The Last Wife

Centaur Theatre / 50th Season

THE LAST WIFE

Quebec Premiere

February 12 - March 3, 2019

Written by Kate Henning, The Last Wife is a historical drama presented within a contemporary setting and with present-day vocabulary. Though the play is about the King Henry VIII's sixth and the last wife Katherine Parr, it equally well portrays Henry VIII himself, his three children Edward, Mary and Elizabeth (who will all in turn become English monarchs), and Thomas Seymore, a brother of Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII.

The play takes the audiences behind the throne into a home not unlike that of any power family today. Almost 500 years ago, Katherine Parr manoeuvred her way through the halls of power and earned the respect and trust of her husband, King Henry VIII. Though history shows that a wedding with the notorious King proved fatal to several of his wives, but in last wife Katherine Pratt he met his match in wit and negotiation, and gained a formidable ally worthy of ruling the country while he fought in France. Moreover, she had prepared his heirs - Edward, Mary and Elizabeth - to rule the British empire. The Last Wife is a smart, funny and potent examination of patriarchy, family, sexual politics, and, surprisingly, even women’s rights.

The playwright Kate Hennig explained her attraction to Katherine Parr:

 “After watching the events of the Arab Spring on the news in 2011, I became curious about the wives and daughters of tyrants. That led me to Henry VIII, which led me to Katherine Parr. The Last Wife is an ‘imagined’ history based on actual people and events. What I was deeply interested in was the humanity of these iconic characters, imagining what made them do what they did, thereby shaping history. Creating a contemporary voice for this history allows us to see ourselves and our own personal and political struggles. It also raises questions such as do women see power, specifically political power, as a position from which things get done or is the teaching of children--an archetypically feminine domain--a more powerful platform for change than seeking political office?”

 The play’s director Eda Holmes stated:

“The uncanny political timeliness and social relevance render The Last Wife popular both here and in the US. It’s full of sexy characters and life and death stakes--pillars of great theatre--but what emerges as the thrilling core of the story are Katherine Parr’s gutsy intelligence and resilient pragmatism. Kate [Hennig] has unleashed a modern woman into history, giving us a new prism through which to view power, patriarchy and feminism. In fact, she has done the very thing that historian and women's rights campaigner, Dame Mary Beard, proposes: she has redefined the structures of power.” 

The play brings the nearly 500 years old historical events to life with great mastery. All the actors shine in their roles, especially Diana Donnelly who portrays the lead character Katherine Pratt, the last wife of Henry VIII. She succeeds in enacting the complex drama of Katherine Pratt’s life, who succeeded in navigating the tough corners of her relationship with her unpredictable husband King Henry VIII, at the same time being a devoted and dedicated stepmother to his three children.

Even in the case you are not much familiar with this particular period of English history, the play will still hold your attention. It might even make you search later on at home in your books or online for the historical accounts of those times. 

PRODUCTION TEAM

• Written by Kate Hennig
• Directed by Eda Holmes
• With Diana Donnelly, Robert Persichini,  Antoine Yared, Mikaela Davies, Anne-Marie Sahen and  Alessandro Gabrielli.
• Set & Costume Designer Michael Gianfrancesco
• Lighting Designer Andrea Lundy
• Music Composers Anna Atkinson and Alexander MacSween
• Fight Director Anita Nittoly
• Assistant Director Jessica Abdallah
• Assistant Set & Costume Designer Zoe Roux
• Coach to Mr. Gabrielli Jonathan Patterson
• Stage Manager Melanie St-Jacques
• Assistant Stage Manager Danielle Skene

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For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

PAC 2019: Into the Wonder Room

INTO THE WONDER ROOM
February 13, 2019 - January 5, 2020

Montreal’s Pointe-à-Callière (PAC) Museum of Archaeology and History presents a new exhibition Into the Wonder Room that features the mysterious and quite unique world of cabinets of curiosities. It showcases over 1,000 rare, exotic and quite unusual objects. The impressive installations take visitors on a journey around the world, as a homage to the beauty and strangeness found in it. The exhibition brings together objects from the collections of the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France, as well as hundreds of items from the collections of several museums in Québec and Canada, as well as from private collectors.

Curiosity cabinets historically represented and still represent the passion of individuals to collect certain items, displaying them in their homes as both decorative or museum type of pieces. Presently, if collecting rare items, some collectors keep them in secure safes or storages spaces. Collectors often have individual preferences as to the items they chose to collect, determined by their personal hobbies, travels, or scientific interests.

The PAC Museum exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to explore curiosities from other times and places. It presents the history of cabinets of curiosities, or “wonder rooms”, down through the ages, from the homes of European aristocrats, great explorers, and scholars in past centuries.

The final zone of the exhibition is also dedicated to the “curiosity rooms” at the homes of seven Montréal and Québec based contemporary collectors. It displays their passion and personal universe through the filmed interviews and objects from their collections. Of a special interest especially to children would be the display of objects belonging to a collector Denis Allison who is at once a plangonologist (doll collector), an arctophile (collector of old stuffed toys), and a ludophile (toy collector).

The exhibition layout is a kaleidoscopic display of large installations, each representing an immersive wonder room that recreates the spectacular effect of a cabinet of curiosities, including scores of multicoloured butterflies and birds, along with a multitude of unusual objects from around the world. It also showcases mysterious objects, fantastic creatures, mounted animals, and scientific instruments. Among the more impressive and fascinating are a mastodon tooth, a dinosaur egg, an albino moose, a Victorian-era ornithological display case, aKaga school samurai armour, a two-headed calf, an armillary sphere, and Virginia deer whose antlers became locked in battle, causing their death.

Francine Lelièvre, Executive Director of Pointe-à-Callière states:

“It’s important to remember that cabinets of curiosities are the ancestors of today’s sciences and museums. With this exhibition, we are paying tribute to explorers, scientists, and collectors from every era, driven by a quest for knowledge, cultural diversity, far-away lands, and a rare and sometimes mysterious or exotic object that can spark awe or astonishment in the viewer. In this sense, Into the Wonder Room is a veritable invitation to discover and be fascinated by the diversity of the world. It will surely appeal to visitors of all ages”.

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All Photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information on the current exhibitions, activities and programs, visit the PAC Museum's website.

Francine Lelièvre, Executive Director of Pointe-à-Callière

McCord Museum 2019: Kent Monkman

SHAME AND PREJUDICE: A STORY OF RESILIENCE

Exclusive Quebec showing 

February 8 - May 5, 2019

Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree and Irish ancestry. This is his second nationally touring solo exhibition that he also curates himself. It re-examines Canadian history, from Confederation to today, as if seen through the eyes of a personage he created - Miss Chief Eagle - that represents his own time-travelling, gender-fluid alter ego. This personage, which appears at the exhibition both in sculptural form, moulded on the artist himself, and as a self portraiture in his paintings, is Monkman’s inventive device to reflect on the 150 years of Canadian history of devastating polices vis-a-vis Indigenous people.  It also honours the resilience of the Indigenous people today.

Monkman uses a number of items from the museum’s permanent collection, placing them next to his own works, to create installations that reflect even stronger on the controversial points in Canadian history.

McCord Museum considers this exhibition as a great opportunity to initiate encounters, dialogue and reconciliation around the topic that concerns all Canadians, all human beings, and forces us to reflect on ourselves.

This exhibition has already toured through Western Canada, the Maritimes and Ontario, and McCord Museum is hosting its only Quebec stop. It is Monkman’s second collaboration with the McCord Museum, where he was artist in residence in 2013. During his residency, he created his monumental Welcome to the Studio as a tribute to Montreal, a painting that McCord Museum acquired in 2014.

Exclusive Quebec showing

After a hugely successful tour through Western Canada, the Maritimes and Ontario, Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience is making its only—and highly anticipated—stop in Quebec at the McCord Museum. “Indigenous cultures are a key component of the McCord Museum. It’s an honour to be hosting this outstanding exhibition,” said Suzanne Sauvage. This is Monkman’s second collaboration with the McCord. He was artist in residence in 2013, when he created the monumental work Welcome to the Studio in tribute to Montreal—a painting that the museum acquired in 2014 thanks, in part, to support from Montrealers.

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For more information, visit the McCord Museum website.

True Crime

Centaur Theatre /50th Season

TRUE CRIME

January 8 - 27, 2019

This is a one man show, based on a personal experience of the actor and the writer of the play Torquil Campbell. (You can read more about him here). The play’s twisted narrative about an exceptionally successful, true-life con man was additionally co-created with Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham, and with Julian Brown.

In his youth, Torquil Campbell was obsessed with true crime reality TV shows. Thanks to his good memory, when in 2009 he read  about Clark Rockefeller having been arrested for kidnapping his own daughter, he recognized him as Christopher Chichester from an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries, where he was wanted in connection with the disappearance of two people. This imposter was born in Germany as Christian Gerhartsreiter, and is currently serving a near-life sentence in a California State prison.

To explain his preoccupation with the criminal, Torquil admits:

"When I saw the pictures of him [Rockefeller] I immediately noticed that we bore a resemblance to each other and I started to realize that a lot of what he had been trying to do for a long time was impersonate someone quite a lot like myself — he was trying to be an effete East Coast preppy WASP! We look alike, we wear the same kind of glasses, we have the same tastes in things … the similarities started to get eerie. And that got me wondering, ‘What would it be like if I tried to become this guy?"

Torquil Campbell plays both characters, himself and the imposter, with a lot of expressive energy, gesticulation, and a rapid change of facial expressions and body language. The differentiation of the two personas is also additionally achieved by the changing of the lights configuration behind the actor. This is a cleaver and quite effective device that also adds to the play’s décor. Yet if you have sensitive eyes, I would advise you to sit away from the stage, to add additional distance to this back stage character lightening signalisation. I was sitting in the second raw and had to look away from the stage during most of the play, as the lights were really bothering my eyes.

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For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Centaur Theatre, Legacy Series: Schwartz's

SCHWARTZ’S: THE MUSICAL

Created by Rick Blue and George Bowser

Based on book by Bill Brownstein’s

December 14 -16, 2018

To the theatre goes delight, Centaur brought back its great success success Schwartz’s: the Musical that originally appeared on its stages in 2011. It portrays the famous Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen on St. Laurence street. It is the story of its history as portrayed in the popular Bill Brownstein’s book The Story of Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen about ‘the Main’ (as St. Laurence street was known mainly to the Montreal's English speaking population). The book was later popularised even more when made into a musical by Montreal’s kings of parody, Rick Blue and George Bowser. 

The hearty smoked meat sandwiches offered to their clients at the Schwartz's, became iconic to Montreal as one of its culinary achievements. It attracted not only locals and their friends, but huge number of tourists and even international celebrities, and often a very colourful clientèle.

The musical is a delight to watch. The parody style intermingled with some serious notes, makes this performance very entertaining and informative. A audience will be not only entertained but will also discover the Schwartz's unusual business model and what made them so successful. 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Script, music and lyrics: Rick Blue and George Bowser

Co-Directed: Eda Holmes and Jonathan Patterson

Musical Director: Chris Barillaro

Actors: Chris Barillaro, Rick Blue, George Bowser, Vito DeFilippo, Bruce Dinsmore, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Dominic Lorange, Stephanie Martin, Gordon Masten and Felicia Shulman

Drummer: Parker Bert

Stage Manager: Melanie St-Jacques

SCHWARTZ’S: THE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Fri. Dec. 14           8PM
Sat. Dec. 15          8PM
Sun. Dec. 16         2PM

SCHWARTZ’S: THE MUSICAL TICKETS
$30      Regular Adult Admission                                           
$25      Subscriber/Senior

$20      Students                                                                     
 

For more information about scheduling and program, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Salon du livre 2018

Le Salon du livre de Montréal

Montreal Annual Book Show

41st Edition

November 14-19, 2018

Comme des géants 
Maison d'édition jeunesse

This Montreal's annual book faire, always held at Place Bonaventure, is extremely popular with Montrealers, especially with children. Loads of school buses bring children to the show, they crowed various kiosks, look through the books, and ask writers present at the show to sign the books they have just purchased.



I was gifted with a book by Nadine Robert, the editor of the publishing house Comme des géants, and I would like to bring it to your attention. The book Elsi was actually written by the editor herself, and it was skilfully illustrated by Maja Kastelich. Those are just the types of illustrations I remember in my own books when I was a child. It brought back the memories of my childhood and the delight I had to read and leaf through such books and to look at the attractive illustrations which made the book story come alive, bringing me right into the imaginary world created by the author.

The Christmas is fast approaching, so do not hesitate to visit this book show, and to purchase just the right book presents either for your child or any other children you might know and would like to bring some happiness to during the winter holidays.

The show presents a huge amount of books of any kind covering an immense array of subjects. One can find books not only for one's own reading pleasure but also for the friends and family.



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You can read more about the show in my other article here.

Visit the Salon du livre  website.
Visit Comme des géants website.

The Children

Centaur Theatre /50th Season

The Children

November 6 - 25, 2018

A 2018 Tony-nominated play

Written by Lucy Kirkwood

Directed by Eda Holmes

With Geordie Johnson, Laurie Paton and Fiona Reid

Centaur Theatre and Canadian Stage Co-production

Quebec Premier

The Children, written by a British playwright Lucy Kirkwood, earned two Tony Award nominations: the Best Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award. It also won the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Play in January 2018. It made its debut in November 2016 at the Royal Court (London, UK). A year later, it opened on Broadway, at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Last month, October 2018, it enjoyed a successful ran at Canadian Stage, the Performing Arts Theatre in Toronto. Now, it is enjoying the Quebec premieres at Montréal’s Centaur Theatre.

The play examines the forefront issues we now all face as a collective humanity – the safety of our energy sources, the toxic and nauseous pollution of our living environment, and the sense of responsibility, or the lack of it, as how to remedy the consequences of our mistakes.

Following a nuclear disaster in the plant where they used to work, two British nuclear engineers, a husband and wife, live just outside of the exclusion zone, near a seaside, where they moved after the accident. At their retirement age, when they should have enjoyed their lives after having contributed their long careers to the society, they are now facing not only the re-examination of their relationship but also consequences of their mistakes, both personal and professional. This is triggered by an unexpected visit of a former colleague whom they have not seen in 38 years. What at first appear as a simple reminiscing, escalates into an existential and moral dilemma with inevitable, grave and irreversible consequences to all three characters.

I highly recommend this play. It has an intricate plot where the real meaning revealed only at the end. The play raises important issues that could affect all of us, and suggest we are all responsible for our actions within our society. Though at first it appears to be light-hearted, it is in reality quite multifaceted. In addition, the actors’ performance is excellent.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Set & Costume Designer Eo Sharp

Lighting Designer Bonnie Beecher

Sound Designer John Gzowski Assistant Director Christine Horne

Assistant Sound Designer Maddie Bautista

Stage Manager Maria Popoff

Apprentice Stage Manager Meghan Froebelius

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Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.

For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

Sunday Chat-Up:

Sunday November 11, 2018 at 12:30pm in the Gallery.

Join Gazette Editor-in-Chief, Lucinda Chodan, in conversation with Colleen Thorpe, Director of Sustainability Consulting at Equiterre. Together they will discuss possible solutions that can be done individually and collectively, to improve the fate of the planet.

Free public event with refreshments provided by Bonaparte Restaurant.

Post-Show Talkbacks:

Thursday November 15 and Sunday November 18.

Audience members are invited to stay after the performances for a Q&A with select members of the cast.

Saturday Salon:

Saturday November 24 after the matinée performance, at 3:30pm in the Gallery.

Join Eda Holmes, Centaur’s Artistic and Executive Director and also The Children Director, for an informal conversation about The Children, Season 50, and what is coming up at Centaur.