Dennis Smith, SPECIAL TO BURLINGTON POST Jan 27, 2012 – 4:32 PM
Trevor Copp is no stranger to provocative theatre — previous play topics included two men ballroom dancing and a relationship involving a minor.
He’ll play a suicide bomber in The Last 15 Seconds, which opens on Friday, Feb. 3 at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.
“It’s fascinating to probe what makes any human do that,” said Copp. “Expressing it as a Burlington resident was very intimidating for me.”
EDMONTON – If The Iron Lady is getting flack for making a brutal, culturally blind politician more “human” — mainly by having a great actor flesh out Thatcher’s third dimension, as great actors are wont to do — The Last 15 Seconds takes an even bigger risk…
Waterloo resident gives MT Space theatre a national profile with must-see play
Waterloo may be famous for its digital brainpower, but Majdi Bou-Matar is putting his adopted hometown on the map for something else — acclaimed contemporary theatre….
By John Coulbourn ,QMI Agency
First posted:
“1. The Last 15 Seconds: Kitchener-Waterloo’s MT Space’s compelling piece of movement theatre, about a suicide bomber and the man he killed, exploded on the Theatre Passe Muraille stage and was gone before most people realized it was there. Pity, both for a hugely talented company and for those who missed them.”
Leah Sandals | Wednesday, September 14, 2011
“At first, this August evening in Burlington’s Optimist Park seems like a typical suburban midsummer night’s dream: Two adult slo-pitch teams compete on a diamond, a passel of dog walkers stroll lawns and a few errant balls thwack softly into tennis-court nets.
But in a two-storey cinder-block building at the edge of the park, history is being made…”
by TOM MACKAN August 25 – 31, 2011
Coming right to the point here, this “piece” is by, for, and about men. It’s an original creative work by two men, Trevor Copp and Jeff Fox, for themselves to perform, about themselves. In the way men do, they thrust and parry, playing off each other, testing the testosterone power of each other, looking to establish their roles. Sex, talk of sex, is rife throughout, as are feelings of hurt, joy, betrayal, loyalty, and, brace yourselves, love. A bit of sports comes up, women of course, homophobic slurs and jokes, all the stuff that men feel they must deal with in their quotidian discourse. For its central conflict, there is marriage, often a subject of controversy among men, and in this case, the protagonists are faced with the dilemma of the impending wedding of Trevor, and his anxiety of “the first dance.” Recruited for his experience and expertise in the matter of dancing, friend Jeff provides Trevor the stage on which the story of his way in life through a dance can be told. In the subtext there is another matter, quite seminal to the growth of the story. Let’s leave that for a moment. Suffice to say that this dancing business presents a more universal social dilemma for us to ponder and question.
by Dennis Smith, That’s Entertainment Aug 24, 2011 – 1:03 PM
First Dance is a fabulous free-for-all with dance, acting, monologues, visuals and even a little pro-wrestling hype.
Comedy and drama were deftly mixed during the opening, last Thursday (Aug. 18), of this Tottering Biped Theatre show.
Trevor Copp plays a man worried about an unknown ritual, the first dance at his gay wedding. He enlists his friend and professional ballroom dance partner (played by Jeff Fox) to help create something. Together, they explore the mysteries of rumba, foxtrot and other dances.
Surprise yields to appreciation when the two men dance together. They move with considerable style, grace, strength and precision. Alone and together, they practise their steps and reflect on the trials of being gay.
by Robin Pittis
June 30 – July 6, 2011
Good theatre, a teacher of mine once told me, is dangerous, and David Harrower’s play Blackbird, currently in production at Burlington’s Tottering Biped theatre, is exactly that.
The play rests on a confrontation between Ray and Una, a man and woman who had an affair 15 years previous. He was 40. She was 12. He has been in prison. And changed his name, too, unsurprisingly.
He was careless enough to be photographed for a trade journal, celebrating the work he’s done at his new job, where his past is unknown, and now Una has tracked him down. She doesn’t seem to want revenge exactly, but the meeting is explosively dangerous, and that makes for great theatre...
