I remember many years ago sitting in Trident Cafe on Argyle Street talking to Elizabeth Murphy, Patrick Christopher and the late Jean Morpurgo about their dream to stage Shakespearean plays outdoors in Point Pleasant Park. It seemed like a wonderful but elusive idea for a city where new creative projects were (and still are) hard to fund. However, I underestimated the steely determination of this trio. Now, 28 years later, […]
Liz Richardson explores the essence of life, connection and the human soul in a fascinating, true story about an American prisoner on death row and his affect on three individuals: a painter, a professor and another prisoner. Unconfined, a 70-minute drama produced by Kazan Co-op at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia lecture theatre through April 10, is chewy, engaging and thought-provoking theatre. Unconfined is a metaphysical journey taken by […]
Clockwise from top, Dawn MacNutt, Four Friends, painted, woven, bronze wirecloth; Meryl Cook, Cozy Chakra Joy, rug hooking on linen; Christene Sandeson, Early, acrylic on canvas; Genny Killin, Jawbone, mixed media. You can literally feel hands at work on clay, wool and wire at Connections and Contrasts, a vivid and varied exhibit by five women artists at the Ice House Gallery, Grace Jollymore Centre, Tatamagouche, to March 20. Sculptor Dawn […]
One of my father’s most treasured possessions is a small, quill basket he got as a boy on a summer vacation at Browns Flat on the Saint John River in New Brunswick. Today it is in my dresser drawer. The top is falling apart; the porcupine quill work fading. It holds his watch and a bit of his spirit and boyhood joy. So it is a thrill to see 21st […]
Due to Covid cancellation of my church’s Christmas pageant I have doctored the original script to reflect the realities of the times. Don’t worry. This will never be performed! START (Narrator is fully masked, as are all the cast, and is in place at the lectern with the brass angel and standing on a box and speaking into the microphone) Narrator: Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah and join […]
Alice in Pantoland is an explosion of colour and comedy, song and dance, at Neptune Theatre to Jan. 9. The annual, family, holiday show is back – yay! It is the largest cast on the Neptune stage since the pandemic and there is no skimping on costumes or props. Written and directed by Neptune’s artistic director Jeremy Webb, the show is about time travel, the evil Queen of Hearts and […]
You wouldn’t think the words “playful” and “Halifax Explosion” could ever go together. However, Zuppa Theatre takes a witty, playful and super-lively approach to a unique retelling of the story of the disaster at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to Dec. 12. Amazingly, At This Hour is accessible to both deaf and blind or partially sighted audiences with the pairing of hearing and deaf actors, with Brian Riley’s great […]
Never doubt the power of theatre to tap into the human soul and wrench it. The December Man, a HomeFirst production at the Bus Stop Theatre to Dec. 5, is exceptionally powerful and painful theatre delivered by a top-notch, Nova Scotia team. Colleen Murphy’s superbly crafted, Governor General’s Award-winning drama explores the trauma of the Montreal Massacre in a fictional story about a guilt-ridden male student at École Polytechnique and […]
Four Annapolis Royal artists who love to take photographs come together under the theme of “debris.” They are exhibiting in Debris, to Nov. 20 at Lucky Rabbit & Co. Art Gallery, 15 Church St., Annapolis Royal. The works in this contemplative show, with themes of mortality, environmental degradation and the passage of time, are arranged in clusters by the artists: ceramic artist Ray Mackie, photographer Susan Tileston, painter and multi-disciplinary […]
If you have never seen The Woman in Black prepare to be really spooked at Neptune Theatre. When the sun rises the next day, you’ll be grateful for the light. The two-hour play including intermission is an excellent, old-fashioned, ghost story with a bone-chilling ending. Though I’ve seen it twice before – at Antigonish and in the 2012 film starring Daniel Radcliffe – I still jumped during this production. Two […]
NS reviews 