Tip Us Off
E-mail us with news tips, discoveries, story ideas, and anything else cool.
Advertisements

About Torontoist

Torontoist is a website about Toronto and everything that happens in it. More about us.

Editor-in-Chief: DAVID TOPPING

Publisher: GOTHAMIST

What's On Today
Check out Torontoist's daily event listings
Recent Comments

Mathew Kumar on TIFF 2008: Preview

ReluctantTorontonian on TIFF 2008: Preview

Toby von Meistersinger on The Voice Of The Game

eller on The Urbanaut

ambrose on ROAWR...Pop!

wardnikoff on The Voice Of The Game

tyrannosaurus_rek on ROAWR...Pop!

wardnikoff on ROAWR...Pop!

Robin Sharp on Fauxbama

David Topping on Hot and Bothered

The Tall Poppy Interview
Favourites

February 21, 2007

Overcoat Is Overwhelming

2007_02_20Overcoat-1.jpg Morris Panych shows abound in this city. In the past few years alone, we've had Vigil, The Dishwashers, The Government Inspector, Habeas Corpus, Take Me Out, Amadeus, Sweeny Todd and The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl. After What Lies Before Us, The Overcoat is his second Canstage show of the year - and it's only February! He has become a theatre artist of a very divisive nature - some people love his whimsical physicality and often over-the-top sensibilities, and some can't stand it. But if you have to see (and enjoy) one Morris Panych show, The Overcoat is surely that show.

His most acclaimed and internationally-recognized work, The Overcoat is an adaptation of the Gogol short story of the same name about a man who acquires a beautiful coat that changes his life, first for the better and then for the worse. There is no dialogue in the show, and the story is told entirely through dance and physicality, and told well. This show has all the broadness and tropes one has come to expect from a Panych show (including opening credits projected in overture; a convention many audience members are growing weary of), but located within a world in which they amaze rather than cloy.

Each individual performer creates unique and fully-realised characters through only the use of their costumes and their bodies, and the precision of the show's timing is truly wonderful. There is not one slack moment onstage; Panych has created a sort of theatrical perpetual motion machine with constant, dazzling movement. This is exactly the kind of theatre he should be making.


Email This Entry







Advertisement: Torontoist Continues Below!

Comments (4)

I actually really want to see this. Canstage's PWYC shows are on Mondays, right? How much do they expect you can pay? I know $10 is pretty standard for shows at the Buddies, Factory, etc., but I imagine that Canstage wants more than that. And what sort of seats could one expect?

 

Personally, I would NEVER pay more than $10 at PWYC anywhere, Canstage or no. I have had good luck with their PWYC before, but at the Berkeley, never the Bluma. I imagine it's just luck of the draw, really. Whatever's left behind.

 

I saw The Overcoat last night and it was amazing -- the hyperkinetic activity on stage reminded me in some ways of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and I thought it was brilliant the way they integrated the stage hands into the action.

 

This play is absolutely gorgeous!! It is a total must-see! Ubelievable acting, amazing timing, so perfect. well of course they've been doing this for ten years across the world, duh.
I recommend to EVERYONE (:

 
Post a comment (Comment Policy)

2003-2008 Gothamist LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy. We use MovableType.