Entertainment

Ira Hunter is all about finding niches. When he saw that the west coast didn’t have a magazine covering punk, hardcore and metal music, he got to work on Absolute Underground Magazine, which is now distributed all over Canada and in parts of the U.S..

In talking to actor Jenny Young days before The Cryptogram opened, she said director Daniel MacIvor described the work as “a play that you feel.” Judging by the reaction from the audience opening night — there were plenty of gasps and observations in the crowd — it’s safe to say people were indeed getting emotionally involved in David Mamet’s brief play about loneliness, restraints of 1950s society, the disintegration of a family and a child’s loss of innocence.

Michael McClure hasn’t seen Howl. To be clear, he’s seen Allen Ginsberg read the famed work — he was one of the poets on the bill for the inaugural performance at Six Galleries in October, 1955 — but when it comes to the James-Franco-starring Ginsberg biopic of the same name, he says he’s not rushing.

On Friday, Dance Days descend on Victoria for the second year in a row. The 10-day festival, which kicks off with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens doing two performances at the Royal Theatre Friday and Saturday nights, offers a host of opportunities for folks to try out a new dance style, sit in on an open rehearsal or even do yoga in the new Atrium building.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a cryptogram as “a communication in cipher or code.” For actor Jenny Young, it’s an apt way to describe the David Mamet play of the same name that she’s been rehearsing.

When a theatre company takes on a challenging, lauded play like The Laramie Project — particularly a volunteer-based community outfit like Langham Court — it can be a risky endeavour. And not just because of the show’s content, which deals with the brutal beating and murder of a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming; there is also a concern that a smaller company with budgetary limitations may not have the resources to do the script justice.