Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020

ZORAN JELENIC
Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo
tell this story. On top of that, the show takes place during the second
industrial revolution when things were changing so rapidly in Paris,
and The Jam Factory was built during that exact same time period,
which I think is rare to find in Toronto. It was the perfect alchemy of
space and show. We’ve also decided to stage it in an alleyway formation
which will put the audience as close to the action as possible,
hopefully making them feel like they are part of this community of
people they are watching in this park.”
Along the way, Tsitsias has added another immersive and unusual
element to the production that he hopes will bring the audience
even more into the world of George and Dot, by recruiting artist, Lori
Mirabelli, “who will be painting her own experience of the show each
night on canvases around the space. Each night will be different.” This
will be a fully staged concert production allowing the company “to
strip down to the essentials as far as costumes, set and lighting goes,
using this incredible space as another character in the story, and really
honing in on the words and music.”
Sunday in the Park with George plays at The Jam Factory
from March 3 to 8, starring Evan Buliung as George, Tess
Benger as Dot, and featuring Charlotte Moore as the Old
Lady and Tracey Michailidis as Yvonne.
“The Trocks” Affectionate Parody
The beautiful Winter Garden Theatre will be visited on
March 7 and 8 by the iconoclastic dance company Les
Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo with their famous blend
of technical virtuosity and expert comic timing. “The
Trocks,” as they are affectionately known, enable audiences
to see classical ballet with new eyes through their
lovingly comedic take on the foibles, accidents and underlying
incongruities of serious dance enhanced by the – at
first startling – fact that men dance all the parts, bodies
delicately balancing on pointe in the roles of swans,
sylphs and princesses. There is a delicate balance in the
company’s performances between excellent technique and
a tongue-in-cheek awareness of parody that delights both
connoisseurs of classical ballet and new fans alike.
The Toronto program for each performance will include
the company’s signature short version of Swan Lake, the
Balanchine parody Go for Barocco, and Dying Swan (The
Swan) which, in a Toronto-exclusive performance, will
be danced by Toronto native, and former Trocks member
Brooke Lynn Hytes known most recently for being the star
runner-up contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2019.
Ten Choirs bear witness to The Events
At Streetcar Crowsnest, Necessary Angel
Theatre Company is producing the
Toronto premiere of Scottish playwright
David Greig’s The Events, a much-darker
themed show than the two shows above,
but with a message of hope conveyed
not only in the script but in the unique,
innovative, shape and format of the
production.
Described by The Independent newspaper
as “one of the decade’s most
incendiary and important works”, the play
began as a response to the horrific 2011
killing of 69 people at a summer camp in
Utøya, Norway. Set in Scotland, The Events
tells the fictional story of Claire – a righton,
left-wing female priest who leads a
community choir – who one day experiences
something terrible: a young man
she vaguely knew turns a gun on those
who “aren’t from here” in an attempt to
make his mark on society. The play is not a
documentary telling of this terrible event,
rather, it follows Claire’s attempt to understand
how someone could do such an awful thing, and how this leads
her on a path to self-destruction.
Originally commissioned by Scotland’s Actors Touring Company,
the cast is small: one actor (Raven Dauda) plays Claire, a second
(Kevin Walker) plays the Boy (the attacker) but also five other characters
in her memory, as Claire tries to makes sense of what she has
experienced. At the heart of the play is an exploration of how the
community as a whole reacts and tries to move on and – in an innovative
stroke – the community is played by a choir, ideally a different
community choir for each performance. Fascinated by this, I reached
out to director Alan Dilworth to find out more about the choir’s role in
the play and the practicalities of recruitment and rehearsal.
“The choirs are the heart and soul of the production – they are a
powerful healing and humanizing force. They are hope and light in
the aftermath of the tragic targeting of a community choir in the
narrative of the play. Like a Greek chorus, they also bear witness to,
are affected by, and comment on the journey of Claire, the protagonist
Alan Dilworth
36 | March 2020 thewholenote.com