Ottawa’s theatre scene got biggest boost thanks to new Theatre Centre
The year in theatre has been fascinating and full of energy – not so much spectacular as it was thrumming with a deep, constant pulse of building momentum that promises a great future for this city.
Most important to the theatre community as a whole was the opening of the new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, housing one of Ottawa’s oldest enduring companies, the Great Canadian Theatre Company. The beautiful structure now houses a sleek, elegant little theatre that pops like a stroke of yellow on a grey wall. One can almost be forgiven for starting to imagine Ottawa as a town emerging into full bloom when it comes to culture. The theatre promises to be a boon not just to the GCTC, but to all the local theatre companies, any one of which could very easily use the space for its own productions. While it doesn’t happen often, real excitement happens when the foundations of a whole community are advanced.
And we were fortunate to see it here.
The most impressive and extravagant piece of Ottawa theatre this year was undoubtedly Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad. Peter Hinton continued his incredible work as NAC artistic director with a large-scale, brazen, monumental retelling of the mythological tale of faithful Penelope and her gadabout husband. The work was conceived and created jointly between the NAC company and the Royal Shakespeare Company of the U.K., who made wonderful ripples here in the community through their presence, and their workshops.
But my personal favourite was a little show at the NAC Studio theatre called Falstaff. You know the feeling you get from a really wondrous historical documentary? That you’re seeing the compressed spirit of humanity’s progress, and it’s unspooling a great awareness in your own heart? That you’re content to settle in for a four-hour trip of upper-class British accents; of wondrous, foolish stories of princes and revolutions; or the brutal, occasionally buffoonish nature of wars? Well, take that feeling, and wrap it in one of Shakespeare’s most beloved characters, with a script that recounts his greatest fictional exploits. It’s astonishing how tangible Falstaff felt. While theatre generally fills you with content and makes you more tangible to yourself, to be awed by this mountain of beautifully acted fiction was an astonishing experience.
As appeared in the Ottawa XPress – Dec 13, 2007
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/stage/stage.aspx?iIDArticle=13688
