 at the Second City Mainstage Theatre in Toronto. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased online at secondcity.com.

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Arts

Welcome to your worst nightmares

Underbelly is a collective play created over the past eight months by a group of six Concordia students and four theatre students from Erlangen, Germany. Photo by Jessica Kinnari.

Concordia’s theatre students bring their much-anticipated collective Underbelly to the One-Act Play Festival

Filled with strobe lights, choral speaking and aggressive physicality, Underbelly explores themes of animality and fear. This one-act collective creation is the result of eight months worth of research.

The show was created by Camille Banville, Julian Duarte, Deborah Hartmann, Wilson Menary, Mariam Nazaryan, Lukas Reinsch, Madeline Smart, Sophie-Thérèse Stone-Richards, Leyla Sutherland and Luisa Zap, a group of both Concordia theatre students and students from Erlangen, Germany. It is part of the exchange program offered to theatre students at Concordia. Students travel to Erlangen, Germany for four months to attend classes, and begin to work on a show. Afterwards, the German students do the same and come to Concordia for the following four months. At the end of the process, the group debuts their collective at Concordia’s One-Act Play Festival.

Underbelly focuses on monsters and hybrids (mythological creatures). The show explores people’s inner monsters and what they can become, through scenes of abuse and control. A particularly difficult scene to watch was one of abuse that features three couples who, in a synchronized sequence, appear to abuse their partners, both physically—by twisting their arms—as well as psychologically and sexually. It ends with a somewhat long segment of erotic and suggestive movements, and the three victims smearing vaseline on a plexiglas board and licking it off. While rather difficult to watch, it also leaves the audience wondering what is happening, especially when watching three people lick vaseline. Although it is a powerful image, it is quite unpleasant to observe.

The show’s transitions often featured a strobe light and a group of actors walking across the stage posing in various positions. Sometimes they engaged the audience with choral speaking, sometimes the transition was simply covered by music. Either way, it made for a more refreshing take on the typical transitions of a collective. The show is mostly about audience interpretation, as not many of the scenes are explained, due to the strobe light it was sometimes difficult to see what was happening. However, after attending a rehearsal of the show, it became clear that that was the point. If the audience is questioning what’s happening, and wondering if what was happening was real, then the actors seemed to be content. The One-Act Play Festival ran at Concordia’s D.B Clarke Theatre from November 9 to 13. It was composed of five student acted plays, some original some not.

To see what performance is coming up next for Concordia theatre, be sure to check out the Fine Arts department calendar.

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Arts

Off with her head! And let them eat cake!

Alex Petrachuk gave an amazing performance as Queen Elizabeth in Obra anaïs: performance ensemble’s production of Mary Stuart.

Mary Stuart brings the battle of the two Tudor queens to life onstage

A techie and costume designer’s dream, Mary Stuart brings to life the historical struggle between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. The multimedia-filled show ran at the Salle Jean-Valcourt du Conservatoire from Oct. 21 to 30, and featured a number of Concordia grads, including Alex Petrachuk and Curtis Legault. A production by the Obra anaïs: performance ensemble, the play featured solid character development as well as captivating music and interesting staging choices.

The set was versatile, with chains and sheer pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling along the back of the stage. Above them was a screen onto which images and videos were projected throughout the play. The curtains created a transparent hallway for characters to walk through, and could also be tied into slip knots to create different silhouettes for different settings. The black and white colour scheme of both the costumes and sets played well with the lighting. The characters would step in and out of the light depending on whether they were lying or telling the truth.

A definite highlight was the standout performance by Alex Petrachuk, who played Queen Elizabeth I. Her character engaged the audience with her inner turmoil about signing the death warrant of her cousin and royal counterpart, Mary Stuart. Both queens exuded power, but Petrachuk also gave her queen a more human and compassionate element that the audience could relate to. She made me, as an audience member, feel both angry about her spoiled attitude, yet sorry for her, as she was trapped in her role as a monarch.

The music included renaissance choral singing alongside a more contemporary drag performance, which added an updated feel to the Brechtian show. The sound design was done by Vanessa Zaurrini, who mixed together sounds and songs, from Madonna to metal, in an electroacoustic style. The music tied in with many of the staging ideas and created intensity in many of the scenes.

However, even though this version of the play was obviously a more contemporary take, some of the music, specifically the more modern and metal songs, seemed unnecessary and didn’t really add anything to the performance. The case was the same for a number of the theatrical choices. For example, actor Megan Schroeder seemed to play both Lady Kennedy and the embodiment of Mary Stuart’s inner thoughts. This was just as confusing as it sounds. During a few of Mary Stuart’s monologues, Schroeder would move in out of the curtains in the background, sometimes spinning or crawling or even brandishing an invisible sword. While I can see the idea behind the choice—to show how Mary Stuart was actually feeling inside, despite appearing strong to the outside world—it was both distracting and confusing—especially since Schroeder was playing another character the rest of the time. Had a different actor played the “inner Mary Stuart” and been present in every scene, the idea may have come across better.

A well-acted and visually appealing play, Mary Stuart is not for anyone with a short attention span. The play ran close to three hours, with only a 10 minute intermission, and while that length is normal for most Brechtian plays, it definitely felt very long. To find out more about Obra anaïs: performance ensemble, check out their Facebook page.

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Arts

Sending positivity through public art

Montreal based visual artist Aquil Virani is taking back community spaces by leaving his art at Montreal bus stops. Photo by Aquil Virani

Montreal artist Aquil Virani is leaving his artwork at bus stops to spread a little love around the city

Most artists just want people to enjoy their art, and Montreal-based visual artist Aquil Virani has a new idea about how to do just that. Virani’s latest venture, the Giveaway Project, is his way of injecting positivity into Montrealers’ lives. The project involves taking the various artworks he has left over from his many art shows and art marathons, and leaving them at bus stops for people to take home. The paintings vary in size and theme, but they are all there to inspire positivity.

Virani chose bus stops as the drop-off location because, while it is a practical place given the relative shelter from the weather, it also acts as a community hub. People who wait at bus stops come from all walks of life and are always going somewhere.

Virani said he simply leaves the artworks at the bus stop and walks away— he does not wait around in the bushes to see who picks up his piece. To create a video about the project, Virani filmed himself dropping the artwork off and sometimes, while he was packing up his belongings, the camera caught people taking the art piece. However, he said this is never done intentionally, “I’m ok with not knowing what happens after,” he said.

While he said there is no real theme guiding his choice of which artworks to leave—in fact, the selection is quite random—he chooses artwork that he believes appears more positive and will inspire happiness.

Each piece comes with a slip of paper with Virani’s website, contact info and, most importantly, permission to take the artwork. Not only is this project about making someone’s day, it is also about taking back community spaces. Virani said he thinks a lot of people won’t necessarily use community spaces, like parks, for fear of intruding on someone else. “I want this project to also remind everyone that community spaces are for you,” Virani said. “It isn’t no one’s space, it’s everybody’s space.”

Virani said he wants to use this project not only as a positive method of giving away his old (and sometimes new) art pieces, but also as a way to bring art out of its traditional art gallery environment. “Art is for everyone. It’s made to be enjoyed by everyone, not just the art world,” he said.

In most of his art pieces, Virani said he aims to create art that not only looks pretty but also means something, both to him and the receiver. He likes to “make art that both engages the heart, the mind, and is socially aware,” he said. Virani said the Giveaway Project is an example of how fun, socially-experimental projects can make someone’s day. He said he uses this project as a way to add positivity to the world, especially at a time when all the world crises are spreading such negative energy. He also said it helps him combat all the things on the news and in the world that sometimes “get him down.”

To see more of Virani’s work and a video of the Giveaway Project, check out his website.

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Opinions

Concordia is rife with instances of racial profiling

Photo by Steven Depolo from Creative Commons.

Campus security allegedly profiles mature Concordia student

As a 20-year-old Caucasian woman, I’ve never personally experienced racial profiling. But when it happened to one of my friends, it prompted me to do some research. Profiling on university campuses by campus security and law enforcement is a reality for minority students, and it needs to end. Students need to stop feeling unsafe in their place of learning out of fear of being profiled by campus security.

Profiling may seem like a broad and scary topic, so let’s go back to the basics and define it. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, profiling is, “the act or practice of regarding particular people as more likely to commit crimes because of their appearance, social class, race, etcetera.”

It all began a few weeks ago, on Oct. 14, when Concordia student Nigel Ramasawmy contacted me after he felt he had been the victim of profiling by Concordia’s campus security. He had been standing in the Hall building, waiting for a friend, when a campus security guard approached him and began questioning him about why he was standing there.

When Ramasawmy asked the guard why he was being questioned, the security guard claimed that another student had made complaint about Ramasawmy but wouldn’t disclose the nature of the complaint. Eventually, the security guard just walked away, never having asked Ramasawmy to see his student ID. While this may seem like a normal interaction where the guard was just doing his job, it is necessary to point out that Ramasawmy, as mature student of minority descent, felt targeted and unsafe.

This appears to be a case of profiling, but according to Fo Niemi, executive director and co-director from the Center for Research Action on Race Relations’ (CRARR), this is not the only time an older student was profiled.

CRARR is currently investigating a case involving Concordia’s security intercepting, photographing and banning a black woman from accessing the EV building. This case “also involves social profiling because the woman was treated as a homeless person, as she walked in with many bags and she is overweight, in her 40s,” said Niemi in an email. “[The case] is still before the [Quebec] Human Rights Commission” he added.

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), profiling is considered a violation of a person’s human rights, and the OHRC has reported that profiling, specifically racial profiling, is not an effective way to stop or prevent crime. Yet, this violation is regularly committed by law enforcement and other authoritative figures.

Why should a student ever feel victimized by their own campus security? It may be security’s job to keep us safe, but profiling students and jeopardizing their personal safety is definitely not the way to go. If universities want to become the safe and accepting places they claim to be, any and all forms of profiling need to end.

In both cases of profiling at Concordia discussed, the form of profiling has been social. Sadly, race is often an underlying factor in on-campus profiling cases, like the York University sexual assault case.

The Toronto Star reported in 2012 that after multiple cases of sexual assault at York University, police on campus began to stop and question students who met only one part of the perpetrator’s description—that he was black.

In the article, Alexandra Williams, the president of the York United Black Student Alliance said, “they’re going up to young, black men who are no taller than five-foot-three or five-foot-four, and asking them to empty their pockets and show them their identification, under the pretext that they look too young to be on campus.” The perpetrator was described as being between five-foot-seven and five-foot-ten.

While this may just seem like an overzealous officers, it could be they were just stopping every black York University student because in their subconscious minds, all black people, specifically black men, are from the same social and racial group as the rapists, and therefore are all suspects.

I don’t blame the campus security guards—this mindset is a modern reality that has been formed over time. Minority groups are deemed criminals because of societal racism that continues to endure today. In a report published by the Canadian Federal Corrections System, visible minorities are overrepresented in Canada’s prison system. The report said that while Aboriginal people in Canada make up approximately three per cent of Canada’s total population, they make up 18 per cent of Canada’s prison population.

While I want to believe Concordia’s campus security is not purposely profiling older students—the profiling on all levels—whether social, racial, or other, needs to stop. A Caucasian woman like myself should have the same possibility of being stopped as any other person who attends this university.

Not only does profiling have a detrimental effect on our prison system, it interferes with students who are simply trying to learn. Campus security needs to turn towards alternative methods to ensure our security, rather than singling out minority groups and suspecting them of crimes.

While I have never felt victimized by any form of law enforcement, some people are often unjustifiably persecuted. No one has control over where they are from or what they look like, and it should not be something that they are singled out for. I can’t imagine being singled out as I walked to class simply because of my race, how I dress or my age. This is a reality in our multicultural society should cease to exist.  

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Arts

ASTÉRISMES: Complexity in interpretation

Vanite is one of the many cosmic-inspired works of Nicolas Baier on display at the ASTÉRISMES exhibition.

Sometimes art isn’t meant to be straightforward, and that is definitely the case for Montreal artist Nicolas Baier’s ASTÉRISMES. As you walk into the exhibition, you are met by a variety of art pieces that could have been inspired by outer space—some are swirled with colour, others solely grey and dreary. Each piece has a different texture and exudes a different aura. The entire exhibition is quite puzzling and requires some serious interpretation. ASTÉRISMES is a complex and mind-bending art exhibition on display at the Division Gallery Montreal until Nov. 5.

Baier is inspired by the complexity of the mind. “Mostly, my interest was the perpetual ongoing, growing and deploying network made or utilized by human knowledge,“ said Baier. “Our point of view on reality, as a group, is not only altered by our position, but also by our tools and our previous knowledge.”

Vanite is one of the many cosmic-inspired works of Nicolas Baier on display at the ASTÉRISMES exhibition. Photo by Richard Max Tremblay.

This exhibition, with its extraterrestrial-looking shapes and images in the works, kept me wondering what the pieces were about and what one is meant to take away from them. Their meanings are meant to be complex, as according to Baier. He wants viewers to take away from the exhibition that “reality is a very complex subject.”

“Reality, nature, cosmos are three synonyms, in my opinion, three words that are totally inclusive,” he said. “We think of the cosmos as something so far, while it’s the air that we breathe, it’s our flesh, our thoughts. We are the cosmos—we are the nature. The machines that we are building are also a part of nature. We are the way the universe is succeeding, having dreams about itself, or understanding itself.”

The exhibition is certainly as mind-bending as its definition, and provides a space to sit and contemplate the universe and one’s existence.

This exhibition is not Baier’s first, and growing up in Montreal, he has wanted to be an artist for as long as he can remember. He said it may have had to do with the fact that both of his parents were art teachers. Baier is a successful artist with many solo and group exhibitions under his belt. His work has been displayed at many galleries across Canada, including the Division Gallery in Toronto and St Mary’s Art Gallery in Halifax.

For more information, you can check out his website.

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Arts

Montreal puppetry lovers unite

Fluffy puppets like this one are going to be surrounding puppeteer Jesse Stong as he creates shows from Oct 19 to 23. Photo by Jesse Stong

Concordia student Jesse Stong will be creating puppet shows for five days straight

Concordia student Jesse Stong is bringing his extreme puppetry show, <3 Puppets (pronounced Love Puppets), to the Mainline Gallery from Oct 19 to 23. For five days, Stong will be living in the gallery and creating performances using puppets. The gallery itself is only open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., however, curious viewers are free to take photos and watch him through the gallery windows after the gallery closes for the night at 11 p.m.

Surrounded by his puppets, his goal is to be constantly creating and exploring his relationship with them—something that he said he hasn’t had time for over the past few years. “These five days are the first in 10 years that I will have to myself to just play with puppets,” he said. “I want to just be able to play with them like I did when I was a kid.”

Stong’s love of puppets first ignited when he was given a puppet at the age of seven. “It was a gorilla puppet,” he said, “At that point I was in love with Jane Goodall.”  Stong added that he just got her autograph about two weeks ago.

Puppets soon became a large part of Stong’s life. He was a shy child but he said he found his confidence with puppets. “If I had a puppet with me, it’s like it wasn’t me onstage,” he said. It’s these memories that Stong wants to reflect on during his time at the Mainline Gallery. Stong wants the performance to be filled with spontaneous creations and come from a genuine, un-rehearsed place.

Therefore, Stong said he hasn’t been preparing for the performance—he’s just been focusing on what practical things he will need, like Tylenol, ice buckets and slings to soothe his arms from the strenuous effort of lifting the puppets all day.

“I don’t want to predict what I’m going to do, so I’m trying not to think about it,” he said. “Maybe I’ll run out of ideas before it’s over, but I want it to keep surprising me.”

Stong said he wants this to be an educational experience for the viewers who will get to observe the creations and a puppeteers love of puppets, as well as the unpredictable outcome along with him. The performance is part of his master’s thesis in art education.
Stong has a bachelor’s degree in social work from Ryerson, as well as a degree in playwriting from the National Theatre School in Montreal. He has created playwriting workshops for the Quebec government and wrote a play, Waterweight, which is currently on tour with Geordie Productions. The play presents the topic of body issues to elementary school audiences in Ontario and Quebec.

For more information about <3 Puppets, checkout the Facebook page or swing by the Mainline Gallery this weekend from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. There will be a cash bar on Saturday night, and if you want to watch Stong end the performance—which he said may involve him simply collapsing into a heap—you can stop by Sunday night at 11 p.m.

Check out The Concordian’s exclusive video of the performance below.

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Arts

Concordia alumni bring a dance show to Montreal

David Albert-Toth and Emily Gualtieri are dancing their way across the city with their show La Chute

Dance, like any art, is constantly evolving, and that’s a driving force for Concordia alumni David Albert-Toth and Emily Gualtieri. Their award-winning show La Chute is currently touring Montreal and being performed at various Maison de la Culture venues until Oct 28.

La Chute’s creation began back in 2009, and Gualtieri said its purpose “has complexified over time.” The show draws inspiration from various sources, like Eugene Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros, as well as a person’s journey through life. “We knew early on that the [character] was not English, and from another time,” said Gualtieri.

“We really wanted to play with ideas of life and identity. Your sense of identity—sometimes in life you’re so sure about it, and then suddenly you’re not. And we wanted to play with it all in one piece, in a non-obvious way,” she said. The character navigates through various stages and emotions, changing abruptly from innocence to anger to fear and vulnerability, all the while on the verge of insanity trying to define his identity.

This character which the audience watches struggle through different emotions and stages has been seven years in the making. Albert-Toth and Gualtieri have been working on La Chute in installments since 2009, and what audiences see today is very different from the original version. “This is version two that you are seeing,” said Albert-Toth.

The original piece was expanded on after being a part of a mentorship program with Canadian choreographer Melanie Demers, who helped morph it into this new show. “We are always thinking about how can we update [the show], and it’s always evolving,” said Gualtieri. “But sometimes you have to go back to that original idea and remember what the idea is,” she added.

While going back and expanding upon the themes of older  shows is something that Albert-Toth and Gualtieri are always doing, they also are always creating new things. They said they are most excited about their new shows that are coming out very soon. “There’s always a desire to reuse old ideas that you’re not quite done with yet, kind of like re-listening to old albums,” said Gualtieri. “I agree,” added Albert-Toth. “It’s like I want to re-watch Seinfeld but I also really want to finish Stranger Things because I’ve only got one episode left.”

Parts and Labour_danse’ show La Chute is currently on tour around Montreal. Photo by David Vilder

The pair recently performed at Concordia’s Studio 7 event, and they said being back at Concordia felt a little bit weird. “Being in an institution again was a little bit jarring,” said Gualtieri. However, they believe it is important for both students and alumni to show each other their work. “We’re all creating and all learning, and it’s important to remember what it’s like to be there,” Gualtieri said. “I want to be more involved with having a discussion [with current students].”

Albert-Toth and Gualtieri officially formed their company Parts+Labour_Danse back in 2011, and since then, their choreography has gained recognition within the Canadian dance community. La Chute won the Audience Choice Award at Toronto’s dance: made in canada festival in 2015, and the duo also won awards for another one of their shows, In Mixed Company.

Visit their website for the various dates and locations of their upcoming performances. All performances presented with the Maisons de la Culture are free.

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Arts

Puzzling play comes to Montreal’s English theatre

Zachary Creatchman, who plays Jerome, is the only actor who did not play multiple roles.

Jerome of Sandy Cove crawls from a Nova Scotia bay to Mainline Theatre

Persephone Productions is bringing its brand new play, Jerome of Sandy Cove, to the Mainline Theatre from Oct. 6 to 16. Based on the true Canadian story of a man named Jerome, who mysteriously washed up on the shores of a Nova Scotia town back in the 1800s, the play examines the man’s life and origins.

Written and directed by Persephone Productions’ artistic director, Christopher Moore, the play features many talented actors including Concordia graduate Natasha Perry-Fagant.

While the performance was engaging, figuring out the plotline without a synopsis is not an easy task. I spent most of the play wondering, “Who was that person supposed to be?” and “Why is this happening?”

The play alternated between a chronological story about Jerome’s life after washing up on shore and various short scenes that depicted his possible life before the incident. The play begins with multiple scenes where the dialogue is solely in Italian. At times, it was easy to follow along, however, I feel like I missed many important pieces of information altogether.

Spoiler alert: the Italian man who I presumed to be Jerome is quite suddenly, and I really mean suddenly, being chased by a police officer and must flee on a ship. While the officers did seem to be explaining his crime, it was in Italian and I was left utterly confused. There were scenes with pirates, confederate soldiers and a random cowboy, all of whom seemed to be random. There was never any solid connection to Jerome in any of the scenes as they were just all speculations. To top it off, almost the entire cast played multiple roles. The plotline wasn’t extremely coherent throughout.

The play did have its upsides though, mostly due to the cast of talented actors. The scenes of Jerome’s life in Nova Scotia featured intriguing interactions between lead actor Zachary Creatchman (Jerome) and the rest of the cast, particularly the female actors. Any scenes with Creatchman and Dawson theatre graduate Dominique Noel were particularly captivating—they drew the audience in with their chemistry. Creatchman is a true artist and, though he did not talk, for Jerome had lost his ability to speak, his eyes and facial expressions captivated the audience with their depth and intrigue.

The music throughout the show was performed live by Sarah Segal-Lazar, and all of the songs and lyrics were written and composed by Segal-Lazar herself. It gave the show a more folksy and intimate feel, and made me feel more at home as an audience member.

While this play featured great acting and did have many heartfelt and humorous moments, it fell short in the plot department, and viewers should definitely read a synopsis before heading into the theatre. The show runs until Oct. 16 at the Mainline Theatre on St Laurent.

Tickets are $20 for students and $25 for the general public. To learn more about the production, visit their website.

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Arts

The Occupation of the American Mind

The film examines the brutal conflict and devastation that has affected the citizens of Gaza.

Cinema Politica’s latest screening focuses on the public relations of the Gaza-Israel conflict

There are two sides to every story and conflict. The Occupation of the American Mind explores the other side of the Gaza-Israel conflict—the side that pro-Israel North America doesn’t get to see. This visually-packed documentary, screened at Concordia’s Cinema Politica on Oct. 3, examines the pro-Israel public relations mandate within the United States.

Directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, The Occupation of the American Mind analyzes the backlash against Israel’s invasion of Gaza from the majority of the world, and the pro-Israel political stance within American politics.

As if there were a public relations agreement between the U.S and Israel, the film claims the American media is only showing one side of the story. It opens with a jarring quote from former Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu that perfectly sums up the purpose of the film: “It doesn’t matter if justice is on your side. You have to depict your position as just.”

The film begins with an explanation of the various treaties and wars that have led to the current Gaza-Israel conflict. Although heavy with political jargon, this summary is beneficial for anyone going into the film with very little knowledge of the conflict’s origins.

The film focuses on the unilateral conflict between Israel and Gaza, and, specifically, how American media is both manipulating the American public and being manipulated by the American and Israeli governments. With interviews from political activists like Yousef Munayyer and Noam Chomsky, the filmmakers sought to give a voice to activists who feel the media is demonizing their point of view. Munayyer references an interview in which he was verbally accosted by the news anchor for not giving the answer they were looking for.

The sights and sounds of the film may be graphic or triggering to some viewers. The film opens with a heartbreaking shot of an apartment building being destroyed by a bomb. The sounds of the ambulance sirens mix with the desperate cries of the injured and mourning. The filmmakers did not shy away from showing desolated homes and gut-wrenching images of those most affected by the conflict—the innocent civilians.

Monday’s screening was followed by a Q&A session with Sut Jhally, a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts. He is the founder and executive director of the Media Education Fund, which was involved in the creation of the film. He also directed the 2004 documentary Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict.

Cinema Politica will be screening a second film this week titled The Last Omelette: The making of “The Land of the Enlightened” on Friday, Oct. 7.  For their full line-up, check out their website www.cinemapolitica.org.

Categories
Arts

At this fashion exhibit, it’s okay to feel a little blue

Deep navy dresses line the edges of the Blue Spectrum exhibition. Photo by Jessica Kinnari

Montreal’s Musée de la Mode unveils its brand new Blue Spectrum exhibition

The Montreal’s Musée de la Mode unveiled its brand new exhibition last Wednesday titled Blue Spectrum, which is dedicated to the classic and versatile colour blue.

The exhibition examines both the origins of the colour and its place in fashion history. Featuring pieces from the 1950’s to the present, the displays draw in the viewer with their rich colour and vibrant history. Featuring dresses from designers like Christian Dior and Givenchy, the garments’ elegance and charm is every fashion lover’s dream.

The viewers enter the exhibition through sheer, deep blue mesh curtains. To the right is a long display filled with deep navy evening dresses from multiple decades, with an emphasis on modern silhouettes and shapes. To the left, even deeper navy dresses are seen, though these ones are more suited for the office or daily life. Most of the dresses were donated or on loan from various patrons—some well-known designers like Dior, others lesser-known such as KQK. Each dress has a small plaque that describes its designer, material, age and whom it was donated by.

As you are funnelled along, you come across a tall art piece. Created out of tunics hung from various strings, this suspended installation showcases the unique dyeing techniques that are used to create the various shades of blue. This is one of the many pieces created by young Montreal-based artists studying at various fashion, textile, jewellery and leather work schools.

Indigo tunics suspended from the ceiling display unique dyeing techniques for the different shades of blue. Photo by Jessica Kinnari

To the left of the tunics hangs a flock of origami birds made from old jeans, created by guest-artist Ariane Brunet-Juteau. These birds were inspired by the concept of upcycling old materials in order to create new beauty.

Continuing around the corner you come to the Montreal section of the exhibition. It is composed of four outfits created by Parasuco Jeans, a brand which was founded in the city. The designs include a pair of jeans from Parasuco’s new KLIP line. These jeans feature a new clip style of fastenings to do up the jeans. The section also includes the 2008 Swarovski bustier, which was created in conjunction with Parasuco Jeans and has been displayed at many Swarovski events worldwide.

Once you enter the final room, you are met with a brilliant display of colour. From left to right, the room is filled with dresses that display the many variations of blue—from royal blue to teal to seafoam green. An elegant royal blue is the colour chosen for the beautiful and classic dress designed by Balmain. The delicate piece stands beside a more avant-garde shade of bright blue used for an eccentric Comme des Garçons number.

Everywhere you turn, you are met with the elegance of craft, and the deep and mesmerizing shades of indigo, teal and everything in between.

Fashion, textile and art lovers can explore the exhibition at Montreal’s Musée de la Mode, located in Marché Bonsecours, from Sept. 23 to April 9, 2017. Admission to the exhibition is $6 for students and $7 for adults. You can find more information on the museum’s website.

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