propaganda
Adrift on the Nile
Hive
My Name is Rachel Corrie
Crime and Punishment
Ali and Ali and the Axis of Evil
Asylum of the Universe
ADRIFT ON THE NILE
VANCOUVERPLAYS.COM: With the help of the $60,000 Alcan Award neworld received last year, Youssef and Chai reconceptualized and rewrote the script, and significantly redesigned the production … the ultimate value of the play comes from its complex, comical, contradictory response to that question: what do we know about the Middle East?
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: "As Puzzling as the Pyramids"
...a minor miracle not merely of adaptation but of historical translation too. Adrift highlights the way we suffer the same losses over and over again, raining revenge on revenge. Our struggle, in essence, never changes.
THE TELEGRAM: "Drifting Characters Find Right Course"
Visually and acoustically the production is evocative and appealing, with subtle soundscape and striking visual effects...
HIVE
VANCOUVER COURIER: "Thespians Liberated"
Audiences tired of the totalitarianism of most local theatre can break free at Hive. Eleven companies each create an intimate short piece and perform it for, at most, 20 people at a time, at repeated intervals over the evening. The hook? You can choose which pieces you want to see.
THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT: "Wildly Successful HIVE Event Still Has Audiences Buzzing"
HIVE blew my mind. It's one of the most exciting artistic events I've ever experienced ... neworldtheatre's trip to the embalming room is a stunner ... I relished everything I saw. This evening will be the stuff of legend.
MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE (Community Engaged Reading, June 2006)
THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT: "Commands our attention"
... for this reading the company decided to parcel our Corrie's words to a group of 11 community-based actors, ranging in age from 11 to 60. The effect was powerful and moving, underscoring the broader resonances of Corrie's uniquely personal story ... an intimate portrait of a young woman passionately committed to justice and willing to make enormous sacrifices in its pursuit. The personal and political are inextricably intertwined in Corrie's clear, thoughtful voice.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
VANCOUVER COURIER: "From Russia With Love"
Utterly Remarkable. It's one (glorious) thing to translate Gogol's short story "The Overcoat" into movement an music, but it's quite another to adapt Fyodor Dostoevsky's fat, philosophical novel "Crime and Punishment" into under three hours of thrilling theatricality. Vancouver actor and director James Fagan Tait has done it-brilliantly. Thank you, neworld Theatre, Vancouver Moving Theatre, PuSh festival and producer Camyar Chai for laying out this feast.
GEORGIA STRAIGHT: "Crime Honours Grand Themes"
neworldtheatre's take on Dostoyevsky's epic novel is a wonder ... The opening image is a stunner: 20 actors fill the stage in a grid formation wearing the somber colours of St. Petersburg, 1865 .... Pankanea's music is deceptively simple; its repetitions become haunting, its big, deep chords sink into you ... Tait deserves gratitude for transforming the enormous book into three successful hours of theatre ... These are grand themes, and this production honours them with vast scale and understated beauty.
VANCOUVER SUN: "Visionary Mix brings on Crime and Punishment"
Crime and Punishment has been so successfully translated from page to stage that this wholly local production deserves an international spotlight ... All in all it's an experience that's not to be missed.
VANCOUVERPLAYS.COM: "Crime and Punishment"
Crime and Punishment is a solid and sometimes spectacular rendering of the brilliant book ... strong acting, beautiful music, and an intelligent, uncompromising theatrical narrative ... this is an admirable, ambitious and exciting play.
ALI AND ALI AND THE AXES OF EVIL
NOW (TORONTO): "Ali The Greatest" - 4 Stars, Critic's Pick, Highly Recommended
Need a reminder of how smart, relevant and entertaining live theatre can be? Then check out The Adventures of Ali & Ali And The Axes Of Evil. Suggesting everything from a Bob Hope visit-the-troops vehicle to an old-style minstrel show, it cleverly targets any number of issues, from earnest immigrant plays to corporate re-branding. The show's chief satiric mission, though, is to expose the xenophobic finger-pointing and hysteria of our neighbours to the south ... Chai and Youssef deliver their scathing words with jaw-dropping energy and precision ... (though) the quips about current political players tie Ali and Ali to its time, its uncompromising look at how we deal with history and culture in the theatre makes it universal.
CBC RADIO: Live Review
A vicious and viciously funny satire of life in the New American Empire, Ali and Ali is a hilarious and eye opening evening of political theatre - extremely politically-incorrect political theatre. And it’s not a well-made play by any means. It's like they took 100 ideas and 1000 jokes and threw them against the wall. Fortunately 95 of the ideas and 950 of the jokes stick ... Youssef and Chai are wonderful together, performing strange and brilliant characters strangely and brilliantly - with a remarkable amount of subtlety and nuance.
VANCOUVER SUN: "How To Skewer Liberal Smugness"
Anyone with the smarts to see through the mass of mendacity that passes for fact these days will appreciate this clever, cutting cabaret act ... A wild ride with talented actors where pacing is never a problem, Ali & Ali is a 100 minute slap at Western complacency that entertains as it tries to enlighten ... Ali & Ali never veers from reminding its audience that liberal smugness is of little help in the fight to help tens of millions of refugees ... The message isn't hammered home as screed ... In fact Ali & Ali is so thoroughly thought-out that it manages to skewer just about every target it seeks while keeping us entertained.
ASYLUM OF THE UNIVERSE
VANCOUVER SUN: "A Remarkable Dreamscape"
neworldtheatre brings about two hours of joyous escape from the Bush regime’s relentless campaign against Islam. It’s hard to know where to begin with praise fro the swirl of drama, comedy, music and dance. There are astonishing performances... Then there’s a harem of young women [...] whose ensemble work is superb. Kudos to director Glynis Leyshon for weaving such a wonderful tapestry, made all the more a must-see (and must-hear, and must-experience) event by the show’s technical elements.
WESTENDER: "It's Damn Fun"
...best described as a cabaret about the Persian court... The joy was obvious and, at times, infectious. One hilarious moment was when the Queen deems it time for her son the King to produce an heir and his entire harem piles on top of hum, until they form a giant, humping mountain.
THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT
This production contains so much sensuality per square inch that, by the end, my body just wanted to dance. Asylum of the Universe is Chai’s freewheeling musical account of the first three years of the reign of Nasser E'din Shah. ... The songs revealed the riches of their textures, emotion, and poetry. There are many contributions, but the central influence on this show's rhythmically and harmonically complex score is keyboard virtuoso Marguerite Witvoet. Director Glynis Leyshon creates passages of winning theatricality... the bath, when it came, was glorious.
THE VANCOUVER COURIER
The world that neworldtheatre creates in Asylum of the Universe is not a place you'd want to seek asylum. Not unless you were planning to have your head violently separated from your neck, that is. Playwright Camyar Chai expands and clarifies from his earlier Opiate Karim into this full-length story of absolute power corrupting absolutely. It's very Brechtian in its use of song, dance and a curious mingling of humour with serious political and moral issues. ... The juxtaposition of the sublime and ridiculous appears to be Chai’s trademark. Asylum of the Universe ends on a qualifiedly optimistic note, "There must always be more than one choice." This rings out loud and clear in view of Bush's war on Iraq.
