We have season tickets to the Great Canadian Theatre Company, here in Ottawa. They put on fabulous and energetic plays and performances by Canadian and local playwrights, with Canadian and local actors. The new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, newly opened this season, provides a lovely space and location for bigger productions.
Interestingly, the new theatre also has a smaller studio theatre so two productions can be rehearsing and performing at the same time. Enter Third Wall Theatre Company. At the last GCTC production we saw an advertisment for the upcoming Third Wall production to be held there.
Third Wall has made the studio theatre it's new home, and we were delighted to catch their adaptation of Boris Vian's 1958 play Empire Builders. It's funny, because neither of us fully understood everything about the play, but we both loved it. It's one of those plays that encourages discussion afterwards. This family who is continually fleeing an unknown enemy/fear and who refuse to talk of it raises questions that are eerily relevant today. How do we deal with fear? The Enemy? The Unknown? What/how much are we willing to risk for freedom/safety? Do we collectively repress the past so as to pretend it's not how we arrived to the present?
The actors were all phenomenal. Katie Bunting, Julian Doucet, Matt Miwa, Alix Sidaris, Maureen Smith and Riley Stewart all played their parts (some of them non-speaking!) extremely well and it really added to the performance. We've been lucky enough to see some of these same actors in other productions at the GCTC and love when we get to see them return!
One of the things I love about theatre is the use of the stage and props. The studio theatre is quite small, but the whole team did a lovely job with the space. The actors were in between the audience and the story moved from side to side. Voice projection wasn't a problem in the small area, even if the actor had their back to you. The costumes were eerie and great - though I haven't figured out if the all-white clothing and pale faces/white hair was supposed to sybolize something? Death? Limbo...? Regarless...it was striking.
I don't want to give away too much, except to say it's a stellar performance and a great play to follow up with a coffee or drinks or a nice drive home to discuss the issues raised.
The show runs until February 16 at the GCTC and I strongly recommend you check it out.
Up next: For the GCTC it's The Optimists, by Morwyn Brebner, running until February 17. For Third Wall, it's Moliere's Tartuffe, running May 27th to June 7th.
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