STO Union is no longer able to archive press clippings and reviews on this page. From legitimate blogs to traditional reviewers, there are simply too many sources and types of reviews available these days for us to keep track of. We don’t have the resources to dig them all up; we also aren’t in the business of deciding which ones are to be taken seriously and which ones are not. If you have written a review and would like to send it to us, or if you’ve read a review and want to forward it, please do! (info@stounion.com). We do offer a selection of photocopies from newspaper clippings with our press and presenter packages available through our touring agent. The below selection of a few of our press quotes collected prior to our decision to stop archiving reviews will remain on this site for the time being.
7 IMPORTANT THINGS:
“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, Toronto June 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, 2002Playing 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