{"id":668,"date":"2021-12-18T10:13:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T10:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/?p=668"},"modified":"2021-12-28T17:09:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T17:09:59","slug":"back-to-the-tent-canadas-stratford-festival-goes-retro-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/back-to-the-tent-canadas-stratford-festival-goes-retro-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Tent: Canada\u2019s Stratford Festival Goes Retro During the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martin Morrow<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, by William Shakespeare, directed by Peter Pasyk; June 22\u2013July 25, 2021. R+J<\/em>, by William Shakespeare, directed by Ravi Jain; Aug. 12\u2013Sept. 26, 2021. The Rez Sisters<\/em>, by Tomson Highway, directed by Jessica Carmichael; July 13\u2013Aug. 15, 2021. Three Tall Women<\/em>, by Edward Albee, directed by Diana Leblanc; Aug. 10-Oct. 9, 2021. All shows at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s Stratford Festival, North America\u2019s largest Shakespearean repertory theatre company, famously got started in a tent in 1953. Sixty-eight years later, the COVID-19 pandemic had it going back to its roots. After the global health crisis caused the cancellation of the entire 2020 season\u201415 productions in five indoor venues\u2014the festival, led by artistic director Antoni Cimolino, was determined to mount some form of comeback in the summer of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The original Stratford Festival tent in 1953. Photo: Peter Smith & Company. Courtesy of the Stratford Festival Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The canopy erected in the Tom Patterson Theatre\u2019s parking lot, used for outdoor performances in 2021. Photo: Martin Morrow<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Its solution was a scaled-back, outdoor version: six plays and five cabarets, presented mostly in a pair of purpose-built, open-sided canopy tents erected in the parking lots of two of its theatres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happily, the COVID numbers in Ontario declined as hoped\u2014the small city of Stratford is in the southwest part of the province, 150 km west of Toronto\u2014and as the provincial government\u2019s public-gathering rules consequently loosened, the festival was even able to increase its audience capacity. Shows initially played to no more than 100 masked and socially distanced spectators at each performance, but in August that limit was doubled to over 200 in its largest tent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shows I was able to take in included the season\u2019s two Shakespeare plays\u2014that ever-popular duo A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> and Romeo and Juliet<\/em> (restyled here as R+J<\/em>)\u2014and a pair of modern classics, one Canadian (Tomson Highway\u2019s The Rez Sisters<\/em>) and the other American (Edward Albee\u2019s Three Tall Women<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival\u2019s determined efforts to put on a season amid the pandemic\u2019s uncertainties, coupled with the thrill of finally seeing live theatre again after more than a year of digital fare, were enough to make a critic feel especially generous. Still, when I look back at Stratford\u2019s 2021 in-a-tent Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>\u2014the first show I saw\u2014I know I\u2019ll remember it for the novel experience rather than for the production itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, R+J<\/em> turned out to be memorable quite apart from the unusual performance conditions. Although it was of interest primarily as an experiment in deconstructing and reinterpreting the familiar tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin with R+J<\/em>, of which I have more to say: The show was directed by Ravi Jain, whose Toronto-based company Why Not Theatre scored a hit in 2017 with its reinterpretation of Hamlet<\/em>. Jain loves to explore unusual perspectives in Shakespeare\u2019s stories, motivated by a desire to de-colonialize western narratives and give a voice to the underrepresented and marginalized, including the disabled. His Prince Hamlet<\/em> not only switched genders\u2014Hamlet was played by a woman, Ophelia by a man\u2014but subordinated Shakespeare\u2019s text to a narration delivered in American Sign Language by deaf actor Dawn Jani Birley, in the role of Horatio. For R+J<\/em>, he chose to retell the tale of the doomed young lovers through the memories of their older enabler, Friar Laurence, reconceived as a blind character and played by blind female actor Alex Bulmer. (Bulmer, Jain and actor Christine Horne\u2014Jain\u2019s Hamlet\u2014crafted this adaptation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bulmer\u2019s gumbooted friar moves about his rustic cell, tending his plants, he recalls the events of five years before, when he solemnized the secret wedding of Romeo and Juliet and then rescued Juliet from marriage to her family\u2019s chosen fianc\u00e9, Paris, with tragic consequences. The show has us experience many of these recollections as the blind friar would\u2014through sound rather than vision. Much of the play\u2019s violence, both the swordfights and the lovers\u2019 physical passion, is heard but not seen, with the actors standing still and often far apart on the stage. As well, the stage directions are often spoken to make the play more accessible to the visually impaired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left: Dante Jemmott as Romeo, Alex Bulmer as the friar and Eponine Lee as Juliet in the Stratford Festival\u2019s production of R+J<\/em>. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Recounting Romeo and Juliet\u2019s woes as their chief adult confidante might remember them proved an intriguing premise, even if it didn\u2019t go as far as exploring the presumed guilty feelings of the good friar, whose well-meaning ruse with that sleep-like-death drug inadvertently leads to the real deaths of both kids. And they are<\/em> kids in Jain\u2019s production. This was the first time\u2014maybe outside of school productions\u2014that I\u2019ve seen the soon-to-be-14-year-old Juliet played by an actor who actually is that age (or close\u2014the actor, Eponine Lee, was 14). She and her gangly adolescent Romeo (Dante Jemmott) were also given a contemporary spin pitched at young audiences. When they experience their coup de foudre<\/em> at the Capulet masked ball, Lee\u2019s appealing Juliet, rocking a Billie Eilish look, sings a pop song that the actor composed herself. Their famous \u201cpilgrim\u201d sonnet is delivered musically too, with Jemmott\u2019s Romeo rapping Shakespeare\u2019s poetry before switching to a Bruno Mars-style romantic mode. They\u2019re a cute couple, even if their love seems less of the tragic and more of the puppy variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A scene from R+J<\/em>: Eponine Lee as Juliet (centre) duets with Dante Jemmott\u2019s Romeo (right) as Alex Bulmer\u2019s Friar listens. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As was the case in Stratford\u2019s last Romeo and Juliet<\/em> production, in 2017, a veteran actor in the role of Juliet\u2019s prattling nurse almost stole the show. Back then, it was Seana McKenna; for R+J<\/em>, it was Tom Rooney. One of the festival\u2019s finest comedic performers, Rooney made the most of that fond but logorrheic old thing, playing her with such affection and insight that you wondered if perhaps another take on the tragedy might be to tell the lovers\u2019 story from her maternal point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eponine Lee as Juliet and Tom Rooney as the nurse in R+J<\/em>. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, this radical reimagining of Romeo and Juliet<\/em> had the most traditional d\u00e9cor. Under the Festival Theatre\u2019s canopy, Julie Fox designed a cozy cell for the Franciscan friar that said \u201cItalian,\u201d \u201cmedieval\u201d and \u201cmodern\u201d all at once. Perhaps that was Jain\u2019s sop to his sighted audience members, something for us to feast our eyes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director Peter Pasyk took as less adventurous approach with his Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, presented at the tent outside the Tom Patterson Theatre. It wasn\u2019t what I\u2019d expected. After all, Pasyk was originally going to make his Stratford debut in 2020 with a Hamlet<\/em> starring Amaka Umeh, who would be both the first Black and the first female actor to play the title role in the festival\u2019s history. That milestone put on hold, Pasyk instead provided a sexy, cartoony take on the Dream<\/em> more notable for its lively performances than for any flashes of inspiration and insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first appearance of Trish Lindstr\u00f6m\u2019s Puck, popping out of a trunk in painted face and bowler hat, like a cross between a Beckett tramp and a Cirque du Soleil clown, was our cue to expect another circus-like treatment in the time-honoured Peter Brook tradition. And indeed, we were served up enough colourful costumes (designed by Lorenzo Savoini), broad acting and funny props to feel as if the Tom Patterson canopy had morphed into the Big Top. Pasyk\u2019s approach was aimed straight at the groundlings, from the rendering of Titania\u2019s attendant fairies as Muppet-like foam heads stuck on the ends of sticks, to a scene where Titania (Bahareh Yaraghi) and the donkey-headed Bottom (Andr\u00e9 Sills) simulated coitus\u2014much to the disgust of an eavesdropping Oberon (Craig Lauzon), who apparently had a low tolerance for semi-bestial sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bahareh Yaraghi as fairy queen Titania, with Trish Lindstr\u00f6m\u2019s Puck in the background, in a scene from the Stratford Festival\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There was also a scene where the four lovers\u2014the Hamlet-to-be Umeh as Helena, Eva Foote as Hermia, Jonathan Mason as Demetrius and Micah Woods as Lysander\u2014emerge from under an enormous sheet, cross-dressed and holding sex toys. A nod to our increasingly fluid notions of sexuality, it also reminded me of the festival\u2019s last Dream<\/em> production, Chris Abraham\u2019s more richly conceived LGBTQ+ version of 2014. Pasyk\u2019s interpretation was slight in comparison, enjoyable to watch and easily forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trish Lindstr\u00f6m as a provocative Puck in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One brief moment of mischief, however, did stand out: When Lindstr\u00f6m\u2019s Puck, flirting with the audience, suddenly pointed to someone and asked provocatively, \u201cAre you single? . . . Are you double<\/em> . . . vaxxed?\u201d It was a neat little pandemic joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shadow of the pandemic was cast again, more sombrely, on the same stage in the opening moments of The Rez Sisters<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jessica Carmichael\u2019s creative (if at times chaotic) staging of Highway\u2019s comedy-drama, the character of Nanabush (the trickster figure in Anishinaabe and Cree folklore, played here by Zach Running Coyote) appeared in a silent prologue wearing a medical mask and a hospital gown. It was a foreshadowing of the cancer-stricken fate of one of the play\u2019s eponymous \u201csisters,\u201d but I\u2019m sure I wasn\u2019t the only audience member who immediately thought of the virus and those packed intensive care units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rez Sisters<\/em> (or Iskoonigani Isksweewak<\/em> in Highway\u2019s native Cree), first produced in 1986, has become a landmark work in Canadian Indigenous theatre. Inspired by another Canadian theatre landmark\u2014Michel Tremblay\u2019s Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois classic Les Belles-soeurs<\/em>\u2014Highway\u2019s rude, raucous, hugely funny and, finally, quietly poignant play follows the adventures of seven women from a fictional northern Ontario First Nations reserve. To borrow, apologetically, a European Christian metaphor, these poor but feisty ladies have their sights set on a Holy Grail\u2014a financial windfall at a Toronto bingo event reputed to be \u201cthe biggest in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zach Running Coyote as Nanabush in Tomson Highway\u2019s The Rez Sisters<\/em>. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

They all have big dreams for their imagined big win, whether using it to buy a state-of-the-art stove or a luxury toilet or\u2014in the case of the most pragmatic and community-minded of the ladies, Pelajia Patchnose (Jani Lauzon)\u2014to pave the reserve\u2019s cruddy roads. Highway\u2019s characters are as delightful as their names: Pelajia Patchnose, Philomena Moosetail, Marie-Adele Starblanket, Emily Dictionary . . . They were vividly embodied in director Carmichael\u2019s Stratford production by an all-Indigenous ensemble, from seasoned actors such as Lauzon to young up-and-comers\u2014notably Befny Caribou as the teenage Zhaboonigan, whose excruciating description of being raped by white boys with a screwdriver is all the more painful for her ingenuous delivery. That monologue, the play\u2019s darkest passage, has only gained in power since the 1980s. Highway was touching upon a hidden human-rights crisis\u2014the ongoing victimization of Indigenous women and girls\u2014that was finally formally acknowledged three decades later by the Canadian government with a national public inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rez Sisters<\/em> is also an important play in Canada\u2019s LGBTQ+ canon\u2014although not always appreciated as such, Highway\u2019s identity as a gay playwright being inevitably overshadowed by his role as an Indigenous trailblazer. Yet, this play has another moving monologue, delivered by the bisexual ex-biker Emily Dictionary, about her fierce love for a fellow rez sister, which struck me more than ever this time, thanks to Kathleen MacLean\u2019s tough-but-tender performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From left to right: actors Befny Caribou, Christine Frederick, Kathleen MacLean and Nicole Joy-Fraser in a scene from The Rez Sisters<\/em>. Photo: David Hou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The late Edward Albee insisted that he wasn\u2019t a gay playwright but a playwright who happened to be gay. But his sexual orientation was one of the barriers that kept him from a close relationship with his adoptive mother, who insisted on expressing her homophobia whenever they were together in later years. After she died in 1989, he wrote Three Tall Women<\/em>, a play based on her life that is unsparing in its depiction of her unappealing qualities, even as it attempts to understand and feel compassion for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After watching the multi-racial and otherwise diverse casts of R+J<\/em> and Dream<\/em>, and the fully Indigenous one of The Rez Sisters<\/em>, coming to a play in which three white actors portray three stages in the life of a wealthy, deeply prejudiced and entitled WASP felt like a shock. I\u2019d never thought of Three Tall Women<\/em> as being a play about white privilege (maybe Albee didn\u2019t either), but it was blatant this time. And director Diana Leblanc seemed keenly aware of it. When the oldest of the tall women, A (played by Martha Henry), casually uttered the N-word, the other two\u2014in their dual roles as her lawyer and caregiver\u2014turned to the audience with an expression of horror and disgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s in the realistic first act, which finds Henry\u2019s elderly and semi-senile A alternately weeping and giving grief to said young lawyer, C (Mamie Zwettler), and middle-aged caregiver, B (Lucy Peacock). In the fanciful second act, after A has had a stroke and is ostensibly confined to a hospital bed, all three women reappear, this time representing her in youth, midlife and old age, and engage in a lively dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As each one speaks of her life as she\u2019s lived it thus far\u2014and gives the others a preview of what is to come\u2014a full portrait emerges of an essentially shallow woman, whose greatest pleasures were riding horses and collecting jewelry. Her long-time estrangement from her son\u2014who is a silent presence onstage, sitting at his mother\u2019s bedside\u2014appears to have caused her greatest emotional upheaval. And yet, as A calmly reassures a bitterly intransigent B, that too will pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left to right: Mamie Zwettler, Martha Henry and Lucy Peacock in the Stratford Festival revival of Edward Albee\u2019s Three Tall Women<\/em>. Photo: V. Tony Hauser<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We may not care for this tall woman, but we couldn\u2019t really despise her\u2014not when she was portrayed by the 83-year-old Henry, Stratford\u2019s beloved grande dame. Performing in what would be her final role\u2014she died of cancer only 12 days after the show closed\u2014the iconic actor, in her 47th season at the festival, where she also served as director and teacher, displayed all the fire and wit that audiences knew her for. In her latter years, she brought a serene glow to even the crustiest roles; here, we shared in her evident pleasure as she artfully delineated A in all her prickliness and pathos. It was even more remarkable in retrospect, when we later learned that she\u2019d been acting while gravely ill and, at times, in pain. She was well-supported by Peacock (also one of the festival\u2019s great actors, from the generation after Henry) as a smug B and a girlish Zwettler, who had played Miranda to Henry\u2019s female Prospero in Stratford\u2019s 2018 production of The Tempest<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only play performed indoors, at the festival\u2019s Studio Theatre (to a masked, socially distanced audience, of course), Three Tall Women<\/em> also felt like the only one out of step with the times. This was a season shaped not only by the pandemic but also by current events, from the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests to Canada\u2019s reckoning with its treatment of its Indigenous peoples\u2014a social awareness that was reflected in its other plays and in its cabarets, too. In that context, Albee\u2019s drama, superbly written though it is, could only be excused as a final acting showcase for Henry. Or, perhaps, as a reminder of the kind of white narratives privileged by Stratford and other major North American theatres for far too long. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Martin Morrow<\/strong> is the President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association and a two-time winner of Canada\u2019s Nathan Cohen Award for excellence in critical writing. He has served as chief theatre critic of the Calgary Herald<\/em> (1988\u20132000), Fast Forward Weekly<\/em> (2003\u201306) and The Grid<\/em> (2011\u201314). Since 2010, he has been a theatre critic and arts writer for The Globe and Mail<\/em>, Canada\u2019s national newspaper. He is also the author of Wild Theatre: The History of One Yellow Rabbit<\/em>, a chronicle of the seminal Canadian avant-garde company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2021 Martin Morrow
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/image6.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":551,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/sir-antony-sher-actor-artist-diarist-novelist-playwright\/","url_meta":{"origin":668,"position":0},"title":"Sir Antony Sher: Actor, Artist, Diarist, Novelist, Playwright","author":"Martin Morrow","date":"December 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Ian Herbert* Antony Sher, who has died from cancer at the age of 72 (14 June 1949\u20132 December 2021), has been frequently described as one of the greatest actors of his generation, a view shared by HRH Prince Charles, an avid Shakespeare enthusiast, who named him in 2017 as his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In Memoriam"","block_context":{"text":"In Memoriam","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/category\/in-memoriam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/Antony-Sher-feat.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/Antony-Sher-feat.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/Antony-Sher-feat.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/Antony-Sher-feat.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/ion-caramitru-an-artistic-guiding-force-1942-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":668,"position":1},"title":"Ion Caramitru – An Artistic Guiding Force (1942-2021)","author":"Martin Morrow","date":"November 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Maria Z\u0103rnescu* Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Shakespeare, Hamlet They say a man is not dead as long as another still remembers his voice. Ion Caramitru has not died, nor has he retired to take a rest.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In Memoriam"","block_context":{"text":"In Memoriam","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/category\/in-memoriam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image10.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image10.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image10.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image10.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/dada-shakespeare-oakland-fun-during-the-plague\/","url_meta":{"origin":668,"position":2},"title":"Dada Shakespeare: Oakland Fun during the Plague","author":"Martin Morrow","date":"December 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Lissa Tyler Renaud* The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised], by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, Jess Winfield; additional material by Reed Martin. Presenter: African-American Shakespeare Company, San Francisco; Artistic Director L. Peter Callender. Directed by Reed Martin. Premiere: Oct. 3, 2021, in San Francisco, California; re-mounted Oct. 9, 2021,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Performance Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Performance Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/category\/performance-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/PER-DadaShake-Image4.Girls_.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/PER-DadaShake-Image4.Girls_.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/PER-DadaShake-Image4.Girls_.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/12\/PER-DadaShake-Image4.Girls_.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/migrating-shakespeare-first-european-encounters-routes-and-networks\/","url_meta":{"origin":668,"position":3},"title":"Migrating Shakespeare: First European Encounters, Routes and Networks","author":"Martin Morrow","date":"November 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Edited by Janet Clare and Dominique Goy-Blanquet\u00a0293p.+ xiv.\u00a0 Bloomsbury (The Arden Shakespeare Series) Reviewed by Philippe Rouyer*(Ed. Note: Published in English. Reviewed in French) Ce livre est publi\u00e9 en anglais\u00a0; il n\u2019y a pas pour l\u2019instant de traduction pr\u00e9vue. Il rassemble onze articles et une introduction de 27 pages par\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/Rouyer-150x150-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":286,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/the-access-point-in-st-petersburg-interview-with-filipp-vulakh-yulia-kleiman-and-alexei-platunov\/","url_meta":{"origin":668,"position":4},"title":"The Access Point in St. Petersburg: Interview with Filipp Vulakh, Yulia Kleiman and Alexei Platunov","author":"Martin Morrow","date":"November 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Nikolai Pesochinsky* The seventh Access Point festival in St. Petersburg during the summer of 2021 has been described as a \"forum for site-specific and immersive art.\" Simply put, the festival performances placed game events in non-theatrical spaces and engaged the spectators in active participation. Experimenting with urban space, these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image7-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image7-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image7-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image7-1.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/aurality-and-the-actor-in-filter-theatres-twelfth-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":668,"position":5},"title":"Aurality and the Actor in Filter Theatre\u2019s Twelfth Night","author":"Martin Morrow","date":"December 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Sarah McCourt* Abstract This article explores the relationship between aurality and the actor in Filter Theatre\u2019s Twelfth Night. It explores how Filter\u2019s collaborative process and focus on resolving staging problems sonically creates a productive interplay between visual, embodied and aural modes of performance. It also considers how the productive tension\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image2.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image2.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image2.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/image2.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}