Reviews

<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>

<p>It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan Kanye West for a long time. I still remember buying his first album The College Dropout at the CD Plus in King&#8217;s Place mall in downtown Fredericton, a chain that no longer exists. It’s also no secret that I have had major criticisms about some of Kanye’s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Harvest Jazz and blues is truly a magical time. It’s been 25 years since the festival began and this year was no exception to the spell that’s cast every September. Queen Street is blocked off, tents go up and music starts playing in every corner of a four-block radius. Thousands of people come from far [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola released the sequel to his classic film The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, a movie that critics have said is better than the original classic. If west coast MC Kendrick Lamar&#8217;s good kid, m.A.A.d city is his Godfather, then his new album To Pimp A Butterfly is surely his Godfather [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Mid-February is the worst part of an academic year. The frame of my glasses freeze on my face, while all social interactions are interrupted when someone struggles to roll up the rim on their cardboard cups. L&#8217;horreur. The world tries to send signs that things will be ok, but today it doesn&#8217;t matter; the city&#8217;s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I consider the first Taken film to be an ambitious one. It’s a movie laden with its own clichés and it works surprisingly well as an action-thriller hybrid. It was gritty and took us through the filthy underworld of sex, drugs and slavery — a rarity for Blockbuster action films. While it wasn’t visceral or [&hellip;]</p>

<p>William Shakespeare&#8217;s The Taming of the Shrew is a misogynist tale of love, comedy and how to break the will of a spirited lass. The Theatre St. Thomas production of Shrew was a well put together rendition. I’ve seen modernizations of Shakespeare before and I have seen them crash and burn. Before curtain, a city [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Particular creatures lurk within The Fredericton Playhouse waiting to be greeted by eager audiences in need of a fright. However, it appears the monsters that swarm, though some do creep under the skin, may cause distraction to an otherwise rightfully disturbing journey. Frankenstein, The Man Who Become God, performed by Theatre New Brunswick, is a [&hellip;]</p>