Walk into the Young Centre and buy a ticket, it doesn’t matter to what. Soulpepper Theatre has three productions running right now and, for the first time in memory (and my memory stretches back much further than a few months), they’re operating at full power. The company has always sought balance in its repertory […]
ABC’s overlooked comedy gem came to an end this week after nine seasons of sweet and sincere purposeful mediocrity. The Middle was a kind show with a big heart that celebrated the unremarkable and, in its uncompromising “middle”-ness, made large swaths of viewers feel seen in a way no other TV show accomplished. There was […]
Seven Siblings Theatre is coming off their strongest season yet with a staged reading, a festival of new work, and two mainstage productions including the Critics’ Pick Award-nominated Fringe run of Eliza Clark’s Recall. They’re kicking off their 2018 season with Bryony Lavery’s Frozen, an emotionally potent drama about tragedy and trauma. Before tonight’s preview, […]
The eclectic pairing of a visually ambitious but narratively light 20th century Russian mixed bill directed with theatrical ambition and a rich Italian bel canto full-length narrative with restrained character-focused direction makes for a beautifully balanced spring season for the Canadian Opera Company, a stretch of programming that offers something for everyone no matter why […]
For about a year now, I’ve been receiving press releases from the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. I don’t live in London or even have much excuse to go there, but I read each one with increasing interest. With the North American premiere of Chariots of Fire (UK playwright Mike Bartlett’s adaptation of the iconic […]
Girls Like That (Tarragon Theatre) The more I think about this fantastic ensemble piece about teenage girls dealing with the age of slut-shaming gone viral, the more shocked I am that it was written by a man. Playwright Evan Placey captures the complexities and contradictions and crushing, inescapable pressures of girlhood with such painful authenticity […]
The cryptic title of this Tom Noonan two-hander refers to a story within the play. Taken as a suggestion as to what the play itself might be, it hints that something is coming, pulling the audience to the edge of our seats as we await the inevitable devastation. What actually happens is mostly fairly mundane, […]
Theatre can be a gamble so sometimes it’s nice to see something you’re relatively sure about going in. On stage now in Toronto there are three such shows- one a critical favourite (Second City), one from a never-fail company (Coal Mine), and one with the sort of dependable source material that’s impactful no matter what […]