Review of Theatre Without Borders

Theatre Without Borders

Montreal writer and director Robert Astle has had his award-winning plays produced across North America and in Europe. He has also taught clwoning, which made him realize how little has been published about it. This book is his response--and it's a beautiful one. He travelled across Canada interviewing actors, puppeteers and performance artists. His interviews are engaging and photos expressive.


The Globe and Mail

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Theatre Without Borders

Theatre Without Borders emerges as an engaging series of interviews with nine off-the-beaten-path theatre companies and performers, some well known(Ronnie Burkett, whose adult marionette shows have played the MTC Warehouse several times) and some less so, but all intriguing.

Here are "eccentrics, clowns, performance artists and absurdists" who are thoughtful and well-spoken interviewees (most also teach their craft) and are drawn not by a Broadway box-office mentality, but a long process of growth. We have riveting anecdotes from Quebec's Chaplin-esque Yves Dagenais who once performed an anti-military comedy in Colombia while the local militia patrolled the audience, and inspiring revelation from Dean Gilmour of Toronto's Theatre Smith Gilmour, who describes "the tiny talent time moment": the ability to find reward in the art and your love of it, and its potential despite lean times and impoverished surrounding.

The common thread among all the performers is the way they were drawn to theatre, Astle believes, "because they had something different to say." Some have been working diligently for close to 25 years, and Astle is proud to champion their efforts.

"We're a very unusual bunch, " he says simply, and it sounds as if he's smiling.


Uptown Magazine

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