oct 16 | tyrannosaur | pacific cinematheque

Here's one I had long ago flagged as potential Soul Food - perhaps in the same sort of register as HARDCORE, REVANCHE, or the films of Lars Von Trier. Dark, but sometimes that's where even dim light shines brightest. Anyhow, it's screening tomorrow night at Pacific Cinematheque - sorry for the late notice. 

Tyrannosaur
Great Britain 2011. Director: Paddy Considine
Pacific Cinematheque
8:15 wed oct 16

Cinematheque: "In his first feature as a writer-director, British actor Paddy Considine plumbs the depths of human fallibility (not to mention his own straitened childhood on a Midlands council estate) in an auspicious debut that references the “kitchen-sink” realism of directors such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Set in gritty blue-collar Leeds, Tyrannosaur stars Scottish actor Peter Mullan as Joseph, an unemployed, hard-drinking widower whose inchoate rage leads him to commit acts of unspeakable violence. One afternoon, on the run from a fight, Joseph ducks into the closest refuge — an empty thrift shop - where he meets Hannah (Olivia Colman) a gentle Christian woman who offers to pray for him. Convinced she is nothing but a smug middle-class do-gooder, Joseph angrily rebuffs her, yet finds himself drawn back to her shop the next day. A tentative friendship develops, one that is challenged when Joseph learns the truth about Hannah’s relationship with her abusive husband James (Eddie Marsan). From this least likely of places, a story of grace and possible redemption gradually emerges. “A visceral, considered dissection of abuse and rage ... The performances of Mullan, Colman, and Marsan are excellent and create a compelling human drama” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian). Colour, HDCAM. 92 mins."

Warning: Contains scenes that may be upsetting to sensitive viewers.

2013-2014 season preview video

Another look at our season preview video, featuring some of this season's artists talking about their shows!

oct 26 29 30 | wings of desire | pacific cinematheque

Wings Of Desire is certainly one to see on the big screen, if at all possible: and Cinemathque is making that possible, even for free if you're lucky! Also clearly one of the Soul Food masterpieces: indeed, director Wim Wenders came to faith during its filming, as he describes to filmmaker Scott Derrickson in this interview for IMAGE Journal. It also happens to be the favourite film of Jeffrey Overstreet, which is something - he's seen one or two movies. Roger Ebert also a fan - also saw lots.

Wings of Desire
West Germany/France 1987. Director: Wim Wenders

Pacific Cinematheque
Sat Oct 26 | 6:30
Tue Oct 29 | 6:30
Wed Oct 30 | 8:40

Cinematheque: "Angels perched atop the buildings of Berlin listen in to the innermost thoughts of mere mortals in Wim Wenders’s lovely, lyrical Wings of Desire, a soaring high-point of the famed German director’s cinema, and a highly moving, melancholic elegy to a Berlin still divided. Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are two brooding, compassionate angels who eavesdrop on the secret pains and fears of ordinary peopled going about their daily business in the city. When Damiel falls for a beautiful trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin), he decides to renounce his immortality to return to earth as a human, hoping to attain a love that will transcend life in the heavens. The stunning cinematography — crisp black-and-white, lurid Technicolor — is by French great Henri Alekan, whose many credits include Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast. Inspired by the poems of Rilke, and dedicated to Ozu, Truffaut, and “other fallen angels,” Wings of Desire earned Wenders Best Director honours at Cannes in 1987. “Remarkable ... A film about the Fall and the Wall, it’s full of astonishingly hypnotic images ... Few films are so rich, so intriguing, or so ambitious” (Geoff Andrew, Time Out). B&W and colour, 35mm, in German with English subtitles. 127 mins."

To enter to win tickets to see Wings of Desire, email your contact info and preferred screening to:
contest@theCinematheque.ca.
Contest ends noon, Thu Oct 24. Two pairs of tickets will be given away, winners will be selected at random. Good luck!

oct 18-23 | nostalghia | pacific cinematheque

tarkovsky + big screen = soul food
enough said

Okay, I'll say more. This Tarko isn't as explicitly about matters of faith as, say, Andrei Rublev or The Sacrifice. But a mystical Christian aesthetic informs every one of his films, and the images in this one are without parallel. Don't go looking for narrative: this is all about image. There is story there, but take my word: you'll be in the right frame of mind if you go to look at moving pictures rather than a movie: at visual poetry rather than a story onscreen. But if you're up for that...  Wow. 

Nostalghia
Italy/USSR 1983. Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Pacific Cinematheque
Friday, October 18, 2013 - 6:30pm
Saturday, October 19, 2013 - 4:00pm
Saturday, October 19, 2013 - 9:10pm
Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 7:00pm
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - 9:10pm

30TH ANNIVERSARY! NEW 35mm PRINT! ► A true gift to cinephiles: a new 35mm print of an unsurpassably gorgeous film by one of cinema’s greatest visionaries! We’re pleased to present the Canadian premiere of this deluxe 30th-anniversary re-release of Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia. Shot in Tuscany, and co-written with prolific Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra (who also co-wrote Antonioni’s L’Avventura), Nostalghia was Tarkovsky’s first film made outside the USSR — he had finally tired of Soviet censorship — and proved to be his penultimate work. (1986’s The Sacrifice, made in Sweden, would be his last film.) While in Italy researching the life of an 18th-century Russian composer who died there, a Soviet musicologist has a sexually-charged but unconsummated relationship with his beautiful translator, and meets a mysterious madman (played by Bergman regular and Sacrifice star Erland Josephson) who is convinced that the world is about to end. Nostalghia is suffused with an almost overwhelming sense of longing and homesickness, and is composed of some of Tarkovsky’s most astonishing imagery. It shared, with Robert Bresson’s L’Argent, a special Grand Prize for Creative Cinema at Cannes in 1983 (given that year in lieu of the best director award). “Extraordinary ... Nostalghia is not so much a movie as a place to inhabit for two hours ... A world of fantastic textures, sumptuously muted colours, and terrarium-like humidity. This is a film that turns the spectacle of an ancient, leaky cellar into an image as memorable as any this century” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). Colour and B&W, 35mm, in Italian and Russian with English subtitles. 125 mins.


"Tarkovsky's films remain so important today because of their ineffable spirituality."
Slant | full review

oct 22 - nov 2 | you never can tell | twu samc

We're excited to announce that our friends at TWU SAMC Theatre will be presenting YOU NEVER CAN TELL this fall, George Bernard Shaw's classic Victorian satire.

What do you get when you bring together a long-lost father, a headstrong daughter, and a womanizer convinced that he’s really fallen in love this time? You Never Can Tell! But there’s bound to be fireworks.

A quiet seaside resort is turned upside down by the most laughable of family reunions. Between Mrs. Clandon’s shocking ideas about women’s rights, and her rowdy twins who never stop talking, the family is quite a lot for their long-lost father to handle. But it’s the unexpected romance between the ice-queen eldest daughter and her womanizing dentist that really gets sparks flying.

Oct. 22 - Nov. 2nd @ 7:30 & Saturday matinees @ 2:00

For tickets and information, visit www.twu.ca/theatre.

oct 10 + 17 | cs lewis & the inklings | cbc ideas

There's a strong connection between The Inklings and Pacific Theatre, for all the obvious reasons. We've staged productions of SHADOWLANDS, THE GREAT DIVORCE, and THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBE, and we've now secured the rights to bring you another Lewis-related show next season.  Too, I'm in the late stages of research on a play about the friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis - with other Inklings sprinkled in.  

The CBC programme "Ideas" begins a two-part series on The Inklings this Thursday night at 9:00.
  

C.S. LEWIS AND THE INKLINGS
Thursday October 10, 9pm | Part 1
Thursday October 17, 9pm | Part 2
C.S. Lewis, novelist, poet, literary critic, is considered by many as one of the great Christian thinkers and writers of the 20th century. His books on Christian faith have inspired millions, and his series The Chronicles of Narnia have won him a legion of fans among young readers. But Lewis is also known for being part of the legendary literary group, The Inklings, at Oxford University. Included in this circle of poets and novelists were J.R.R. Tolkien; Owen Barfield, philosopher and author of the ground-breaking book on the meaning of poetry, Poetic Diction; and Charles Williams, famed for his writing of "spiritual thrillers". In this two-part series IDEAS producer Frank Faulk looks at the vision forged by C.S. Lewis and The Inklings on what it means to be fully human. Part 2 airs Thursday, October 17.

the foreigner | responses

Audience and critic responses for THE FOREIGNER.

"I laughed and laughed and laughed some more. I couldn’t hear myself laughing because everyone in the packed audience was laughing right along with me. The only surprise was that the actors weren’t laughing. Deadpan comedy, slapstick and very witty repartee. Every form of humour known seemed to play across the stage. And I loved it!" | William Hay, Blog

"It’s good to have tears trickling down your cheeks from laughter." | JB, audience email

"Stellar. Hilarious. Masterful timing. The interplay among the characters was truly magical. The dialogue and its delivery was artful in its entirety. I was engaged, entertained, enthralled and laughed ‘til my sides hurt. As an aside, it was fun to be a part of so many audience members wiping away their tears of laughter and their out-loud guffaws, chuckles and open-faced delight. A gift of wonderful comedy and a joy to experience. Ed Wynn (OLD actor long since passed) on his death bed was asked if it was hard to die. His last works are reputed to have been, “Yep, dyin’s hard. But comedy’s harder!”.
This troupe of actors did comedy proud and made it look easy! I am coming back to see it again…and bringing some more friends to experience the outrageous glee.
Thanks for all you Pacific Theatre folks do to enhance the lives of us mere mortals in your audience. We are humbled and in awe." | Bill Chalmers, audience email

"Larry Shue’s The Foreigner is a madcap, hilarious, and thoroughly heartwarming evening of entertainment. Featuring the most ludicrous of premises and characters bordering on cartoons, the piece could easily play out as a run-of-the-mill farce. An underlying tenderness and off-kilter wit elevate the work however, transforming it into a deeply memorable experience." | Brian Paterson, Laura Murray PR

"The Foreigner is a good ol’ yarn. And there are some terrific comic performances in this Pacific Theatre production. ... Peter Carlone makes a superlative Ellard ... Erla Faye Forsyth’s work as Betty, the innkeeper, is every bit as sincere, nuanced, and funny ... John Voth is also strong as Charlie—almost balletic at times in his comic movement." | Colin Thomas, The Georgia Straight

"If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Pacific Theatre, see The Foreigner. Laugh and forget about the realities of life for a few hours. Then pause to reflect on what things are like when they really aren’t what they seem to be." | Leonard Klassen, The MB Herald

"Then there were all the actors - each one of them bringing something special to the stage, not one weak link amongst them. This is one solid show that is not to be missed! ... The Foreigner is fantastic, and you simply must go see it!" | Alan Woo, Fun Fun Vancouver

"It was thoroughly entertaining and it was good to laugh. There is always a message to be had a midst the laughter, we all have a personality and gifts but just need something to bring it out into the forefront." | Linda Funk, audience email

"If the grey skies are making you feel blue, Pacific Theatre has a show for you. It’s such a sure-fire winner that this is the third time the company’s artistic director Ron Reed has included it in Pacific Theatre’s season; the first time was in 1995, the second in 2001. With one exception, this is a completely new production and that one exception is one of this show’s best features: Erla Faye Forsyth is Betty, the proprietor of a backwoods Georgia, USA fishing lodge. Forsyth reprises the role she played back in 1995; she was hilarious then as a mousy little widow fighting city hall over building codes and she’s every bit as funny, maybe even funnier, now that Forsyth is a little older. She adds such exquisite detail to her characterization that Betty is just bursting with idiosyncrasy: the way she touches her hair or musses ‘the foreigner’s’ hair, the way she cocks her head or frowns – it’s always such a rich, fully-formed picture." | Jo Ledingham, Vancouver Courier

"You will laugh, at times nearly hysterically. Go see it! The play is Pacific Theatre’s gift to a city that needs to laugh, and to enjoy being a community." | Margaret Ritchie, Church of Vancouver

"This was one of my favorite performances at PT. I thought the casting was perfect and thoroughly enjoyed the great laughs. Excellent!!" | Tracy Cudmore, email

"John Voth is coruscating as the mercurial Charlie, transforming from accidentally funny to physically hilarious. Pacific Theatre season apprentice Ryan Scramstad displays innate stage presence and natural comic timing... Kaitlin Williams shows off her flexibility as Catherine evolving from pessimistic to sanguine." | John Jane, Review Vancouver

"It's been a long time since my friends and I have enjoyed entertainment where we have laughed so much. The Foreigner is a 'Must See"." | Susan Le Page, audience email

"Pacific Theatre opened their 30th season with the much loved and often remounted 1983 Larry Shue play The Foreigner to much positive effect. For folks wanting some light hearted escapist fare, they get that in spades. The Saturday night audience laughed long and loudly." | Larry Ghini, Vancouverscape

communion | first read

Yesterday was the first read of COMMUNION, our guest production by Ruby Slippers Theatre. We've got a strong script and some fantastic performances coming up with this one!

COMMUNION by Daniel MacIvor
Oct. 25-Nov. 9

congratulations peter 'n chris!

A big "hip hip hooray!" to Peter 'n Chris for winning the Canadian Comedy Award for Best Sketch Comedy this year! We loved having these guys perform at SIDESHOW for the past two years, and have been even happier to have Peter work his way into our regular roster of performers (now in THE FOREIGNER).

Congrats, guys!

the foreigner | from the script

There is a little treat in the script for THE FOREIGNER that your average audience member will miss out on completely. Hidden in Larry Shue's script are some of the best descriptions of the characters and settings a person could ask for. Here is a taste of a few of them.

Describing the setting:

"Though we wouldn't know it from the first two dialects, this is Tilghman County, Georgia, USA - two hours by good road south out of Atlanta, then pull off at Cooley's Food and Bait and call for directions. ... The county residents are about equally divided between the very poor - old folks, mostly, who live in hillside dwellings which we might call makeshift before we learned that some of them have been in use for a hundred years - and the very rich, who have bought up most of the lakeside property, erected split level homes, and put down sod lawns, some of which the owners even mow themselves, enjoying the rough life. Debutantes from the city, recently and happily past virginity, are here, too, with nervous beaux, brought in on the sly while Daddy and Mama are off at the convention."

Describing Owen:

“Psychologists tell us to beware of a man with two tattoos. One, he may have gotten on a drunk or a dare. But two means he went back. Owen is a two-tattoo man.”

On Ellard and Charlie's first meeting:

"Ellard’s idea of paying Charlie no mind is to stare at him as though he were a unicorn."

oct 11-26 | of mice and men | rob olguin, sebastian kroon

Just found out that Rob Olguin is also in this show - JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN, STRETCH DOG, and ESPRESSO at the end of our current season.  And as we said before... PT audiences know Sebastian Kroon from MOTHER TERESA IS DEAD, THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED, and even THE MEAL (if you were watching closely). Check him out in this Steinbeck masterpiece by our friends at Hardline Productions.

Hardline Productions presents OF MICE AND MEN
Oct 11th - 26th @ Little Mountain Gallery (195 E 26th ave.)

 George and Lennie, two field workers in Depression-era California, try to scrape together enough cash to buy a home of their own. But when Lennie stirs up trouble on the job, George must decide between protecting his friend or pursuing his version of the American dream.

Tickets & Information

the foreigner | production photos

Some more shots from THE FOREIGNER. All pictures by Ron Reed.

christmas presence | singalong night!

Yes!  It's finally happening - we are holding a singalong night at CHRISTMAS PRESENCE!

CHRISTMAS PRESENCE
Thursday, December 12th at 8pm

Join us for a good ol' fashioned carol singalong night, in true CHRISTMAS PRESENCE style.  Don't worry, there will still be a slew of our favourite musicians taking the stage, you'll just get a chance to sing along with them throughout the night.

oct 19 | east van opry | kathleen nisbet

Kathleen Nisbett is a Christmas Presence regular, and shared the stage with me for A Christmas Carol. Next spring, her band Viper Central is featured in OLD TIME GOSPEL RADIO HOUR here at PT! But since you can't wait that long… 

Her invitation here:

Hello Friends!
I'm excited to let you know about a show coming up that I am co-producing, called The East Van Opry!! Some of my very favourite East Van country artists will be there and I promise you it will be an evening to remember! Including... Rich Hope and his Blue Rich Rangers, The Sumner Brothers, Viper Central, Khari Mclelland from the Sojourners, the legendary Jimmy Roy, The Louis Riel Metis Dancers and more! Hope you can come!

October 19th, 2013
Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm
Tickets 15$ in advance or 17$ at the door
More info here, or on Facebook.
Kathleen

fool's tongue | new world | luke ertman

Luke Ertman is familiar to Pacific Theatre fans' ears, having done the soundscapes and composition for shows like THE HUNGRY SEASON, MY NAME IS ASHER LEV, and HOW TO WRITE A NEW BOOK FOR THE BIBLE. But that's not all there is to hear...

Luke's folk-rock-reggae-world music inspired band, "Fool's Tongue," has a new album finished and for sale on iTunes. The group hails from Edmonton, Alberta, and is steadily gaining popularity in Western Canada, currently sitting in the top 30 played artists on Kamloops radio. If you find yourself in Edmonton on February 22nd 2014, the group will be hosting their CD release/showcase at the Capitol Theatre.

Find out more on their website, and have a listen!

artistic director journal | soul food movies, or, the care and feeding of an artistic director

Fall has fallen. Which means two things, here in Vancouver.

Rain. And the Vancouver International Film Festival.

I'll see only a few VIFF pix this year, but already one has made a great impression. Definitely in the Soul Food category, There Will Come A Day is about a privileged thirty year old woman from Italy whose life has come undone with the loss of a child. So she heads out on a boat up the Amazon, working with a veteran Catholic nun. Her patience with the whole missionary endeavour wears thin, as does her confidence in Christian faith, but it's not clear that the film's does.  One more chance to see it, on Monday Oct 7 at 6:15, Centre For Performing Arts (which has been turned into a fine venue for film - lack of snacks notwithstanding).

I guess it's something in the air - all those films being screened so close at hand - but I've spent some time lately shifting some of my more-or-less moth-balled Soul Food Movies project over to an eye-catching format at Letterboxd. (This link takes you to the pretty version, with the posters all laid out in a grid. But if you go there make sure and click the "Read Notes" button you'll find there...

The button will be just above the tiles, on the right. It'll take you to my Soul Food write-ups for the films - or you can cut straight to the chase by clicking here).

It feels good to revisit the project that fueled (or frustrated) me for, what, five or seven years? Digging deep into the sorts of films that would be on the Pacific Theatre stage if they'd been lucky enought to be plays instead of movies. Stories that explore the life of faith, themes that Jesus talked about or lived, movies that - for whatever reason - Christian movie-lovers seem to love. They're not necessarily explicitly religious films, but they somehow resonate with my own faith: I suppose the book is an investigation into why that might be, particularly in the case of films where religion isn't necessarily front and centre. About Schmidt, say, or Waking Ned Devine. Dogville. I Walked With A Zombie. Metropolitan. "Movies with a spiritual flavour." Soul Food Movies.

Eventually it became clear there just wasn't time to make my book and continue to run a theatre company. So the theatre company won out, and the book got set aside. But lately I've begun to wonder if there might be time again to revive the project, at least as a proper website. And Letterboxd turns out to be a quick and fun first step.

These are movies that feed my soul. As a person, as a Christian, as an artist. And the fact is, I headed into this current season at Pacific Theatre resolved to keep my soul fed - especially as an artist. Last season was a great one, exciting, fulfilling in many ways - but also exhausting. For various reasons I neglected to put any art in it - no acting, no playwriting, no directing - and by April or May I was pretty darn restless. By the time summer came, the needle had moved over into something approaching "desperate."

It can be good to be pushed that far. It helps you know you need to make changes. And to stick with them.

So this fall I enter another PT season with a fundamental shift in my approach. I'm thinking of myself primarily as an Artistic Director, and only secondarily as an administrator - as Alison Chisholm reminded me, "You do have an administrative staff: the artistic direction is all you." Indeed, I've even changed the way I think of what it is to be an Artistic Director: for some reason, it gives me a lift to think of myself as "Artist In Residence" at Pacific Theatre.

Frankly, none of these changes probably look all that different on the outside. But there's a tremendous difference in the way it feels inside. Infinitely more energy, motivation, spark. Not only for the work of the company - artistic and administrative - but also for all those creative side projects that keep me fed. Which now feel not so much off to the side. Much closer to the centre. Where, I think, they belong.

the foreigner | talkback night

Tonight is talkback night for THE FOREIGNER!  There was a lot that went into making this crazy comedy work, so this is a great opportunity to chat with the artists and get the inside scoop!

THE FOREIGNER
Artist Talkback Night - Friday, September 27th

artistic director journal | allen, emily, joy

Circus! I want to join the circus
I want to ride a pony through a circle made of fire
Doggies that ride on little ponies,
chased all around by monkeys.

This morning, a reading of Allen Desnoyers' new play-in-progress about Emily Dickinson. He'll be touring it to schools with his company Canadiana Musical Theatre: today was just a chance to put finishing touches to the portrait of the great BC painter.

This being PT's thirtieth season, I'm often thinking back to people and shows and experiences in our history, so I savoured the chance to sit with Allen in a room and talk theatre. He helped found Pacific Theatre back in 1984, and has been on our stage many times over the years. In fact, we were close friends years before Pacific Theatre began.

Another treat this morning was the presence of Meghan Gardiner, a playwright in her own right, reading the role of Emily (Meghan's husband Todd Thomson is well known to PT audiences). Too, my first chance to meet Joy Coghill, in many ways a founder of Vancouver's professional theatre community. Joy's play Song Of This Place is also about Emily Carr.

One stanza of a circus song in Allen's play reminded me of the Emily Carr statue at Seventh and Granville, so I wandered over and took a few photos. And couldn't help seeing Joy Coghill's face in the artist's rendering of Emily Carr.

the foreigner | theatre club | saturday sept 28

This Saturday, following the matinee of THE FOREIGNER, we will be hosting our first theatre club of the season! Join us in the lobby directly after the show ends as we use the discussion guide to dig into this hilarious show, while enjoying provided refreshments and meeting other audience members. This time we'll be joined by the star of the show, John Voth!

If you can't join us this Saturday, why not start your own theatre club? You can download our discussion guide here and find out how to get started here.

Happy clubbing!

the foreigner | discussion guide

The discussion guide for THE FOREIGNER is available for downloading online!  Warning, it contains spoilers.  Click here to download.