We who engage in the arts should take pause when a production like Ghost River Theatre’s Giant premieres. Giant is the cumulative result of established, innovative collaborators David van Belle and Eric Rose taking time over four years, securing Canada Council for the Arts New Chapter funds, and engaging an amazing cast and creative team around them, to bring their magnificent vision of Giant to life. I’d like to take this moment to appreciate their collective genius and achievement, by sharing quotes from each of this week’s reviews!
From Lori Montgomery, Theatre Reviewer for The YYScene:
“This is everything I love about theatre — it doesn’t try to be the stage version of the HBO biopic. It’s oblique and elliptical and leans heavily on metaphor.”
“…the concept is executed with passion and energy that makes it impossible to look away.”
From Jonathan Love, Theatre Reviewer for CBC Radio:
“…genius stagecraft…”
“…Ghost River was able to exhibit size and scale in so many creative ways, it was mesmerizing.”
“…what was over the top amazing was the wrestling.”
“…what I appreciated was the creators’ ability to give it the time and the space that it needed, and the full force of the entire team’s creativity to find the right way to tell the story.”
“It’s the story of a man who didn’t fit within society told in a way that doesn’t fit within conventional storytelling.”
“…I really marvelled at how the scale and talent really hit home just like a pile driver. This was a singular production just as André was a singular human.”
From Louis B. Hobson, Theatre Reviewer for The Calgary Herald:
“From concept to execution, Ghost River Theatre’s Giant is an awe-inspiring achievement.”
“…a show that dazzles with its inventiveness, originality and theatricality.”
“(Van Belle and Rose) keep amazing with their innovation.”
“It is an achievement worthy of its title.”
Amen to that!!