Arts Club Theatre Company
Calendar Girls

Dates and Venue 26 January - 26 February 2012, 8pm | Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage

Reviewer John Jane

When a group of middle-aged Yorkshire women decide to pose nude for a calendar to raise money on behalf of their chapter of the Women’s Institute for a settee (sofa or chesterfield) and have it placed in the visitor’s lounge at the local hospital, their noble goal goes far beyond everyone’s wildest expectations. It threatens to overtake the cause and even destroy the bond of friendship of those involved. Read the review

 

 

Arts Club Theatre Company and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata By Bill Richardson and Veda Hille

Dates and Venue 19 January - 11 February 2012, Mon at 8pm, Tues at 7:30pm, Wed –Sat at 8 pm ( matinees Wed & Sat at 2pm) | Revue Stage, 1601 Johnston Street, Granville Island

Reviewer Cassie Silva

The production is ultimately about our desire to feel connected in a society that, with the creation of the internet, is becoming increasingly impersonal. The “missed connections” segment of the show was especially poignant, and almost made me want to start contributing to the section regularly to show all the disconnected people out there that someone did notice them today. Read the review

 

Pacific Theatre
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley

Dates and Venue 21 January - 4 February 2012, Wed – Sat 8pm (Sat matinee 2.30pm) l Pacific Theatre

Reviewer John Jane

In the opening scene, Roberta sits alone nursing a half glass of beer and a bowl of salted pretzels in a run-down neighbourhood bar. She doesn’t seem to be satisfied with her own company. She’s looking for someone who will share a beer with her and perhaps later, her bed – even someone as dangerous as Danny. Read the review

 

The Boys Upstairs Equity Co-op
Glory Days music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire, book by James Gardiner

Dates and Venue 18 - 28 January 2012, 8pm | Culture Lab, The Cultch

Reviewer John Jane

A year after graduating from high school, four friends decide that it’s a good time for a reunion on their hometown football field. However, the mainspring that brought them together no longer exists. Will, Andy, Jack, and Skip were proud to look upon themselves as outsiders at school. None of them ever made the football team, and with the exception of Andy, they didn’t want to. Read the review

 

Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company in co-production with Canadian Stage and The Citadel Theatre
RED by John Logan

Dates and Venue 14 January - 4 February 2012, 8pm (Sat matinees 2pm) | Vancouver Playhouse

Reviewer John Jane

RED is John Logan’s two-handed play about surrealist painter Mark Rothko at a career crossroads. Set in Rothko’s New York studio in what is probably mid twentieth century, its storyline – if indeed there really is one – centres around Rothko’s commission to paint a set of murals for the vanguard Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building. Read the review

 

 

United Players
Duet for One by Tom Kempinski

Dates and Venue 20 January - 12 February 2012, 8pm | Jericho Arts Centre

Reviewer Chris Steckler and Roger Wayne Eberle

Duet for One is a compelling theatrical exploration of the evolution of a complex relationship between a psycho-therapist and his patient. Graham Bullen underplays Dr. Feldmann with a rare blend of exasperating stillness and deliberately muted poise. His psychological strategy appears to be to act as a kind of emotional stalking-horse, and his true purpose only emerges by degrees over a series of gradual, at times aggravatingly unfeeling unveilings. Read the review

 

 

In collaboration with Axis Theatre Company
Don Quixote
by Colin Heath and Peter Anderson. Based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes

Dates and Venues 10 Jan – 7 Feb 2012 | Various Venues in the Lower Mainland

Reviewer Ed Farolan

This production is superb in all its aspects: the adaptation of the Cervantine novel, the acting, the set design, the music...In 2010, when it opened at the Granville Island Stage, it received accolades and great critical acclaim. It's now on tour till February 7th, and I watched it on openng night at the Surrey Arts Centre last January 17th. The audience was thrilled and delighted with the picaresque satire Cervantes intended it to be. Read the review

 

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