NS reviews

Reviews of theatre and art in Nova Scotia and beyond

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Festival Antigonish pivots to lively, radio comedy

Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre has blasted through the restrictions of COVID-19 to make a locally-inspired radio drama that is tons of fun. Hector the Spectre Steals the Show is a six-part weekly series on radio and online about the Bauer Theatre’s legendary ghost Hector. The story, written by FAST artistic director Andrea Boyd and Antigonish artist/playwright Laura Teasdale, is theatre-about-theatre with lots of funny references to Festival Antigonish, Nova Scotia […]

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Psychic astrologer’s first novel is a tale for our times

Nova Scotia astrologer and spiritual counselor Deborah Young launches her first novel, Gabriel’s Great Perhaps, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 7 to 8 p.m., with a Facebook Live event. Nova Scotia-based astrologer, writer and spiritual counselor Deborah Young found writing a novel to be the bravest thing she’s ever done. This after travelling much of the world, experiencing the death of close family members as a child and working for over 29 […]

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Bone Cage big winner at FIN Atlantic film festival

It was Taylor Olson’s year at the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival as the film he directed, wrote and starred in swept up most of the major awards. This year the FIN Stream Audience Choice awards were voted on by viewers. Bone Cage, a rural Nova Scotia drama adapted by Olson from the play by Catherine Banks and produced by Melani Wood, won the Gordon Parsons Award for Best Atlantic […]

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Bone Cage: powerful, dark tale of rural N.S. at FIN

Bone Cage is a chilling, 89-minute film about a blighted, rural anti-hero in a small Nova Scotia town. As Taylor Olson’s first feature, it is a landmark film, screening online now to Sept. 27 through FIN Stream (Atlantic International Film Festival). Like David Adams Richards’ novels, Bone Cage exists in an Atlantic Canadian ethos of poetry and poverty, crushed dreams and doomed lives. The film stars its Halifax director and […]

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A walking puzzle for Halifax

Theatre artist Annie Valentina and web developer Isa Grant both love puzzles. With DISPATCH they take you on a walking game in Halifax to Sept 27. DISPATCH is “real-time storytelling, delivered to you in an entertaining and interactive format,” says actor, playwright and director Valentina, in a press release. A few years ago when she was in the United Kingdom friends introduced her to London’s Hidden City Hunt – a […]

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Halifax Theatre for Young People presents Brundibár digitally Wednesday

Halifax Theatre for Young People presents the company’s  2019 production, Brundibár, digitally with online streaming Wednesday, June 3, 7 p.m. With music by Hans Krása and libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, the uplifting half-hour opera (presented in English) is about children embracing the power of music and friendship. Tessa Mendel directed a cast of 15 students from across HRM, performing with musicians Scott Macmillan and members of Symphony Nova Scotia, with […]

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Mayworks Festival goes Digital this year

The Mayworks K’jipuktuk/Halifax Festival of Working People & the Arts has gone online this year and runs today to May 31. Digital offerings (at mayworkshalifax.ca) include galleries, playlists, screenings, audio-led walks and online events. Works include Vista, created by Zuppa Theatre Co. and James Tyson with Andrew Burke,  a walking tour that can be done anywhere and that, according to a press release, “sets out to ask big questions without […]

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Musical spoof, Giant Shark Killer, to stream for free online show

Amanda Mullally, Sarah Richardson and Alynne Sinnema star in Kick at the Dark Theatre Co-operative’s fringe hit Giant Killer Shark: The Musical, presented as a sing-a-long livestream April 15. (Stoo Metz) With theatres shuttered and seasons thrown into chaos, Kick at the Dark Theatre Co-operative presents Giant Killer Shark: The Musical – A Sing-a-long Livestream to entertain people stuck at home. The “hilarious, silly, musical spoof,” according to a press […]

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The Color Purple sweeps the Merritt Awards in YouTube ceremony

Merritt Award-winners Janelle Cooper as Sofia with Tara Jackson as Celie in The Color Purple at Neptune Theatre. (Stoo Metz) For its first time ever Theatre Nova Scotia went to YouTube to make sure this year’s Merritt Awards gala went ahead. Over 950 people watched the live broadcast with hosts Kathryn McCormack and Henricus Gielis, a virtual red carpet and food and drink suggestions publicized pre-show. Neptune Theatre’s season-closing musical […]

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1960s musical of Shakespeare’s As You Like is a blast

Maggie Power as Rosalind gets bumped by flower children Moonbeam (Nicole Sheppard), left, and Cori (Mea Tonet) in the Highland Arts Theatre’s psychedelic production of As You Like it in Sydney. (Chris Walzak)  I have never really liked As You Like It until now. Turns out all it needed was 1960s music and Wesley Colford’s playful, clever spin on Shakespeare’s comedy about young love and mistaken identity. As artistic and […]

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