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ARTS
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW Steven Page gets Barenaked with the symphony
by Steve Newton
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Steven Page garnered a lot of attention last November when a video produced by the Governor General’s Awards started making the rounds on social media. e Canadiana-packed clip, for a song titled “Canada Loves You Back”, showed Page serenading Vancouver actor Ryan Reynolds, who was being honoured with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. It’s been viewed more than three million times via Reynolds’s YouTube channel.
Page and Reynolds rst met in 1999, when Page’s old band, Barenaked Ladies, were guests on Reynolds’s sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. As Page explains from his home in Syracuse, New York, Reynolds was a BNL fan, and their paths crossed multiple times over the years until, a few years ago, Reynolds showed up at a Steven Page Trio show in New York City. Since then, they’ve been good buddies.
“ e Governor General’s Awards knew that we were friends,” Page says, “and they came to me and said, ‘Would you be interested in writing this song for Ryan?’ I mean, it was a little bit terrifying, because his whole brand is funny, clever, and heartfelt, and so you kinda have to write something that touches all those bases. But he does it so well, how do you compete with that? Luckily, he liked it.”
Page will be heading out to Vancouver next month, but it won’t be to hang out at his celebrity pal’s mansion, trying on Deadpool costumes and guzzling Aviation gin. He’s got a gig with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, where he’ll be performing a selection of Barenaked Ladies hits and songs from his solo career.
Page rst got the call to play with the VSO before the pandemic started, and the concert was supposed to happen last year. With COVID running rampant, though, the best they could do was record a sixsong miniconcert in front of an audience of 50—with everyone wearing masks and completely distanced onstage—that was posted on YouTube. Now Page is looking forward to returning to the Orpheum for a full show in front of a full crowd.
“I’ve done a few orchestra shows,” he says, “but to do it with the VSO is pretty awesome. Just even the few songs we got to do last time shows what a quality organization they are.”
Page reveals that the setlist will include the two Barenaked Ladies songs performed last year, “Call and Answer” and “Brian Wilson”, as well as “ e Old Apartment” and “Jane”. He feels that certain BNL songs work particularly well with the full symphonic treatment.
“Oh, for sure. One of the problems sometimes with pop or rock shows with an orchestra is the orchestra just kinda becomes eye candy, because when a rock band plays a song, basically they’ve already arranged
Steven Page will perform Barenaked Ladies hits and songs from his solo career with guitarist Craig Northey, cellist Kevin Fox, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra next month. it, right? Between the bass and the drums and the guitar and the keyboards, they cover all the bases of the song. So what you end up normally doing is assigning those same parts to instruments in the orchestra and they play along with you, but you can’t o en hear what the orchestra’s doing.
“But I travel with a trio, so it’s myself, Kevin Fox—who’s kind of our musical director—on cello, and Craig Northey from the Odds on guitar. So it’s much more stripped back, and we allow the orchestra to really be the band in these situations. e songs get that much more dynamic and exciting, so something like ‘Call and Answer’ or ‘Brian Wilson’ really has a lot of power in the orchestra.”
Many Vancouverites will be familiar with Northey, who’s been making great music for decades, including with the Odds, Northey Valenzuela (with Jesse Valenzuela from Gin Blossoms), Stripper’s Union (with Rob Baker from the Tragically Hip), and as a solo artist. Page rst met him in the early ’90s, when the Barenaked Ladies were touring behind the Gordon album.
“We ended up going and hanging out with those guys at the Roxy when they [the Odds] had become the house band there,” Page recalls. “ ey would tour with us a fair bit in the ’90s, especially in the U.S.—they would open for us a lot—and we became great friends with them. And then when I le BNL in 2009, Craig and I started writing together, so we’ve been writing songs together ever since and playing live together as a duo, and then now as the Steven Page Trio.”
Page points out that “Nothing Beautiful”, a song from the 1996 Odds album Nest, might be his favourite Northey song ever, but there isn’t much chance that it will make the setlist in March. ( at might have to wait for a special night titled Craig Northey with the VSO. Hands up everyone who wants to see that!) Page and Northey have also performed— along with Moe Berg from e Pursuit of Happiness and Chris Murphy from Sloan— as the Trans-Canada Highwaymen, a Canadian supergroup that performs select songs of their four bands and shares stories from the road. Before Page hangs up the phone, there’s a two-part question for him. Is there any chance of getting back with Barenaked Ladies, and, more importantly, any chance of getting back with the Trans-Canada Highwaymen?
“Question number one, probably not,” Page replies. “I’m a never-say-never kinda person, but I don’t think they’re too keen on having me around. And, actually, I quite enjoyed doing what I’ve been doing since I le the band. I didn’t think it was possible at the time, but now I realize it is.
“As far as the second question goes—yes, absolutely! e Trans-Canada Highwaymen, we talk all the time. e Trans-Canada Highwaymen’s joke/chat thread has gotten me through this pandemic. We’ve actually been making new music together, very quietly—so, hopefully, there will be an album in the next year. We’ve only done a small amount of touring, and it’s always been in eastern Canada, so we’d love to get on the road from coast to coast.” g
Steven Page performs with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on March 12 and 13 at the Orpheum Theatre.
A FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE production
by STEPHEN MASSICOTTE
Directed by DONNA SPENCER
Calgary Herald
FEB 25 - MAR 13
firehallartscentre.ca
280 E CORDOVA ST
FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE 2021-2022 | REUNION SEASON
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW Bamford loves it when the show doesn’t go well
by Steve Newton
Maria Bamford’s rst memories of comedy came from listening to her dad’s Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy records and taking in the comical Canuck stylings of SCTV’s Bob and Doug McKenzie. Later on, in high school, she found other ways to entertain herself.
“I enjoyed getting up and doing speeches,” Bamford recalls on the line from her home in Altadena, California. “I would run for o ce if there was a student-council position so that I could do the funny speech. en, of course, once I was elected, everything sort of fell apart—as it does with most leaders.”
Falling apart—and trying to keep yourself together—is something that the 51-year-old comic knows only too well. Growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, she su ered from severe bouts of anxiety and depression, and she was later diagnosed with bipolar II disorder and OCD (obsessive–compulsive disorder). Her response was to build a successful and ful lling career as a comedian addressing issues of mental health.
“Some people do their comedy about things that are more everyday,” she says, “and I think that can be just as valuable. I think it’s a totally valid point for comedians to say, ‘Oh, even if I had something serious to talk about, why burden the audience with it?’
“But I like talking about things that are meaningful to me,” she stresses. “I like the feeling of talking about something onstage and then if people laugh that means
Bold solos by Arash Khakpour & Kelly McInnes
Maria Bamford turned an early love of comedy, inspired by Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, into a fruitful career in standup and acting that sees her confronting her own mental-health issues.
The Biting School presents
Melon Piece + Blue Space
March 3-5, 2022 The Roundhouse
www.bitingschool.com
they know what I’m talking about. If they don’t, well, then we’re all in a pickle.”
Bamford’s self-deprecating e orts to use comedy as a therapeutic tool has brought praise from the likes of Stephen Colbert, who told her on his show in 2016 that she was his “favourite comedian on planet Earth”.
“I could not believe it,” Bamford says. “I still—even when you say it—I almost can’t believe it. But it’s on tape somewhere, so there it is. His feelings may have changed since then, but at that moment in time, that was pretty wonderful. I kind of went, ‘Wow, he’s a pretty gracious person to put himself out there for me, at risk.’”
Colbert’s compliment came the same year that Net ix launched Lady Dynamite, a subversive comedy show based loosely on Bamford’s life. e series only lasted for two seasons (20 episodes), but Bamford wasn’t surprised—or saddened—by that fact.
“It was the perfect amount for me,” she explains. “I don’t know if you’ve ever worked on a television production, but it turns out I did not realize that it involves 16- to 18-hour workdays, every day. You’re extremely well paid, but it’s a bit of a big deal. And the medications that I’m on made it extremely di cult, so I am grateful that it’s only two seasons. It was fun while it lasted, and it bought me a house. So thank you, Net ix, for a house.”
Other highlights of Bamford’s career include doing voiceovers for animated shows like Adventure Time, BoJack Horseman, Big Mouth, and HouseBroken. She also played Debrie Bardeaux, Tobias Fünke’s love interest, on 15 episodes of Arrested Development.
“I really enjoyed that show,” she says. “It was creative and unpredictable and bananas and then had great wordplay. Most of the time, I was acting like a methamphetamine user or someone who was withdrawing from some sort of heroin addiction, laying down with my eyes kind of half-shut half the time, so it wasn’t too o my normal state.” ese days Bamford is mostly performing standup—as she will be doing on May 25 at the Vogue eatre. She suggests people check her act out on YouTube to see if they have any interest in what she does.
“Right now I do a bunch of material about my mother,” she says. “My mom passed this year. I do a bunch on cults that I am a member of, and mental-health issues. Suicide hotline is talked about in my act, and really anything about what I’ve tried to do to cheer myself up in the last few years.”
As well as immersing herself in standup, Bamford runs an open mike in her neighbourhood once a month.
“It is so good!” she raves. “It’s six to nine hours of three-minute timed segments of people shouting into a mike. It’s a learning experience with some laughs, and also moments of great discomfort, which is quite possibly my favourite part of comedy, when the show isn’t going well.”
Besides working hard to overcome the stigma of mental health, Bamford shows her big heart in other ways. She donates 11 percent of the net pro ts of her company,
Bamfooco, to the Downtown Women’s Centre in L.A.’s Skid Row neighborhood, which provides housing, health care, and other services to women there.
“We give 11 percent,” she says, “because I grew up Christian, and I want to give one percent better than my mother did.”
Bamford’s concern for the plight of others is also evident on her current Twitter feed, which includes this bio message to her more than 230,000 followers: “See me live! Tix are usually $30! If low on $ and can’t a ord, email me at ariamaamfordba@gmail.com I’ll get you on list if not sold out!””
Humble to the end, Bamford even paints that atypical act of generosity as being somehow self-serving.
“Uh, well, I just want it to be a good show,” she reasons. “I mean, it’s really sort of a sel sh thing. It only works out in my favour that I have people who are truly de lighted to come see a show.” g -
– Maria Bamford
Maria Bamford performs standup comedy at the Vogue Theatre on May 25 as part of Just For Laughs Vancouver.
Nikki Chooi
FEB
25/26
Chooi Plays Mendelssohn
Fri, Sat, 8pm | Orpheum THIS WEEKEND!
Internationally acclaimed violinist Nikki Chooi makes his VSO debut. Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, and a new VSO co-commission by Linda Catlin Smith are paired with BC-born Chooi’s performance of Mendelssohn’s exciting Violin Concerto in E minor.
MAR
3
Hear it. Feel it.
Peer Gynt
Thu, 2pm | Orpheum
Christopher Gaze
Anna Rakitina
• Steven Page Edvard Grieg’s charming suite is now more famous than the Ibsen play it was written to accompany. Discover the full connection and the thrilling story behind the music.
MAR
Proko ev & Grieg
Fri, 7pm | Orpheum
4 The next generation of symphony stars! Russian-born conductor Anna Rakitina leads an exciting performance featuring two beloved works: Grieg’s Peer Gynt, and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Ms. Rakitina is a Dudamel Fellow at the LA Philharmonic, and the current Associate Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She will be joined on the Orpheum stage by violinist Blake Pouliot, twice featured on the CBC’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30” list.
MAR
Steven Page with the VSO
12/13
Sat, 8pm | Orpheum Sun, 7pm | Orpheum
Acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Steven Page returns to the VSO for a heartfelt performance of his solo works as well as iconic hits from his Barenaked Ladies days, as only he can sing them.
VancouverSymphony.ca 604.876.3434
FEB 25, 26 MASTERWORKS DIAMOND SERIES SPONSOR
MAR 3 TEA & TRUMPETS SERIES SPONSOR MAR 12, 13 VSO POPS SERIES SPONSOR MAR 12 VSO POPS CONCERT SPONSOR
BROADCAST MEDIA PARTNERS MEDIA SPONSOR Concert programs are subject to change at any time.
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW Ballet BC’s Walerski opens the door to dancers’ creativity
by Charlie Smith
Ballet BC dancer Zenon Zubyk and the rest of the company’s 19 dancers will all be on-stage in artistic director Medhi Walerski’s just BEFORE right AFTER. Photo by Marcus Eriksson.
Nearly 19 months a er becoming Ballet BC’s artistic director, Medhi Walerski will nally have one of his choreographic Walerski adds that he was eager to allow them to have a voice. As the choreographer of just BEFORE right AFTER, he was keen to “open doors” to provide more space for works presented live to a local audience. e North American premiere of just BEFORE right AFTER at the Queen Elizabeth eatre will be only the company’s second live show since the pandemic descended on the world back in 2020.
“We are thrilled to go back on-stage,” Walerski tells the Straight by phone. is production, which includes all 19 Ballet BC dancers, is set to original music by Belgian composer Adrien Cronet. Walerski’s just BEFORE right AFTER is part of a program called Reveal + Tell, running from March 3 to 5, that includes e Statement by Vancouver’s Crystal Pite and Woke Up Blind by German choreographer Marco Goecke.
Walerski explains that the name, just BEFORE right AFTER, resulted from a recent Ballet BC residency in Luxembourg. e rst part of the work was choreographed beforehand. e second half took shape right a er the residency.
“ ere’s a moment where things shi in the work and I wanted to highlight that in the title,” Walerski says. ere’s not a story, per se, but he allows that the production re ects a willingness of people to be together.
“It’s about letting go and abandoning,” the choreographer adds. “It’s about silence and pause and the necessity to nd space within.”
He says the dancers demonstrate a “beautiful unity” in the production. And they’ve also been eager to bring their own voices into the process.
“I nd that really overwhelming, to witness their creativity in the studio,” he says. dancers to demonstrate their chops. “Not every work allows that,” he concedes, “and not every choreographer is open to that. But with this process, it’s such a pleasure to actually witness their artistry.” Several times during the interview, Walerski praises the talent of the new generation of dancers. at prompts the Straight to say that it sounds like he’s enjoying his job as Ballet BC’s artistic director. “Yes, I do,” he replies. “Very much. I’m so curious about each artist. And they’re all so unique that there is so much beauty in each individual.” He’s also feeling good about the two other works being shown, describing Pite’s The Statement as a “masterpiece”. The script, which includes a heated conversation around a conference table, was written by her longtime collaborator, playwright Jonathon Young. “It’s about control; it’s about moral con icts and responsibility,” Walerski says. “I think you could almost consider the piece a play. And it’s very much linked, I think, to our time and the current events we are facing right now.” Goecke’s’s piece is set to two songs by Je Buckley: “Dream of You and I” and “ e Way Young Lovers Do”. “It’s touching,” Walerski says. “It’s intense. It’s an exploration of love.” g
Ballet BC presents Reveal + Tell March 3 to 5 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which includes Woke Up Blind by Marco Goecke, The Statement by Crystal Pite, and just BEFORE right AFTER by Medhi Walerski.
SPRING ARTS PREVIEW Playwright explores limits of modern storytelling
by Charlie Smith
After two decades, Jason Sherman (above) has reunited with Touchstone Theatre artistic director Roy Surette with Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play.
For Governor General’s Award–winning playwright Jason Sherman, it’s imperative to tell a good story. at’s because as far back as address major issues facing the world. “There’s a discussion, a conversation, and a kind of a tug of war ensues over what kind of stories should they tell,” when cave dwellers were sitting around a camp re, he says, the one with the best tale captured everyone else’s attention.
It’s a similar situation in modern theatre—only nowadays, audiences are taken on a ride for 90 minutes or two hours. “My instinctual interest is in big stories—and then to put characters into high-stakes situations and see how they respond,” Sherman tells the Straight by phone from Toronto.
He’s drawn to archetypal characters and archetypal stories that have been told through the ages. “What’s today’s version of that?” he asks. “And so I do try to see kind of big-pattern stuff.”
This was on display in his 1998 play Patience, which recast the story of Job in modern times through a Yuppie character named Reuben Field who loses everything over the course of 24 hours. Reading Hebron, produced in 1996, focuses on a Jewish character from Toronto pondering his role in the oppression of Palestinians. One of his more recent plays, Copy That, explores systemic racism in entertainment through a group of TV cop-show writers.
His newest play, which Touchstone Theatre is presenting as a world premiere, also aims high. Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play revolves around six actors coming to terms with appropriation and authentic storytelling.
Sherman says that one of the actors suddenly breaks out of her character and declares that she is no longer interested in doing formulaic plays anymore. Instead, she wants to perform in productions that Sherman reveals. “It’s the younger cast member who keeps interrupting as they try to tell…the epic-theatre type of stories that the other character wants to tell.” Directed by Roy Surette, Ominous Sounds features Kerry Sandomirsky, Monice Peter, Alex Poch-Goldin, Allan Morgan, Nicola Lipman and Angela Chu as the actors. In the script, their characters don’t have names—they’re simply numbered—but Sherman says that they do have names when they’re playing their roles in a play within the play. According to Sherman, Ominous Sounds inquires into self-imposed limits of storytelling through the dialogue. “The actions of the play are very much based on the outcome of those discussions,” he adds. As a teenager, Sherman discovered how much he enjoyed playwrighting when a teacher asked him to write a script for a school production in an Ontario drama festival. It earned him the first of many awards that he’s received over the years. That led him to study playwrighting at York University. Sherman is not the type of playwright who sends his script to the director and then checks out. Rather, he prefers to “use the great brains and talent that you have assembled around you to improve the story you’re trying to tell”. “I’ll be writing until the cows come home and I’ll keep rewriting when they’re home,” Sherman says. “I don’t ask them to write the play. I just ask them to help me make it better. “Roy is good at that,” he adds. “His cast is great at that.”
He’s not one of these chair-throwing directors.
– playwright Jason Sherman
Moreover, Sherman describes Surette as a “wonderful collaborator”. He has a gentle manner, Sherman says, while still knowing where he wants to go with a show. And sometimes he gets there by employing the “Socratic method” to get the most out of the people around him.
“He’s not one of these chair-throwing directors,” Sherman quips.
Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play was written prior to both the police murder of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic. Sherman discloses that it’s since been updated with a couple more drafts based on workshops with the cast and discussions with Surette. And there may even be more revisions after Sherman watches the previews live and sees how his lines land.
“I’m always amazed how much a play can change over the course of three days once it’s before an audience,” Sherman says. “You can make changes to make a world of difference.”
In 2000, Surette directed Sherman’s Patience at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre. The playwright is thrilled that they’ve reunited.
“The production blew me away,” Sherman says. “I came out to see it and it was so sensitive to the materials, so smart, so involving, and beautifully designed.”
Patience under Surette’s direction also had a coherence that Sherman describes as “incredible”.
“So I said to him after that, ‘I want to work with you again,’ ” Sherman recalls. “It took 20 years, but here we are.” g
Touchstone Theatre presents Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play at Performance Works from March 6 to 13.
