Last night I attended a fabulous reading by Jan Wong at the Vancouver Public Library. Known for Red China Blues and her Globe and Mail column Lunch With Jan Wong, the author read from her latest book Beijing Confidential in which she details her journey back to China to find the woman she had turned in to the authorities during her Maoist years.
I haven't read the book but I can't wait to read about her search, and the inevitable outcome when they do finally find one another. Wong was hilarious last night, her dry humour coming out but less harsh than it sounds when she puts pen to paper.
If you missed it, you can catch her again tonight at the Strathcona Community Centre where she is headlining a fundraiser and doing a talk about growing up Asian Canadian.
I went to watch the play Blackbird on Wednesday night. Having just read the play a month or so ago, I had no idea it was even coming to town so was excited to see that it was. This was the story of the young 27 year old woman who confronts the now 55 year old man she had a sexual relationship with when she was 12 and he was 40. Yeah. If you're looking for some controversial and uncomfortable theatre in Vancouver, this is your current best bet.
I thought it was a great production, with two strong actors and a riveting storyline, which as previously noted when I had read the play, was sometimes a bit too sympathetic to the pedophile character and made me wonder just exactly where the writer was coming from and what his intentions were. The play manages to touch upon all the different facets of the situation: the hurt and chaos caused to the victim, the shame and aftermath of the pedophile's life once things come out in the open, both characters trying to move on, the seduction of the adult figure by the younger one, and the possible ongoing cycle of abuse in the adult's new life under a different name.
The East Van Cultural Centre, aka The Cultch, has been renovated so it was nice to see part of the new building. The play takes place in the back, as the main theatre isn't open yet. The only complaint was the heat in there! Somebody needed to put on the A/C!
The author of Red China Blues and the Globe and Mail column "Lunch With Jan Wong," will be coming to the Vancouver Public Library this Thursday night to do a reading from her latest book Beijing Confidential. Momma, Rick and I will be in attendance and we can't hardly wait!!
I went to the Pi Theatre production of Bashir Lazhar this past weekend, which is a one-man show starring David Marr who was downright excellent in it. For 65 minutes, he carried the entire show on his shoulders and was brilliant.
The play is the story of a substitute teacher who comes to Canada as a refugee from Algeria. He has to console a grade six class through a tragedy while at the same time dealing with his own personal tragedies that take place beyond the classroom.
Bashir Lazhar runs at Performance Works on Granville Island from now until March 21.
What a holiday treat! A local production of the Broadway musical, Seussical, based on the stories of Dr. Seuss! What can I say? It was fun and a perfect night out for the whole family. There's even a special toddler night for those of you who have really little ones. This could be a great way to introduce the kids to live theatre, which I would totally do if I had kids of my own!
It's playing now until January 3 at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island.
I laughed for two hours straight last night when I went to a taping of CBC Radio's The Debaters.
Hosted by the very hilarious Steve Patterson, this radio program takes two comedians and pits them against each other over topics such as "Santa Claus: A Good or Bad Role Model for Children" to "Is Blogging a Waste of Time?" and "Home Theatre vs the Movie Theatre." We were lucky enough to catch the program, along with almost 300 other fans who lined up on a chilly December evening, when it rolled into town this week. They said they've never had such a large audience before, and managed to entertain us with the taping of not one, but THREE shows! That meant a total of six debates! One of the best ones of the night was a gay comic vs a lesbian comic fighting over the surprisingly serious topic of "Portrayal of Gays and Lesbians in the Media." In the end it was just a bunch of silly fun, with everyone in the audience clutching their sides at the hysterics. (Unfortunately, the show doesn't come in a podcast format due to copyright issues with the different comedians' material.) However, try to catch the show when it airs in the upcoming weeks on CBC Radio, you might hear me laughing somewhere in the distance!
Last night's Jay Brannan concert was so beautiful in that stripped down, acoustic, intimate setting, casual and uber-talented kind of way. I can't think of a better way to follow up last month's huge arena spectacle that was Madonna.
Thank you Mr Jay Brannan for returning to our city. I was so pissed at myself for having missed out on his last show back in January. I'm so glad I was able to catch him this time around. He sang a blanket of songs including Soda Shop, Housewife, Half-Boyfriend, and a new one he penned with Margaret Cho - a little ditty about bringing peace to the world by giving great head - aptly titled Relax Your Necks! (My favourite lines include the "horses at the gate" and "my esophagus is lined with silk"!)
If you've watched his clips, you'll know he likes to talk quite a bit, which made the show that much more fun and interactive. If he comes to your town, do go see him as he seems to be so genuine and grateful to have an audience, as he deserves! It was like hanging out with an old friend - a hot gay one whose lap you just want to put your head on while he strums away on his guitar and serenades you all night!
It was also refreshing to attend a concert where there weren't 100 cell phones and digital cameras in the air snapping photos and recording the songs to be uploaded later that night to YouTube. But that said, I'm glad there are a few online that I can look for and recreate the evening that I had.
For an encore, he covered Jann Arden's Good Mother. This song has always touched me, but Jay Brannan's version was downright heartbreaking. His voice simply soars on it. There's a cleaned-up version he does on YouTube, but I prefer this live footage taken from Toronto - there's just something more given out at a live performance and this clip conjured up similar emotions for me like it did last night.
