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Seeing Johanna Nutter’s My Pregnant Brother and Robin Henderson’s Creation Dance Animal back to back at Centaur Theatre’s 13th Annual Wildside Festival has set the bar of my theatrical expectation for 2010 very high.

Nutter’s mandate to tell stories “simply, intimately and authentically” is more than achieved in her show, with the help of director Jeremy Taylor. As the audienced filed in, Nutter wandered about the stage looking so approachable you wanted to just go right up and hug here (this sentiment increased exponentially as the show went on).

She transformed an empty stage quickly and effectively using chalk to draw an outline of Montreal’s well-known plateau streets while beginning her story. I told myself the whole time that I didn’t even want to review this work; I was overpowered by a strong desire to write Nutter a love letter. But I will restrain myself. Furthermore, there isn’t anything to critique. This show is solid because it’s honest, it doesn’t have any pretentions and it makes each and every audience member feel significant, needed.  What an inspiration.

The Dance Animal ensemble brought such a high dose of energy I don’t think anyone in the audience didn’t consider leaping up and dancing at a given moment. The dances were wonderfully choreographed, funny and uplifting. The monologues delivered by the cast punctured the movement with moments of hilarity and accented the characterization of each dancer, but never did one feel a sense of stasis. The energy kept moving forward at such a high intensity that it was hard to believe the show ended when it did. Dance Animal lives on long after curtain.