{"id":15604,"date":"2018-03-14T09:39:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T16:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=15604"},"modified":"2018-03-16T13:45:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T20:45:53","slug":"mouthpiece-takes-old-and-makes-it-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/03\/14\/mouthpiece-takes-old-and-makes-it-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Mouthpiece<\/em> takes old and makes it new"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s voices reach out across the pitch-black room in a tune that sounds almost mournful. When the lights come up, two women wearing bathing suits sitting in a soaker tub are illuminated on centre stage. The floor, ceiling, and curtains shroud the stage in funerary black, contrasting the virginal white bathtub and swimsuits.<\/p>\n

So begins Quote Unquote Collective\u2019s Mouthpiece<\/em>, part of the Belfry Theatre\u2019s Spark Festival this week.<\/p>\n

In the performance, we follow the journey of the lead character, Cassandra, portrayed uniquely by both director\/writer\/performer Amy Nostbakken and writer\/performer Norah Sadava. The death of Cassandra\u2019s mother, Elaine, triggers a descent into near-madness for Cassandra as she grapples with funeral arrangements and tries to make sense of the societal issues that follow women from womb to grave.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mouthpiece<\/em>‘s sold-out run continues this week at the Belfry (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nostbakken and Sadava give an uninhibited and spirited performance, relying heavily on their bodies to depict the inner turmoil of the lead character through use of synchronized movements, song, and interpretive dance. The bathtub serves as the main prop; the two also make clever use of a microphone and some fog, and there\u2019s some strategic use of spot lighting to highlight the actresses. Some scenes are harder to decipher than others, and there are two scenes that could have concluded sooner than they did.<\/p>\n

The overall emotional tone of the play is one of confusion and anger. No stone is left unturned as women\u2019s issues are explored in a sometimes satirical and often no-holds-barred manner. However, the powerful messages are sometimes overshadowed by the drama of the play itself in scenes that are a bit of an enigma or that overwhelm the senses with a fervent level of activity or noise.<\/p>\n

Mouthpiece<\/em> doesn\u2019t offer anything new to the audience to take away, but it does present information we\u2019re already aware of in a fresh way. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in women\u2019s rights, as it\u2019s sure to reinforce and reignite their passion for the subject matter. (The rest of Mouthpiece<\/em>\u2019s run is sold out, but keep an eye on the Belfry\u2019s social media as tickets may become available.)<\/p>\n

Mouthpiece
\n<\/em>Until Saturday, March 17
\nBelfry Theatre
\nsparkfestival.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s voices reach out across the pitch-black room in a tune that sounds almost mournful. When the lights come up, two women wearing bathing suits sitting in a soaker tub are illuminated on centre stage. The floor, ceiling, and curtains shroud the stage in funerary black, contrasting the virginal white bathtub and swimsuits. So begins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15611,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15604\/revisions\/15611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}