NS reviews

Reviews of theatre and art in Nova Scotia and beyond

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Metu’na’q’: Intriguing Indigenous spin on The Tempest in Point Pleasant Park.

It’s a brilliant idea to tell the story of the Tempest through Caliban’s eyes and what better location than a tree-encircled grassy stage in the mostly-shuttered Point Pleasant Park? The Sipu Tricksters of Sipekne’katik First Nation, in association with Zuppa Theatre, collectively created the one-hour Metu’na’q (Caliban’s Version) running through Sunday, 7:30 p.m.. (now sold out) in the woods where Cambridge Drive and the Arm Road meet. (They, like the […]

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Mamma Mia! You Gotta See-a: a mini-review plus midsummer theatre listings ie-a outdoor theatre is still on!!

Dearest Diary Mamma Mia! is a blast!. A wonderful escape just when the news is so awful globally and even locally. It’s so dry here – brown grass and not a drop of rain in the forecast – and there’s a woods travel ban BUT – thank heavens! – all the outdoor theatre is still happening. But first to indoor theatre. As you know I’ve played the Mamma Mia CD […]

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For Love Nor Money: Unexpected story of feminism and the pursuit of dreams set in 19th century N.S.

Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre opened its 38th season with the world premiere of For Love Nor Money, an historical drama by Antigonish writer Laura Teasdale. Its eight-day run in a FAST/Mulgrave Road Theatre co-production wrapped up Saturday, with both a matinee and evening performance. Mulgrave Road Theatre commissioned Teasdale, who co-wrote FAST’s outdoor Robin Hood with FAST’s artistic director Andrea Boyd, and developed the script with a view to staging […]

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Viva la Vida with Quixote!

Two Planks and a Passion Theatre’s playful, poignant take on Don Quixote is full of Spanish music, comic misadventure and awesome puppetry. Nobody will leave the lush green outdoor stage at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, near Canning, without loving the puppet incarnations of a donkey, a horse and a scene-stealing lion. The errant knight’s beloved steed, Rocinate, is a giant constructed horse’s head but so beautifully manipulated […]

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Something Missing tours Nova Scotia

The Unnatural Disaster Theatre Co. presents Something Missing on tour in Nova Scotia to May 20. The play, by Lawson Hannford, is about Chester, who has been dreading Christmas dinner from the moment their mother invited them, according to a press release. Not only have their parents recently divorced, but both their mother, Lynn, and their older sister, Abby, are hell-bent on keeping this dinner exactly as it always has […]

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Casey & Diana: intense, powerful, must-see theatre about compassion

Powerful, deeply moving and fast-paced, Casey & Diana is a beautiful piece of theatre that shouldn’t be missed. Halifax actor/singer/composer Garry Williams, as AIDS patient Thomas, gives the kind of performance that would make even the shyest person jump up and yell, “Bravo!” Casey & Diana, by Nick Green and at Neptune’s studio stage to May 18, is on its surface about Princess Diana’s historic visit in 1991 to patients […]

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Little Shop of Horrors: fun to visit, stay away from the plant!

I’ve always loved Little Shop of Horrors and Neptune Theatre’s high-energy, sumptuously-lit, sci-fi extravaganza is a great opportunity to see it again and get a pure entertainment timeout from the news. The plant is amazing, the cast excellent and artistic director Jeremy Webb’s direction suitably playful for this campy, horror-comedy musical with its wonderful 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and Motown music. Fans of the songs “Skid Row (Downtown), “Somewhere […]

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Controlled Damage: nine actors, a fiddler and one heck of a story

Controlled Damage is excellent, complex, passionate theatre about Halifax civil rights activist Viola Desmond. First staged just before the pandemic, the two-hour play by Toronto writer Andrea Scott, returns in a new co-production by Neptune Theatre and the National Arts Centre (NAC), running just to Feb. 2 in Neptune’s intimate studio theatre. While this story is sheathed in a glorious cloak of visual design and music, its power lies in […]

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All the world’s a wheel: ceramic art in Nova Scotia

Vanishing Half, earthenware, Andrea Puszkar, winner of best in show. (contributed) Both ceramic royalty and newcomers to the kingdom of clay exhibit in a Nova Scotia Potters Guild showcase at the Ice House Gallery, Tatamagouche, to Dec. 15. Triumphs in Clay is a great chance to see the huge variety of talent, technique and themes in ceramic art in Nova Scotia with work by over 50 artists. Some are some […]

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Winter Moons: mesmerizing Mi’kmaw storytelling with fantastic design

Winter Moons is a mesmerizing, visually-stunning tale of four M’ikmaw fire keepers struggling to survive winter in a large wigwam far away from home due to conflict among their peoples. Three young Mi’kmaq must learn from the older, wiser woman, Nukumi, how to stay warm, how to eat and how to live within their souls over the three moons of winter. Produced by Nestuita’si Storytelling in partnership with the Prismatic […]

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