NS reviews

Reviews of theatre and art in Nova Scotia and beyond

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Leaving Home: a must-see, reboot of a Canadian classic with a crackerjack team

Rarely does a play come with a food allergy warning. But David French’s 1972 Canadian hit Leaving Home, in a must-see Halifax production of stunning acting and realism, requires the Mercer family to sit down for a tense dinner of seafood casserole and green beans. Director Jake Planinc dreamed of mounting the two-hour, semi-autobiographical story when his Mount Allison drama teacher recommended this fan of Chekhov and Ibsen read a […]

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DEEPWATER: gripping mystery from Dan Bray

Deepwater is a gripping, powerful mystery about a female detective trying to unravel the disappearance of a child over four years ago. Psychological, philosophical and poetic, this new play by The Villains Theatre’s Dan Bray is a departure for the author of often comic, classically-derived plays like the popular super-hero Knight of the Bat series. Set in Kempt Shore, N.S., the play opens with an experienced investigator, Questa (Liliona Quarmyne), […]

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N.S. 2024 Merritt Award Nominees hail from Parrsboro to Sydney

Fall on Your Knees, the epic six-hour co-production by Neptune Theatre and the National Arts Centre, among others, of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s novel by Hannah Moscovitch, and Downed Hearts, a new play staged at Ship’s Company Theatre, Parrsboro, by N.S. Governor General’s award-winner Catherine Banks, dominate this year’s list of Merritt theatre award nominees. However, most of the province’s major players including Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre, The Villains Theatre, Shakespeare by […]

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a soldout hit; some tickets available Wednesday 2 p.m.

I didn’t see the Lord of the Rings movies so I didn’t know who Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd were apart from the stars in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, now enjoying a soldout run at Neptune Theatre. But now, having seen this epic, existential play, I know what they are: fantastic British stage and film actors, as well as longtime friends, who bring an absurdist duo that would make […]

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A Colourful, Queer, Life-Affirming End to the World at Neptune’s Studio Theatre

The Last Show On Earth™! is an absurd, high-colour, funny yet compassionate story about the apocalypse told through a queer lens. Writer Breton Lalama, who played Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show at Neptune, started writing the play as they were coming out as trans and “…that felt a death of sorts, which made me start thinking about all the millions of little deaths, or world endings, that we […]

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Elsa is coming to Neptune for Christmas!

Disney’s Frozen will be Neptune Theatre’s holiday musical from Nov. 7 to Jan. 5, 2025, while the season-closing musical is the sci-fi, musical hit Little Shop of Horrors. Neptune’s artistic director Jeremy Webb announced the theatre’s 62nd season today. Its 330 performances include 11 productions, four musicals/musical events, four comedies, four dramas, six Canadian plays and one world premiere. “The season delivers everything that we seek from live theatre – […]

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True or False? The Gift leaves you mesmerized by magic and mystery

Robert Lamar asks if life is determined by chance or destiny in a powerful, mind-bending, theatrical experience like no other. The Gift, playing in the cozy St. Andrew’s United Church basement through March 9, is the product of a theatrical dream team: former Neptune Theatre artistic director Ron Ulrich as director and writer, Halifax creator and performer Robert Lamar and veteran producer Brookes Diamond. This is not pull-the-rabbit-out-of-the-hat magic. Lamar […]

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A Fantastic Connectivity of Colour, Movement and Soul in reView

Artist websites: marybarnardfitzgeraldart.com Shown in reView, clockwise from top left, Along Mill Road, Christiane Poulin; The Universe Within, acrylic on canvas, Monika Wright; Glimpse of Aqua/Teal Stairs Between Paintings, oil and acrylic on board, Mary Barnard Fitzgerald; Jawbone, bone, plaster, dyes, Genny Killin; Waves, wool on linen, Carla Middelburg. Colour, pattern and content weave in and out with startling connectivity in reView, a five-woman exhibit at the Chase Gallery, Nova […]

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All the World’s a Vision for 1 artist and 3 sets of 2

Clockwise top, left, Sunrise, September 26, oil on canvas, Sara MacCulloch; Fog Pusher, wool and silk on burlap, Laura Kenney; Semi Rural Landscape, reclaimed pine, acrylic paint, Ian Gilson, inspired by the houses in F. Scott MacLeod’s paintings; Ghost Net; Celestia, giclee print, Declan O’Dowd; Crazy Quilt, reclaimed bait bags, nylon twine, Carley Mullally. (Contributed) the places I miss and Newfoundland Sara MacCulloch has a sumptuous show of Nova Scotia […]

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Every Brilliant Thing: intimate, participatory play about everyday joy tours Annapolis Valley

Watching people’s mental health fracture during the pandemic gave Caravan Theatre’s artistic director Kathy France the desire to stage Every Brilliant Thing, opening tonight in Wolfville before an Annapolis Valley tour. In Duncan Macmillan’s one-person, hit play a daughter is inspired by her mother’s chronic depression to create a list of every brilliant thing she can think of to remind her mother that life is worth living. As the child […]

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