The Rishta (‘suitor’ in Hindi-Urdu), performed at Centaur Theatre, is Silk Road Theatre’s first commissioned playscript. Uzma Jalaluddin sets us right down in the middle of an Indian ‘typhoon’ where a multi-generational family’s loves and lies crash with thunder and lightning.

The storm opens when Samah (well played by Eman Ayaz) lets her brother Kamran (Adolyn Dar, who is treated like the “Spare”) know that she is secretly engaged to a fellow student at McGill. Unfortunately for her parents’ expectations, Hussain is Moroccan and an artist – both probably no-nos, since her understanding of her parents’ desires would be for her to marry only a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. It’s 2023 after all – can’t she marry for love?

Samah tries to set up a plan with matchmaker Badra (acted adorably by Nora Guerch) for her to pick three “losers” who would be so undesirable that Samah’s choice would shine. Badra, who steals the spotlight with her energetic expressions, tells Samah that you can’t just “cancel” a matchmaker’s services like you can cancel your internet. It would affect her reputation.

As in all families, there are rainy day secrets hiding behind their umbrellas. Samah’s parents, Jamal (Ivan Smith) and Arifa (Sehar Manji), have kept the lies about their own courtship hidden so long that they seem set in stone. They continue to keep silent during this storm. Many families do this out of misguided good intentions, embarrassment or shame.

It is terrific to see the inclusiveness of artists who are now highlighting our ancestors, as both the director Masha Bashmakova and and lighting designer Darah Miah, mention that they are living in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal).

Silk Road’s mandate of representation for the Muslim Canadian community shines, since this play helps erase our media-driven view of Muslim life by highlighting an air of playfulness and joy in this family.

No matter how dark the storm clouds, playwright Uzma Jalaluddin is teaching us that life is longer than this moment, and it might be filled with disobedience – and – samosas.

Location: Centaur Theatre, 453  St. Francois Xavier
Phone: 514-288-3161 or 514-288-3161
Dates: March 29-Apr 8, 2023
www.centaurtheatre.com

Q: My dad passed away and left us a beautiful collection of Classical Music CD’s (hundreds). Do you know of a store that would buy or simply take them to resell?

A: From this website and my book, there are about a dozen. First I would try Disques Beatnick Records , 3770 St-Denis, Tel: 514-842-0664.. Here’s another: “Death of Vinyl” 6307 boul. St-Laurent.

How would your town (population of only about 10,000) handle it if 38 planes with 6,579 passengers landed on your doorstep unexpectedly? In Newfoundland, they have a local expression about visitors – they call them “the come from aways” – so that’s how the hit Broadway Show Come From Away got its name.

David Hein and Irene Sakoff, Canadian husband and wife librettists and composer-lyricists, took the thousands of stories of passengers and residents on that infamous day, September 11, 2001, when those jets landed in Gander Newfoundland, and turned them into a heartwarming award-winning Broadway musical.

The 90-minute show is drawn from real people’s experiences in Gander on Sept. 11 and on the subsequent days, and  turned them into 12  composite characters: American Airlines Captain Beverley Bass – the first woman captain in the airline’s history, gays, an anxious passenger worried about a missing relative, a man ignored because he looked Mid-Eastern, Southerners, Northerners and foreigners,  These terrified passengers are set down by frightening unexpected circumstances in an unfamiliar land, and are forced to depend on the kindness of strangers.

One can’t even imagine the needs of so many people, besides language, religious and cultural barriers on top of it. Cultures clash and nerves run high, but uneasiness turned into trust when the Newfoundlanders came through with untold hospitality, opening their hearts, their homes, their schools and their stores. When a volunteer went to round up supplies at the town pharmacy, the manager simply said “Take whatever you need off the shelves”.

The dozen in the cast are marvelous, and they somehow 3-D print themselves into a community of people. It’s truly an ensemble, all equally acting and singing their hearts out. To me the superlatives have to go to the set designer, as I’ve never seen chairs star in a show before. Bob Verini of Variety wrote, “passengers and officials…, shuffling set designer Beowulf Boritt’s furniture pieces into a range of evocative public and private spaces”.

Come From Away is now the longest-running Canadian musical in Broadway history. Producer Corey Brunish said, “It’s about how people respond to tragedy.” It shows, he said, that “there’s hope in the world, there’s hope for us as a human race.” “I can’t imagine a musical we need more right now”, Entertainment reported.

Now that eighteen years have passed, you can google the story and learn that the gratitude grew into enduring friendships, and how the passengers paid it forward.

Come From Away is “celebration best of humankind, and an uplifting piece of art for all our times” said The Daily Beast. Go see it and uplift your life.

Location: Elgin Winter Garden Theatre
Address: 189 Yonge St, Toronto, ON
Dates: til September 29, 2019
www.mirvish.com

Smart Shopping tip: Mirvish is proud to offer CAA/AAA Members up to 25%* on select shows. … view the Visit the Come From Away show page show page … USE CODE MIRVCAA

Strut over to Cote St-Luc to catch an over-the-top performance of Cabaret by the Cote St-Luc Dramatic Society. As artistic director, Anisa Cameron remarked, This play is “an important piece which is relevant today.”

The plot is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood and playwright Joe Masteroff’s story, and centers around a nightclub, the Kit Kat Klub, in 1930’s Berlin. While the fun life reigns inside, the Nazi uprising swirls outside. A performer at the club starts a relationship with an American writer who wants to write a book and has shown up in Berlin looking for a room. The star of the show, though, hands down, is the zealous Master of Ceremonies who commands all the action.

You must get over to see Craig Dalley’s performance as this Emcee. His suave, sexy, funny performance and professional stage presence carries the show. It is rare to give a top shout out to a Choreographer, but Alexa Gourd’s sensual, evocative, electric choreography allows the strong cast to strut the stage with an air of insouciance – and as precise as if they were on Broadway.

It’s fun to see the musicians playing, since even they are having a great time. Benjamin Kwong, Musical Director, is smiling and jiving through the whole show. The score and sound effects are right on. Loved it that John Kovac, playing Herr Schultz (really well!), is back in the theatre after 40 years. It’s never too late to return to your passions, and isn’t it wonderful that community theatre is here for us – especially one as good as this one.

Producer (and Mayor of CSL) Mitchell Brownstein pointed out that “in the theatre we can learn about people who are different, and that different people count.” Also that “we must be vigilant” and that the play “sends out a message of hope in the world if you try to make a difference, and that individuals can make a difference.”

He mentioned the Holocaust Education exhibit in the Cote St-Luc library during the play’s run. It refers to Righteous Gentiles, diplomats of many countries, who saved countless Jewish lives. The exhibit is a joint effort of the Montreal Holocaust Museum and Israeli Foreign Affairs led by Consul General of Israel for Quebec, David Levy.

Production Manager Jordana Dobski noted that the play (unlike the movie) makes the story of the boarding house owner, Fraulein Schneider, and her relationship to the Jewish fruit vendor a major plot line. Dobski says, this “un-acceptance of the others” is a lesson learned, and should be respected today.

So a shout out goes to teachers and schools out there who are reading this. The Cote St-Luc Dramatic Society is opening their doors during the day on Fridays for Matinees for students to witness and learn from Cabaret (14+ suggested).

So many lines in the show give warnings about things which are still happening today (think Bill 21?):

“One can no longer dismiss the Nazis” “They will take nothing away.” “Why can’t they leave as alone?” “Live and let live.” “What does politics have to do with us?”

The strong takeaway is that you have to make choices when you see injustice. What would you do?

Location: Cote St-Luc Library, 5801 Cavendish Blvd, Côte Saint-Luc, Harold Greenspon Auditorium
Dates: May 30-June 16
Price: regular admission $35, students and seniors $28
www.csldramaticsociety.com

If you want an entire day of intelligent entertainment for the whole family, head to the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium which moved next door to the Olympic Stadium. It’s a perfect activity if the weather is rainy or if it gets really hot in the summer, or any days in between.

The action is mostly in the 2 theaters and it’s quite the deal that your entrance fee covers all the shows. It’s important to look ahead online to figure out how to organize the times for the performances in English or French. You can then manage to get in about 5 shows in one day as most are 20-30 min . In between these, there are some table top games, interactive touch screens and wall displays. Visiting here is the closest you will ever get to rocks from Mars. We also got to see meteorites and learn where they landed.

In the the first theatre where we saw the exquisite Aurorae (Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights), we reclined in the soft comfy seats, It was amazing watching close ups of solar wind and plasma flowing gas on the sun.

The other theatre called Chaos was anything but as the kids got the opportunity to relax on beanbag chairs. The show Aboard the SSE-4801 was kid interactive as they were allowed to shout out answers to the questions of the animator. We learned new things: that Uranus rotates on its side and that there are 88 constellations but we can only see 44 at a time. The kids had fun being allowed to yell “To infinity and beyond”, found out where all the lost socks wind up as well about methane farts. Do you know how many moons Jupitor has? 69

Next up was Polaris which was more juvenile with cartoony Vladimir the Bear and James the Penguin teaching us how to be a scientist.

After lunch we got to see the newest show, Passport to the Universe, narrated by Tom Hanks. It was a well done and instructive documentary connecting us to our ancestors by showing us we are looking at the same sky today as they did (by simply erasing the light pollution). I was wowed by the knowledge that for each star we can see there exists 50,000,000 that we can’t see. We were taught that stars are born and that we humans are made of “stardust”. Carl Sagan stated, “We’re made of star stuff,” because the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms in our bodies, as well as atoms of all other heavy elements, were created in previous generations of stars over 4.5 billion years ago.”

It was very timely that the video let us peek into a black hole in the same month that the Event Horizon Telescope gave us photos of one. In fact, in the really out-in-space swoopy-designed cafe where you can grab a lunch, there is one section with a wall of changing screen shots of moments in space. Got to see Canadian astronaut David Saint Jacques who is up in Space Station right now – and-  the new photos of a black hole.

Our last video, Secrets of Gravity, used a cartoon kid to try to explain Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. We discovered that a second isn’t always a second and time moves faster on the moon. Einstein famously said, “”Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

The shows at the Rio Tinto Planetarium lets everyone use their imagination. The 8-year-old who accompanied us was excited throughout the day. She said about the planetarium, “You can learn a lot more than you know”.  And we all sure did.

Location: 4801 Pierre de Coubertin Ave
Hours: Sun & Mon 9-6, Tues-Fri 10″30-9, Sat 9-9
Tel: 514-868-3000
www.espacepourlavie.ca/en/planetarium

It’s challenging enough going on a real blind date, but imaging doing it with an entire audience watching the whole thing?  I did not expect Blind Date at the Centaur Theatre to be so funny. I don’t laugh easily, however while watching this “Spontaneous Theatre” (as author Rebecca Northan calls it), I was  roaring hysterically. What a fabulous writing/acting job she has created.

The show begins in the theatre’s bar room before the curtain goes up, because that’s when Mimi (Rebecca Northan) and her scenographers (David Benjamin Tomlinson and Lili Beaudoin) mingle with potential audience members to find, as Northan describes it, “someone who is reluctantly willing” to be her date on stage for the entire show. Don’t get nervous if you are a ticket holder, as you should know that she will only pick someone who is willing to go on stage. I really applaud the bravery, calmness, politeness and wit of “Alex” who was our “victim”, er, date.

Mimi wears a red clown nose throughout, which she says is “to remind the audience and the gentleman I’m sitting across from that this is all just about play and theatre. If it was just two people sitting across from each other, sharing their real lives, the boundaries could start to blur.” Her wit is quick, her prepared concept lines are cleverly written and acted, like when she grins and says, “the reason she thinks she is asked her age on dates is to find out how old her eggs are”.

The date starts out in a cafe where they chat and get to know each other over a glass of (real!) wine. That surely helps loosen up the tongues of all of her targets. It follows the script of any blind date. Where do you work? What are your likes? your dreams? or perhaps former relationships?

The show is a real challenge for the backstage crew, as the stage manager and sound improviser Emma Brager has to follow the scene and improvise lighting and noises for the words, perhaps music and sound effects and react to changes that are happening on stage.

Blind Date has been staged in New York City, London’s West End and Toronto, while the 800th!!! performance will be celebrated right here in Montreal. This play “isn’t just about comedy; it’s also about the connections people make and the ways in which we communicate with one another”, opines Northan.

An interesting twist on this concept will be David Benjamin Tomlinson himself performing on 2 Thursday evenings with a male audience member for a queer blind date.

If you want to follow more of the story, you can follow the run on Facebook, where there are notes on each guy who is brave enough to date Northan.  She also created a Ted Talk where she reveals that her traits are not only the secret to good acting, they are the secret to having a good relationship.

It’s time for you take a break from reality and laugh yourself silly watching two strangers attempt to connect. Go buy tickets now!

Phone: 514-288-3161 or 514-288-3161
Dates: til Apr 28
Queer Performances: April 18 and 25
www.centaurtheatre.com

(photo credit: Vanessa Rigaux)

Two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Morris Panych takes simple ideas for plays, he says, “you take small events and spin them into larger issues”.  I see this play, The Shoplifters in that light, a bit like the TV series Seinfeld – they start out as Nothings – or the mundane aspects of life;  Panych takes something about nothing and makes it into something. This humorous yet poignant play as he notes, is about a “little grocery store episode”.

Along with Alma and Phyllis, we are thrown into the (fabulously imagined) back storage room of a grocery store as they are being questioned about a couple of steaks.  Though this seems a simple story about a woman and her preponderance for “five finger discounts”,  she sees it  more as her giving the “middle finger” discount –  taking from corporate profit and dispersing it in her neighborhood to those in need.

The Shoplifters was shoplifted from Morris Panych’s background; The two steaks go back to his Calgary boyhood. Panych admits that as a teenager “I also stole steaks. Lots of them. For fondues.” He also said, “If we wanted any joy in life, we had to steal it.”  Adding, “we were taking from The Man.” Aha, the theme of the play.

Another theme (and perhaps inspiration for Alma) came from a story he heard about a “an old woman in Florida who was arrested for shoplifting and didn’t want ‘rehabilitation’ because she actually enjoyed stealing”.

As usual Ellen David who, as Alma, lights up the stage with her spot on wise-cracking performance and subtle acting. She thrashes out to rookie security agent Dom in his ill-fitting new cop suit, “so those are training pants”. It’s not all laughs though as she bemoans to the guards, “We play the bad guys and you play the good guys”.

A wonderful pied-a-deux battle of wits with Alma is man-handled by Michel Perron as Otto, the world weary, seen-it-all, being-pushed-out-of his job, older security guard. Otto is aware of Alma’s sticky fingers and is fascinated by her “breezy confidence, daring-me-to-catch you” ways.

Alma is mentoring Phyllis, (played by Marie-Eve Perron) her twitchy nervous young accomplice, in the fine art of shoplifting, Phyllis unfortunately dropped a steak from under her skirt. Frustrated Phyllis, yells, “That’s what the double-sided tape is for!”  She’s caught by the brand-new (too) high strung security hire Dom (played by Laurent Pitre) and his crime fighting evangelist ways. He’s the black and white agent to Otto’s more learned greys.

The set developed by Ken MacDonald is brilliant. The Centaur stage became a giant Lego construction of perhaps 2000 supermarket boxes piled floor to ceiling.

Lucky for us, the playwright changed the play to make it sound like it’s actually happening in Montreal by hiring two francophone actors and sprinkling French throughout.

Panych wrote this  shout out about capitalist culture and how it affects the haves and the have-nots. He wants us to learn about ,  “people and how they rise or fall to the challenge of just living.”  But then adds, “Sometimes we secretly applaud the evening of the score.”

Location: Centaur Theatre, 453  St. Francois Xavier
Phone: 514-288-3161 or 514-288-3161
Dates: til Apr 7
www.centaurtheatre.com

Schwartz’s The Musical was such a success when it played here 7 years ago that Centaur Theatre’s artistic director Eda Holmes decided to bring back the original cast as a treat for their 50th Anniversary celebrations. This hors d’oeuvre is being offered this weekend only. It’s been re-sandwiched as a musical reading, so you get all the best parts – the funny musical numbers along with the clever spoken words. The storyline: a Torontonian trying to come here and buy Schwartz’s in order to franchise the concept. There is a wonderful  melange of Toronto/Montreal angst, love, Montreal’s special “characters”, Jewish humor, the history of Schwartz’s and as always, Quebec government regulations thrown in.

The show is a must for any Montrealer, as Bowser and Blue and Gazette columnist Bill Brownstein have written about all our dirty little secrets and in jokes. Loved the repartee using Metro station names! George Bowser and Rick Blue are onstage too, and even have small speaking roles doing credible acting jobs. Loved watching their faces as they enjoyed watching their numbers come alive onstage.

Bowser and Blue’s score, always with creative wordage, is available to take home so you can appreciate the subtleties of their humor. You can sing along with the original cast to all the great songs, including: Why is Saint-Lawrence called the Main?; It’s my fault; They kicked us out, The Promise and, of course, Schmutz.

The cast is cast perfectly for their parts. So if you missed it the first time around, hurry over to the Centaur Theatre this weekend. It could be a memorable holiday gift for someone in your circle. And you can buy the T-shirt to remember the taste of it.

Location: Centaur Theatre, 453  St. Francois Xavier
Phone: 514-288-3161 or 514-288-3161
Dates: Dec 15 -Dec 16
www.centaurtheatre.com

An anxious mood is set immediately as you walk into the Centaur theatre’s auditorium, as it is unexpectedly filled with smoke. You then are unnerved to find out that the play is set after a catastrophic nuclear accident at a power plant. So at first it seems the story is about the fallout of the people and scientists who live nearby with “radiation hanging in the air like filthy glitter”.  However, the conversation goes on to explore relationships, aging and “what have we bequeathed the younger generations?”.

Well-known actress Fiona Reid (Rose) liked the play because, “Lucy Kirkwood’s writing is a departure from those plays about ‘people of a certain age’ who are declining”. It is “funny and sexy” as it dissects the relationship among “three friends who are very much alive” who “inhabit a world full of humor and wit”.  She doesn’t believe that they are past their sell-by date. The “play is about going forward”.  Reid, playing Rose, does an admirable, funny, even sexy, believable job. She (along with Hazel and Robin) used to work at the nuclear site, and after 38 years has dropped by seemingly unexpectedly, “just to catch up”.

We don’t realize that scientists suffer over the jobs they have to do or may have done which affects the world safety. Nuclear scientists who built the plant feel they are responsible for what happens. Young scientists may even be risking their lives to save others. Laurie Paton as Hazel and Geordie Johnson as Robin relate easily to each other like long-married people, as they wrangle with this conundrum while trying to live in their present contaminated state –  you can’t eat anything, even something as simple as a salad, without testing the soil for radiation.

Maria Popoff, the stage manager, told us about her job, and it sounded alot like conducting an orchestra. She is calling light and sound cues, making sure water comes out when it is supposed to, props are where they should be, and that actors are in the right place at the right time.  The director’s job is finished on opening night, and then it is up to the stage manager to pick up the baton for the rest of the run. Popoff’s position requires a lot of psychology to get along with people (anticipating actor’s needs), as well as keeping track of a myriad of details.  They must keep a tight rein on the show throughout the run.

Director Eda Holmes remarked on the plays’ themes of aging and the world we leave behind, “in life, time only moves one way” and then goes on to puts out the question, “What are we willing to give up for the next generation?”.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that Robin’s nickname for Hazel is “Haze”, which is what suffocates you after a nuclear explosion at a power plant.

Location 453 St-Francois-Xavier
corner: Notre-Dame
Tel: 514-288-3161
Dates: til Nov 25
www.centaurtheatre.com
Metro: Place d’Armes

It’s special when we can get to view a play which was honored with a Tony nomination and garnered a Pulitzer Prize.  Glengarry Glen Ross, now playing at the Mainline Theatre (produced by Acts to Grind Theatre), shows off David Mamet’s ability to write profound dialogue.

This story highlights the cynical, difficult, pushy life of real estate salesmen in Chicago. I was not surprised to learn that the play is also often referred to as “Death of a Fuckin’ Salesman”, because it is notorious for its use of profanity. That hardly resonates in today’s foul language world – on the other hand, today’s politically correct society would flinch at the prejudice shown against East Indians and Polish people.

Mamet’s characters are drawn down and dirty as lying, backstabbing, double-dealing tricksters willing to toss out ethical principles to justify their work. Yet they really are passionate about selling, and especially enjoy the nitty gritty details of closing a deal.  One of Mamet’s goal in writing this play was to highlight the plight of so many people who go about their lives performing regular jobs yet often having to endure indignities while doing so.

Actor Zag Dorison (Shelly Levene) does an amazing job of making you feel his nervousness and despair; we twitch and pull on our lapels right along with him. Dorison, commenting on his character, “This play will always be relevant. There will always be those who exploit others and are out
for a buck at the expense of someone’s savings and dignity. Although the character of Shelly Levene is down on his luck, he believes that
it’s just a streak that will break; he had been a shark and wants to be one again. It is interesting that in spite of this, the audience still
sympathizes with him when his whole world comes crashing down upon him.”

Michael Aronovitch (George Aaronow),  Izak Benrobi (Ricky Roma) and Jake Caceres (Dave Moss) have all been cast well for their parts, and they make their distinctive personalities apparent. Bryan Libero (John Williamson) really makes you dislike him while the company man, Olivier Ross-Parent (Blake/Baylen) is properly detestable.  Davyn Ryall (James Lingk) does well as the meek patsy trying to get his money back.

Be prepared for Mamet’s long soliliquys for each of them – with the other salesmen there mostly as an audience for their rants.  Since this is a small theatre, you too feel as though you are right next to them in the room. Be careful though because as Levene says, these guys are so manipulative, they know how to sell you something you didn’t even want.

Location: MainLine Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent, 2nd floor
Dates: Presented in English: Wed-Sat Nov 7-10, 14, 15, 16, 17, at 8pm. Sun matinees Nov 11, 18, at 2 pm
Tickets: (Prices include taxes and service charge) $22 general admission; $20 Seniors; $18 Students
Tel: 514 849-3378
e-mail: boxoffice@montrealfringe.ca
www.mainlinetheatre.ca/en/spectacles/glengarry-glen-ross
youtu.be/kQOG32GINho
NOTE: mature language. Recommended ages 14+