Terminator, Nevermore

This essay is dedicated to Gregory Hatt Jr. for his birthday. People are starting to conclude there can only be two Terminator movies and it all comes down to theme. James Cameron is arguably one of the most culturally impactful “pop-culture auteurs,” but he’s often been ridiculed for his use of metaphor. His last movie,… Read More

What We See in Joker

Our hearts and minds Mark Palermo told me the Joker movie was a social Rorschach test and it’s true. I didn’t want to like it, but I did. And now the stakes seem so high. When Joker won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival the stakes already felt too high. The second wave… Read More

Ad Astra and the New Space Explorer

“Why can’t he just let it go?” Early on in Ad Astra, Donald Sutherland’s elder space explorer, Colonel Pruitt, muses about those drawn to space exploration: “A voyage of exploration can be used for escape.” Decades earlier, his longtime friend and fellow explorer, Tommy Lee Jones’ Clifford McBride, abandoned his son and his wife to… Read More

Review: The Color Purple

Right from the get-go, there's been a ton of hype regarding the musical adaptation of Neptune Theatre's The Color Purple, thanks mostly to the shameless plugging by its Artistic Director, Jeremy Webb. The advertising appears to have paid off in full, as this was one of the most attended Neptune shows I've been to recently.… Read More

Review: Burn

Down at the rebranded Sawmill Playhouse, (formerly Dartmouth Players), director Kelly Doney-Morrison brings her vision of John Muggleton's Burn to the stage. Despite it being still in its infancy, the six-month-old Burn is/has already been staged in three Canadian cities (Dartmouth, Ottawa, and Vancouver). Advertised as a psychological thriller, the cast and crew of Dartmouth… Read More

Review: The Bridge

There's a world of hurt at play within The Bridge's complicated microcosm. A partnered production between Halifax's 2b theatre and Toronto's Obsidian Theatre, a vivid world penned by playwright Shauntay Grant explodes to life at Neptune Theatre. Directed by Anthony Black, The Bridge weaves a world chock-full of intricate deceit and motive against a rural… Read More

Review: Joyride

From the moment Joyride hits the road, disaster is imminent. Behind the wheel of Matchstick Theatre's newest production are Halifax locals Taylor Olson, Kya Mosey, and Henricus Gielis. All three work together in fine form, endowing playwright Michael Melski's gritty piece of theatre with stark realism. Set in Cape Breton, Joyride focuses on the plight… Read More

Review: The Woods & Gadfly

Live Art and the contemporary dance gods that be are back in Dalhousie's Dunn Theatre with a double bill comprised of Halifax's own dance group The Woods and Toronto-based Gadfly. The result is an hour of redefined, innovative dance that simmers and burns to various degrees. The Woods opened up the night with a slow-burn… Read More