國際娛樂新聞

Annie Gray

Critic

Almonte and District High School

An unusual bet, a basket of flowers, and a strong-willed girl are all parts of Pygmalion, performed by students at Redeemer Christian High School.

George Bernard Shaw’s classic is a critique of Britain’s class system. Written in 1912 and premiered in 1913 at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna, Pygmalion tells of young Eliza Doolittle, a working-class Cockney who is mentored by two high-class men, Henry Higgins and Col. Pickering, in the ways and means of upper-crust society. Her integrity and her daring clash with the men’s traditional values and beliefs, resulting in a powerful commentary.

The students of Redeemer Christian High School used a memorable and authentic-looking setting to strengthen their performance and they skillfully portrayed the little quirks and qualms of British society. Strong performances by the cast captured the serious undertones of Shaw’s work and incorporated the humour of the play.

Arianna Randjbar

Critic

Canterbury High School

It’s 1942, and the Second World War holds the globe firmly in its grip. Men are on the front, women are up to their elbows in factory work and the rich and famous are schmoozing, boozing and funneling their thousands into the war effort from a safe distance. Many of the world’s most affluent individuals have arrived in Florida to attend the illustrious Palm Beach Royale Hotel’s benefit, where rival starlets, Claudia McFadden and Athena Sinclair, have miraculously agreed to perform. Unfortunately, there’s a catch; the two women refuse to be anywhere near each other, and when they are booked into the same suite, it’s a struggle to keep the clashing divas apart. Fortunately, even with war on their doorstep, St. Patrick’s High School entertained with an energetic performance of the farce, aptly entitled Suite Surrender.

The show, written by Michael McKeever, has appeared on stages from South Florida to Germany. Underneath layers of larger-than-life comedy, Suite Surrender reflects a trying reality of the human condition; the selfish needs of individuals take precedence even with a global catastrophe at hand. This is the case for all at the Palm Beach Royale: everyone from Athena Sinclair to star struck bellhop, Otis, has their own agenda. And everyone is willing to risk the success of the benefit in order to satisfy their own desires.

Stella Bashizi embodied the revenge-bent Claudia McFadden with determination, taking to the stage with a strong voice and forceful presence. Olivia Kennedy took on the role of her rival, Athena Sinclair, and delivered well-timed lines with charm. Together, the warring divas brought both verve and tension to the stage.

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine - Sustained gunfire was heard throughout the night near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, the stronghold of pro-Russia fighters, ahead of a second round of European-brokered talks on Saturday aimed at resolving the crisis.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning what it described as a sharp escalation in the violence in eastern Ukraine, accusing the Ukrainian government of using the talks as cover for military operations against its citizens.

The fighting began when forces loyal to the Kyiv government moved in to protect a television tower near the small village of Andriyivka. Residents said it went on through the night.

Debris from the shooting was visible Saturday morning, including a badly damaged train and craters caused by mortar bombs or other heavy artillery.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said some people were wounded, but gave no specifics.

Government forces in recent weeks have achieved only limited results in quashing the pro-Russia groups that have declared independence for Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Polls have shown, however, that a majority of eastern Ukrainians support a united country, although most are too fearful of the armed separatists to say so publicly.

During a recorded March 2010 conversation about Islam, played at the second day of an Ottawa terrorist trial, two alleged co-conspirators are heard sharing opinions about the tactics of the Canadian security services and the dangers of using computers.

“Brother, all of our brothers have been visited,” says the accused Misbahuddin Ahmed . . . “multiple times some of them.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” says his alleged co-conspirator. “Their purpose is to scare you . . . They can put fear in your heart and then sit back.”

Ahmed responds: “But you know how stupid CSIS is, though? They have nothing. Not even legally, they don’t have anything; unless you have something specific, then they transfer the file to RCMP. RCMP is like rough. One of the brothers told me they really are.

“They’re like little dogs that run around, look to see if they can find any water holes to lick from.”

“They do things with a recorder ,” adds the alleged co-conspirator, who also cautions that the RCMP monitor website use, and that he doesn’t trust his computer: “I don’t trust this, I don’t trust it at all.”

Tim Hudak’s plan for Ontario is bold but it is not clear.

You find this out if you try to make sense of the numbers of jobs he says he’d cut and the ones he says his policies would create.

Hudak says, in his I’m-a-reasonable-man voice, that he’d cut 100,000 jobs from a public payroll of a million.

To arrive at that tally, though, the Tories have to include nearly 275,000 people who work for local governments across the province. There’s no other way to make the numbers add up. The province’s direct employees and the “broader public sector” of school boards, universities, hospitals and Crown corporations only add up to about 775,000.

If the Tories are going after cities and towns, that opens whole new vistas of potential service chops and — perhaps more politically importantly — drags influential local politicians into the election. Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion signed on with the Liberals the other day over transit funding, for instance.

Bulking up the numbers of current bureaucrats makes political sense: the bigger the public sector Hudak wants to cut from, the more warranted and less painful the cuts sound. The obvious conclusion is that the 275,000 local-government employees are on the cuts list, too.