Coming into this show, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Reading the synopsis, I didn’t see how the concept related to the real Billy the Kid (which the title clearly alludes to), and the poster’s allusion to the trans pride flag completely went over my head. But I came out thoroughly impressed. Gez Mercer and […]
Chelsea Dinsmore
The opening production of The National Ballet of Canada’s 2023/24 season pairs two short ballets about passion. Ironically, it’s Passion that is the least passionate of the pair, feeling disjointed and overly busy. The world premiere of Emma Bovary, on the other hand, is a cohesive triumph that led me and my guest to turn to each other towards […]
Kelly Bedard
A Poem for Rabia (Tarragon Theatre) Spanning three continents and three generations, Nikki Shaffeeullah’s world premiere currently on stage in the Tarragon Extraspace is an intimate epic full of big ideas. The capable cast performs an exceptional array of accents- some executed with precision and nuance, others less successful- as they each take on multiple […]
The historic Campbell House is creaking open its doors for another seasonal romp. Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, this production – like the Netflix series bringing some of Poe’s collected works to a new medium this spooky season – centers around the ill-fated House of Usher. Audience members are […]
Kelly Bedard
At the Small World Centre in the Queen W Artscape Youngplace building, Apothecary Theatre & Dandelion Theatre have teamed up to create a new adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, onstage now through Halloween. Slimming the epic down to two performers and a single hour, adapter/stars James Llewellyn Evans and Augusta “Gus” Monet aka […]
Kelly Bedard
A lot is changing in Ontario theatre lately, nowhere more than in the musical theatre landscape. With commercial companies expanding both in and out of Toronto, exciting initiatives supporting the creation of new works, and a fresh generation of artists emerging, it seems that musical theatre is the next frontier for an area that has […]
Part of Soulpepper’s Her Words Festival, the latest work from playwright/director Kat Sandler is a historical epic full of wild details too unbelievable to not be true. Set in the 16th century French court on a stunning Nick Blais-designed set, Wildwoman tracks Catherine de’ Medici (a compelling Rose Napoli with a very tricky job) […]
Kelly Bedard
Beethoven only wrote one opera, refusing to return to the medium after the self-described torturous process of getting Fidelio to the stage. Upon finally seeing the much-anticipated production at the Canadian Opera Company (their first since 2009), it’s not difficult to see the fault lines where creative conflict surely stepped in. The opera’s premise […]