SELECTED PRESS QUOTES
7 IMPORTANT THINGS:
“This simple little act was shocking, not because George looked ugly or interesting, but simply because he did it. Because, for the first time, he looks at us. What did we see? It must be for each person to answer for themselves, or not to answer. It is the kind of action that makes art, art. It was a revolutionary act that touched half of the audience to tears. The rest waited until they got home. And some are still crying, just thinking about it. Common to all revolutionary acts is: courage. That George turned to look at the audience in full confidence that it would work, that it would not be embarrassing, or sentimental, is an expression of such courage, the kind that is needed to create art.” Chris Erichsen, Scenekunst, March 2011
“…a remarkably simple and poignant performance. Nadia Ross interviews George in short sequences with different headlines, seemingly improvised. There are images of a life and of an era, from the 1960s till now. It is a time that has always been aware of itself, a time in which the people of the western world have been occupied by their life choices. We follow George’s journey, an image of being an outsider and to some extent it also shows the society he opted out of.
The Wednesday night show was full of captivated high school students following the story. They see it with their eyes and I, the same age as George, see it with my own. It’s like looking through a telescope from both ends.
For those whose future stretches out in the darkness, it is an idea of how it looks at the other end.” Ingergard Waaranpera, Kultur Pastan March 11, 2011
“7 Important Things achieves organic propulsion through a range of theatrical modes. It swivels with casual elegance between narration, enactment and improvised discussion….If you’re thoroughly alternative you’ll love this show.” Cameron Woodhead, The Age, Melbourne, Australia October 18, 2008
“A well-written show that Acheson and his co-creator Nadia Ross perform with intelligence and humor” Alison Croggon, The Australian, Melbourne, Autralia October 20, 2008
“By far the best Canadian performance which I saw was ” 7 Important Things” by Nadia Ross, who is more famous now in Europe than in her homeland (” Who? Diana Ross? ” , asks a Montreal Theatre professor, proving the old adage that you can not be a prophet in your own country). The latest production by STO Union from Ottawa, which performed in Berlin in the spring, is a fine theatre jewel, no more and no less than a biography put to stage. George Acheson, rebel, hippy, anti-Viet Nam activist, has lived through all the stops between Flower Power and the underground; as he stands onstage with Nadia Ross, he is the epitome of a wonderfully old-fashioned, principled man, ever so faithful to the generation from 1968. With interviews, self-reflections and happenings the two Davids show that they are always more intelligent, more humorous and more talented than all Goliaths of this world. The story is presented without self-righteousness or pretentiousness, covering the life of a man whose father kicked him out of the house because he refused, at the age of 16, to have his hair cut. Now, reaching 60, he earns his living as a barber. Ross presents this with intelligence and irony, using simple means and strict form, and from that, this ‘portrait of the artist as a young man’ tells us more about the glory and the misery of this seemingly distant period of protest than any books or statistics ever could. George, who never became a pop star nor a famous author, and this is perhaps why he has remained so authentic, lists his 7 most important things as: Friendship, music, discussion, boots, humour, courage and modesty. ” Renate Klett, Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany June 26, 2008
“An infinitely generous and disarming production which more than illuminates Vienna’s regular theatre season”. Margarete Affenzeller, Der Standard Vienna Austria. February 4, 2008
“7 Important Things is a wondrous evocation of the 1960s, very simply done….beguiling and thought-provoking. That he (Acheson) is not a trained actor is obvious. He’s a bred-in-the-bone performer, however, and when he sings, briefly, his voice is achingly beautiful. “ Catherine Lawson, The Ottawa Citizen May 2007
“What makes Acheson’s life remarkable is his “bring it on” attitude despite having seen both hope and failure. By volunteering his life story for this performance, he makes it clear that his passion for counterculture has not died with the failure of the various movements; there’s still a genuine yearning for success even where those fights for utopia have failed. And for those tackling climate change, preventing globalization or protesting the war on terror, his experience acts as an eerie prophecy of what may happen concerning our present idealistic fervour.” Kat Fournier, Ottawa Xpress May 2007
“Acheson was transformed into a liberated body that echoed the free spirit of the theatre in the 1960s and 70s”. Alvina Ruprecht, CBC Radio May 2007
REVOLUTIONS IN THERAPY SELECTED PRESS QUOTES:
Headline: “Set a boundary and they will break it” Los Angeles Times Preview, Los Angeles California 2006
“Happiness. Despair. Belief. Hope. Money. Connection. Transcendence. These are common themes in the theatre but rarely are they addressed as directly as they are by STO Union” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles California 2006
“A smart, self-aware parody of therapy and theatrical conventions that…also ruminated with droll irony on the point of just about everything, given the rampant brutality and precariousness of existence.” L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles California 2006
“The performance is impeccable…the actress performing as patient does it so well that even an experienced audience member begins to believe that everything is real .” NRC – Handelsblad Rotterdam, Netherlands 2006
“It’s an angst-riddled piece of theatre performed with ultracasual confidence; an hour of doubt presented with certainty. It’s contradictory. It’s maddening. It’s bloody good.” GLOBE AND MAIL Toronto June 2005
“You want real? In her projection of pain and fear Ross…is as real as real can be; which means of course that she is acting, very well indeed.” NATIONAL POST, TorontoJ une 2005
“Perhaps Canada’s leading experimental theatre company….for those who are able to go with the flow and to remain open to the non-traditional, the results are rewarding.” TORONTO STAR, Toronto June 2005
“STO Union’s Revolution in Therapy is a small jewel: a thoughtful, sad, amusingly inter-woven creation. They transform their way of being in the world with words, the expression in their eyes, long pauses, into a wondrous poetry of the body and thought. Nothing is spectacular, everything is simple: honest, open, presented with dry humor and great concentration…Ross and Wren are more famous in Europe than in Canada, which has trouble with experimental theatre forms in principle. You can bet that a lot of European producers will be taking them on.”” THEATER HEUTE, Germany November 2004
“Torontonians Jacob Wren and Nadia Ross break the wall between actors and spectators like very few artists know how….more accessible than a course in transcendental meditation or a session with a shrink, and certainly as effective”. LA PRESSE, Montreal 2004
“For those who love a theatre that questions, you could not find better than Revolutions in Therapy.” LE DEVOIR, Montreal 2004
RECENT EXPERIENCES SELECTED PRESS QUOTES:
“With RECENT EXPERIENCES it’s above all magnificent, funny and moving. At the end of the show, we force ourselves to applaud. Because what we really want to do is to leave the room quietly, warmly embracing each of the actors, like we sometimes do with certain people we have been close to but have not seen in a long while, but who, nonetheless, will never leave our hearts.” LE SOIR, Belgium, 2001
“Ross and Wren are masters of nuance and theatrical ease: in the game of life there are winners and losers – a fact which these guests from Canada meet with humor and wisdom. Beautiful.” VIENNA KURIER, Austria, 2002
“So simple it could hardly be more complex.” STUTTGARTER ZEITUNG, Germany, 2002
“Playing with ideas of narrative and destiny, Ross and Wren have created a fascinating pageant of human hope and misery that resonates long after we get up and leave the table.” NOW MAGAZINE, Toronto, 2000
“Life is not simple, but theater is beautiful. …This time, in any case, it is”. BONNER RUNDSCHAU, Germany 24.06.02
“Failed relations, violence, racial hatred, isolation, mourning. At the end the realization comes that life is rather simple – if one can take it as it comes. Recent Experiences is a European Premiere and a beautiful example of how theater can be intense without excess.” WIENER ZEITUNG, Austria, 17.06.02
“Low key, quietly intense performances and the intimacy of the actors’ presence, the refusal to fill in the narrational gaps, and the way north American performers hymn their delivery all make for a poetic evocation of a century at once terribly familiar and utterly strange:” REAL TIME ARTS. Australia, 2002