Review: Daughter of the Dust (Robin Sharp and Helen Kotsonis)

Review: Daughter of the Dust (Robin Sharp and Helen Kotsonis)

By Tiffany Budhyanto

Daughter of the Dust is a country musical comedy playing this Sunday and will be the Bread and Circus venue’s last show before it closes down. It features Robin Sharp as Trixie Dixon, a Taylor Swift-esque country singer trying to make it – if Taylor Swift were a drag queen.

Trixie Dixon is a young blonde set to perform at The Shindiggler, the town’s local venue. But getting in the way of her dreams of becoming a real country singer is her promiscuous and loud-mouth mother Tanya, who used to sing with her in an act called “The Dixon Chicks.”

Also adding to the her troubles is the fact that her city-boy boyfriend Brian won’t make love to her – and her back-up guitarist Carson seems more than willing to do it instead.

The venue is a private theatre room at the back of the bar lounge that seats only about 80 people. Because of its small capacity it feels very much like a Fringe Festival show – small, intimate and low budget. But the costumes, set design, makeup, music and acting – heck, everything about this play, basically – makes up for the less-than-great venue.

The thing is, the fact that the stage is so small doesn’t really make a difference. Robin Sharp, who wrote all the music along with Katie Avery, has created a country musical masterpiece. The songs are intelligent, clever, hilarious, and well-composed. Unbelievably catchy, they are also very cheeky – without being cheesy. Some of my favourites included “Never Fall In Love With A Musician,” and “Just The Tip.” They range from fast-paced songs to slow, sad ballads.

The cast of five all really impressed me. Robin Sharp plays a young woman so convincingly, if I had seen him on the street I wouldn’t have looked twice.

Robin wears a blonde wig and is lanky enough to really look like a girl. His ability to not only act, but also sing in a feminine way caught me off guard. He is even able to make his character’s tearful breakdown look truly sweet and innocent.

Claw, played by Scott Moore, is the owner of the Shindiggler who gives Trixie a chance to sing. His Southern drawl and demeanor is believable. His character, along with Brian played by Russel McLeod, offer stability to the play with their down-to-earth characters. Brian is Trixie’s shy boyfriend, who is worried about her cheating ways. His performance is calming, quirky and sweet, and adds a nice steady flow to the play.

Finally, Tanya Dixon, Trixie’s mother, is played by Lynn Filusch. Her character is tempestuous and has a tendency to scream at her daughter, showcasing the very extremes a mother-daughter relationship can have. Even her character, which is loud and obnoxious, is a real dimensional character played with depth and thoughtfulness. Filusch has a powerful voice which she really uses to the play’s advantage.

The musicians playing guitar and double bass are Steve Joseph and Tom McKibben, members of the professional group Slant Six. Katie Avery, who arranged the music, plays the fiddle alongside them. The musical performance and arrangement are superb. It’s not the Keith Urban nu-country – it’s a tribute to the old school country music, like Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton and the like, and they seem to know their country music history well. I happen to like this classic country music, but I think anyone would enjoy the music in the play because the lyrics are so funny.

This play really isn’t about the fact that the main character is in drag. It’s truly about the well-written script and music, and the music carries the plot along extremely well (unlike Glee), never slowing the story down or becoming irrelevant to the scene.

The actors are genuine, sweet, and full of acting and musical talent. It borders on raunchy but never enough to make you feel uncomfortable, always staying on the cheeky side instead to keep things lighthearted and fun.

I highly recommend this country musical comedy – it’ll make you laugh, that’s for sure. I do hope that this show has another run after the venue closes down on Sunday, because it deserves to be seen by a lot of people.

Details:

- Directed by Helen Kotsonis, Written by Robin Sharp

- Runs August 25 to 27 at 8 pm, and August 28 at 6 pm

- At Bread and Circus, 299 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market

- Advanced Tickets can be purchased online for $12

- Tickets at the door are $15

Daughter of The Dust by Robin Sharp

"The Situationist" by Sky Gilbert wins 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards!

Outstanding New Play for Writer Sky Gilbert and Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Principal Role for Actor Gavin Crawford.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – Toronto Youth Theatre

By Sam Mooney



Yesterday I had one of those crappy days where all I wanted to do in the evening was watch a no-brain movie and eat ice-cream. Instead I went to see Toronto Youth Theatre’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Definitely the right choice.

Don’t worry if you don’t know the story-line of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The title says it all. It’s a musical about a spelling bee. No angst, a few touching moments, but mostly just funny and entertaining.

If you haven’t been to a Toronto Youth Theatre show prepare to be blown away by the talent. The actors range from 14 to 20 years old and are so talented that I can’t wait to see them when they’re 30 and have some life experience added to the mix. Truly triple threats; they sing, they dance, they act. Very impressive.

The non-actors were impressive too. Four of the initial spellers are volunteers from the audience. Don’t worry, they ask you in the lobby before the show, they don’t spring it on you in the theatre. Last night there were 4 men who were very good sports and got into character and interacted with the cast. The last man standing – as it were – was a good speller; it took 3 words in a row to eliminate him.

Apparently in a spelling bee you can ask for a definition of the word, to hear the word used in a sentence, and/or the etymology of the word. (Look. I can spell. Thank goodness for spell check.) Some of the ‘use in a sentence’ examples were very funny. I kept hoping that the contestants would ask for them.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. If you’re looking for something a bit different to do with your kids this weekend take them to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Probably not for kids younger than about 12.

Details:

- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is playing at the Lower Ossington Theatre (100 Ossington)
- It runs until May 28
- Shows are Wednesday through Saturday at 7.30 pm with Saturday matinees at 3.30
- Ticket prices range from $19.50 to $35.00
- Tickets are available online or at the door

"The Situationist" by Sky Gilbert

Photo: David Hawe
http://www.davidhawe.com

Date: April 13 - April 24, 2011

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre proudly welcomes
A Cabaret Company production
The Situationists
Written and Directed by Sky Gilbert
Starring Gavin Crawford, Haley McGee and Gil Garratt
Set Design by Andy Moro
Costumes by Sheree Tams


A male professor and his female student debate about how to create a truly revolutionary act. They are joined by a young male radical who declares that sex is the only way to provoke real societal change. As the threesome attempts to instigate radical situations, they find themselves embroiled in one. Have they succeeded in their cause?

Provocateur extraordinaire, Sky Gilbert, finds inspiration for his latest work in the ideas of the Situationist International, the infamous political and artistic movement which tore France apart in 1950s and 1960s.

Previews April 13
Opens April 14
Runs to April 24
Shows Wed - Sat 8pm, Sun 2:30pm

The Last 15 Seconds is timeless By JOHN COULBOURN, TORONTO SUN

Rarely does a piece of theatre come along that accomplishes so much.

First off, of course, The Last 15 Seconds represents an hour and more of compelling theatre, exploring as it does the odd parallels in two lives that meet only as they are ending in an act of desperate and futile defiance.

But that is, as they say, merely the tip of the iceberg, for along the way, this production from Kitchener-Waterloo’s MT Space, currently playing on the mainstage of Theatre Passe Muraille, also does a pretty good job of putting paid to the notion that Toronto sits at the very centre of Ontario’s theatrical universe — the spot from which all theatrical light flows. This is a production of which any city could be justifiably proud and, not entirely coincidentally one suspects, a production that even the most rabid critics of taxpayer contributions to the arts would have difficulty marginalizing.

The subject here could be considered controversial in some circles — a fictionalized recounting of a 2005 suicide bombing that took place in Amman, Jordan, in which Syrian-American filmmaker Mustapha Akkad and his daughter were killed at her wedding when an embittered Iranian youth, one Rawad Jassem Mohammad Abed, detonated the explosives he was wearing. Horrific as it was, the carnage could have been far worse had the explosives Abed had fastened to his young wife, who accompanied him, also been detonated.

Directed by Majdi Bou-Matar and co-created by Trevor Copp, Anne-Marie Donovan, Nada Homsi, Gary Kirkham, Pam Patel and Alan K. Sapp, The Last 15 Seconds traces the lives of both men from their youth, even though it begins at their end.

As played by Sapp, Akkad’s tale begins when he leaves his native Syria and heads for the U.S.A, where he develops an obsession with filmmaking, using the money he makes from his successful Halloween horror franchise to make films about Islam and Middle Eastern history in an attempt to bridge the gap between the Western and Islamic worlds.

For Abed, (played by Copp) life isn’t nearly so simple. Raised by his mother and his doting grandmother, he first runs afoul of dictator Saddam Hussein, and subsequently the forces that topple him, growing increasingly desperate as his world and his options seem to grow ever smaller.

Meanwhile the three women in the cast each do double duty, Donavan playing both Akkad’s wife and Abed’s mother, Hunmsi, Akkad’s mother and Abed’s grandmother and the hauntingly beautiful Patel, Akkad’s daughter and Abed’s young wife.

Though flashbacks and imagined encounters between the two men, they find the common ground in their lives, both of whom, in an odd way, use violence to achieve their dreams and end up as part of a shared and tragic nightmare instead. There is something oddly touching and infinitely chilling in the fictionalized scene where Akkad directs Abed in his suicide tape that underscores the pain and the passion that has driven both men to their ill-fated meeting.

Sheree Tams has created both set and costumes that serve the story with breathtaking simplicity and efficiency, while Rob Ring’s videos, Jennifer Jimenez’s lighting and Nick Storring’s music — a haunting mix of western opera and middle eastern ululation — make major contributions as well.

But in the end, it is the almost ferocious commitment and the skill these five performers bring to the a project that involves every aspect of theatre and movement, masterfully shaped and channelled by Bou-Mater’s confident and assured direction, that impresses.

That they deplore the violence that ends the lives of their protagonists is beyond doubt, but that they have been unstinting in exploring the vulnerability and pain that shaped it is equally clear. In a world where we are quick to demonize, they have taken the time to humanize instead and thereby have moved us closer to understanding, if only by a single step.

And by such small steps, one suspects, great bridges can be built.

john.coulbourn@sunmedia.ca

Transformation and Revelations Exhibit at The Royal Welsh College of Drama and Music