Ventriloquist Review

We got a glowing review this morning from CBC Radio's Alvina Ruprecht for our production of The Ventriloquist. You can read it for yourself below, or check out at the CBC website, along with the NAC's All for Love Review here:
Our section in the review starts at about 6 minutes and 50 seconds in.

Needless to say, I am incredibly pleased. I hope, if you haven't seen the show already, that you will be able to make it out this week. We have shows from Wed to Sat at 8pm in the Studio Leonard Beaulne of the University of Ottawa. There is also a 3pm matinee on May 3rd. Tickets can be reserved by calling 613-864-3386 or by email through reservations@evolutiontheatre.ca. You can also buy them in advance at the Oz Kafé (361 Elgin St.) between 5pm and 2am - Tuesday to Sunday or at the door. CASH ONLY

I am very proud of our "important contribution to the professional theatre scene in Ottawa" and I hope that you will all be able to come out and support us this week.

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Host: Now, I understand you also want to talk about a new play by Evolution Theatre that also opened last week.

Alvina: Yes, this is a new… Evolution Theatre is a new professional company and the play they are doing now is called The Ventriloquist, and it’s a little dramatic chef d’oeuvre by veteran Québécois playwright, Larry Tremblay. This is an English translation by Keith Turnbull and this is a drama that delves into the psyche of an individual who lives in his own reality.

Now, I don’t want to give away any surprises, but I can say that there is a young man here manipulating a doll who appears to be an adolescent girl and he is called the ventriloquist, because he’s projecting voices through her. But as the play progresses we realize that the voices are those coming from a very disturbed mind that is playing out sexual fantasies and all kinds of other needs. And the thing is we are drawn into this inner world without actually realizing what is happening. It’s not clear until the very end. Very interesting, the structure was very interesting.

It’s a brilliant little play the director, Chris Bedford, has understood perfectly and he has enhanced the psychic disturbance by stylizing it all to the hilt, which was perfect. He even brings in shadow performances by parents who sort of flutter in the background and to draw out the grotesque nature of it all. And the lead actress, Lisa Twardowska, who plays the young girl, Gaby, is excellent.

This is a serious group of young people who are ready to take on the challenges, I think, of demanding contemporary theatre and they should be supported. They’re doing a really good job. They don’t have much money, obviously, at this point, but they are an important contribution to the professional theatre scene in Ottawa and that’s quite good.

So that’s The Ventriloquist in the Léonard-Beaulne Studio at the University of Ottawa . And you can call 613-864-3386 for times and tickets.