The Centre of the Universe (B) The Centre of The Universe, staged between the taps and front windows of everybody’s favourite dive bar, “The Lab” is a gripping telling of the post-internet apocalypse. It builds steadily to its genuinely frightening and shocking climax on the shoulders of a couple of strong performances. Lea Russel and […]
Veterans of recent war in Afghanistan and Iraq come home, having to confront the violent memories from their past, and an uncertain future. Swirled together with a categorical misunderstanding of their sacrifice, unmet needs, complicated moral and financial obligations, and the pride of having risked life and limb for their country – surely the lot of […]
The inaugural “LOVE and Basketball 3 on 3 Tournament” lands in the HoopDome at Downsview Park on March 15th. Several hundred ballers and supporters will come together to raise money for Leave Out Violence, compete against Jonas Valanciunas in a game of ‘bump’, listen to community spokespeople including Jamaal Magloire of Raptor fame, and to […]
Forgiveness caught my attention the first moment I saw it because it wasn’t called a play, nor was it deemed to be a performance piece. It was called a “Theatrical Poem.” I wondered about how a theatrical poem would differ from theatre and/or from a poem. I must admit that I couldn’t make much of […]
The Untitled Feminist Show, by Young Jean Lee, is an hour of beautiful and thought-provoking movement. It’s an eclectic mixture of elements sifted together so that trying to pull it apart into its constituent elements feels wrong, especially given the smoothness – or even gentleness – of the staged transitions. The music ranges from electro-pop to […]
The Coyote Collective presented Labour at the Passe Muraille Backspace last week. The show, written by Eric and Ryan Welch, attempted to represent the monotony, loneliness and despair that can come with the routines of manual labour. To establish the scene in the warehouse, the collective used repeated physical movements and the sound of a […]
You’ve got to check out The Radio Show. If you don’t have any idea what it’s about and walk into the theatre, you’d see the powerful unity of dance and some really tremendous artists moving their bodies in impressive, interesting and gorgeous ways. Or maybe you’d see the dance as a comparison between the frustration […]
Factory Theatre martyr Ken Gass’ newest project, Canadian Rep Theatre, premiered its first production this month. Directed by Gass, Pacamambo is stunning, the first moment the audience is allowed into the theatre. A narrow, off-kilter-rectangle of an acting area is squeezed between two banks of audience seating and – right in the middle of everything […]
The Toronto Laboratory Theatre and an English-Russian Theatre company named Théatrus have come together to produce a well-conceived play called The…Musician: An Etude. Three actors, Shelley Liebembuk, Clayton Gray and Kevin Kashani collaborate to play more than ten roles to the music of Art Babyants, who conceived and directed the project. Although I anticipated the […]
Flesh and Other Fragments of Love is about a married couple, Simone (Maria del Mar) and Pierre (Blair Williams). They bicker and squabble and get in each other’s way while on vacation in Ireland. Enter a ghostly, dead woman who has been found washed up on the beach. Her name is Mary (Nicole Underhay). The […]
The minimalist set, featuring a large, elevated platform shows off interesting blocking and is integral to the quick, clean transitions that pepper the play. The script’s myriad rapid-fire scene changes are made possible by Jason Hand’s excellent lighting work and a couple of key props that are as dynamic as the script. The play effectively […]
“It’s my first show,” she says to me, beaming. “I’ve been shooting forever! I started on dad’s old school Nikon,” she continues, all in one breath, “I just loved to take pictures!” Ali Eisner is standing beside me, among many others crammed into the Gladstone Hotel’s Art Bar. She wears a dark green, styled hunting […]
Theatre Columbus’s Weather the Weather or how we make it home together is a good-natured evening full of holiday spirit in the Brickworks. This uniquely Canadian story of homecoming and magic is served cold and garnished with exaggerated, amusing performances across the board. The audience spends the duration of the play following the action around […]
Walking into Baro Theatre’s opening night production of Danny And The Deep Blue Sea on Saturday night felt more like walking into an underground, bare-knuckle boxing match than into a theatre. The concrete floors, exposed pipe and fore stage, red-lit bar gave the theatre its gritty feel. Director Aaron Willis and his production team didn’t […]