NS reviews

Reviews of theatre and art in Nova Scotia and beyond

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Fully Committed: a one-person tour de force and Neptune’s first on-stage play since COVID

Breton Lalama’s performance in the madcap, fancy restaurant, send-up Fully Committed is a phenomenal feat of ever-changing voices and physical gestures. The 90-minute, one-person show without intermission – the first play staged by Neptune Theatre in 18 months – is a rollicking ride as Sam, an unemployed actor working the reservation line at a high-end New York restaurant, is bombarded by entitled socialites and celebrity handlers. At the same time […]

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Matchstick and Moscovitch: a winning combination at the Bus Stop Theatre

Footnotes: An evening of 3 Short Plays by award-winning Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, at the Bus Stop Theatre through Sunday, is a not-to-be missed experience in professional, polished, provocative and playful theatre. (However, sadly, all 10 shows, two a night, are sold out. To get on a waiting list in case of cancellations email matchsticktheatre@gmail.com. ) Matchstick Theatre imaginatively stages the three mini-plays of entirely different tones in three distinct […]

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Where You Are makes Baddeck Where You Want to Be

Canadian playwright Krista Da Silva’s comedy, Where You Are, is a picture of life and love to hold in your heart. Running through Saturday at Theatre Baddeck, 24 Queen St., this drama about two retired sisters is set in a small Cape Breton community where neighbours help neighbours and people love to gossip. Director Samantha Wilson has a dream cast expressing all the life force, playfulness and deep affection in […]

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Scott conjures Pulitzer-winning poet and her wisdom in Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing at FIN

The time is right for a film about loss, says Nova Scotia filmmaker John D. Scott. His mesmerizing 84-minute masterpiece, Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing, is framed by the poem One Art about loss, written by Bishop after a lifelong string of tragedy including her father’s death when she was an infant and the suicide of her Brazilian lover Lota. The film, over 10 years in the making, […]

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Juanita Peters directs her first feature film, 8:37 REBIRTH, premiering Friday at FIN film fest

As a teen in Weymouth Juanita Peters piled into a car with her cousins to see the movies in nearby Digby. This Friday night those same cousins will watch the world premiere of Peters’ first feature film as director, 8:37 REBIRTH, at FIN Atlantic International Film Festival in person at 9:30 p.m., at Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane, or online to Sept. 23. 8:37 REBIRTH, shot in Halifax with a Nova […]

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Four artworks up for 2021 Masterworks Award

The four works that are finalists for the 2021 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award are: Lagomorph (Alexander MacLeod and Andrew Steeves); Porøs (Neil Forrest); The Princess Show (Aaron Collier, Deonie Hudson and Riche Wilcox); and The Sirens’ Calling (John Greer). Established by Myra Freeman in 2005, the award recognizes the excellence of a particular work of art from any media. According to a press release, it is […]

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FAST’s Robin Hood at Keppoch Mountain: What a hoot!

Festival Antigonish’s pandemic-inspired choice to leave the Bauer Theatre to stage its first outdoor show – a massive, immersive, theatrical spectacle at Keppoch Mountain – is a bold and visionary one. Robin Hood: The Great Escape, written by artistic director Andrea Boyd and Antigonish theatre artist Laura Teasdale, is a blast. The 15-day run is sold out with the possibility of some seats opening up after Aug. 19. Excitement among […]

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Death meets comedy in Good Grief at Ship’s Company

Richie Wilcox’s Good Grief, at Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro to Aug. 22, is a comic meditation on grief if such a thing is possible. Wilcox, who has dealt with a lot of grief lately, intends Good Grief to be “my way of addressing the heaviness of the world with a light heart.” There are some good laughs in this 90-minute play without intermission as three characters struggle with death, […]

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Standing O for Outside Mullingar at Theatre Baddeck

People clapped before Outside Mullingar started when Theatre Baddeck’s co-artistic producer Hannah Ziss proclaimed, ”Welcome to our first live production in two years!” John Patrick Shanley’s 2014 play, which got a standing ovation at show’s end, is an Irish comedy about two singular people trying to find their way to love in spite of longstanding family feuds. This production, originally scheduled for 2020, is a partnership between Theatre Baddeck and […]

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Tribute to Carole King extended in P.E.I.

The Guild Summer Festival in Charlottetown is adding five performances of Tapestry: A Tribute to Carole King, as part of its first professional season of shows produced in-house. This is the second extension to the run originally set to end on August 14; it will now close on August 28 after 21 performances. “Even after increasing capacity, our entire existing run and extension is over 96% sold out, so we […]

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