Results tagged “thehistory”

The history of Michael Hollingsworth's "epic play-cycle" The History of the Village of the Small Huts is almost as storied (and confusing) as the events they represent. Many are familiar with the plays only since 2000, when VideoCabaret's residency began in the back room at the Cameron House. Since then, they have produced a new Hollingsworth play every year (with the exception of 2004), making the currently-running Laurier the eighth play in the cycle. However, the original play-cycle began all the way back in 1985 with the play New France, and ended in 1999 with The Life & Times of Brian Mulroney (the only Small Huts show to be co-written with other VideoCabaret playwright-in-residence Deanne Taylor). There was even a Laurier show back in 1991. Since the Cameron House residency began, the shows have been re-imagined and re-written, and some entirely new shows have been inserted to more fully flesh out the nation's history. So, while this Laurier is the eighth in the cycle, the original was only the fifth.

How unusual! Not a lot of festivals this week. Just the Indie Can Film Festival this weekend, and the Toronto Arab Film Festival starting on Wednesday.

Nicole Krauss weaves a tangled yet breathtakingly beautiful web in the History of Love. Her second novel tells the story of precocious 14-year old Alma Singer, busily trying to cope with the loss of her father and her mother's depression. Across town there's Leo Gursky, a Holocaust survivor, writer and man desperately afraid to die alone. Their lives are brought together by a book that miraculously survived war and genocide. The end product is a moving exploration of loss and the heavy toll it has on our hearts and souls.

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