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“Blood on the Moon” retells the story of James Patrick Whelan’s trial with skill

Review by Wayne Current

Last Thursday, I set off to see Sleeping Dog Theatre’s (in association with the National Arts Centre English Theatre) Blood on the Moon  at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre (GCTC).  Written by Pierre Brault, this show was selected as a last-minute replacement for You Fancy Yourself by Maja Ardal cancelled due to Ardal’s severe illness.  Blood on the Moon features Brault as the ghost of James Patrick Whelan, an Irish  immigrant who was found guilty of assassinating D’arcy McGee, retelling the story of his trial. Those who are familiar with Brault’s work will not be surprised that this is a one man show with Brault playing all the characters.  Brault has built his reputation with these kinds of performances and once again does an admirable job juggling all the roles.

Pierre Brault as Whelan, Photo by Lydia Pawelak

I am always pleased when local writers make an effort to tell Ottawa’s stories and Brault has done a nice job of telling Whelan’s story in Blood on the Moon. I particularly enjoyed the way he weaves in modern local references that Ottawa residents will relate to along with the historical facts of the trial.

Martin Conboy’s lighting design is also quite effective. The various scenes in the play from jail cell, to courthouse, and finally the gallows are all depicted through the use of clever lighting techniques.

Blood on the Moon is a local story skilfully told. It’s a show definitely worth seeing.

It’s important to remember that this show started 13 years ago as an Ottawa Fringe Festival show before touring Canada and Ireland extensively.                                                                      

This is not surprising, in fact, with so few opportunities to catch independent theatre on main stages, the theatre festivals have become the breeding grounds for the best of independent theatre in the country.

On that note, I’m very pleased that the GCTC is once again offering the Undercurrents festival in February. It’s a perfect opportunity to check out more independent Canadian theatre. Perhaps, some of the shows featured here will move on to main stages or, like Blood on the Moon, tour internationally.

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Obsession’s Effects: The Shadow Cutter Opens March 10th at the GCTC

Dai Vernon.

To the average person, the name’s unfamiliar. Yet this Ottawa native who lived to the age of 98 was an internationally renowned master of close-up magic—good enough, apparently, to stump the famous Harry Houdini. How did this unassuming, intellectual man—who was also, amongst other things, a remarkable silhouette artist—become one of the most respected stage magicians of his time?

Harry Houdini (Pierre Brault) meets his match in Dai Vernon (Andy Massingham) Photo: Andrew Snowdon

The Shadow Cutter, presented by the Great Canadian Theatre Company and Sleeping Dog Theatre, casts 2010 Rideau Award nominee Andy Massingham as Vernon in a new play by Pierre Brault (who plays an assortment of supporting characters), under the direction of GCTC Associate Artistic Director, and longtime collaborator, Brian Quirt.

This production marks new territory. It’s Massingham’s debut on the GCTC main stage, and he’s undergone quite the magical transformation to take on this role. Bringing him on board has also, in effect, doubled Brault’s usual cast of one. Ottawa audiences will be perhaps most familiar with Brault and Massingham as primarily comedic actors, yet this play promises to be a drama—not a play about magic, nor strictly a biography of Vernon, but an exploration of the forces that drive someone to pursue an obsession, and the effects that pursuit has on their life and relationships. Brault, who has been working on the play for the last couple of years, goes so far as to say that The Shadow Cutter is, above all, a mystery.

That being said, you can’t tell Vernon’s story without showing some of the sleight-of-hand that made him famous. To this end, the production has engaged the services of a magic consultant, Greg Kramer; Massingham and his deck of cards have become inseperable. It’s difficult to say how much of the magic in the show will be “real”—Quirt, Brault, and Massingham each answer that question a little differently—but I’m pretty sure they have more than one surprise up their collective sleeve, and behind that mysterious red curtain.

The Shadow Cutter opens on Thursday, March 10 (previews on March 8 and 9) at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre. Tickets available from the GCTC box office.

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GCTC launches a 2010-11 season full of character(s)

The GCTC is calling the 2010-11 season of drama (its fourth season at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre) “Theatre with Character.” You might as easily call it “Theatrical stew” for the melding of ingredients. The season includes a singularly appropriate play for this time, Vern Thiessen’s Vimy; two plays translated from French texts (“The List” by Jennifer Tremblay and translated by Shelley Tepperman and “Strawberries in January” by Evelyne de la Chenelière and translated by Morwyn Brebner), “The Shadow Cutter,” a new two-man production by Ottawa-based force of nature Pierre Brault about Ottawa-born magician Dai Vernon, and a play called “The Middle Place”, taken from source material gathered from homeless youth in Toronto, and a play by Canadian favorite Daniel McIvor.

In fact, theatergoers in Ottawa can see “The List” in September at the GCTC, then see “La Liste” en francais at the NAC in March. How often do you get to do that?!

Mix in to that co-productions with Theatre Passe Muraille, the NAC English Theatre (the first such collaboration between the two organizations ever), and Magnetic North, season sponsorship by Domicile Developments, which is putting a new condo tower up across from the GCTC’s home base, and the  new “Undercurrents”  festival in the smaller Studio Theatre and you have what promises to be a tasty gumbo.

The season launch featured excerpts from a number of the plays being produced read by a number of actors familiar to Ottawa Theatre audiences — including Pierre Brault, Annie Lefebvre, John Jonathan Koensgen (oops — too used to seeing and thinking of John!) and Kelly Rigole. Author of “The Middle Place” Andrew Kushnir Skyped in from Edmonton to talk about his play.

The graphic look for the season is a bold one, and one that some more conservative theatergoers may find childish. The GCTC asked graphic novelists from across the country (Ray Fawkes, Ethan Rilly, Faith Erin Hicks, Jeff Lemire, Salgood Sam, and Sadax) to render the plays in their own style. My only worry is that if I spend the year looking at graphics for a play, will the graphic look be so strong as to colour my perception of what actually happens on the stage.

Let’s hope this stew tastes as good in a few months as it smells now. But for now, let’s just enjoy the aroma and anticipate…

(The next play in the current season is Arthur Milner’s Facts, a “politically-charged murder mystery”, opening April 13.

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The Wrecking Ball is Swinging – November 16

PRESS RELEASE:  The Wrecking Ball swings in Ottawa once again!

Following last year’s sensational pre-election event, this one-of-a-kind co-lingual soirée of political theatre returns to the nation’s capital, in tandem with other wrecking balls swinging through cities across Canada this month.

This time around, we’re inspired by Yann Martel www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca to offer a few reading suggestions of our own. With a little help from our friends, we’ll consider what it really takes to win the hearts and minds of Canadians. And with our colleagues in BC now staring down the barrel of 92% cuts in provincial arts funding, we are spurred to step up to the plate and prove once again the power of art to affect political change.

This year’s writers, directors and performers include Ritallin, Benjamin Gaillard, Mélanie Rivet, Pierre Brault, Laurie Fyffe, Kris Joseph, Patrick Gauthier, Sonja Mills, Norman Armour, Waneta Storms, Kate Smith, Nick di Gaetano, musical guest Glenn Nuotio and fresh from the national slam in Victoria, the Capital Slam Poetry Team. And many more of your local favourites!! (we just don’t know which ones yet…)

About The Wrecking Ball
The Wrecking Ball was founded in Toronto in November 2004 to address a nagging imbalance: too much theatre in our politics, not enough politics in our theatre. There have been eight Toronto Wrecking Balls cabarets to date, and the October 2008 edition saw the WB go national – Wrecking Balls were staged simultaneously in ten cities across the country, in advance of the federal election. An unprecedented mobilization of artists and art lovers.

Writers are given no more than two weeks to come up with material that reflects the current state of affairs. They are free to write on whatever topic they wish: the global, the national, the local, the very local. The plays are then cast and staged at the last minute, and this immediacy is what makes the Wrecking Ball the rollicking theatrical nerve ending that it is.

Monday, November 16, 2009
Box Office opens at 6:30pm

Show starts at 7:30pm
Saint Brigid’s Centre, 314 St. Patrick St. (at Cumberland)
Pay-What-You-Can (no advanced sales) – proceeds to Les Prix Rideau Awards

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