DAVE HORAK - DIRECTOR
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RECENT REVIEWS
Comedy of Errors
"Edmonton director Dave Horak, a fertile (if silly) brew of breathless Keystone comedy chases, and burlesque gags that were a millennium old when the playwright borrowed them from the Greeks – all frizzled with raunchy jokes and bawdy puns that broke up Elizabethan audiences." - Colin MacLean, Gigcity.ca
"Director Horak finds, and uses, nine or so entrances and exits in Jim Guedo’s cinderblock set, and even adds a free-standing locked door which the cast breezily reaches around, as required. Led by an inspired foursome of Antipholus-es and Dromios, the prevailing theatrical impulse is heightened physical comedy, farcical pratfalls and drubbings, high-style gestures, the extravagant B-grade poses, double-takes, and tableaux of an era gone by." - Liz Nicholls, 12thNight.com
Terry and the Dog
" Horak has set the play in the middle of an alley created in the PCL Studio theatre at the ATB Financial Arts Barns, with the audience lined up along two sides of the theatre. The set, designed by Victoria Zimski and Guido Tondino, is simple — worn fence boards make up a multi-level deck upon which the three characters, Terry (Robert Benz), his wife, Diane (Maralyn Ryan) and Ken (Cole Humeny) play out their lives.... Performances by Robert Benz and Cole Humeny are very, very good. Love and suffering unite them, and Horak’s stage configuration means the audience is in tight, tighter than we even want to be. We can hear the ragged sobs, feel the shame. See Terry’s hand as he reaches down, tentatively, to stroke the dog. It’s OK, Buddy, it’s OK. It’s OK." Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal
Love and Information
"Director Dave Horak’s fast-paced take on this recent work by one of Britain’s most renowned contemporary playwrights is a whirlwind featuring 22 student actors playing 100 roles in 57 different scenes. It exudes, at points, the air of a carnival. Even as the audience trickles in at the beginning of the evening, masked performers are singing, painting, offering a tarot card reading, dispensing chocolate." Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal
Comedy of Errors
"Edmonton director Dave Horak, a fertile (if silly) brew of breathless Keystone comedy chases, and burlesque gags that were a millennium old when the playwright borrowed them from the Greeks – all frizzled with raunchy jokes and bawdy puns that broke up Elizabethan audiences." - Colin MacLean, Gigcity.ca
"Director Horak finds, and uses, nine or so entrances and exits in Jim Guedo’s cinderblock set, and even adds a free-standing locked door which the cast breezily reaches around, as required. Led by an inspired foursome of Antipholus-es and Dromios, the prevailing theatrical impulse is heightened physical comedy, farcical pratfalls and drubbings, high-style gestures, the extravagant B-grade poses, double-takes, and tableaux of an era gone by." - Liz Nicholls, 12thNight.com
Terry and the Dog
" Horak has set the play in the middle of an alley created in the PCL Studio theatre at the ATB Financial Arts Barns, with the audience lined up along two sides of the theatre. The set, designed by Victoria Zimski and Guido Tondino, is simple — worn fence boards make up a multi-level deck upon which the three characters, Terry (Robert Benz), his wife, Diane (Maralyn Ryan) and Ken (Cole Humeny) play out their lives.... Performances by Robert Benz and Cole Humeny are very, very good. Love and suffering unite them, and Horak’s stage configuration means the audience is in tight, tighter than we even want to be. We can hear the ragged sobs, feel the shame. See Terry’s hand as he reaches down, tentatively, to stroke the dog. It’s OK, Buddy, it’s OK. It’s OK." Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal
Love and Information
"Director Dave Horak’s fast-paced take on this recent work by one of Britain’s most renowned contemporary playwrights is a whirlwind featuring 22 student actors playing 100 roles in 57 different scenes. It exudes, at points, the air of a carnival. Even as the audience trickles in at the beginning of the evening, masked performers are singing, painting, offering a tarot card reading, dispensing chocolate." Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal