Category Archives: Books & Literature

Falling for Sky Gilbert’s Shakespeare Lied and other bardish books

Posted on August 17, 2025 by barczablog

I want to explain where I’m coming from, as I review the second of three books from Sky Gilbert about William Shakespeare. Shakespeare Lied appeared in 2024, while Shakespeare Beyond Science came out in 2020. My response this time (over … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged 1939, books, Heratio, Leslie Hotson, literature, Mr WH, Paul Streitz, Richard Paul Roe, Shakespeare, Shakespeare Beyond Science, Shakespeare by Hilliard, Shakespeare Lied, Sky Gilbert, The Shakespeare Guide to Italy, theatre, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Heratio premieres at the Guild Festival Theatre

Posted on August 11, 2025 by barczablog

I’ve just seen Genevieve Adam’s Heratio, a new play that picks up from where Hamlet ended. It’s another of the scripts that build on Shakespeare, with much of the fun coming if you know the original, as in Stoppard’s Rosenkrantz … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged 1939, Clowns Reading Shakespeare, Fortinbras, Genevieve Adam, Guild Festival Theatre, Hamlet, Helen Juvonen, Heratio, Horatio, Jack Davidson, Janelle Hanna, Jani Lauzon, Kaitlyn Riordan, Kenzia Dalie, Philippa Domville, Phoenix Fyre, Rashaana Cumberbatch, Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Scarborough, Siobhan Richardson, Tom Stoppard, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment

Asking Ardra Shephard about her Fallosophy

Posted on May 8, 2025 by barczablog

I dashed through Ardra Shephard’s memoir Fallosophy in a day, unable to put it down and laughing out loud regularly, the most entertaining book I have read in a long time. I am such a lucky guy that I get … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Interviews | Tagged Ardra Shephard, CARD, Community Association for Riders with Disabilities, disability, disability studies, Fall-osophy, multiple sclerosis, Tripping on Air | 1 Comment

Ardra Shephard’s surprising Fallosophy

Posted on March 31, 2025 by barczablog

I have just roared through Ardra Shephard’s memoir, a book that I loved from start to finish, wishing it wouldn’t end. I did not expect such a fun book. If I call Ardra a multiple sclerosis activist it could make … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Food, Health and Nutrition | Tagged Ardra Shephard, chronic-illness, disability, Fall-osophy, Fallosophy, life, MS, multiple sclerosis, My Trip through Life with MS, relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, RRMS, Tripping on Air | 8 Comments

Year(s) of Czech Music at the piano

Posted on December 17, 2024 by barczablog

2024 is the year of Czech Music, a celebration that’s held every decade in the year ending in 4. Speaking of ending, this year’s instalment is swiftly coming to a close, a year that saw the Canadian Opera Company present … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Music and musicology, My mother, University life | Tagged Ack Värmeland, Adagietto, Antonin Dvorak, Bedrich Smetana, Bohemia, classical, classical-music, dumka, Edward Johnson Building Library, Franz Liszt, furiant, Gustav Mahler, Harvey Olnick, James Ehnes, Jan Lisiecki, John Holland, Jussi Björling, Ma vlast, music, orchestra, Otto Singer, piano, polka, Robert Keller, skocna, Slavonic Dances, sousedska, The Moldau, Year of Czech Music, Zubin Mehta | Leave a comment

Our Hearts Were Strangely Lukewarm actually warmed my heart

Posted on December 7, 2024 by barczablog

Book titles can be funny. I didn’t really understand what John Elford’s book was doing when I saw the cover. But then again I suppose that’s why we read books, to answer the questions they pose. Sometimes art functions as … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Politics, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged Annie Jacobsen, apes on a treadmill, Christianity, Ennio Morricone, faith, Fat Man and Little Boy, history, Internment camps, J Robert Oppenheimer, john-wesley, Leslie Groves, methodism, Methodist Church, Military Industrial Complex, Nuclear War: A Scenario, Our Hearts Were Strangely Lukewarm, Paul Newman, Racing for the Bomb, Reverend John Elford, Robert S Norris, Roland Joffé, White Supremacy | 1 Comment

Nick Hamm nixes Will Tell ham

Posted on September 13, 2024 by barczablog

My headline is not just a nod to “Sticks Nix Hick Pix”. There truly was no ham to see in the gala World Premiere of William Tell, unless we include the man who wrote and directed, namely Nick Hamm speaking … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Reviews | Tagged Ben Kingsley, Claes Bang, Friedrich Schiller, Gioachino Rossini, Jonathan Pryce, Nick Hamm, Rosmersholm, Steven Price, The Sound of Music, William Tell | Leave a comment

Fresh Rosmersholm at Crow’s Theatre

Posted on September 12, 2024 by barczablog

You sometimes hear people tell you that a play from another century seems to speak directly to our own time. Last night watching Duncan Macmillan’s new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm at Crow’s Theatre directed by Chris Abraham was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged Beau Dixon, Ben Carlson, Chris Abraham, Crow's Theatre, Diego Matamoros, Diego Matamoros) and with the sensitivity of director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, Duncan Macmillan, Guloien Theatre, Henrik Ibsen, Jonathan Young, Kate Hennig, Rosmersholm, Thomas Ryder Payne, Virgilia Griffith | Leave a comment

Opera By Request premiere The Seagull

Posted on June 8, 2024 by barczablog

Friday night June 7th I witnessed the Canadian premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s 1974 opera setting Kenward Elmslie’s libretto adapting Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play The Seagull, presented in concert by Opera by Request at the College St United Church. It can … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Andrew Tees, Anton Chekhov, Avery Krisman, Bill Shookhoff, Jenny Ribeiro, Katie Mills, Meagan Reimer, Michael Robert-Broder, Monica Zerbe, Opera by Request, Steven Henrikson, The Seagull, Tom Pasatieri | 1 Comment

2024 Met Gala – JG Ballard’s Garden of Time tone deaf to the rabble

Posted on May 16, 2024 by barczablog

The 2024 Met Gala fund-raiser used a JG Ballard story for its theme, The Garden of Time. Ballard is one of my favourite writers, especially his short stories and science fiction. Several have made wonderful films. Art and commerce lurk … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Books & Literature, Popular music & culture | Tagged Auguste de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Axël, Claude Debussy, JG Ballard, Maurice Maeterlinck, Richard Wagner, Stéphane Mallarmé, Symbolist, The Garden of Time | Leave a comment