It’s time, once again, for the On DVD series featuring new releases from Paramount Home Distribution. Selma (May 5) If you’re going to buy a movie on DVD (and I understand why you wouldn’t), this is the one to get. The Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack is pricey ($39.99; a better deal than the bare-bones DVD at 29.99) […]
M’dea Undone (Tapestry Opera) This world premiere one-act opera from Tapestry is smart and character-driven with a cleverly modern libretto by Marjorie Chan and superb performances from its 7-person cast, including Jacqueline Woodley as a refreshingly savvy and complex Dahlia and the brilliant Lauren Segal in the title role of the scorned wife of aspirational […]
Claudia Dey’s well lauded but suspiciously neat backwoods fairytale is an intriguing but flawed examination of co-dependence on its own but director Daniel Pagett does something directors rarely do with fairly new texts in the current production by new indie company Severely Jazzed Productions- he messes with it and, in doing so, he makes it […]
The use of white makeup as a base for exaggerated features has become a fairly standard practice in productions with a sense of heightened reality. This month in Toronto there are three shows all making use of the convention, albeit in wildly different ways. Trudeau & Levesque Their distinctive makeup is arguably the most […]
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 […]