Don Hannah’s one-person play, The Cave Painter, winner of the 2012 Carol Bolt Award, has somehow both made light of and emphasized the isolation of those affected by death. Dianne is a printmaker who bases her artwork on prehistorical bones and all too quickly finds herself to be...
The Woodcutter
posted by Davin Allan
Don Hannah’s one-person play, The Woodcutter, presents Ted; a “small, wiry, rough-looking” man who the reader or audience will soon be intimately acquainted with. As this one-person play begins with Ted tripping over a stick, his inappropriate attire for a night in the woods...
Six Questions for Do...
posted by Davin Allan
“Don Hannah is a playwright, dramaturge, and novelist who divides his time between Toronto and Nova Scotia. He was the inaugural Lee Playwright in Residence at the University of Alberta, and, most recently, was writer in residence at UBC’s Green College, and for the NotaBle Acts...
Settlement
posted by Jay Miller
You drive a vacant road and hear a song that takes you back; realize, here and now, that you’re past innocence. Never return. It’s a hollow feeling. Empty and strange. Like being on a cliff; maybe slipping a bit. Wonder for a moment if you might be able to get it back. If you drive the...
Sexual Indifference in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
posted by Davin Allan
The Prince of Denmark, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, has gained a degree of literary magnetism due to his complexity: his atypical outlook, his melancholy, and especially his perplexing relationship with Ophelia. Hamlet’s feelings for Ophelia have been long argued; however, what should have been in question is his capacity for sexual attraction. Sparked by the actions of the play, Hamlet becomes aware that he is incapable of being sexually attracted to women or men, what we refer to in contemporary society as asexuality. Although Hamlet may have always had a capacity for romantic attraction, he has endured psychophysical change created...
Life of Pi and the H...
posted by Davin Allan
Not all literature that consists of an adventure brands the protagonist as a hero; however, Yann Martell’s Life of Pi contains many patterns of a monomyth quest. The Heroic Monomyth, also known as the hero’s journey, explains the common stages of a quest in many classic stories. The novel...
Notes Towards a Definition of Tragedy
posted by Davin Allan
Edward Albee’s The Goat; or, Who is Sylvia? has been written with explicit literary and dramatic intention, seen through the published subtitle. The aim of Albee’s play is to define modern tragedy as a contemporary adaptation of the genre from the fifth-century. Albee’s revival of theatric principles from the dramatic theory in Aristotle’s Poetics, as well as the characteristic and plot parallels between The Goat and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, consummates his definition. This drama, therefore, extends Greek tragedy into the modern world. Fifth-century Greek tragedy revolved heavily around religion and mythology, as such faith...
The Ideal Image: Women in Fifth-Century Drama
posted by Davin Allan
Greek women were restricted to living within a patriarchal society in Classical Greece; however, they were depicted in prominent roles in fifth-century drama. Although some plays presented women as mere housewives, others often put them in the position of political leaders, heroines, and murderers. The purpose of the female being staged in socially unconventional ways is to reinforce what will be defined as the ‘ideal image’: a perfect wife, regarding a woman’s familial, social, cultural, and lawful role in the oikos. The oikos is a term describing the many aspects of both the home and family.[1] The emphasis of the ideal image can be...
A Brief Insight into...
posted by Jay Miller
Every year I’ve attended the Kingston WritersFest, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet many great writers from all walks of life. Steven Heighton has been there every year I have, who, with so many expressive and entertaining works, and being a Queen’s alumnus, was one of the...
Aaron, the Moor
posted by Davin Allan
Aaron, the villainous Moor, and Titus, the prestigious Roman general, from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, contrast deeply in morals and many elements of the play evoke their divergency. Aaron is further characterized into a more complex individual throughout the play by comparison to the actions and values of Titus. The contribution to the ongoing theme of governance of parenthood, their respective religious references, and the metaphor of the dominant skin colour elucidate the dissimilarities between these characters. The analysis of Aaron’s character from his monologue (4.2.87-104), juxtaposed to the perception of Titus, creates a...
Twelfth Night: What ...
posted by Davin Allan
Olivia’s thoughts and motives in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night are rather unclear, leaving many questions unanswered throughout the play. The use of phraseological and comparative analysis proves Olivia is only capable of homosexual desires, concluding the many uncertainties of her...
Chatting with Jason ...
posted by Jay Miller
Jason Heroux is a surrealist poet who I first met in on Queen’s University campus last spring I believe, during the Mansfield Press launch of Jaime Forsythe and co., otherwise at the previous biannual Kingston stop of the Mansfield Press launches in November of 2011. It must have been...
Lysistrata: Onstage ...
posted by Davin Allan
The Athenian women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata protested against the typical female subordination in Ancient Greek society due to their observations of male ineptitude, rather than a proto-feminist movement. The cunning Greek women supplanted the patriarchal dominion of Athens, resulting...
Floating Life
posted by Jay Miller
Moez Surani’s poetry deserves to be read as often as possible. As Jacob McArthur Mooney says, he has the cosmopolitanism of Cohen’s early verse. I’d go as far to say that he’s a more worldly Michel Garneau, the famous Québécois writer responsible for translating Cohen. With a mind...
New Theatre
posted by Jay Miller
Manifesto The spirits must write. Paper, a break in cloud. At the start there was a fire. Ink caked, disintegrated. Feathered ash. It is first heard through a cup pressed to a wall. Your cup. Maybe I am imagining a different country or non-action. A lie pulls a scarf from my mouth. It has...