°F TTI
Talk Gaelic to me
Y First Light shines bright

(¥Y Lions don‘t need American ideals

And more!

Seen something worth sharing?

Contact: Chery! Minns, Arts Editor
Marts@theotherpress.ca

www. theotherpress.ca

 

Sheem oUbmMne yy

 

" Julia Siedlanowska
| Staff Writer

A both a spectator and a
performer, I know that

the Vancouver International
Fringe Festival can be a mixed

 

and accessible theatre of
all sorts. Boasting over 700
performances, the festival
runs from September 4 to 14
on Granville Island and at
surrounding Vancouver venues.
Here we will highlight and
preview just three of the many
fabulous shows to choose from.
Julia Mauro, a Douglas
College Theatre Program

and co-written (with Kelsey
Savage) the script of Seaside
Stories of Terrible Things.

The show is part of the Fringe
Onsite Program, which allows

theatre pieces while being
mentored by professionals.

“The show is an ode to
oceanic literature and features
four distinct stories,” Mauro
said. “I sourced the tales from
a variety of places and adapted
them to fit into an original
over-story . The original
writing works in tandem with
the source material, so each
story could become linked to
the others to create a cohesive
narrative.”

In these stories, there is “a
retelling of the real life wreck
of the SS Valencia, a ship that
crashed and sunk off the coast
of Vancouver Island in 1906”
and an “adaptation of the
Noh play, Matsukaze, which
recounts the struggle of two
dead sisters trying to navigate
through perdition.”

No honour among spies

» ‘The November Man’ review

  

Steven Cayer
Senior Columnist

O0000.

f you are looking for a heart-

pounding, edge-of-your-
seat spy thriller, you might
want to look away from Pierce

: Brosnan’s latest film, The

: November Man, based on the
: book There Are No Spies by

: Bill Granger.

Brosnan plays a lethal
ex-CIA agent named Peter
Devereaux who is brought
in for one last mission. He’s

: tasked with protecting a

: valuable witness who has

: evidence against the soon-to-
: be Russian president. He then :

: stumbles onto something

: much greater and ends up

: turning himself into a target.
: I just kept thinking about :
: how much this seems like

: Brosnan going for another

: James Bond-esque role. Back
: in 2005, when he retired

: from the role of James Bond,
: his production company

: announced that they were

working on The November

“The third is an original

: work by myself,” Mauro said,

: “and tells the tale of a starving

: sea monster. The final story is

: an adaptation of an English folk
: tale that I found ina children’s

: book, The Mermaid’s Revenge.”

The seeds of Seaside Stories

: of Terrible Things can be traced

bag of treats, full of inexpensive back to when Mauro was in her
' : first year of the Douglas College

: Theatre Program, when she

: studied Matsukaze in Christine

: Dewar’s Theatre History class.

“I wanted to focus on

: the feeling of longing and

: hopelessness, and felt that

: the ocean embodied a lot of

: these qualities,” Mauro said.

: “This outdoor production is

: set against the backdrop of the

graduate, has directed, adapted, occa itself and uses the natural
: environment in tandem with

: the constructed architecture

: of Granville Island to inform

: details of the piece.”

Andrea Yu, producer,

. : -¢_: director, and playwright of
companies to create site-specific : Versus, has a different focus
: with her production. After

: viewing the Korean film Oldboy, :
: she was inspired to create a
: female character with ambitious :
: and cunning traits that typically :

: appear in male characters.

Versus tells the story of a

: female playwright who comes

: up with a concept: a deceased

: woman returning to life to

: track down her killer, which

: then becomes a part of the lead
: actress’ real life. The playwright
: is caught between her desire to

: continue the story and her fear

: for the actress’ safety. Putting a

: neat “meta” twist to the story is
: the addition of the playwright

: and actress’s real names, so the

: characters of Andrea Yu and

: Pandora Morgan exist on and

: off the stage.

“Andrea Yu in the play

: Man. In 2007, the film
: appeared to be cancelled.
: Five years later though, it

was revived by Brosnan and

: director Roger Donaldson.

; in the wrong order. The plot
: becomes far too convoluted
: and also very predictable.

: is being played by a Chinese

: actress because, well, I’m

: Chinese,’ Yu said in a press

: release. “There are some

: indications about her ethnic

: background in the script, but
: only so muchas there are

: cultural signifiers in my own

: life. But it’s important to note
: that Andrea is not defined by
: her ethnicity, which isn’t always
: the case with Asian female

: roles.”

The Masks of Oscar Wilde,

: written by Shaul Ezer with

: C.E. Gatchalian and directed

: by Amanda Lockitch, features

: Jessie-Award-nominated actors
: Tamara McCarthy and Sean

: Harris Oliver. The production

: takes a look at the various

masks that Oscar Wilde wore

: during his life and explores his
: work in literature. The premise
: reminds me of a show I saw

: at the Fringe in 2010 called

: Teaching Shakespeare. Perhaps
: this is why I’m so excited

: about this part-lecture, part-

: dramatization production.

“The life of Oscar Wilde

: was just such a story. Many

have heard that his life was
intriguing but know little about

: it, even as they go to many of his
: plays year after year,’ Ezer said.

: “So I thought that a theatrical

: adaptation of Wilde’s life would
: bea good story, which would

: tell his life’s story as well as give

: the audience a taste of some of

: his work.”

Just one of the many Fringe

: plays that Iam planning to

: see, The Masks of Oscar Wilde
: is one of this year’s mainstage
: productions at the festival.

For more information on

: the Fringe Festival, visit www.

: vancouverfringe.com or pick up
: a program at any Blenz Coffee

: location.

I give Brosnan some

credit, since his performance
was very dynamic. I actually
cared about what happened to
him, as I did with his co-star,

Donaldson had all of Olga Kurylenko. Both did a
: the ingredients to make an very good job with what they
: awesome spy thriller with had.
this film, but he put them There’s supposedly

already a sequel in the
works—I just hope it’s better
than this one.