John Shand Posts
January 28, 2018 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

THE DAISY THEATRE

Reginald Theatre, January 13, until January 26 7.5/10 Long before its practitioners came up with the wretched notion of purporting to represent reality, theatre did something infinitely more magical: it obliged its audiences to use their imaginations. In this lay-everything-out-on-a-platter era it sounds improbable, I know, but if most contemporary…

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January 24, 2018 / Concert Reviews - Archive

RHYS CHATHAM’S A CRIMSON GRAIL

Carriageworks, January 12 7/10 For some parents, neighbours and other musicians sharing a room with 100 electric guitarists might seem like a singularly cruel form of torture. But then Rhys Chatham’s three-part, 75-minute A Crimson Grail hardly realises most preconceptions of how the instrument tends to be used. Bent-string anguish,…

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January 22, 2018 / Features - Archive

2017 Year in Review: Music

What were they thinking? Singer Dianne Reeves gave a performance at City Recital Hall that became the arena-rock version of jazz, with extended singalongs and massed phone lights waving in the air. She already had us eating out of her palm by doing what she does so well, so why…

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