Reviews for Scratch

The average rating for Scratch based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-04-26 00:00:00 Diane Costa Nine Thoughts on Never Swim Alone 9. Experimental theatre excites the hell out of me, but it scares the shit out of most audiences. This thought makes me wonder if Never Swim Alone could even gain a contemporary audience that wasn't at a Fringe festival. I doubt it. 8. We are all so damaged. 7. Canada is a much darker place than those of you who see us as a kind and gentle land can know. All that is sinister in Scandinavian Literature comprises our everyday hidden layers. We are as they. 6. We talk about white male privilege, but don't dig into what that entails beyond the "privileges." We need to be thinking more deeply about this, talking more deeply about this, following it to all its drafty and rotting crawlspaces and attics. 5. Swimming as murder metaphor? Swimming as rape metaphor? Swimming as rape-murder metaphor? Not in 1988 when Daniel MacIvor wrote Never Swim Alone, but now, forty-two years later, the experience of reading the play means those unintended metaphors create expectations the literal action of the play cannot meet. What does that say about who we've become and what today's expectations are? 4. The homoerotic triangle is at work in this play, and Frank & Bill and their guns ... well, that metaphor may have been intended in 1988. 3. Like father like son. Too right. 2. We often think of men as children; the infantile structure of our Western Economic and Political systems (and the deep erosion of our Social systems) make men so, and increasingly women (as they engage more equally in a system that no one should aspire to be part of). 1. How are we still a species on this planet? How?

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-01 00:00:00 Victoria Halphide I saw a student production of Never Swim Alone at the Sears Drama Festival when I was in grade 11. This one-act play changed my perception of the theatre, and challenged my preconceived notions of what a play "should" be. The unconventional style of Daniel MacIvor introduced me to the realm of postmodernism. In my first year of university, I checked out a copy at the library in order to prepare for an audition for a local production of the play. Although I wasn't cast in Never Swim Alone, I received a role in another show that was a part of the same festival. The three actors cast in Never Swim Alone were perfect for their respective roles, and watching them onstage was a learning experience in itself. You should read this play - but, you should really see a live staging as well, if you can. To read the unusual syncopated words of the characters is one thing, but to see a well rehearsed rendition of the play is quite the theatrical experience. One of the best contemporary Canadian plays i've had the pleasure of reading.