Another Africa, Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God, Volcano/Canadian Stage Co., 2011
Run – don't walk, skip or even scurry – to catch Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God at Canadian Stage.
German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig's devastatingly funny satire
concerns the after-effects of a couple's “wonderful and horrific”
medical mission to Africa – and it's a strong contender for the best
play to have its premiere in Toronto so far this decade...Three cheers for all four gifted comic
actors...Director Liesl Tommy ties all the performances together
tightly and makes ingenious use of a camera hidden in a African doll.- Kelly Nestruck, Globe and MailUnder Leisl Tommy’s direction, which is both pitch- and pace-perfect, the two women give especially fine performances. Kristen Thomson’s Liz moves from a precarious comfort zone to total meltdown; Maev Beaty’s Carol is on crisis alert from the start, but with a top dressing of poise; and both of them can explode, or implode, at an instant’s notice and with frightening conviction - Robert Cushman, National Post
The technique demands perfect precision in timing and movement that is simply amazing to watch. All four actors give outstanding performances...Beaty is an apprehensive woman who already seems on the verge of a breakdown when she first enters...The two plays were must-sees last year. Now in their new, more congenial format, they invite you even more forcefully to shine your eye on the new face of drama in both the developed and developing worlds. Christopher Hoile stage-door.com
All four actors are phenomenal. This is truly an ensemble performance as the cast’s timing needs to be so precise for the piece to work and the timing of the four actors is spot-on. - mooneyontheatre.com
MONTPARNASSE, Groundwater Productions in association with Theatre Passe Muraille, Spring 2011
Beaty
and Shields are both accomplished actresses and have proven that in many
productions…Both give fearless, dazzling performances….Andrea Donaldson’s
direction and staging is fluid and never detracts from the story. It always
enhances it…Every part of this production—the writing, the performances and the
direction-is exquisite….Montparnasse is a play about art,
creation, seeing what is in front of you and not seeing it, about inspiration;
about the power of the muse. It is a wonderfully written, beautifully acted and
directed play that must be seen. Slotkinletter.com,
Lynn Slotkin
The
theme and subject of Montparnasse
is female nudity, and its most obvious attraction, though it has many others,
is that it features two beautiful and talented women — the talent being part of
the beauty — who spend a substantial portion of it with their clothes off….At
its pyrotechnic highpoint, the show cross-cuts between two social
gatherings…The transitions are done at dizzying speed, the two performers in
multiple impersonations daring us to keep up. ..And the play leaves us with a
bittersweet question: If a work of art continues to find an audience, what
actually survives, the subject or the object? …A play celebrates another art
form and in doing so glorifies its own. Robert
Cushman, National Post
Fast-paced and seductive, Montparnasse deals with themes of voyeurism, sexual autonomy, nakedness, identity, ego, cruelty and the “Divine Muse.” Shields and Beaty both give outstanding performances, skillfully portraying several artists of the time, including Henry Miller, Sylvia Beech and James Joyce. The visually stimulating language combined with the 1920s costumes by Jung-Hye Kim and the wonderful lighting design by Andrew Moro bring the sights, smells and sounds of bohemian Paris to life. Shields and Beaty bare it all on stage — their bodies, hearts and souls. This is an extremely brave performance that deserves every inch of the praise it has received. At once funny, moving and titillating, Montparnasse took my breath away. If only every play was as artistically pleasing as this. Theatromania.com, 5 out of 5
Who survives in the end? The artist who creates the painting or the image held tightly by the frame? That’s the central question in Montparnasse, the stunning new work by Erin Shields and Maev Beaty… To say that Shields and Beaty have created a stunning theatrical landscape is not hyperbole. To say their performances here flash with the incendiary heat you associate with productions on a much grander scale is not a lie….Go see it if you love theatre that excites the imagination and dares you to think and feel. Gary Smith Hamilton Spectator
Montparnasse is an effective showcase for
its two versatile performers, full of witty writing and beautiful moments, and
to be commended for its attention to detail, both historical and topical.
Torontoist.com
The concept of examining
exceptional art from the models’ perspectives, instead of the painters’, is
refreshing and intriguing….Both women are exceptional in their roles. Without
doubt, there is a provocative chemistry between the two…It’s a cure for the
blues and an antidote to a spring blizzard. It is also great food for thought
and visually stunning. MooneyonTheatre.com
The play works as well as it does due to the fine acting of
Shields and Beaty and the firm direction of Andrea Donaldson in negotiating the
many changes of mood. Shields suggests fragility beneath Margaret’s cultivated
devil-may-care persona, while Beaty demonstrates her flair for comedy when
Amelia starts out as a hick in the big city and her depth in drama when Amelia
has her first affair. Eye Magazine
Montparnasse,
a play about women, art and creation, features a glamorous setting and an
intriguing theme,…The chief reason for visiting this Montparnasse, however, are
the two actors, who slip into and out of their colourful characters as quickly,
comfortably and confidently as they doff their clothes. - Glenn
Sumi, Now Magazine
Here's
the bare-bones plot of Montparnasse:
Two Canadian women move to Paris in the 1920s and become professional nudes.
The movie rights, I'm sure, will be snapped up any moment now…Montparnasse's chief pleasure comes from
the well-honed stage chemistry between Beaty and Shields, who created their
characters and co-wrote the play with director Andrea Donaldson…Donaldson's
direction doesn't double up on telling the tale, thankfully, instead backing up
the words with contrasting and often metaphorical movement…Is there a
difference between Mags and the cow carcasses Soutine paints? The question is
left floating, and while I thought I knew the answer, now I'm not so sure. Kelly
Nestruck, Globe and Mail
Ash is set in a
sparse world, and the script is equally bare by intention, shorn of imagery and
details. Much of the communication is unspoken, and this fine team of actors...expand the characters’ emotional richness as they reveal, under
director Vikki Anderson’s careful shaping, the relationships in this unusual
but recognizable nuclear family. - Jon Kaplan NOW Magazine
Beaty plays
Beaver like an overlooked middle child, (she acts about eleven years old), who
continually wants to be seen and heard, but harbours her resentment in feeling
undervalued quietly… All five are vivid in their ability to bring integrity,
sincerity and depth to their young characters in performances that never feel
false or forced. - Amanda Campbell, twisitheatreblog.com
The
acting can’t be faulted...but the greatest is Maev Beaty as D, an icy blonde Valkyrie of a film editor who’s
seen it all, and still kept hoping. “I’m not a weaver,” she says of her
profession, “I’m a quilt-maker.”And
from the brilliant, but patchy, dialogue Gall has given her, she creates a
triumphant performance.
Richard
Ouzounian, Toronto Star
Meanwhile,
Beaty -- an actress who seems to grow more comfortable in both her characters'
skins and her own with every performance -- comes close to stealing the show,
despite the prodigious skills of her co-stars, as she taps into heretofore
untapped wells of sensuality and sophistication to maximum effect. This is a
performance that has 'leading lady' writ large on its every turn.
-John Coulbourn
Toronto Sun
Robert Cushman –
National Post
Maev Beaty as D
is particularly outstanding, maintaining expert control of her character. After
her emotional and physical scenes with A and C, her editor’s voice quivers but
never loses its authoritative tenor. Life is a mess and we are quilt makers,
she declares in attempt to convince herself and the audience.
Kerry Freek
mondomagazine.net
The star of this
show, however, is undoubtedly Maev Beaty, as the film’s editor and girlfriend
of Bhaneja’s character. From the moment she bursts on the scene, teaming with
bright intensity, she is immediately fascinating. Her character has profound
depth, she is cold, aloof and protective of herself, but the audience is also
aware of the layers that Beaty has plied her with that exist just below the
surface. She has a line at the end of the play saying that her job as an editor
is to be invisible, that she should not leave her mark on the film, the moment
you realize that someone is there manipulating the way you see the story, the
magic is gone. In many ways, actors too should be invisible; their
performances should be that seamless. Maev Beaty is a perfect example of how
powerful seamlessness is to watch in this production.
-Amanda
Campbell, twisitheatreblog.com
As
one character puts it in Brendan Gall’s Wide Awake Hearts, “Nice people make
dull drama.” Happily, niceness never intrudes in this witty, sexy new work by
the multi-talented Gall...Wide Awake Hearts is as striking to the eye as it is to
the ear. Which is wonderful.
Naomi Skwarna,
Now Magazine
The
action all takes place in the dining room, “the source of every calamity,” as
Ludwig says. The room, hung with portraits of their parents and relatives (on
Jackie Chau’s excellent set, they are naked torsos with partial heads or cutout
faces), is something like the primal scene of European theater, a place for the
characters to act out, watched over by mute, damaged ancestors.
The
sisters are actually actresses, though they don’t work much. The older one (the
excellent Maev Beaty), who has arranged for Ludwig’s return, bustles around
preparing dinner, setting the table, fussing. RACHEL
SALTZ, The New York Times.
Thomas Bernhard may be one of Europe's great postwar writers but his plays are rarely seen in the US. This is a shame. The production of his Ritter, Dene, Voss which opened last night at La Mama has percolated since 2006, and it is a thing of finished beauty.
Bernhard's fluid yet joyfully abrupt language (translated by Peter Jansen and Kenneth Northcott) is the river from which the true, sad, spiritually ugly faces of the repressed Dene (Maev Beaty) and the looser, spiteful Ritter (Shannon Perreault) swim into startling focus. As Ritter indulges her obsession with reading the newspaper, passive-aggressively complaining about Dene's bossiness, Dene expands and dresses the dining room table as if by making it bigger and setting it she can sculpt a loving, or at least functional, family into being...Adam Seelig and his superb cast wear this wonderful work like a surgical glove. Jon Sobel, blogcriticEvery once in a while, you get a reminder of why you're in this business. For me, that was Ritter, Dene, Voss... I would be remiss not mention the superb acting. I haven't been this engrossed by a performance in a while. Seelig did a great job of assembling this group of young Canadian actors. If you don't know them yet, you will soon. The cast (Shannon Perreault, Maev Beaty and Jordan Pettle) did a splendid job of basically digging into the text and just going for it. Simple Acting 101 at its finest! Trish Vignola broadwayworld.com
The dialogue turns and churns as the siblings face off with one another...The push and pull of caring and revulsion amongst the trio rearranges the relationships and the living space,¦ I am glad La MaMa has brought this young company to New York. My hope is that Seelig creates something else that follows in the footsteps of Thomas Bernhard by developing a work personally suited to Perreault, Beaty, and Pettle's particular talents. - Chris Harcum nytheatre.com
This is a terrific self-referential absurdist play, beautifully written and translated and superbly acted. It is downtown theatre at its very best. The three actors all do a superb job in their respective roles and director Adam Seelig deserves considerable credit for this production. Alan J. Miller theasy.com
The group had the guts to do the play, remind us of Bernhard, demonstrate a different kind of Absurdism, and give our sometimes prefabricated theatre ... meaning. Bob Shuman Stagevoice.com
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Theatre by the Bay Summer 2010
Director Brett Christopher sets his production in the Mad Men-ish 1960s, when sexism was a given. He's cast well in the key roles: Maev Beaty and Andy Pogson have a chemistry that allows the sparring couple a means to change their relationship over time..And while neither the production nor its setting fully resolves that last speech of submission, Beaty gives it vibrant life, suggesting the power-sharing she recognizes in their relationship
- Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
THE AFRICA TRILOGY, Volcano, LuminaTO June 2010
GLO, by Christina Anderson
Directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Peggy Pickit see the Face of God, by Roland Schimmelpfennig, directed by Liesl Tommy
The actors, in a superbly rigorous production, are constantly required to switch tone, from polite conviviality to undercover bitterness, until the barriers drop and the moods converge. This is particularly true of the women, with Jane Spidell's Liz is moving inexorably towards hysteria and Maev Beaty's Carol turning brilliantly on a whole march of dimes.
- National Post, Robert Cushman
Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God is written by the accomplished, much-produced German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig and is a fascinating study of a husband and wife who have spent six years in Africa as part of a medical aid team and who have been invited to a welcome-home party by another couple. It's cleverly written (and cleverly directed by Liesl Tommy), with freeze-frame action, video, overlapping, repeating dialogue and punchy, dramatic situations, as the booze begins to flow and secrets spill out. Again the piece has been beautifully cast, with Maev Beaty and Trey Lyford as the returning, much troubled couple. - Robert Crew, Toronto Star
South African director Liesl Tommy gets incredible performances out of her cast, as her production masterfully lurches back and forth between hilarity and dread. - J.Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail
BIRNAM WOOD, Theatre Rusticle March 2010
The six performers in Birnam Wood are truly magical in their ability to evoke so much of the essence of Shakespeare's play without using his words and relying so heavily on their bodies to communicate often subtle and very dense ideas to the audience...Maev Beaty's dryad seems so fragile, it is as though she could snap as easily as a twig, and Beaty is sensitive and tragic as she calls out to the male dryad who sums up her worth in a To Do List of chores as she says repeatedly: "Item 1: Love me." Amanda Campbell twisitheatreblog.com
Maev Beaty, playing "Tree of Dreams - Critters".. has a piercing scene in which she oscillates between pleading for a man's attention and enumerating all the domestic things she has done for him. One of our best younger actresses...here, she's both disciplined and delicate. Robert Cushman, National Post
PARFUMERIE, Soulpepper Theatre Co. December 2009
"Kevin Bundy delivers a suave outline of the establishment's resident cad and Maev Beaty an entertaining one of its aspiring flirt" -- Robert Cushman, National Post
"Those on the action's periphery also contribute to the show's heart, among them Maev Beaty as a blond who wants to bag a wealthy man" -- Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
THE MILL, Now We Are Brody by Matthew MacFadzean, The Huron Bride by Hannah Moscovitch, TheatreFront October 2009
"The productions -- Part I directed by Daryl Cloran, Part II by Christian Barry -- are outright superb: Maev Beaty is a serially intrusive biddy... it's hard to resist her sharpness of line, especially when standing and moving at impossible angles, and her whiplash verbal timing. She and Monteith, with complementary styles and personalities, are extraordinarily present actresses, and having them onstage together is a treat on its own" -- Robert Cushman National Post
The scene ... involves a huge circular saw that - thanks to Gillian Gallow's realistic set, Richard Feren's suggestive sound design and the hilarious twitchings and protestations of the play's villain (played gleefully by Maev Beaty) almost matches something from a horror movie. It's big fun.
-- Jon Kaplan NOW Magazine
Eric Goulem's Alexandre and Maev Beaty's Rebecca both appeared in The Huron Bride as well and both Goulem and Beaty were fantastic in their ability to infuse their respective characters with all the pain and secrets of the past depicted in Huron Bride, which takes place twenty years earlier. Beaty's Rebecca has become a paranoid, stubborn, icy woman who refuses to let her guard down as she had once done with Hazel. Pain, fear and loneliness radiate from Rebecca mercilessly and ensnare her in a trap from whence she cannot escape. -- Amanda Campbell, twisitheatreblog.com
MONTPARNASSE, Co-production Groundwater Productions & SheepNoWool Theatre August 2009
SummerWorks Theatre Festival 2009
"Maev Beaty and Erin Shields have come up with pure gold! The script is as sophisticated as it is compelling, and the brilliant use of nudity gilds the lily. In fact, everything about this show is perfection." -- Paula Citron, Classical 96.3FM
"This is a dynamic duo who make a habit of producing wonderful work. Beaty and Shields capture that Hedonistic world of sex, art, booze and the obsessive need to paint. The writing is very fine. The characters are richly drawn and there is nudity. Lots of it." -- Lynn Slotkin, CBC Radio
"Maev Beaty, not only grabs immediate hold of each character, but nails and holds every one, while in her principal role she's astonishing, suffusing the theatre with her shyness, confidence, happiness and pain. -- Robert Cushman, National Post
"Paris.. is as much a character in the play as Margaret and Amelia, and the city, as well as many of its notables (including James Joyce, Sylvia Beach, and Henry Miller, among others), are brought vividly to life by Beaty and Shields' impressive and textured voices. Indeed, the vocal work was the most impressive to me, but it was only one part in an exceptionally crafted sum. This show embraces the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk fully, with beautiful but simple set design and excellent lighting design that perfectly captured the mood of the piece. This show was the best I saw at the Fest, and I hope it comes back for a longer run in the future." - Matt McGeachy, mondomagazine.net
Director Brett Christopher sets his production in the Mad Men-ish 1960s, when sexism was a given. He's cast well in the key roles: Maev Beaty and Andy Pogson have a chemistry that allows the sparring couple a means to change their relationship over time..And while neither the production nor its setting fully resolves that last speech of submission, Beaty gives it vibrant life, suggesting the power-sharing she recognizes in their relationship- Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
THE AFRICA TRILOGY, Volcano, LuminaTO June 2010
GLO, by Christina Anderson
Directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo
Peggy Pickit see the Face of God, by Roland Schimmelpfennig, directed by Liesl Tommy
- National Post, Robert Cushman
Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God is written by the accomplished, much-produced German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig and is a fascinating study of a husband and wife who have spent six years in Africa as part of a medical aid team and who have been invited to a welcome-home party by another couple. It's cleverly written (and cleverly directed by Liesl Tommy), with freeze-frame action, video, overlapping, repeating dialogue and punchy, dramatic situations, as the booze begins to flow and secrets spill out. Again the piece has been beautifully cast, with Maev Beaty and Trey Lyford as the returning, much troubled couple. - Robert Crew, Toronto Star
South African director Liesl Tommy gets incredible performances out of her cast, as her production masterfully lurches back and forth between hilarity and dread. - J.Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail
BIRNAM WOOD, Theatre Rusticle March 2010
The six performers in Birnam Wood are truly magical in their ability to evoke so much of the essence of Shakespeare's play without using his words and relying so heavily on their bodies to communicate often subtle and very dense ideas to the audience...Maev Beaty's dryad seems so fragile, it is as though she could snap as easily as a twig, and Beaty is sensitive and tragic as she calls out to the male dryad who sums up her worth in a To Do List of chores as she says repeatedly: "Item 1: Love me." Amanda Campbell twisitheatreblog.comMaev Beaty, playing "Tree of Dreams - Critters".. has a piercing scene in which she oscillates between pleading for a man's attention and enumerating all the domestic things she has done for him. One of our best younger actresses...here, she's both disciplined and delicate. Robert Cushman, National Post
PARFUMERIE, Soulpepper Theatre Co. December 2009
"Kevin Bundy delivers a suave outline of the establishment's resident cad and Maev Beaty an entertaining one of its aspiring flirt" -- Robert Cushman, National Post
"Those on the action's periphery also contribute to the show's heart, among them Maev Beaty as a blond who wants to bag a wealthy man" -- Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
THE MILL, Now We Are Brody by Matthew MacFadzean, The Huron Bride by Hannah Moscovitch, TheatreFront October 2009"The productions -- Part I directed by Daryl Cloran, Part II by Christian Barry -- are outright superb: Maev Beaty is a serially intrusive biddy... it's hard to resist her sharpness of line, especially when standing and moving at impossible angles, and her whiplash verbal timing. She and Monteith, with complementary styles and personalities, are extraordinarily present actresses, and having them onstage together is a treat on its own" -- Robert Cushman National Post
The scene ... involves a huge circular saw that - thanks to Gillian Gallow's realistic set, Richard Feren's suggestive sound design and the hilarious twitchings and protestations of the play's villain (played gleefully by Maev Beaty) almost matches something from a horror movie. It's big fun.
-- Jon Kaplan NOW Magazine
Eric Goulem's Alexandre and Maev Beaty's Rebecca both appeared in The Huron Bride as well and both Goulem and Beaty were fantastic in their ability to infuse their respective characters with all the pain and secrets of the past depicted in Huron Bride, which takes place twenty years earlier. Beaty's Rebecca has become a paranoid, stubborn, icy woman who refuses to let her guard down as she had once done with Hazel. Pain, fear and loneliness radiate from Rebecca mercilessly and ensnare her in a trap from whence she cannot escape. -- Amanda Campbell, twisitheatreblog.com
MONTPARNASSE, Co-production Groundwater Productions & SheepNoWool Theatre August 2009
SummerWorks Theatre Festival 2009
"This is a dynamic duo who make a habit of producing wonderful work. Beaty and Shields capture that Hedonistic world of sex, art, booze and the obsessive need to paint. The writing is very fine. The characters are richly drawn and there is nudity. Lots of it." -- Lynn Slotkin, CBC Radio
"Paris.. is as much a character in the play as Margaret and Amelia, and the city, as well as many of its notables (including James Joyce, Sylvia Beach, and Henry Miller, among others), are brought vividly to life by Beaty and Shields' impressive and textured voices. Indeed, the vocal work was the most impressive to me, but it was only one part in an exceptionally crafted sum. This show embraces the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk fully, with beautiful but simple set design and excellent lighting design that perfectly captured the mood of the piece. This show was the best I saw at the Fest, and I hope it comes back for a longer run in the future." - Matt McGeachy, mondomagazine.net
HAVING HOPE AT HOME, Theatre Aquarius, March 2009
"A fine cast at Theatre Aquarius connects beautifully with the play's sometimes soft, sometimes hard edge. Maev Beaty is wonderful as Carolyn, giving the play a strong centre. Her performance is so real she embraces every facet of this young woman. It is a performance to savour for its emotional truth and heartbreaking vulnerability."
- Gary Smith, Hamilton Spectator
"The actors do lovely work. The exquisite Maev Beaty, as Carolyn, has a voice which skips between angelic peal and demonic explosion with every contraction. Portraying the differently-abled is an impressive acting feat - as anyone who saw Toronto Mississippi will testify - but portraying the final trimester of pregnancy and the pangs of labour has to be as demanding of physical commitment. Her performance will have to receive the high praise due to the entire ensemble for the sake of this review".
-- Robin Pittis, TheViewMag
"The actors do lovely work. The exquisite Maev Beaty, as Carolyn, has a voice which skips between angelic peal and demonic explosion with every contraction. Portraying the differently-abled is an impressive acting feat - as anyone who saw Toronto Mississippi will testify - but portraying the final trimester of pregnancy and the pangs of labour has to be as demanding of physical commitment. Her performance will have to receive the high praise due to the entire ensemble for the sake of this review".
-- Robin Pittis, TheViewMag
~~~~~~~~~~
2008 Year End Notices
2008 Year End Notices
"Great individual achievements in 2008"
"Maev Beaty was riveting as a bigoted white-trash soldier, based on Lynndie England, in Judith Thompson's The Palace of the End and later demonstrated her flair for comedy in Theatre Columbus's Dance of the Red Skirts." -- Christopher Hoile, EYE WEEKLY
"Top 10 Productions of 2008"
for The Palace of the End-- NOW MAGAZINE
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, 2008 (HELENA) Canadian Stage
for The Palace of the End-- NOW MAGAZINE
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, 2008 (HELENA) Canadian Stage
"Of the quartet of lovers, Maev Beaty as Helena is the standout, as I gather she was last year as well; she gets her laughs from her neurotic, clear line readings, not just her stage business" -- Robert Cushman, Globe and Mail.
"..three performers have a deeply ingrained habit of revealing their inner states through physical quirks and dancey movements that convey much more than their spoken words. Repeated words and images, particularly being drawn into an unseen sphere of mystery and uncertainty, make the connecting tissue between seemingly unrelated scenes. "Dance of the Red Skirts engages all our sensibilities with humour and grace". Susan Walker, The Toronto Star".. Those involving Celia, who loses her schoolmarmish primness through a dalliance with the nebbishy Roger, are well-observed and very funny... the play, developed through improvisation, still exudes the freshness of that method because Beaty, Gale and Shields still seem caught up in the joy of discovery - EYEWEEKLY Magazine
PALACE OF THE END Judith Thompson, Canadian Stage, January 2008
''All of the performances are convincing and affecting. Beaty gives us a real, three-dimensional bully. We are never going to like her, but we do, perhaps, begin to understand her, and to see her as another victim of the conflict.'' --- Michael Posner, Globe and Mail
''..one superb performance...Thompson is brilliantly successful in getting inside her character's mind, understanding her without excusing her. So is her actress, Maev Beaty, playing here triumphantly against type: She's fleshy, querulous, allowing us to connect the dots that the woman herself is hardly aware exist.'' --Robert Cushman, National Post ''Thompson has written unlikeable characters before, but this GI, played powerfully by Beaty, is especially grotesque. The monologue begins with her Googling her own name - genius. But slowly, subtly, insights into where she comes from accumulate: a former Dairy Queen worker, abused by her fellow (male) soldiers, she suddenly gets cred and laughs when she starts abusing prisoners. It's Thompson's humanity that allows her to show the roots of her characters' inhumanity.''- -- Susan Cole, NOW Magazine (NNNN)
"The first monologue is fascinating because of the Soldier's nonchalant manner in describing the horrific events at Abu Ghraib Beaty gives a great performance as someone whose training and low economic background completely blind her to both the illegality and immorality of her behaviour.'' -- Christopher Hoile EYE WEEKLY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2007 Year End notices:
The best of the current High Park performances is in fact inherited from that third show. This is Maev Beaty's Helena, an earnest beanpole (she carries a yoga-mat around and executes a sun-salute in her first soliloquy), careering like a weather-vane from self-abasing to self-righteous and throwing her heart and soul into both extremes.''
-- Robert Cushman, National Post.
Maev Beaty is a real find as Helena, possessed of a flexible voice, goofy smile and endearing penchant for doing yoga at moments of stress.-- Robert Crew, Toronto Star
Of the young Athenian lovers, Maev Beaty's stressed-out Helena makes the strongest impression. Beaty, a stand-out in many SummerWorks shows and the recent Goblin Market, delivers her lines with a clear, pure voice and faultless comic timing''.-- Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine
GOBLIN MARKET Erin Shields, Maev Beaty (After Rossetti) BELLTOWER THEATRE/GROUNDWATER
So effectively have they and director Allison Cummings marked out the space that you'll swear you see paths and hills once the women have trod the floors a few times. Beaty and Shields bite into their roles with fervour, suggesting everything from a Biblical allegory (Eve in the garden of Eden?) to a sensual vampire tale.''
-- Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine
''Goblin Market is one hour of unadulterated theatrical bliss. Actors Maev Beaty and Erin Shields under choreographer Allison Cummings have brought Christina Rossetti's famous 1859 poem to life by transforming the work into a brilliant dance/theatre/performance-art installation that is as whimsical as it is disturbing. Lizzie's encounter with the goblins is brilliantly done because she must show her ravishment by invisible assailants with only her own body to depict the assault. When she stands with her arms outstretched before Laura, she is Christ on the cross, sacrificing herself for the sins of others. The scene with the parched and eager Laura licking the juices off Lizzie's body is so explicit, it is almost painful to watch. Beaty and Shields are very compelling performers and gorgeous to watch. In their pretty white shifts, designed by Amira Emma Routledge, the women are able to capture the virginal innocence of the sisters. Nonetheless, they also grow in their characters. Shields's softened body slides into decadence, while Beaty's stiffening carriage shows she has a spine of steel. This production is not to be missed.'' -- Paula Citron, Globe and Mail (****)
USSR, Hannah Moscovitch, Hatch
As Elena, Maev Beaty flawlessly conveys the sardonic vulnerability that, to this date at least, is the author's hallmark; I said there was no better acting in Toronto than Monteith's in the first play but I didn't say there was none as good.-- Robert Cushman, National Post
Maev Beaty is wonderful as the distraught heroine in USSR.
-- Paula Citron, Globe and Mail
A look back at some of the best performances of 2007 and the shows they came in: Michelle Monteith and Maev Beaty (The Russian Plays) A revived Hannah Moscovitch play paired with a new one, both inspiring virtuoso acting. - Robert Cushman, National Post
RITTER, DENE, VOSS, Thomas Bernhard, ONE LITTLE GOAT November 2006
''Maev Beaty as Dene is best at this, giving her character just the right amount of stylization. She also had an admirable sense of comic timing.''
-- Christopher Hoile, stage-door.com
''Ritter, Dene, Voss takes place over the course of a single meal: the diners are Thomas and his two sisters (the excellent Shannon Perreault and Maev Beaty), two failed actresses with whom he shares a barely hidden sexual bond. If the show is hard work, it's a burden taken up entirely by the performers: Beaty in particular is especially good... It may sound heavy, but it's more fun than reading Tractatus - better cream puffs, at any rate.'' -- PAUL ISAACS, Eye Weekly
''Ms. Beaty has a resonant voice and acts with a veritable gleam in her eyes. -- Keith Garebian, Stage and Page
''Shannon Perreault and Maev Beaty are wonderful as the sisters.''
--- Paula Citron, Classical 96.3 FM
September 2006
''But the Lab Cab sprinter's prize goes to Maev Beaty, who performed her own solo show Critic, about a food critic's affair with a chef, at 1 pm, and less than a half-hour later appeared in Hannah Moscovitch 's wonderful Mexico City opposite the entertaining Brendan Gall. Totally different characters for Beaty, and equally fine work. Both shows benefited from the talented directorial hand of Alan Dilworth''. --- Jon Kaplan, Stage Scenes NOW MAGAZINE
GARDEN, ANDREA DONALDSON Rhubarb Festival, February 2006
There's a bit of a feel of Christopher Durang to the proceedings, but with more estrogen. Garden offers a strange but fresh look at female sexuality, which is a difficult thing to pull off these days. (Don't worry, this is no Vagina Monologues!) And it doesn't hurt that Maev Beaty gives one of the best (and weirdest - but in a good way) performances I've seen all year.
--- Alison Broverman, National Post. Theatre Eaters: Arts and Life.-
'Garden starts tantalizingly enough; on a dark stage, human whispers and grunts become increasingly louder and more animated. Lights up and Diane, played by Maev Beaty, is getting humped on a chair by Peter, who it turns out in short order is her therapist. ''Fix it, fix me, pleeeaase!'' she cries out in genuine anguish. Tormented by insomnia and unfulfilled on the day of her wedding anniversary, Diane is a woman in pain. Through a tape of zen-like music and at her therapist's behest, she finds her inner garden, a dark, earthy, sensual place where she can finally find some comfort and some sleep. Beaty's performance, ranging from anguish to near primordialism is the strongest and truest on the stage.'' --Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star
2007 Year End notices:
''What follows are lists of the five best productions in each of dance-theatre, theatre and dance:
Goblin Market (Toronto/Equity Showcase), Erin Shields and Maev Beaty, under director Allison Cummings, transformed the repressed sexuality of Christina Rossetti's famous 1859 poem into a palpable and erotic experience.''
-- Paula Citron, Globe and Mail
-- Paula Citron, Globe and Mail
Best emerging female actor 2007, MAEV BEATY
''Beaty's razor-sharp technique, light touch and emotional depth make her a chameleon-like performer with prodigious talent. She sparked a dizzily amorous Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a cautious sister defying sensuality in Goblin Market and her own scripted trio of solo shows about self-involved male and female critics. Why haven't TV and film come calling? The camera would love her.'' --- NOW Magazine, NOVEMBER 1, 2007, Best of Toronto edition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Dream in High Park, CanStage July-Sept 2007
''Beaty's razor-sharp technique, light touch and emotional depth make her a chameleon-like performer with prodigious talent. She sparked a dizzily amorous Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a cautious sister defying sensuality in Goblin Market and her own scripted trio of solo shows about self-involved male and female critics. Why haven't TV and film come calling? The camera would love her.'' --- NOW Magazine, NOVEMBER 1, 2007, Best of Toronto edition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Dream in High Park, CanStage July-Sept 2007
-- Robert Cushman, National Post.
Maev Beaty is a real find as Helena, possessed of a flexible voice, goofy smile and endearing penchant for doing yoga at moments of stress.-- Robert Crew, Toronto Star
Of the young Athenian lovers, Maev Beaty's stressed-out Helena makes the strongest impression. Beaty, a stand-out in many SummerWorks shows and the recent Goblin Market, delivers her lines with a clear, pure voice and faultless comic timing''.-- Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine
GOBLIN MARKET Erin Shields, Maev Beaty (After Rossetti) BELLTOWER THEATRE/GROUNDWATER
So effectively have they and director Allison Cummings marked out the space that you'll swear you see paths and hills once the women have trod the floors a few times. Beaty and Shields bite into their roles with fervour, suggesting everything from a Biblical allegory (Eve in the garden of Eden?) to a sensual vampire tale.''
-- Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine
USSR, Hannah Moscovitch, Hatch
Maev Beaty is wonderful as the distraught heroine in USSR.
-- Paula Citron, Globe and Mail
A look back at some of the best performances of 2007 and the shows they came in: Michelle Monteith and Maev Beaty (The Russian Plays) A revived Hannah Moscovitch play paired with a new one, both inspiring virtuoso acting. - Robert Cushman, National Post RITTER, DENE, VOSS, Thomas Bernhard, ONE LITTLE GOAT November 2006
''Maev Beaty as Dene is best at this, giving her character just the right amount of stylization. She also had an admirable sense of comic timing.''
-- Christopher Hoile, stage-door.com
''Ritter, Dene, Voss takes place over the course of a single meal: the diners are Thomas and his two sisters (the excellent Shannon Perreault and Maev Beaty), two failed actresses with whom he shares a barely hidden sexual bond. If the show is hard work, it's a burden taken up entirely by the performers: Beaty in particular is especially good... It may sound heavy, but it's more fun than reading Tractatus - better cream puffs, at any rate.'' -- PAUL ISAACS, Eye Weekly
''Ms. Beaty has a resonant voice and acts with a veritable gleam in her eyes. -- Keith Garebian, Stage and Page
''Shannon Perreault and Maev Beaty are wonderful as the sisters.''
--- Paula Citron, Classical 96.3 FM
September 2006
''But the Lab Cab sprinter's prize goes to Maev Beaty, who performed her own solo show Critic, about a food critic's affair with a chef, at 1 pm, and less than a half-hour later appeared in Hannah Moscovitch 's wonderful Mexico City opposite the entertaining Brendan Gall. Totally different characters for Beaty, and equally fine work. Both shows benefited from the talented directorial hand of Alan Dilworth''. --- Jon Kaplan, Stage Scenes NOW MAGAZINE
GARDEN, ANDREA DONALDSON Rhubarb Festival, February 2006
There's a bit of a feel of Christopher Durang to the proceedings, but with more estrogen. Garden offers a strange but fresh look at female sexuality, which is a difficult thing to pull off these days. (Don't worry, this is no Vagina Monologues!) And it doesn't hurt that Maev Beaty gives one of the best (and weirdest - but in a good way) performances I've seen all year.
--- Alison Broverman, National Post. Theatre Eaters: Arts and Life.-
'Garden starts tantalizingly enough; on a dark stage, human whispers and grunts become increasingly louder and more animated. Lights up and Diane, played by Maev Beaty, is getting humped on a chair by Peter, who it turns out in short order is her therapist. ''Fix it, fix me, pleeeaase!'' she cries out in genuine anguish. Tormented by insomnia and unfulfilled on the day of her wedding anniversary, Diane is a woman in pain. Through a tape of zen-like music and at her therapist's behest, she finds her inner garden, a dark, earthy, sensual place where she can finally find some comfort and some sleep. Beaty's performance, ranging from anguish to near primordialism is the strongest and truest on the stage.'' --Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Resurgence in Newmarket, July 2006
'Maev Beaty's Helena, pouting with frustration, matches her in furious funniness, ad the prescribed contrast between their statures could hardly by more graphically or wittily exploited: the quarrel scene is as disciplined as it's inventive and behind the gymnastics, each of the actors keeps a steady thought line going.''
--- Robert Cushman, National Post
--- Robert Cushman, National Post
'The pairs of lovers are like adolescents in heat, never near each other without their hormones going off the scale: the somewhat more modest women still throw themselves at the men. The result is a series of broad, funny scenes boisterously played by Maev Beaty, Tim Campbell , Christopher Morris and Irene Poole.'' -- Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine.
Angel's Trumpet, Theatre Junction, Calgary.
''..the actors do a commendable job. As Zelda, Maev Beaty is alternately bright and nervous. She is sharp, irritable, fierce and full of character.''
--- Charles Mandel, The Calgary Herald (Angel's Trumpet)
''Maev Beaty is equally impressive portraying Zelda as a strong-willed, stubborn woman constantly teetering on the edge of reality.''-- Lisa Wilton, The Calgary Sun (Angel's Trumpet)
''..when she finally speaks, it's like a cyclone has hit. She roars, she hisses, she spits - thanks to Beaty's scenery-chewing performance. Her tall, graceful Zelda enters as a kind of pretty flapper cum butterfly: later, her fury unleashed she runs the gamut of derangement, finally, she gets to play Cassandra, quietly forseeing her death. Next to her, Leigh doesn't have much of a chance.''
--- Martin Morrow, Globe and Mail (Angela's Trumpet)
BELLTOWER THEATRE, co-artistic director
''The folks behind last SummerWorks' ma jolie, writer/director Alan Dilworth, performers Maev Beaty and Patrick Robinson, know how to tell ambitious stories with bold theatricality and playfulness.''
-- Now Magazine (Artists to Watch)
"His cast, Maev Beaty and Patrick Robinson as the couple; use movement, text and song with precision under Dilworth's beautifully detailed direction...
...Beaty and Robinson capture the tensions between the husband and wife, showing the fine cracks in their marriage even before the ground disappears.''--- Jon Kaplan, Now Magazine (NNNN, Critics Pick)
''..the actors do a commendable job. As Zelda, Maev Beaty is alternately bright and nervous. She is sharp, irritable, fierce and full of character.''--- Charles Mandel, The Calgary Herald (Angel's Trumpet)
''Maev Beaty is equally impressive portraying Zelda as a strong-willed, stubborn woman constantly teetering on the edge of reality.''-- Lisa Wilton, The Calgary Sun (Angel's Trumpet)
''..when she finally speaks, it's like a cyclone has hit. She roars, she hisses, she spits - thanks to Beaty's scenery-chewing performance. Her tall, graceful Zelda enters as a kind of pretty flapper cum butterfly: later, her fury unleashed she runs the gamut of derangement, finally, she gets to play Cassandra, quietly forseeing her death. Next to her, Leigh doesn't have much of a chance.''
--- Martin Morrow, Globe and Mail (Angela's Trumpet)
BELLTOWER THEATRE, co-artistic director
''The folks behind last SummerWorks' ma jolie, writer/director Alan Dilworth, performers Maev Beaty and Patrick Robinson, know how to tell ambitious stories with bold theatricality and playfulness.''-- Now Magazine (Artists to Watch)
"His cast, Maev Beaty and Patrick Robinson as the couple; use movement, text and song with precision under Dilworth's beautifully detailed direction......Beaty and Robinson capture the tensions between the husband and wife, showing the fine cracks in their marriage even before the ground disappears.''--- Jon Kaplan, Now Magazine (NNNN, Critics Pick)
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