On Saturday, February 3rd at Showplace Performance Centre, let the rhythms of Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin carry you away from the winter weather to the jazzy streets of 1920’s Paris!

French composer Ravel’s imaginative works influenced Gershwin’s own kaleidoscopes of sound during a decade when the boundaries of art and music were being pushed in Europe and North America.

Their time- and place-defining compositions inspired the programming of Paris Bustle & Blues, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s third concert of the 2017/18 season.

The PSO will perform Ravel’s “Ma mère l’oye” (Mother Goose Suite), Bolero, and Pavane, as well as Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”. Award-winning young Canadian pianist Anastasia Rizikov will join the orchestra on stage to play Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.

PSO Music Director & Conductor, Michael Newnham, calls it “rare that two composers, each coming from two completely different cultures and backgrounds, whose music is so often played and so memorable, should have had a personal connection and were able to influence one another” as did Ravel and Gershwin.

“Ravel’s music seems to define what is ‘French’ to our ears, as Gershwin’s defines ‘American’,” Michael says.

Yet they each affected the other’s sound and created music that captured the atmosphere of Paris in the early 20th century.

“When Gershwin went to Paris in 1926, it was with a view to studying with Ravel to learn his ‘secrets’ of lush harmonies and sophisticated orchestrations,” Michael explains.

However, Ravel turned Gershwin down for fear of negatively impacting the American’s unique sound, which Ravel enjoyed.

The result, Michael says, was that “Ravel’s own style at that point took on elements of dance music and the blues, with a more astringent treatment of the orchestra. Gershwin, with his An American in Paris, composed in 1928, brought a fullness of orchestral treatment into his style, while remaining true to his own musical nature.”

Michael calls the composers “two sides of the same coin: On the one hand, the ingenuous talent from the New World, wishing to become more sophisticated. On the other hand, the master craftsman, representative of hundreds of years of French musical culture, becoming rejuvenated by the exciting sound from across the ocean.”

VIDEO: “Bolero” performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker

Paris Bustle & Blues will conjure visions of the beauty and energy of a city and time that likely already spark the imagination of many audience members, at a moment when they may be feeling weary of the winter weather.

“Sometimes we think that certain places and time periods seem to offer something special,” Michael says. “The very idea of Paris summons up so many images for so many of us. We all want to go there, especially when our weather becomes cold and dull.

“The music of Ravel, with its colour and perfect beauty, and Gershwin’s with its combination of energy and tenderness, can take us there, even for just a moment.”

Adding to the concert experience will be 19-year-old Anastasia Rizikov’s performance of “Rhapsody in Blue”, the composition that first earned Gershwin appreciation from Ravel.

Anastasia says she has very personal connection with Rhapsody in Blue.

“As a child, I vividly remember the feeling of excitement that never ceased to take over me when I saw the Disney Fantasia [2000] animated short based on this music, which in my personal opinion, was probably the most vibrant and creative of the Fantasia shorts. Certainly it was my favourite.

“But when I saw [Leonard] Bernstein’s famous 1976 performance with the New York Philharmonic, where he acted as both soloist and conductor, at the age of 12 I fell in love with this music and knew I had to play it myself.”

VIDEO: “Rhapsody in Blue” with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic

Anastasia was able to add the solo arrangement of the music to a recital in Binghamton, New York only two weeks later.

“The American audiences were thrilled, and so was I,” she says. “Since then, this piece frequently appeared in my recitals during my early teen years, and I had the pleasure of playing it in every possible arrangement.”

Anastasia gave her first solo recital at the age of five and made her debut with orchestra two years later. She has appeared with major orchestras around the world, including the National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, and City of Granada Orchestra.

The Toronto resident has played in the prestigious Carnegie Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, Koerner Hall, Fazioli Hall, Auditorio Manuel de Falla, Hong Kong City Hall, and the Kremlin. She has worked with such conductors as Neal Gittleman, Peter Oundjian, Shalom Bard, Bernhard Gueller, Alain Trudel, Boris Brott, Ovidiu Balan, and Salvador Brotons.

Single concert tickets for Paris Bustle & Blues are available from the Showplace box office at a cost of $48.50, $38.50, or $20 for adults, and $10 for students. Please visit the box office in-person at 290 George St. N in Peterborough, online at www.showplace.org, or call 705-742-7469.

Ticket holders are invited to attend “Meet the Maestro,” a pre-concert talk by Maestro Newnham, at 6:40 p.m. in the Showplace theatre.

Paris Bustle & Blues is funded in part by a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough (CFGP). The PSO gratefully acknowledges the financial support of CFGP, a public foundation that inspires giving to build a vital community for everyone. For more information, please visit www.cfgp.ca.

ReFrame, Peterborough’s acclaimed documentary film festival, returns for its 14th year from Thursday, January 25th to Sunday, January 28th. This year’s festival will screen 65 documentary films, including 11 by filmmakers from the Peterborough area and three Oscar-nominated films.

The films will be shown at four venues in downtown Peterborough: Galaxy Cinemas (320 Water Street), Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte Street), Showplace Performance Centre (290 George Street North), and The Venue (290 George Street North).

In addition to the films, ReFrame is offering two filmmaker panels on Saturday, January 27th at The Venue: “Directors and Editors: The Magic of Documentary Storytelling” at 11:30 a.m. followed by “Indigenous, Impressive, Intimate: A Panel Discussion on Relationships Revitalized” at 12:30 p.m. There will also be art installations at Evans Contemporary (2 Bankers Common), Market Hall, and Showplace, as well as local food and drink vendors at the film venues.

Social events include “ReFrame Film Fête” on January 25th at 9:30 p.m. at Evans Contemporary (by invitation only), “Meet and Mingle” with live music by Chester Babcock on January 26th at 9:30 p.m. at Showplace Nexicom Studio, “Unscripted: Makers and Shakers” on January 27th at 6 p.m. at The Sapphire Room (137 Hunter Street West), and “Saturday Late Night” featuring live music by Pat Temple & the HiLo Players on January 27th at 9:30 p.m. at Brio Gusto (182 Charlotte Street).

Daytime passes for the festival are $30 for adults or $20 for students or or the un(der)waged, and are valid all weekend long for films before 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for evening feature films must be purchased separately for $10 with a daytime pass, or $15 without. Rush tickets may be purchased at the door, if available, for $10 for daytime films or $15 for evening features.

You can buy passes and tickets in advance online at the Reframe website (link below), or at Showplace during the festival.

For the complete schedule of films and events and to get your tickets, visit reframefilmfestival.ca. You can also pick up a printed schedule at the GreenUP Store (378 Aylmer St., Peterborough) or Happenstance Books and Yarn (44 Queen St., Lakefield).

With 65 films ranging from shorts to feature-length documentaries, there’s a lot to choose from at this year’s festival. Here are eight documentaries, including five with a local connection, we think you should be sure to check out:

California Typewriter – Thursday, January 25th at 7:30 p.m. at Galaxy Cinemas

The festival opens with California Typewriter, a 103-minute ode to the typewriter directed by Doug Nichol that took home the “Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking Directing” award from the 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival.

The film is a documentary portrait of artists, writers, and collectors who remain steadfastly loyal to the typewriter as a tool and muse, and features Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, Sam Shepard, and others.

It delivers a thought-provoking meditation on the changing dynamic between humans and machines, and encourages us to consider our own relationship with technology, old and new, as the digital age’s emphasis on speed and convenience makes us question whether our machines are serving humans or vice versa.

The film also movingly documents the struggles of California Typewriter, one of the last repair shops in America dedicated to keeping the aging machines clicking, as well as Toronto antiquarian typewriter collector Martin Howard, who over 30 years has collected around 80 vintage typewriters built in the 1880s and 1890s — including the Caligraph 2 from 1881, the first typewriter to hit the market with a full keyboard.

Howard, whose antique typewriter collection is said to be the largest in Canada, will attend the screening.

As a tribute to the film, the festival is hosting a community art project called “ReFrame Types”. Manual typewriters will be available all ReFrame venues during the festival, where attendees can type their thoughts about the films, the festival, and what technology means in their life.

The typed sheets will be provided to Peterborough mixed-media artist Jeffrey Macklin, who will be at Market Hall working to create an “art-i-fact” from these messages (and maybe even parts of typewriters) — attendees can contribute to his work, and watch as his creation grows.

VIDEO: “California Typewriter” Trailer

ShapeMaker: The Sculptor Don Frost – Friday, January 26th at 3:50 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

Peterborough filmmaker Michael Morritt and Mary L. Holley, who last collaborated on the 10-minute experimental film SHOW in 2016, have co-directed this 22-minute documentary that explores the work and philosophy of Lakefield sculptor Don Frost.

Frost is best known locally for his 1974 ‘Figures Dancing’ sculpture, a 14-foot-tall steel and fiberglass piece work in the courtyard of Peterborough Square in downtown Peterborough, and the 2010 ‘Resurrection Cross’ 24-foot scuplture outside the Catholic school board office on Lansdowne Street West.

In 1983, he created ‘Equinox’, a 50-foot sculpture inside the Michael Starr Building in Oshawa. In addition, his work graces private collections around the world, including four large sculptures purchased by the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Filmed on location over two years, ShapeMaker: The Sculptor Don Frost premiered in September 2016 at the Canada-China International Film Festival in Montreal where it was nominated for Best Cinematography.

VIDEO: “ShapeMaker: The Sculptor Don Frost” Trailer

Fix and Release – Friday, January 26th at 5 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

Directed and produced by Toronto’s Scott Dobson, the 16-minute documentary explores the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, a non-profit charity in Peterborough that operates a hospital for injured wild turtles.

Canada’s only freshwater turtle trauma centre fights to even the odds for survival that freshwater turtles face in a modern world. Most turtle species in Canada are endangered due to loss of habitat and collisions with cars and boats. Dr. Sue Carstairs leads a team of dedicated staff and volunteers as they develop their own groundbreaking approach to reptile medicine.

This visually beautiful film shows turtles in a way that few have seen before, highlighting their amazing ability to recover from catastrophic injury and hinting that these ancient creatures may be more complex than previously thought. Turtles are vital for healthy wetlands and every saved turtle makes a difference.

As Dr. Carstairs says, “We are saving the world one turtle at a time”.

The documentary won Best In Festival at the 2017 Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan, Best Canadian Short at 2017 NorthWestFest in Alberta, and Best Documentary at the 2017 Scienema Film Festival in Australia.

VIDEO: “Fix and Release” Trailer

In From The Cold – Friday, January 26th at 5 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

Peterborough filmmaker Rodney Fuentes created this 15-minute documentary profiling “In From The Cold”, the annual benefit concert for the YES Shelter for Youth and Families.

In From The Cold was launched in 2000 by John Hoffman, Susan Newman, Rob Fortin and Curtis Driedger, a group of accomplished Peterborough roots musicians who came together to establish a traditional Christmas concert that would be unlike any other.

The concert, which sells out Market Hall for two nights every year, not only celebrates the music of the season but is also an important fundraising event for the YES Shelter for Youth and Families. Since 2000, it has raised $126,000 for the shelter. The revenue generated from the concert has become an important source of income to support homeless youth and families in the Peterborough area.

The documentary explores how a group of Peterborough residents found a way to direct their passion while giving back to their community.

VIDEO: “In From The Cold” Teaser

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World – Friday, January 26th at 7:30 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

Directed by Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana, this 102-minute documentary explores the role of Native Americans in popular music history.

The film is named after the 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble” by the late Fred Lincoln “Link” Wray, a Shawnee Native American, which was the first song to use distortion and feedback on the electric guitar. It also introduced and popularized the rock “power chord” — and was one of the very few instrumental singles to be banned from the radio for fear it would incite violence.

Father of the Delta Blues Charley Patton, influential jazz singer Mildred Bailey, metaphysical guitar wizard Jimi Hendrix, and folk heroine Buffy Sainte-Marie are among the many music greats who have Native American heritage and have made their distinctive mark on music history. For the most part, their Indian heritage was unknown.

The documentary explores how the Native American influence is an integral part of music history, despite attempts to ban, censor, and erase Indian culture in the United States. It uses playful re-creations and little-known stories, alongside concert footage, archives. and interviews. The stories of iconic Native musicians are told by some of America’s greatest music legends who knew them, played music with them, and were inspired by them: everyone from Buddy Guy, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett to Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler, and Stevie Van Zandt.

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary at 2017 HotDocs, the Special Jury Award for Masterful Storytelling award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the Best Music Documentary award at the 2017 Boulder International Festival, the Audience Choice Award award at the 2017 Biografilm Festival, Best Documentary at the 2017 Albuquerque Film and Music Festival, and the Audience Award at the 2017 Illuminate Film Festival.

VIDEO: “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World” Trailer

Lovesick – Saturday, January 27th at 4 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

Documentary filmmaker Lauren Bridle has been spending summers at her family’s cottage on Lovesick Lake near Burleigh Falls for the past 18 years. After watching the lake change over the years, with fluctuating water levels, invasive plants, and residential development, Bridle was inspired to create this 27-minute documentary.

Once a prosperous region used by Canada’s First Nations peoples for hunting and fishing, Lovesick Lake is now under threat by proposed vacation properties that will increase the population of one of the smallest lakes on the Trent-Severn Waterway by hundreds.

The film poses questions about the land that we all enjoy: What was here before us? How has the water and landscape changed? What are the effects of development? And, most importantly, at what cost do our beloved cottages come at?

Bridle’s thesis film for her Master of Fine Arts at Ryerson University, Lovesick premiered at the Toronto DocNow Festival in June 2017.

VIDEO: “Lovesick” Teaser

Shut Up And Say Something – Saturday, January 27th at 7:30 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

Produced and directed by Melanie Wood, this 82-minute documentary explores the emotional journey of acclaimed spoken word artist Shane Koyczan as he reunites with the father he never knew.

Koyczan is most famous for the anti-bullying poem “To This Day” which has 22 million views on YouTube. His poignant and powerful poems tackle everything from bullying to body image but, behind his larger-than-life stage persona, is a private and awkward man (“I grew up friendless”).

Koyczan allows us to join him on a deeply personal and momentous journey to finally meet his long-estranged father after 39 years. The result is his most significant and most difficult poem yet: an ode to the parent he never, and yet always, had.

Shut Up And Say Something is a powerful and intimate look at how a master wordsmith mines the scars of his past for truth and acceptance — and the most important poem of his life.

The film won Most Popular Canadian Documentary at the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival.

After the screening, there will be a filmmaker question-and-answer session and panel discussion with special guests and spoken word performers Moe Clark and Charlie Petch.

VIDEO: “Shut Up And Say Something” Trailer

Birthmark – Sunday, January 28th at 2:30 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre

As a child growing up in the Philippines, Peterborough filmmaker Lester Alfonso was often blamed for his family’s misfortunes because of a Filipino superstition that a birthmark on the buttocks is bad luck.

After realizing as an adult that this cultural attitude was still influencing his self image, Alfonso was inspired to embark on a journey of healing through filmmaking. Birthmark makes its world premiere at the ReFrame Film Festival.

The film is a wry, sensitive, and candidly confessional exercise in creative anthropology.

By soliciting other mark-bearers to add their testimonies to his own, Alfonso documents his journey to find peace and forgiveness and to quiet the voice in his head.

“It’s not only about the marks we are born with, but the marks we imagine for ourselves.”

VIDEO: “Birthmark” Trailer

nightlifeNOW – January 18 to January 24. Live music listings at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas for the week of Thursday, January 18 to Wednesday, January 24.

nightlifeNOW – January 18 to January 24
Live music listings at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas for the week of Thursday, January 18 to Wednesday, January 24

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, January 18 to Wednesday, January 24.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

On Thursday January 18th, The Theatre on King (TTOK) starts their year off in a big way with Ryan Kerr’s production of French playwright Jean Genet’s The Maids.

Part psychodrama and part thriller, the play features the talents of Lindsay Unterlander, Kate Story and Sheila Charleton in a challenging show that is intelligent, suspenseful, and highly erotic. In a theatre known for presentation of bold drama, The Maids could be one of the most provocative plays presented at TTOK to date.

Originally presented as Les Bonnes in 1947 at The Theatre de l’Athenee in Paris, The Maids is loosely based on the real-life 1933 Papin murder case that shocked France and became a popular subject and symbol of class struggle for numerous French artists and philosophers, including Genet and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Christine and Léa Papin were sisters hired in 1926 as live-in maids by retired solicitor Rene Lancien. Known to be quiet women who caused little trouble and kept to themselves, the pair became infamous when they brutally murdered Lancien’s wife and adult daughter in a violent assault on February 2, 1933. Offering no explanation for the attack, the sisters were tried and imprisoned, but not without gaining public notoriety for their high-profile crime.

The real-life case in an interesting one filled with incest, lesbianism, manipulation, and insanity, all of which are covered (or hinted at) in The Maids.

By researching this fascinating piece of criminal history prior to seeing the play, I felt it only helped intensified the drama on the TTOK stage. Although the character’s names and events have been changed, The Maids plays out as if Genet is trying to make sense out of the Papin sisters’ motives, by giving them life beyond the sensationalized headlines and contemplating who they were and what their life was like to lead them to murder.

I highly recommend that audience members taking in the play at least read the Wikipedia entry on the Papin sisters. Trust me: once you read that and then see this play, you’ll want to learn even more about the real-life sisters who inspired this drama.

Genet’s The Maids is a character study of sisters Solange (Kate Story) and Claire (Lindsay Unterlander) who, while their mistress (Sheila Charleton) is away from the great house, delight themselves by wearing her dresses and smothering themselves in her jewels as they indulge in a hyper-sexualized role-playing game of mistress and servant, all ending with the fantasy of murdering their mistress. However, as one sister’s resentment about the balance of power between the two sisters and the actual mistress intensifies, the boundaries between fantasy and reality begins to blur — with deadly results.

Already a fascinating script due to its background story and the strength of its writing, TTOK’s production of The Maids is also brilliantly executed by three of Peterborough’s top actresses. Together, they are a fearless trio who weave together one of the most unapologetically tantalizing productions I have ever seen.

Although it is an uninterrupted one-act play, The Maids is separated into four different scenes without a pause. The first is the initial role-playing scene, the second is a scene between the sisters set in reality, the third is a scene between the sisters and their mistress, and the fourth is the second and final role-playing scene. Each of these scenes examines the nature of the power struggles between the different characters, with each relationship constantly being turned on its head.

Kate Story as Solange plays the older of the two sisters. She is the angrier and more dominant of the pair and seems to be teetering on the edge of insanity. Despite her dominance, she shows painful submission to both her sister and her mistress, which can be analyzed as the cause of her fractured emotional state. Constantly resentful of her role in the mistress’s home, and within society itself, Solange becomes a personification of pain and resentment.

A complicated character, Solange is portrayed masterfully by Kate, who gives this character many dimensions. Kate’s brightest moments are in the fourth part of the show, where she delivers a five-minute monologue of insanity that becomes more and more terrifying as she continues. Equally fierce and fragile, Kate creates a character who lies somewhere between villain and victim.

Meanwhile, Lindsay Unterlander creates an equally complex character as the younger of the two sisters, Claire. Fierce and abusive in her role playing as the mistress, in reality Claire is the meeker and more sensitive of the two sisters. However, there seems to be more contradictions within Claire than Solange, making the audience question her true feelings and motives.

Does Claire really hate her mistress? What is her relationship with the milk man that her sister keeps talking about? Is it possible that, despite her gentle persona, Claire could be more murderous than her explosive sister? Throughout the show Lindsay puts on the different faces of Claire, as if she is creating a single character with split personalities.

Although her role in the show isn’t nearly as large as that of the sisters, Sheila Charleton creates an interesting character as “The Madam” and adds a third element of complexity to the show. It isn’t completely clear what her true feelings towards the sisters are: at times she seems quite maternal towards them, but always with a tone of smug condescension. She is always aware of the class difference between herself and the sisters and, while she seems genuine in her interactions, she also seems to dismiss the sisters as if they were personal pets or objects to be owned.

While The Madam is on the stage, the sisters who stand so ferociously before the audience without her suddenly shrink in submission. It is difficult to watch the callous way the sisters are manipulated into being less than human by their employer. Sheila creates a woman who is her own kind of evil, although she possibly doesn’t even realize it. The result is a third complex character who is also interesting to watch.

One of the most intriguing things about The Maids is the different combinations in which the three characters exercise dominance over one another. There is the way the sisters continue to switch dominance over each other when they are role playing mistress and servant, and then the way they do the same when they return to reality as sisters. Then there is the dominance of the mistress over the two sisters and her individual relationship with each of them.

This constant power struggle, which flips constantly between characters, is the factor of the show that keeps the audience constantly reanalyzing the bizarre relationships between the characters.

What really comes to the forefront of the drama is just how erotic the piece is. Although it never becomes staunchly sexual, the role playing and power dynamics between the sisters — as well as their violent fantasies towards their mistress — border on a kind of kinkiness that’s subtle at times and anything but at others. It really makes the audience begin to question what the sisters’ relationship and feelings towards their mistress are, not to mention each other.

This is an element in the play that no audience member will be able to overlook, but it also becomes the most fascinating part of the performance. It takes a lot of trust between the two actresses to give that kind of performance, and Lindsay and Kate play off each other incredibly well.

The Maids is an intelligent and dark thriller and one of the boldest and most cerebral shows I’ve seen at TTOK in the years that I’ve been doing reviews for kawarthaNOW. I was absolutely captivated by the show and the performances by the three actresses who bring such an interesting drama to life. Ryan and his company have created another memorable show for TTOK, but I can easily say The Maids is one of the most engaging shows I’ve ever seen in this space. If this is the way that TTOK is opening 2018, then its audience has a lot to look forward to.

The Maids runs from January 18th to 20th at The Theatre on King (159 King St., Suite 120, Peterborough). Performances begin at 8 p.m. and tickets are $15 or pay what you can.