Hunchback rocks Hugo's tale with brilliant design and storytelling

By: Andrea Rabinovitchm, The Vancouver Observer
Feb 21st, 2012

In many of the adaptations of French literary giant Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the emphasis is on romantic love. But this visually stunning production by Edmonton-based Catalyst Theatre delves deep into the dark side of the classic story.

The piece, co–produced by The Cultch and Vancouver Playhouse and commissioned by Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, opens on Thursday night and remains running at the Playhouse until March 10.

Resident designer Bretta Gerecke, artistic director/director/ writer/ composer Jonathan Christenson, choreographer Laura Krewski and sound designer Wade Staples team up for the continuation of the gothic trilogy that began with Frankenstein and then Nevermore, the Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe and finally Hunchback.

Taking gothic tales that Christenson adapts with text and music, Gerecke creates ingenious costumes and sets, while Krewsky adds movement and dance elements to, creates rivetting theatrical experiences.

Read more...

Catalyst Theatre's stylized Hunchback explores destructive love

by John Lucas, The Straight
Feb 23, 2012

When it was first suggested to him that his company, Catalyst Theatre, mount an original stage version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Jonathan Christenson was reluctant. Victor Hugo's 1831 novel had been adapted so many times before, and in so many different ways (including a ballet by Roland Petit and a Disney cartoon), that Catalyst's artistic director simply wasn't sure the world needed another version. But the idea kept coming up, so Christenson decided he should at least read the book. Reached in Edmonton during a break in rehearsals, Christenson says he was familiar with the story only through its various retellings, and going directly to the source was an eye opener.

"The exploration of love was really interesting," he says of Hugo's novel, first published in French as Notre-Dame de Paris. "It's become this kind of classic romantic love story, but the love that Hugo's looking at is really not a very romantic one. It's a really powerful destructive force. I remember when I was first researching it, I was reading about notions of love, historically. The Greeks thought of love as something to be very wary of, and I think Hugo is much more in that vein. So I just found the explorations of the darker, shadow side of love to be really fascinating, and also just felt like there was an opportunity to tell the story of [Claude] Frollo, the priest, more fully, and with more complexity, I guess, than I'd seen in any of the other adaptations."

Read more...

Hunchback is Edmonton's Catalyst Theatre adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic 1831 Gothic novel

by Dana Gee, The Province
Feb. 19, 2012

"The bells, the bells."

There's a good chance those words will summon the image of a disfigured, limping Charles Laughton as Quasimodo in the 1939 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Adapted for the screen from Victor Hugo's 1831 classic Gothic novel this, while heralded as the best re-telling of Hugo's sprawling, detail-rich masterpiece, is just one of many big-screen adaptations. Lon Chaney (1923) and Anthony Quinn (1956) also brought the deformed bell ringer to life. Heck, even Disney dove in and in 1996 turned Quasimodo's struggles into a feature-length cutesy cartoon.

TV has gone to the French writer's well many times as well, including a 1982 adaptation that had Sir Anthony Hopkins donning the hump and tattered clothes of Quasimodo and leading a stellar British cast that featured Derek Jacobi and Sir John Gielgud.

Now, at the Vancouver Playhouse, theatregoers can see yet another turn on the old, but timeless tale as Edmonton's Catalyst Theatre presents Hunchback, a musical interpretation of the Hugo classic from Jonathan Christenson (director, writer and composer).

Read more...

VANCOUVER COURIER
FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Picks of the week

1. It's a happening, man. Opening Feb. 18 to April 29, the Vancouver Art Gallery's latest exhibit, Lights Out! Canadian Painting from the 1960s, celebrates the colourful canvas creations from that swinging decade, including Greg Curnoe's groovy Myself Walking North in the Tweed Coat. For more info, go to vanartgallery.bc.ca.

2. Funny people descend upon the city for the Vancouver ComedyFest. This year's edition runs until Feb. 25 and includes, among others, Carol Burnett, Betty White, Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk and L.A.-based, musical-comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates, who will be at the Rio Theatre Feb. 17 with Todd Barry. More info at comedyfest.com.

3. The Vancouver Playhouse and the Cultch have teamed up to present Catalyst Theatre's wily adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel about a tormented priest, a beautiful dancer and the deformed bell ringer Quasimodo. Hunchback runs Feb. 18 to March 10 at the Vancouver Playhouse. For tickets and info, call 604-873-3311 or go to vancouverplayhouse.com.

4. The Talking Stick Festival is back for its 11th year celebrating aboriginal artists from a variety of artistic expressions Feb. 20 to March 4. Highlights include one-man show Metis Mutt, Drew Hayden Taylor's play In a World Created by A Drunken God and Monique Mojica's Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way. For tickets, go to ticketstonight.ca or call 604-684-2787. Info at fullcircle.ca.

© Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier

For orignial article click here.