"'Helen Lawrence,' a theater-meets-cinema multimedia production, part of BAM's Next Wave Festival, is not to be missed. The clever, ambitious effort, the brainchild of Canadian Stage, is hypnotic to watch...The storytelling is sharp, but it's the double-vision trick that ups the artistic ante."
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"An entertaining, multi-media presentation hampered by a thin script...During the first five minutes, you tend to be overwhelmed by the show's live action onstage enhanced by its larger-than-life, black-and-white close-up projection on a scrim in front of the actors. But the technical ingenuity shortly wears off, and you're left with a complex plot, heavy on exposition and light on action and tension...The complex script does not have the rising action necessary to create the tension setting up the play's murder. And the 90-minute play ends abruptly, without an adequate denouement."
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"What really has lifted 'Helen Lawrence' up since its Vancouver premiere is that its dozen actors have developed into a real ensemble. Before, several were giving stagy performances, while others kept it small and filmic, but now they’re all on the same wavelength...Haddock’s plot can be complicated – and Douglas’s virtual world takes time to wrap your brain around. They ask a lot on the part of an audience – but it’s more than ever worth the effort to enter into the lucid dream of 'Helen Lawrence.'"
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"The scenes that work best allow us to see both mediums at work, rather than one in service of the other...For 'Helen Lawrence' to rise above the level of the truly impressive novelty, the staging needs more of these moments where the theatrical and filmic elements are in dialogue. At that point, you’ll have a piece of live art sure to completely knock the socks off the performance world."
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"It’s been set up as a film noir but the several subplots keep us wondering what connection, if any, they have to the main plot since none of them move it forward. 'Helen Lawrence' as a story is unsatisfying not just because it lacks any of the tension or suspense one associates with its chosen genre, but also because Haddock simply casts out the subplots when they have served his purpose of delaying the ending...Elizabethan playwrights played on empty stages since they trusted their words and the audience’s imagination to set the scene. The creators of 'Helen Lawrence' seem to trust neither."
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"Sleek, stylish and entertaining...This intriguing piece of film-noir-meets-theatre promises more than it delivers and tends to confuse muddle with mystery...This is a play worth going to see, as long as you go for the right reasons...Where Haddock lets us down, however, is his plot. It’s way too complicated. If you look at all the classic noir films, they kept their cast lists small and manageable. Haddock’s dozen misfits are at least four too many. In a 90-minute show you can barely learn to tell them apart, let alone care for them."
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"We never truly care about these characters as they are always subordinate the main star: the world they inhabit, which is realised in the mix of live filming and CGI scenery. And despite our awareness that everything is happening live, 'Helen Lawrence' sacrifices the crucial immediacy of theatre to this technical feat. That said, it won’t satisfy film buffs either: never quite achieving the dark, lingering undertones of film noir."
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"The engaging story, convincing characters, and Haddock’s crisp dialogue combine with committed and nuanced performances provide constant momentum...This avant-garde nostalgia piece is the bacon-chocolate-chip cookie of theatre. Not all who love film and theatre will appreciate this media mashup, but some may see it as the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
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