Reviews

<p>The lights dim, hands dig into popcorn and watchers settle into their seats. Pennywise the Dancing Clown is returning to Derry, and to the big screen, 27 years later. As a kid, you associate clowns with balloon animals, annoying carnival music and chalk white makeup. However, big red noses, disproportionately-large shoes and a singular floating [&hellip;]</p>

<p>St. Thomas University’s musical theatre class raised the bar in their production quality with this year’s show, Chicago. Entering the Black Box Theatre, you are transported to the world of a 1920s speakeasy vaudeville theatre. Tiny bistro tables covered in red velvet tablecloths graced with sparkling glasses of champagne were scattered in front of a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Theatre UNB&#8217;s production of Better Living appears to be a comedy about a normal Torontonian family, but it turns out to be far more bizarre, yet not untrue to our times; the world can be a strange and scary place. Better Living is one of George F. Walker’s “East End” plays: A set of three [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The Shivering Songs festival film screening of Secret Path on Jan. 19 was an emotionally riveting kickoff to the winter festival. The film shows 12 year-old Chanie Wenjack’s escape and trek along the railroad tracks from Cecilia Jeffrey Residential School near Kenora, Ont., to his home in Ogoki Post &#8211; a roughly 600-kilometre cold, lonely [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Nasty Shadows theatre company steps back into the light, showcasing Nova Scotia playwright Daniel MacIvor’s In On It in a thought-provoking, challenging and intimate production. In On It has two plot lines that are revealed to the audience slowly, in a style which departs from a traditional linear structure and is reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Recreating a work of Shakespeare is always a challenge, especially when you change it to make it your own. The people of the St. Thomas Early English Drama Society took that risk and delivered a unique performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this rendition of the classic comedy, actors perform on a stripped-down stage [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story doesn’t feel unique enough to be a standalone Star Wars film, but the characters, lore, and locales are unique enough to glue movie-goers to their seats for a satisfying ride. Rogue One is a true testament to the research Disney has done into the Star Wars series, to produce [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Going into Theatre UNB’s production of Venus in Fur by David Ives, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard of the show after it hit Broadway in 2011, but knew nothing about it. Let’s just say it was quite the ride. We enter the action with Thomas Novachek (Djordie Lepir), a discouraged director [&hellip;]</p>

<p>What really happened between Jian Ghomeshi and the women? What made him snap and write that explosive Facebook post? Did he deserve to be acquitted? Why did they stay? Kevin Donovan’s look inside what began as rumours, whispers at dinner parties and warnings about bad dates does what it intends. Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Set decades before Harry Potter was even born, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them gives fans a deeper look into J. K. Rowling’s magical world. It’s the first installment in a series of new films that will seemingly be centred around Gellert Grindelwald’s dark rise to power. The film revolves around magizoologist (zoologist of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The gentle plucking of a Spanish guitar and the whining sigh of a violin were the only sounds needed to set the stage for Theatre St. Thomas’ The Trickster of Seville and His Stone Guest. The trickster is none other than Don Juan, Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina’s original infamous rouge. In our time, the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The 16th annual Silver Wave Film Festival has come and gone, featuring roughly 89 films from around Canada and internationally. With such a variety to choose from, there is something at Silver Wave for everyone. Films ranged from documentary style to edgy art film and music videos. The festival opened with the Manatee’s Alex Vietinghoff’s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Picture this: A lone man walks into the headquarters of one of the most powerful crime bosses in Harlem, armed with nothing but his bare hands. After taking out five of his henchmen hand-to-hand, two of them pull their guns and start shooting. He stands and takes it, completely unaffected. When they run out of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>If an exorcism was a performance art, it would sound like Tanya Tagaq. The Nunavut-born Inuk throat singer performed at the Fredericton Playhouse on Oct. 21, the same day she dropped her new album Retribution. While traditional Inuk throat singing is normally done between two women, Tagaq has created a diverging solo-version that includes influences [&hellip;]</p>

<p>October is here, which means it’s time for apple picking, pumpkin spice lattes and curling up with some scary movies to get in the mood for Halloween. If you haven’t heard anything about Stranger Things yet, you might want to peek your head out of the rock you’ve been under. Stranger Things is a Netflix [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Apparently the biggest difference between ordering your coffee in Toronto and ordering it in New Brunswick is that in New Brunswick it’s like, “Take a seat, relax. Nora will get you your Tim Hortons once she figures out if you and she are related,” according to Marcel St. Pierre. St. Thomas University alum and Toronto-based [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Settling down to watch Potted Potter, a parody play on the Harry Potter series, I felt out of place as a sad Muggle who has only ever watched the Harry Potter movies, but never read a single novel. Whimsical music filled the theatre and smoke danced across a brightly lit stage at the Fredericton Playhouse. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It happens every year: The big white tents go up, Queen Street is closed off to traffic and the sounds of jazz and blues can be heard under the September harvest moon (no pun intended). Except this year, Harvest Jazz and Blues festival mixed it up more than it ever has in the past, introducing [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A new school year has begun, and we still have not gotten our invitations to Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If you’re looking for an escape from your dreary Muggle life, Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner are coming to the Fredericton Playhouse this September to perform all seven Harry Potter books in a parody [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In a flurry of hairspray, hilarity and harmonies, St. Thomas University&#8217;s musical theatre class production of Heathers made the audience laugh &#8211; and then immediately feel guilty about it. This musical version of the dark comedy cult-classic ‘80s film by the same name sold out at The Black Box Theatre every night from March 2 [&hellip;]</p>