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Reviews of Quixsand

"Quixsand manages some heart-stoppingly beautiful moments of pure magic. The charm begins early. A klezmerish four-piece band accompanies the action with some moodily terrific music. A dreamy opening sequence of children in blue and white streamers bringing the sea to frothy life as they wind around balanced on stilts. The iconography continues with a sequence entitled the Seven Ages of Man. Timed to coincide with dusk, a silk-caped, monstrous masked barker urges the audience to pass through a black curtain and down a boardwalk, turning the show into a fun-house ride. Each stop along the way features a lone figure wearing a stylized over-sized human head in eerie tableaus representing stages in human development from infancy to senility. But the images are as striking as their inclusion in the production is perplexing. Donna's personal story is told with visual poetry: Shadow puppets relate how her family perished at the hands of a demon known as the enchanter - war. Visions of the enchanter plague her and the final confrontation, aboard the ramshackle boat crewed by the island kids that Donna believes is a seaworthy vessel, is terrifying and brilliant."

The Globe and Mail

"Quixsand, playing all over Ward's Island, is a rare theatrical adventure for all ages. There are truly beautiful moments, especially a chilling shadowpuppet sequence illustrating Bella Donna's tragic childhood. A "7 Ages of Man" sequence is so good that you won't care that it has little to do with the rest of the show."

Eye Weekly

Shadowland thanks David Smiley for the photographs.