Tag: books

  • Bard on Soccer: Reimaged Merry Wives of Windsor

    The Merry Wives of Windsor. Photo by Emily Cooper

    by Imtiaz Popat

    This year the Bard on Beach his caught up in the FIFA Frenzy in its reimagined Merry Wives of Windsor on the main stage at Sen̓áḵw–Vanier Park.

    The take in the FIFA fever, Writer Bruce Horak and cowriter and director Rebecca Northan have reimagined this adaptation, starting of at the soccer field and the Windsor Community Centre. The imagination works well as this Shakespear soap opera tale of a whimsical comedy full of flirtations and pranks. Although the this is modern adaptation, much of the Shakespeare dialogue is intact, which works well but sometimes confusing.

    The other twist in this adaptation is a gender-neutral character. Sara Vickruck plays Slender, a non-binary character This also a diverse cast unlike the Shakespeare’s original characters. Rachel Angco plays Anne Page who in this rendition is the captain of the women’s soccer tearm and Simple. Cameron Grant plays Fenton is the captain of mens soccer team in this. Manish Sharma plays Mr.Page and Zahf Paroo plays Evans.

    I went to see the play on Thursday June 25th evening, when there was a technical malfunction where Ashely Wright who plays Flalstaff was injured. I went back on Saturday June 27th to see the full play again with Paul Moniz the understudy playing Falstaff this time. He was reading from script which worked as a prop to prompt.

    Over all the play went well this time and story carried through with a standing ovation at the end. This rendition of the Merry Wives of Windsor is worth a watch in the backdrop of the FIFA Furor in town. It’s a good gimmick to get people to go the Bard this year as party of the cultural entertainment for the world cup.

  • Eisha Marjara’s Calorie is moving and heartwarming

    by Imtiaz Popat

    Eisha Marjara’s Canadian Melodrama Calorie will be featured at the Sunder Prize Film Festival.  Like her previous film, Marjara explores discovering identity. This time she goes into her own past through this fictional story.  

    Monika Singh (Ellora Patnaik) a recently divorced, Sikh-Canadian architect is at a crossroads in her life. She’s overwhelmed and under-appreciated at work. Her 13-year-old teenaged daughter, Alia (Shanaya Dhillon-Birmhan), who obsessed with her body image, counting calories, skipping meals, and maintaining a rigid workout regiment. Her 17-year-old daughter, Simi (Ashley Ganger), is a singer, who in love with a boy she plans to move in with the second she turns 18.

    The family travels to India, visiting their Uncle Mohan (Anupam Kher) and Auntie Gurdeep (Dolly Ahluwalia). Alia and Simi have never been to Indian before, and their set-in-stone ways run afoul of a major case of culture shock.

    The trip will further drive a wedge between mother and her daughters when the kids learn that Monika has been lying to them about how their grandmother died. She hid the traumatic truth that her grand mother had died in the 1985 Air India bombing.

    Marjara takes great pains at examining not only the tremendous feeling of loss during one of the most devastating terrorist acts to impact Canadians, but also the lives lost during the Indian government’s deadly Operation Blue Star, which occurred at an iconic and revered temple in the film’s chosen setting of Amritsar.

    Marjara also revisits other personal traumas and works from her past, by giving one of the primary characters an eating disorder, a topic the director previously covered in her short film Am I the Skinniest Person You’re Ever Seen?.

    This melodrama is very compelling with a thing of Bollywood flavor. Particularly with the Bollywood screen legend Amupum Kher. The story, direction, cinematography and the music weaves a heartwarming story about healing from our traumatic past.