{"id":316,"date":"2009-12-13T10:38:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-13T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.244.61\/~twisithe\/?p=316"},"modified":"2023-07-20T13:34:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T16:34:12","slug":"east-of-berlin-out-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316","title":{"rendered":"East of Berlin Out East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\">Nothing says, \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d like the image of two teenaged sons of prominent Nazis sucking each other off on a desk in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" \/><st1:country-region><st1:place>Paraguay<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> beside a gold-framed photograph of Hitler. That is just one of the many darkly hilarious moments in Hannah Moscovitch\u2019s Governor General\u2019s Award nominated play <em>East of <st1:state><st1:place>Berlin<\/st1:place><\/st1:state><\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1\"><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/2009\/02\/moscovitch-makes-it-all-murky.html\">I saw this play almost a year ago <\/a>at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tarragontheatre.com\/\">Tarragon Theatre <\/a>in <st1:city><st1:place>Toronto<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and quickly fell in love with Moscovitch\u2019s talent for scripting vivid and unexpected dialogue and characters that are so richly complex and instantly compelling. Suffice to say, I was very excited to hear that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.2btheatre.com\/\">2b theatre <\/a>in <st1:city><st1:place>Halifax<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was producing the play at the Bus Stop Theatre (running until December 13<sup>th<\/sup> with shows at <st1:time minute=\"0\" hour=\"14\">2:00pm<\/st1:time> and <st1:time minute=\"0\" hour=\"20\">8:00pm<\/st1:time>). I was even more eager when I realized that I would have an opportunity to attend the East Coast production while I was home for the holidays.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1\"><\/span>This production was beautifully directed by Christian Barry, with set pieces (designed by Andrew Cull) sprawling across the playing-space of the Bus Stop which thrust the action of the play appropriately into the laps of its audience. The play\u2019s protagonist, Rudi, speaks directly to the audience throughout much of the play, and makes them complicit to his story and all of his actions so it is integral that the atmosphere be intensely intimate. Barry\u2019s choice of movement and the way he manoeuvred his actors about the space was reminiscent of Alisa Palmer\u2019s staging of the Tarragon production, although Barry kept the stage strikingly dark, which correlated nicely with the anxious, covert, and sinister world Rudi describes to his audience and contrasted to the reality of the weather in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Paraguay<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. I found that Barry\u2019s handling of the sex scenes in the play rose above their potential for awkwardness and achieved a level of smoothness that is rare for scenes of this nature due to his creative use of lighting and the positioning of the actors on the stage and in relation to the furniture. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1\"><\/span>The play centres on Rudi, played in <st1:city><st1:place>Halifax<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> by David Patrick Flemming, a young man who, upon unravelling a horrific secret about his family\u2019s past, tries desperately to rid himself of the guilt he feels simply for being born his father\u2019s son. Flemming is an awkwardly charming Rudi, who slips in and out of his present terrified and tentative state, and into a turbulent past in his desire to share his story with the audience. Moscovitch has written Rudi\u2019s monologues in a distinct, disjointed manner filled with pauses and trailed off sentences. When Flemming hits Rudi\u2019s rhythm he is unstoppable, but as soon as he hits a glitch, his manner of speech seems unnatural until he regains his stride again. His Rudi has fascinating chemistry with Bill Wood\u2019s Hermann, a friend of Rudi\u2019s who also seeks to distance himself from the sins of his father, and beautiful chemistry with Katie Swift\u2019s Sarah, a young Jewish girl with a strong sense of curiosity and a rebellious streak. Bill Wood gives a great performance as Hermann, the savvy aesthete who is a beautiful mixture of wildly sensitive, innately intelligent and cautiously reserved- wary of being hit. Hermann has a heartbreaking moment in the play when he reconnects with Rudi after several years which Wood played with such an earnest and raw display of how deeply Rudi had hurt him. Katie Swift is wonderfully frank as Sarah and captures the rhythm of Moscovitch\u2019s dialogue brilliantly. The most poignant moment in the play is all Swift, as she sits and sings in Hebrew from a prayer book; a remarkable mixture of haunting and poetic. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count: 1\"><\/span><em>East of Berlin<\/em> is a beautifully compelling piece of theatre that will send you out into the streets contemplating the tale these five talented artists have woven for you. It is both encouraging and inspiring to see one of <st1:city><st1:place>Halifax<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s most acclaimed theatre companies producing a new Canadian play with a young, fiercely talented local cast. <em>East of Berlin<\/em>, it\u2019s not 2b missed! <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:georgia;\"><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><strong><em>East of Berlin<\/em> closes Sunday, December 13th. Shows at 2:00pm and 8:00pm. The Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax). For tickets or more information please call 902.453.6267 or visit <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.2btheatre.com\/\"><strong>www.2btheatre.com<\/strong><\/a><strong>. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nothing says, \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d like the image of two teenaged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4671],"tags":[3522,5441,4038,4093,4043,3753,4912,3242],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-2b-theatre","tag-andrew-cull","tag-bill-wood","tag-christian-barry","tag-david-patrick-flemming","tag-hannah-moscovitch","tag-katie-swift","tag-the-bus-stop-theatre"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>East of Berlin Out East - The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"East of Berlin Out East - The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nothing says, \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d like the image of two teenaged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/twisihalifax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-13T14:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-20T16:34:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amanda Campbell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amanda Campbell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amanda Campbell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2acdb91c67a7c73bbe572ed62f39cf80\"},\"headline\":\"East of Berlin Out East\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-13T14:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-20T16:34:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\"},\"wordCount\":717,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"2b theatre\",\"andrew cull\",\"bill wood\",\"christian barry\",\"david patrick flemming\",\"hannah moscovitch\",\"katie swift\",\"the bus stop theatre\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\",\"name\":\"East of Berlin Out East - The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-13T14:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-20T16:34:12+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"East of Berlin Out East\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Way I See It Theatre & Music Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Way I See It Theatre\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/cropped-twisi-header-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/cropped-twisi-header-1.png\",\"width\":4831,\"height\":1568,\"caption\":\"The Way I See It Theatre\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/twisihalifax\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/twisiblog\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2acdb91c67a7c73bbe572ed62f39cf80\",\"name\":\"Amanda Campbell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0e1a35d85359766c1e9bf58b3b4e4d926456f42e1b829f3cb745235d605f4e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0e1a35d85359766c1e9bf58b3b4e4d926456f42e1b829f3cb745235d605f4e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0e1a35d85359766c1e9bf58b3b4e4d926456f42e1b829f3cb745235d605f4e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Amanda Campbell\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"East of Berlin Out East - The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"East of Berlin Out East - The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog","og_description":"Nothing says, \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d like the image of two teenaged","og_url":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316","og_site_name":"The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/twisihalifax","article_published_time":"2009-12-13T14:38:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-20T16:34:12+00:00","author":"Amanda Campbell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amanda Campbell","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316"},"author":{"name":"Amanda Campbell","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2acdb91c67a7c73bbe572ed62f39cf80"},"headline":"East of Berlin Out East","datePublished":"2009-12-13T14:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-20T16:34:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316"},"wordCount":717,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["2b theatre","andrew cull","bill wood","christian barry","david patrick flemming","hannah moscovitch","katie swift","the bus stop theatre"],"articleSection":["Review"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316","url":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316","name":"East of Berlin Out East - The Way I See It Theatre &amp; Music Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-12-13T14:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-20T16:34:12+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?p=316#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"East of Berlin Out East"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/","name":"The Way I See It Theatre & Music Blog","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#organization","name":"The Way I See It Theatre","url":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/cropped-twisi-header-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/cropped-twisi-header-1.png","width":4831,"height":1568,"caption":"The Way I See It Theatre"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/twisihalifax","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/twisiblog\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2acdb91c67a7c73bbe572ed62f39cf80","name":"Amanda Campbell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0e1a35d85359766c1e9bf58b3b4e4d926456f42e1b829f3cb745235d605f4e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0e1a35d85359766c1e9bf58b3b4e4d926456f42e1b829f3cb745235d605f4e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0e1a35d85359766c1e9bf58b3b4e4d926456f42e1b829f3cb745235d605f4e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Amanda Campbell"},"url":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4224,"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/4224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twisitheatreblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}