I have a theory about the (arguably, I guess) three most important theatre companies in Ontario. In any given season, if one of the three companies is under-performing (as one inevitably is), the others raise their game (to compensate? compete? rub it in their face? who knows). They seem to rotate- in a superb Soulpepper […]
An odd, rarely produced adventure at sea that many Shakespeare fans have never seen, Pericles is the only one of the four Shakespeare plays currently at the Stratford Festival to be relegated to one of the smaller theatres. Dreary Hamlet, overly traditional Shrew and uneven Love’s Labours are all playing on that famous festival stage […]
Of the many “just do the play” attempts at Shakespeare this season on the Stratford mainstage, director John Caird comes closest to presenting an incarnation of true interest. Patrick Clark’s overly pretty design traps the actors and distracts the audience and a few casting missteps drag the affair down but, armed with arguably the most […]
Two moderate highpoints of the 2015 Stratford season, Possible Worlds & The Physicists are both works of thematic ambition with refreshing visual flair. Strong casts and well-paced direction help both pieces stand out though neither stirs the heart nearly as much as it attempts to challenge the mind. In John Mighton’s Possible Worlds, a […]
Thank god for Kate Hennig. In a Stratford season where women are both underrepresented and terribly misused, she’s offered us a heroine ten times as complex as Pericles and two of the most compelling supporting female characters of the season to boot. In a season of dull period pieces and literal interpretation, she’s bent history […]
Playwright Kyle Capstick had a lot of great ideas for a new play- a glimpse into the personal stakes of a small theatre company as the life-and-death stakes of WWII loom ever-more-noisily large, an examination of grief and the way we carry on, a poetic contemplation of what makes a kiss more than just an […]
We’re in the exact opposite position from last year at this time. Poised, again, at the precipice of a new season of Survivor and facing the final days of Big Brother, we’re this time saying goodbye to a season we far-from-loved (in contrast to BB16, which topped our all-time season rankings) and looking forward to […]
I’m not sure why I stuck with the thoroughly mediocre TVLand sitcom The Exes through its entire four-season run. Maybe it was loyalty to Donald Faison despite the broad race and “player” jokes that formed the entire basis of his sports agent character Phil. Maybe it was the fact that I found David Alan Basche’s […]