Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – New Sound in Town Playwrights/Composers –Jason Pechet & Liz Gilroy with music and lyrics by the originators of the 47 songs. Production Company/Theatre space –Stage West. Length – 2 Acts (one intermission.) Genre/s – Musical Revue or “Wiki Concert” Premise – A sampling of 47 songs from artists whose work crossed over various genres from pop to rock to country. Why this play? Why now? – Stage West usually programs o

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Hairspray Playwright – Book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Mark Shiman. Based on the film written by John Walters. Production Company/Theatre space – (Community) Painted Fish with The Costume Shoppe / Cite de Rocheuses Theatre. Length – 2 Acts (1 hour, 55 minutes, one intermission) Genre/s – Musical Premise – A girl, teased for being plus sized, wants to dance

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Wildwoman Playwright – Kat Sandler Production Company/Theatre space – (professional) Alberta Theatre Projects / The Martha Cohen Theatrre; The Werklund Centre. Length – 2 Acts (2 hour, 45 mins, one intermission) Genre/s – Drama Premise – When Cathy (a teenage bride married off to Henry) “fails” to fulfill the royal imperative to produce male heirs, she considers her options including advice from Henry’s older mistres

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – The Barber of Seville Playwright/s/Composer/s – Music by Gioachino Rossini; Words by Cesare Sterbini based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s comedy The Barber of Saville in 1775 . Production Company/Theatre space – Calgary Opera / Jubilee Auditorium. Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 50 minutes including one intermission.) Genre – comic opera Premise – A barber helps a besotted count woo a woman whose guardian is planning on mar

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Hurry Hard Playwright/s – Kristen Da Silva Production Company/Theatre space – Rosebud Theatre / Rosebud Opera House Length – 2 Acts, 2 hours, 30 mins (one intermission) Plus dinner before the show… Genre/s – Rom com/sit com Premise – A curler, who has been divorced for 7 years, contends with his freeloading (but brave) brother, and a new goodlooking team member to win the bonspiel for Didsbury by enlisting his

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – A Doll’s House Playwright – Henrik Ibsen adapted by Amy Herzog Production Company/Theatre space – (professional) Theatre Calgary, Max Bell Theatre, Werklund Centre. Length – 2 Acts, 2 hours 30 mins (one 20-minute intermission) Genre/s – Drama Premise – A mother who borrows money to save her husband’s life makes an inadvertent legal error putting her at odds with her husband and exposes herself to blackmail by a

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Gracie Playwright – Joan MacLeod Production Company/Theatre space – (Semi-Professional) Fire Exit Theatre / Engineered Air Theatre, Arts Commons. Length – One Act, 90 minutes, no intermission. Genre/s – Drama Premise – Fleeing the USA, 7-year-old Gracie arrives at a compound in BC for the marriage of her mother to the camp leader of a polygamous cult and we follow her story until she leaves as a shunned 16-year-

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Appropriate Playwright/s – Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins Production Company/Theatre space – (semi-professional) the theatre (yes, the new company is called “the theatre”), 14 th Ave and 2 nd Street SW. Length – Two Acts 2 hours 10 minutes (one intermission) Genre/s – Comi-drama Premise – Three siblings reunite at their father’s plantation to pack up and sell his belongings. Why this play? Why now? – While many in the

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Lazy Susan Playwright/s – Col Cseke Production Company / Theatre space – (Semi-professional) Inside Out Theatre and Handsome Alice / The Big Secret Theatre, Werklund Centre. Length – 1 Act, 1 hour 50 minutes (no intermission) Genre/s – Drama Premise – A pharmacist (who may or may not be a hoarder) finds solace in after work sojourns to the bar to talk about her life while her bi-racial, legally blind daughter (wh

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – A Killing Snow Playwright – Paul Ciufo Production Company/Theatre space – (Professional)Vertigo Theatre / The Playhouse Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 20 minutes– one intermission) Genre/s – Mystery Premise – A professor rescues four stranded drivers in a blizzard after a fatal car accident and one by one they slowly get murdered... Why this play? Why now? – Murder mystery set in Ontario by a Canadian playwright.

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Thank You For Your Order Playwright – Jessica Moss Production Company/Theatre space – (Professional) Lunchbox Theatre @ Studio Theatre, Vertigo Theatre. Length – 1 Act (1 hour 20 minutes) Genre/s – Comedy Premise – A woman mails herself along with goods to her “perfect match”, a man who wants to decorate with tchotchkes, in opposition to his environmentally conscious girlfriend. Why this play? Why now? – A small

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – reset Playwright – Bruce Barton Production Company/Theatre space – Sage Theatre / Vertical City Performance, Art Gallery, Contemporary Calgary. Length – 1 Act (1 hour 25 minutes, no intermission.) Genre – Absurdist (billed as an immersive theatre puzzle) Premise – Bots try to code? Parts of the brain try to rewire after trauma? Something else? Curiosities – Why. Was. It. Necessary. To. (beat) Deliver. The (pau

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Botticelli in the Fire Playwright – Jordan Tannahill Production Company/Theatre space – Downstage Theatre & Hit and Myth Productions / Big Secret Theatre, Werklund Centre. Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 15 minutes, one intermission) Genre/s – Fantasy Drama Premise – Consigned to the void after death, Botticelli creates a reimagined play in which he risks everything when he has sex with the wife of his rich patron and f

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King Show – Les Mis é rables Playwright/s/Composer/s – Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmar, music by Claude-Michel Sch ö nberg, original French text by Alain Boublil & Jean-Marc Natel, additional material by James Fentoon, Adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Production Company/Theatre space – Carmen Mackintosh Inc, Executive Producers, Seth Sklar-Heyn, Trinty Wheeler, Broadway Across Canada, The J