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BREATH[e] Designed and Directed by Steve Lucas The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen Street West Thursday, April 25 - Saturday, May 18, 2002 ONLY! Reviews of the current production: Lucas knows what he's doing, imaginatively as well as technically, and his sights and sounds give considerable pleasure. I'm not sure he succeeds in his professed intention of putting the audience in a trance -- I'm not even sure that would be desirable -- but I did find my mind pleasantly drifting, sometimes concentrating on what was unfolding before me, sometimes thinking about other things entirely. This, admittedly, is what happens to me at many more conventional plays, but it's nice to know that on this occasion, the author has budgeted for it...It is subtitled, in bashfully small print, "a sensual experience." I would substitute "sensuous" for "sensual" and recommend it highly. Robert Cushman, The National Post, April 29, 2002 Steve Lucas's fascinating 30-minute BREATH[e] takes its audience -- if they're willing, for the show won't be to everyone's taste -- to the depths. What those depths are, though, is defined by each viewer. The wordless, actorless, non-narrative piece, driven by the taped breathing of Jane Miller, can be taken as a meditation exercise with a heartbeat, a journey to the centre of awareness or any variation on this idea that you want. (starred review) Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine, May 2, 2002 During what you might call the rising action, as the unfolding panels add dimension and a sensation of movement, accompanied by the ever-present breathing and a sort of new-age-played-backwards soundtrack, I felt fearful, as if I were being consumed. But once we'd reached what you might call the climax, a sort of landscape tableau -- I pray this isn't like telling whodunit -- I felt at peace, only to find we weren't allowed to tarry long. The trip back was like losing hope. (starred review) Gord McLaughlin, Eye Magazine, May 2, 2002 I think BREATH[e] is more usefully reviewed as art (and thus haven't given it a star rating), although Lucas positions himself as a theatre-maker and cites as his inspiration Samuel Beckett's wordless Breath, in which a stage full of garbage is shown under intensifying light....what I admired most about Lucas's piece were its engrossing painterly effects, with chiaroscuro worthy of Frederic Church's apocalyptic 19th-century American landscapes and a reflected glow reminiscent of Edvard Munch's phallic sunsets. Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail, May 4, 2002 Theatre has to contain the human element. It can survive without lighting, set, script and direction — but if a true connection is to be forged (which is surely the purpose of theatre), then there have to be human beings onstage as well as in the audience. (starred review) Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star, April 30, 2002 |