Entertainment

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.

Nicola Gunn hopes people will leave their expectations at the door. The Australian theatre artist has been lauded for her Fringe performances over the past decade, but nearly four years after her last Victoria appearance — 2007’s The Lost Property Office — Gunn is returning with a show quite unlike any other she’s performed before. At the Sans Hotel is a darker and more personal story.