An Emotional Rollercoaster In The Theatre With whisper

Katherine Speur, The Gateway
April 4, 2012

Secrets, when revealed, represent vulnerability, honesty and power. And by sharing secrets, the BFA acting class of 2012 has confirmed their unbelievable talent once again in their newest emotional achievement whisper. All playing themselves, the cast delves into a world of honest communication onstage through the retelling of poignant memories and emotional experiences. It's a simple concept, but becomes so profound and creative on the stage that it compels audience members to think twice about their own lives.

The actors whisper their real life struggles and secrets into the ear of another actor, who becomes a type of interpreter and relays the story to the audience. The play doesn't shy away from controversial subject matter, making it even more genuine. A collage of detailed, relatable stories comes through in the simple power of their whispers.

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whisper Speaks With Power

Liz Nicholls, The Edmonton Journal
March 31, 2012

In one of the final scenes of Whisper, silent moonlit figures pull on glowing ropes attached to invisible offstage kites. Gradually the darkness is criss-crossed. There must be a powerful updraft; the figures can barely stay earthbound.

What does it feel like to be in your 20s? This is one of lingering images by which this beautiful and touching production devised by Catalyst Theatre's creative team - director Jonathan Christenson, designer Bretta Gerecke, and choreographer Laura Krewski - conjures that threshold world. Meanwhile, the generation speaks for itself. You don't just meet the University of Alberta's graduating class of actors in a show. They are the show. They're bravely onstage as themselves, unmediated by "characters."

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Submit To The Emotion of whisper

The Edmonton Sun
March 31, 2012

The premise of the Studio/Catalyst Theatre production of Whisper is simple — stories told to another in a whisper have an intimacy and truth that saying them aloud might lack. So for an intermissionless hour and 40 minutes, the person to whom the story or anecdote actually happened whispers into the ear of a partner, who then passes it along to the audience.

It's a clever idea that works for a while but, since it takes twice as long, it grows a bit tiresome before the show is over.

What saves the evening is the depth of feeling the company brings to the whole endeavour.

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Hugo's Hunchback brought startlingly to life

Michael Harris, The Globe and Mail
Feb. 24, 2012

The idea that love is just the most alluring form of torture on hand is antique. Sappho was the first to call Eros "bittersweet." Actually, she called it a "sweet bitterness," which puts the emphasis on the negative, the stomach-churning, the obsessive checking of e-mail. She knew that love is pain and, 2,400 years later, Victor Hugo came to the same conclusion in his 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The dreadful vagaries of the human heart are not so changeable; but the way we realize those truths changes constantly. And it's that blending of timeless material and raw new delivery that makes the current musical production of Hunchback, by Catalyst Theatre, so attractive to so many.

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