One show I am going to make a point of seeing at least once is SWEATSHOPPE. I met one of the creators at the Minitek festival a few years back and have been looking forward to checking it out for the last year or so.
There are a lot of free concerts at Yonge Dundas square as well.
*~LiSa-LoO~*
Definitely checking some of these out. This is one of the summer "festivals" that I've always wanted to come to in Toronto that I've had to miss year after year.
smuncky
i thought last year's festival was great. lots of public visual displays. that travelling red ball was great and the closing performance from cirque de soleil was awesome. this year is definitely lacking in that department.
sweateshoppe might be the only thing i want to go see. that and maybe Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. i would love to hear some classical music at roy thompson hall.
*~LiSa-LoO~*
Really want to check out Confessions of a Serial Killer!! Especially with John Malkovich, one of my faves. But this weekend is incredibly busy and filled with a work deadline so I don't want to buy tickets and not be able to go :(
MissK
I've been going to these events for 3 years now. I love the queens park bash with all the drums but this year the website confuses me on which weekend it is as the event is described differently.
Bring on Luminato!! in my opinion one of the best city events that exist.
Music, arts, expression and food!
Summerlover
I'm very interested to see some of this. I've been hearing about it for years but never get a chance to check anything out. So any advice what to check out and the times, or even a website I can visit would be gretaly appreciated!! :)
Endlesswave
I'd LOVE to check it out. Probably go. :)
smuncky
quote:
Originally posted by *~LiSa-LoO~*
Really want to check out Confessions of a Serial Killer!! Especially with John Malkovich, one of my faves. But this weekend is incredibly busy and filled with a work deadline so I don't want to buy tickets and not be able to go :(
Malkovich shines but the avant-garde aspects of The Infernal Comedy fall flat
The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer is...interesting, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. Described as "a stage play for a Baroque Orchestra, two sopranos and one actor," it's just that...and more...and less...and therein lies the problem.
If you go to hear beautiful music played by a skilled orchestra (with the exception of one horribly flat French Horn), then 25% of your evening will be wonderful.
If you go to hear two beautiful sopranos, Bernarda Bobro and Marie Arnet, sing some gorgeous tunes, then another 25% of your evening will be fab.
If you go to watch one of Chicago's finest actors and to have the pants charmed, confused, and even a little bit scared off you, then another 25% of your evening will be awesome.
But, even with these positives, it still doesn't add up.
Structured as a a book tour for a posthumously written memoir by the real-life Austrian serial killer, celebrated author, journalist and poet, Jack Unterweger (say that five times fast!), Malkovich effortlessly brings us into the world of the production. We buy it. We buy him. We even buy the orchestra onstage with him and the women who sing to and about him - at the suggestion of his publisher. This is suspension of disbelief on a grand scale because there's nothing to help him but an Austrian accent, a banquet table upholstered in poker green, a grey office chair, some of his books, two spotlights and a bit of string.
Speaking to the audience and the orchestra alike, we slowly learn about his history, his time in prison, his way with the ladies, his pardon, his journalism, his additional murders, his love, his recapture, his suicide, and his struggle with conventional notions of truth even as he admits that he "could not find a quality more desirable than honesty, but it was not given to me." He's a truly intriguing character, and regardless of the dark subject matter, the production stays true to the comedy promised in the title.
Unfortunately, while I can only assume the music and singing is meant to illuminate the production by providing unintellectualized guidance (in the way that only music can), it instead jarred me back into Massey Hall, giving the feeling that I was watching a recital. It's not that the sopranos aren't also good actors - they are - but the idea feels as though it's the product of someone saying: "wouldn't this be cool." In other words, it resembles a workshop or an "experimental" piece of theatre that hasn't quite proven its hypothesis, and that sucks.
All that said, if Luminato is about stretching the boundaries of art and creativity, engaging new audiences in forms they might not be interested in or familiar with, then "The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer" has definitely found its place and is a more than worthwhile evening at the theatre.
