By Mike Heenan
Literary Editor
The arrival of spring has flooded the literary calendars with a plethora of poetry readings and dramatic presentations for the local literati. (See www.Bywords.ca , www.poets.ca )
Keith Reddin’s powerful send-up on contemporary violence All The Rage rocked the audience at The Elmdale House Tavern last Sunday afternoon with violent hilarity and fast-paced scene changes that had the full house leaning over their quarts not knowing what to expect next.
Clever dialogue, staging, lighting and sound effects all add to a totally convincing, in-your-face performance by the 30-member professional ensemble Ottawa Chamber Theatre Company led by Producers Lisa Zanyk & Donnie Laflamme and Director Dave Samojlenko.
This innovative Ottawa theatre company has produced plays that work at such unusual venues as The Carleton Tavern and The Cube Art Gallery.
If you need a good belly-laugh at the deadly foibles of modern human nature, don’t miss their final performances of All The Rage this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and Monday night at 7:00 at The Elmdale House Tavern, 1084 Wellington in Hintonburg.
Speaking of “The Cube”, on Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30, award-winning Ottawa poets Monty Reid, Arnand Garnet Ruffo, Anita Lahey, Rhonda Douglas and Luciano Diazwill present a free evening of poetry at The Cube Gallery, 7 Hamilton Ave. N. just behind The Parkdale Market on Wellington.
“Words Work” is a poetry event in conjunction with Ottawa MayWorks labour arts festival. Their theme resonates with National Poetry Month’s “Poetry Without Borders” (www.poets.ca) theme as the poets have worked overseas or crossed borders to work or write and crossed genres to create their poetry.
Cube Gallery is an art gallery with a long association with the MayWorks Festival, The Ottawa Chamber Theatre Company, Poetry Readings, Book Launches and and many performing arts events. Call Don Monet at Cube 613-728-1750 for further details.
For those with a penchant for literary Erotica Vampirica, I recommend Patricia Kathleen McCarthy’s highly unusual third novel The Crimson Woman
(ISBN 978-0-9732631-5-2) in her ongoing “Crimson Series.”
This writer immerses the reader in a proper bloodbath from the outset of her Crimson Trilogy. She skillfully maintains and elevates the temperature with timely splashes of suspense, horror and surprisingly-touching love scenes.
The “foogin’eejit” Irish-Canadian Coffey brothers bring raucous moments of comic relief that carry the horrendous momentum of her narrative to its startling and unique climax.
Each one of The Crimson Man, The Crimson Boy and The Crimson Woman provides an exciting and most satisfying read on its own merits. Taken together, McCarthy’s world of strange & wonderful characters rests comfortably in the cosmos of the imagination.
Nothing is out of place here and the willing suspension of disbelief is made easy for readers by the accurate and lovingly-described milieu of Ottawa’s beautiful old Sandy Hill neighbourhood.
Well-rounded, credible characters inhabit this trilogy and drive the reader along a twisted and astonishing road to the apocalyptic conclusion of The Crimson Woman. For more see www.patriciaKmccarthy.com
Finally, in the tempestuous spirit of random acts of poetry today, I offer this curious fantasy (?) for your consideration:
Oh, yer sudden fierce butterflies
Dance upon my own front rocks.
Yes, and yer nameless tongue
Quickly flickers on my cheek….
Sweating, rolling, stolen time
Canadian Shields us from the crime;
Passing Friday boaters, friends of mine,
Cheer us on and do not know
We’re total strangers.
And Oh, yer slick departure’s wake
Leaves me stunned on my own dock,
Awaiting wife & family & friends.
© Mike Heenan, 1985
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