Created by Why Not Theatre, The RISER Project is a new initiative that pairs established companies with emerging artists to share resources and make producing indie theatre just a little bit easier. The inaugural RISER season is taking place at The Theatre Centre with two shows already wrapped and another two currently on stage. […]
The latest indie company to take the stage at the Storefront Theatre is the excellently named Severely Jazzed, headed by improvisers Tess Degenstein and Hannah Spear. We spoke to Tess and Hannah about their inaugural production Trout Stanley which hits Bloor West this Thursday. Tell us about Severely Jazzed Productions and how the company got […]
Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis’ bold dismantling of the betrayal of Jesus envisions a purgatorial world known as “Hope” where even the most easily damnable deserve consideration and possibly even salvation. It’s a hugely ambitious play with a massive cast of characters- gods and saints and devils, icons and angels and people- an anachronistic allegory that […]
For 7 performances May 20-24, the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse will play host to the inaugural presentation from Martha Rose Productions Inc., the latest addition to Toronto’s indie theatre community. The chosen text- the Canadian premiere of Neil LaBute’s Miss Julie, an adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1888 naturalistic masterpiece relocated to Long Island in the […]
There are a few operatic conventions that really get me down. The first is a wackadoo story that let’s say isn’t exactly grounded in human truth. The second is overdramatic Tragedy with a capital t. Though the two productions that make up the Canadian Opera Company’s spring season embody, respectively, these qualities to a tee, […]
Spoiler Alert right off the top because this was the first episode of TV in quite some time that Facebook actually ruined for me the night-of (usually it’s more of a “this happened 3 months ago, at this point you deserve to be spoiled” kind of thing). I fight with people about The Big Bang […]
Tom at the Farm (Buddies in Bad Times) This gorgeous and disturbing piece of personal theatre from Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard is one of the first truly great productions I’ve seen this year. Making its English language debut through Linda Gaboriau’s poetic and honest translation, Tom at the Farm is staged with searing insight […]
Creditors (Coal Mine Theatre) The final piece in Coal Mine Theatre’s fantastically successful inaugural season is a dark domestic drama from August Stringberg set in a 19th century world of rampant misogyny and even more rampant psychotic jealousy. The solid production benefits greatly from director Rae Ellen Bodie’s background in dialect coaching (there’s a clarity […]