Set in Newfoundland in 1985, director Jillian Keiley’s production of Shakespeare’s irresistible pastoral is simple, lighthearted and creative. A bare stage gets its sense of place from the actors (designer Bretta Gerecke‘s comical ’80s costuming, accents of varying effectiveness) and the audience. The crowd is armed with grab bags full of participatory aids like bleating […]
Gretchen Creyer and Nancy Ford’s I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road was a hit show both Off-Broadway and on the West End and, after 35 years, it will get its first London revival when it plays at the Jermyn Street Theatre this July. Ahead of this run I spoke to […]
“Battle of the Bastards,” the most recent episode in the sixth season of Game of Thrones, has me thinking about fathers. Well, not fathers, specifically (the word “bastard” implies the absence of fathers, usually, although in the case of our particular bastards, it’s mothers who are the mystery), but loved ones, family members, usually parents […]
Self-assured though with no emotional investment, Phillip Ridley’s Karagula is messy, tame sci-fi. Despite deft touches on the production side (read: design), the work never clinches the operatic status it desires. On another planet, a milkshake-drinking society that habitually sacrifices its Prom King and Queen is in crisis; intercut with this we see (unclear where […]
What we learn of the Romani is limited but what is limited in the LIFT Festival’s Open For Everything is probed deeply in dance rather than storytelling, a bracing experience when done well. Constanza Macras’ dance company has made a piece that celebrates and explains the ‘last nomadic tribe in Europe’, the Romani. While light […]
Toronto has some killer young actresses, a few of whom have found particularly big showcases in small productions currently on Toronto stages. Below are a few of note, in order of impact. Changeling; A Grand Guignol for Muderous Times (Desiderata Theatre Co.) There’s a lot to like about Harrison Thomas’ brutal and inventive production […]
In a world where cancer and AIDS have been cured, what could possibly go wrong? This is a question addressed in the emotionally wrenching performance of Rapture at the Etcetera Theatre directed and written by Lisa McMullin. Set far into the 21st century, it is a dystopian tale of four people being audited by the government. […]
Two half sisters, an ocean and a world away, give birth to two completely different dynasties. Homegoing follows these families through interwoven tales of love, heartbreak, classism, racism and the struggle of identity, giving us snippets of lives that are at once beautiful in their complexity and unflinchingly real. Effia, known as the beauty, marries […]