Chariz Faulmino and Mark Sinongco in Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical, Citadel Theatre and Grand Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
If there ever was a week to expand your horizons at the theatre…. Don’t even think about staying home. Your choices are many: Broadway musicals of every size and personality, improv, a clown show that takes us to the B side of a fairy tale, a play that wonders about theatre as a magic trick, an adventure in straddling two cultures … and first, a new theatre company with a cabaret calling card.
To help support .ca YEG theatre coverage, click here.
Trevor Schmidt and Mark Meer co-host the debut PepperMunt Cabaret. Photo supplied
•That would be MUNT, the new performance theatre in town. It’s the brainchild of artistic director Jake Tkaczyk. Among MUNT’s goals in theatrical subversion is a late-night cabaret of the no-holds-barred, unfiltered stripe. The debut edition, hosted by Mark Meer and Trevor Schmidt, both notably quick thinkers on their feet, happens at the Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd) Saturday at 10:30 p.m.
MUNT (formally MUNT Performance Association) got its unusual name, as Tkaczyk explains, from Wilhelmina Mints and free-associating with Josh Travnik, his cast-mate in 10 Funerals. EdMUNton, MUNTorship, theme of the MUNT … you get the idea. That christening is as non-linear as the artistic bent of the new theatre company, devoted to prying loose the linear/narrative/plot stronghold on Canadian theatre , in favour of something more experimental, unexpected, more immersive (“for want of a better word,” as Tkaczyk puts it).
That kind of creative experimenting aligns with Tkaczyk’s research for his impending PhD in creative practice from Liverpool John Moores University and the Transart Institute. Such bold experimenters as Punchdrunk and Frantic Assembly in the U.K. and Belgium’s Forced Entertainment (Fight Night) , who experiment with “re-integrating audience and performers,” are right up Tkaczyk’s alley.
A “conservatory-trained actor with a BFA from the University of Alberta, Tkaczyk, who’s also the general manager of Workshop West, is an experimenter in his own play creation. Witness his “live bouffon seminar” Bedeutung Krankenwagen, which was at the Play The Fool Festival. Or his Fringe piece The Big Fat Surprise (with Sarah Ormandy), which “uses the stage as a way to critique populist theatre and (address) the death of experimentation.” He and Ormandy, devising a new piece, are on the Fringe slot waiting list.
Tkaczyk’s current works-in-progress include Ytrap Ruovaf, (Party Favour spelled backwards). And he’s thinking about a show that’s “a dinner party for 16 in a high-rise apartment, site-specific and in real time.”
“How can performance art be part of theatre?” That’s a question that interests the actor/playwright/director. And the MUNT cabarets, slated to happen every two months, are a way, as he describes, to support and encourage artists with off-centre ideas, and provide audiences with “experimental experiences.”
Saturday night’s debut edition of PepperMUNT the cabaret features contributions from Ormandy, from Cody Porter (fresh from a run of Angry Alan at Northern Light Theatre), Sammy Lowe, Shamama, Jason Hardwick, Madi May, drag queen Teen Jesus Barbie, and Tkaczyk himself. And there’s a live jazz band led by Holly Sangster. Dayna Lee Hoffmann of Batrabbit Productions (Rat Academy), an experimenter herself, is doing the projection design.
“Expect the crazy, the fun, the things you didn’t see coming.” Don’t expect to be discussing the narrative through-line. Tickets (for the +18 crowd only): https://tinyurl.com/ybcuuv5d.
As for the three Broadway musicals, they couldn’t be more different:
Kelly Holiff in Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical, Citadel Theatre and Grand Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.
•At the Citadel, Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical is about sisterly love, friendship, and the lovely ways snow and ice can be lighted onstage, adapted from one of Disney’s hottest animations ever. Rachel Peake’s spectacular production runs through March 2. Check out the review here. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820.
Michael Cox (centre) and the cast of The Full Monty, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.
•At the Mayfield, The Full Monty, the warm-hearted blue-collared musical by Terrence McNally (book) and David Yazbek (music and lyrics) lets us meet a bummed-out group of unemployed steelworkers in Buffalo, adrift in their new job-less lives, frustrated, anxious, depressed. And gives them catchy songs, as they devise a plan to make some much-needed cash … as a strip act. Talk about showbiz experimenters. Will they have the jam to go through with it, and take it (all) off? Kate Ryan’s production runs through March 30 Have a peek at the review. Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca.
•Dave Malloy’s groundbreaking electro-popera Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 takes a 70-page chunk of Tolstoy’s War and Peace for its highly unconventional pairing of music and storytelling. Jim Guedo directs the MacEwan University theatre arts production up close in the Tim Ryan Theatre Lab, Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets: tickets.macewan.ca.
•At the Aviary, Theatre Yes continues its run (through Wednesday) of Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree, an enigmatic and challenging piece that wonders about transformation, belief, and the magic that underpins theatre itself, whereby an actor becomes a character right in front of you. Max Rubin, the company’s co-artistic director, appears onstage as a hypnotist, every night opposite a different actor who has never seen the play or the script. The full list of participants is on the Theatre Yes website. talked to Rubin and director Ruth Alexander in a preview. And a review of the experience is here. Tickets: theatreyes.com.
Ruth Wong-Miller meets Waymun the Lion in King of the Yees, Walterdale Theatre. Photo by Scott Henderson, Henderson Images
•At Walterdale, Barbara Mah directs Lauren Yee’s King of the Yees, a comedy that takes us on adventure through Chinatown, and the bi-cultural experience of a thoroughly North American adult kid of immigrant parents. Have you read ’s preview interview with director Mah, whose life experience and the playwright’s are uncannily in sync? The show runs through Saturday at the venerable Edmonton community theatre. Tickets: walterdaletheatre.com.
•At the Fringe, Small Matters Production’s The Spinsters, created by Christine Lesiak and Tara Travis, and a whole bunch of brilliant costume designers, returns to the Westbury Theatre, in full ball regalia, Thursday through Saturday. C’mon, haven’t you ever wondered what’s going on with Cinderella’s Ugly Stepsisters? Did they get a bum rap? Check out the review from January 2024 here. Tickets: fringetheatre.ca.
Belinda Cornish and Jana O’Connor in Three Ladies. Photo supplied.
•At Rapid Fire Theatre, two of Edmonton’s favourite actor/improvisers, Belinda Cornish and Jana O’Connor have tea together onstage, with a special guest, to trade gossip and discuss … stuff. And they invite a different actor for every performance at RFT’s Exchange Theatre in Strathcona (10437 83rd Ave.). Three Ladies continues Friday and Saturday, then Feb. 21 and 22 at the Exchange. Tickets: rapidfiretheatre.com.
[Blank], U of A Studio theatre. Photo by Brianne Jang, BB Collective Photography
•At the U of A’s Studio Theatre, the 75th anniversary season continues with Jan Selman’s production of the challenging [Blank] by the English writer Alice Birch. The script contains 100 scenes and vignettes, which take us into the lives of women impacted by the criminal justice system. And the director selects from among them, mix and match. It’s at the Timms Centre for the Arts (87th Ave. and 112th St.) through Saturday. Tickets: showpass.com.
