January 8, 2015
Montreal GazetteJanuary 8, 2015
By Pat Donnelly
Read The Gazette's TOP 10 THEATRE OF 2014 LIST
Somewhere amid the pre-Christmas rush, the allotted time for compiling my annual Top 10 list of 2014 dissolved into the ether, reduced to a quick High and Low point of the fall season. (The high being Centaur Theatre’s Venus in Fur.)
Looking back over an entire year requires serious reflection. And then there’s the matter of sorting out genres.
This is my belated attempt at sorting out and lauding the best of 2014. Before I managed to come up with the final Top 10, I broke the list down into Top 5 choices for each of six categories.
As Gazette theatre critic, I cover musicals, circuses and other forms of live performance art as well as plays in both languages. This often means comparing apples to oranges. Lines between genres are increasingly blurred.
Also, there are limitations to the value of any one person choosing within the alternative/fringe category, since it’s possible to see only a fraction of the more than 100 shows during the Montreal Fringe Festival. And other low-budget shows pop up and disappear quickly at many venues during the year.
The Broadway juggernaut The Lion King posed another problem as it came back in August for a second visit. As a rerun, it was scratched from the list. Like many other decisions made during this process (technically, Infinitheatre belongs in the professional English category, but it’s alternative, too), that one could be argued either way.
Top 5: Local Professional English Theatre
1. Venus in Fur, directed by Jennifer Tarver, at Centaur Theatre
2. The Graduate, directed by Andrew Shaver, at the Segal Centre
3. The Seagull, directed by Peter Hinton, at the Segal Centre
4. 4000 Miles, directed by Roy Surette, at Centaur Theatre
5. Top Girls, directed by Micheline Chevrier, at the Segal Centre
Top Five: Musicals
1. Book of Mormon at Place des Arts
2. Belles Soeurs at Segal Centre
3. Tiger Lillies Hamlet, the Musical at Cinquième Salle
4. Two Pianos, Four Hands at Centaur Theatre
5. Spring Awakening, by Persephone Productions, at Centaur Theatre
Top Five: Musicals
1. Book of Mormon at Place des Arts
2. Belles Soeurs at Segal Centre
3. Tiger Lillies Hamlet, the Musical at Cinquième Salle
4. Two Pianos, Four Hands at Centaur Theatre
5. Spring Awakening, by Persephone Productions, at Centaur Theatre
Top 10: Theatrical Productions of 2014 in Montreal
After mixing all of the wonderful shows together and looking at them from different angles, I finally came up with this final list.
1. Venus in Fur, directed by Jennifer Tarver at Centaur Theatre
2. Mies Julie, directed by Yael Farber at Cinquième Salle of PdA
3. Robert Lepage’s Jeux de cartes: Pique et Coeur, at Tohu
4. Trois, by Mani Soleymanlou at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui
5. Kurios, by Cirque du Soleil
6. Belles Soeurs, at Segal Centre
7. Tiger Lillies Hamlet, at Cinquième Salle
8. Book of Mormon, at Place des Arts
9. The Graduate, at Segal Centre
10. Molly Bloom, at Espace Go
Whew! There it’s done. My fond farewell to 2104. Thank you all for your wonderful shows.