NS reviews

Reviews of theatre and art in Nova Scotia and beyond

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Brundibár: light-hearted children’s opera framed in bleak history in HTYP show

Talented local actors and musicians perform in Halifax Theatre for Young People’s production of Brundibár, at the Sir James Dunn Theatre tonight, 7 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m.  Context is everything. The half-hour children’s opera Brundibár, at the Sir James Dunn Theatre this weekend, is like an adorable school play. However, this delightful piece performed by talented young actors and local classical musicians, was written in 1938 and performed 55 […]

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Theatrical virtuosity in award-winning Irish caper at Neptune studio

Gordon Gammie and Francine Deschepper in Little Thing, Big Thing at the Neptune studio theatre until May 26. (Ashley Pettipas)  It’s a treat to see Little Thing, Big Thing, the entertaining, award-winning 2016 hit from  Festival Antigonish, restaged with the same team in the cozy Neptune studio theatre. This two-actor, Irish caper features remarkable performances by Francine Deschepper as a starchy “nun on the run” and Gordon Gammie as a […]

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The Children: excellently-acted, traditional drama about hot topic

Lee J. Campbell, Mauralea Austin and Martha Irving star in The Children, produced by Keep Good (Theatre) Company  at the Bus Stop Theatre through Sunday. (Stoo Metz) Three of Halifax’s top actors – Martha Irving, Mauralea Austin and Lee J. Campbell – dazzle in Keep Good (Theatre) Company’s high-quality production of Lucy Kirkwood’s unsettling play, The Children. This 2016 British play is traditional in style and highly contemporary in subject […]

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KAZAN’s back with odd, funny, contemporary play at Park Place Theatre

Christian Murray, Kathryn MacLellan, Gil Anderson and Matthew Lumley in KAZAN CO-OP’s The Realistic Joneses, to May 19, Tues. to Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., at Park Place Theatre, Point Pleasant Park. Tickets at http://www.tickethalifax.com. (Janet MacLellan) New York playwright Will Eno’s 90-minute play, The Realistic Joneses, is very funny and unsettling, weird but familiar, in a passionate, perceptive production  at Park Place Theatre in Halifax. Trust KAZAN theatre […]

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Genny Killin’s sensuous, sacred relics of forgotten history in Rag and Bone

Reliquary of the Carita: grounded on Money Point 1975-12-20, by Genny Killin, metal from a shipwreck, plaster, dye, velvet, in Rag and Bone, opening today, 5-7 p.m., at the Craig Gallery, Alderney Landing, Dartmouth, with a talk Saturday, 2 p.m. Shows ends May 26.  People visiting Genny Killin’s house are startled by a heaping basket of bones in her dining room. The Halifax artist, whose solo show Rag and Bone […]

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Mind and Media: Sydney Blum and Alex Livingston at Studio 21

Deer by Calm Water, by Alex Livingston, archival pigment ink print, 47 ” x 65.5,” at Studio 21 Fine Art, 5431 Doyle St., Halifax. Alex Livingston’s new digital paintings of deer in landscapes play with the mind. What is real and what isn’t? These beautiful, pastoral images created solely on a computer refer to traditional art forms of photography, printmaking and painting. The bodies of the deer appear to be […]

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The Color Purple, fabulous tower of song and talent than enriches the soul

Samantha Walkes as Nettie and Tara Jackson as Celie in Neptune Theatre’s production of The Color Purple,  on to June 2 (and selling fast). Stoo Metz. Neptune Theatre’s The Color Purple is a fantastic production that starts with a storm of music and emotion and never lets up. The characters are so engaging that the audience speaks back to them and cheers them on (or hates them) in an intense, […]

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Colour pops in Rosengarten’s plein air paintings at Gallery 1919

Violet Rosengarten exhibits her plein air, mixed media paintings at Gallery Nineteen Nineteen, 6025 Stanley St., Halifax, including Orange Dahlia on Blue (above).  It’s no secret that Dartmouth-based artist Violet Rosengarten loves colour. She is wearing a fuchsia sweater and a delicate scarf of pale pinks and oranges – colours that are echoed in her plein air paintings at Gallery Nineteen Nineteen. “I think of myself as a colourist,” she […]

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MacIvor play cause for celebration

Daniel MacIvor as Dougie and Andrew Moodie as Allen in MacIvor’s 90-minute, New Magic Valley Fun Town, to April 21 at the Neptune Scotiabank Stage, Halifax. (Leif Norman) Daniel MacIvor’s New Magic Valley Fun Town is a brilliant, must-see, Cape Breton comedy with deep poignancy and a powerful ending that will leave you shaken and blessed. The 90-minute drama opened to an immediate standing ovation Friday in Neptune’s studio theatre […]

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Wendy Lill’s The Fighting Days lands at home with Dartmouth Players

Sarah Crowell stars as suffragist Francis Beynon and Joey Yazer as her editor George McNair in  The Fighting Days, on stage to April 13 at the Sawmill Playhouse, Dartmouth. (Bruce Goodick)   The comical tag-team announcing The Fighting Days proudly tells people they are about to see a Canadian story by a writer who is not only Canadian but lives in Dartmouth. Wendy Lill’s The Fighting Days, in a Dartmouth […]

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