Sextet (Tarragon) This new theatrical dramedy from Morris Panych is a six-person character piece that plays out almost in real time between three motel rooms occupied by a string sextet on tour during a snow storm. It’s emotionally complex but conceptually simple, a combination that pretty much always reaps great rewards, particularly with a cast […]
I was at a friend’s bachelorette party in New York when the second episode of The Newsroom‘s final season aired and I thus found myself in an unfamiliar situation- hearing the Newsroom reaction before witnessing the thing to which people were reacting. Even more unfamiliar was the tenor of said reaction. People liked it. They […]
The new National Ballet of Canada season has begun with the emotional gutpunch that is Manon. My intention was to review that production- the knockout leading performance from Jillian Vanstone and scene-stealing guest turn by American Ballet Theatre’s James Whiteside (whom I’d really like to see the National steal); the brutality of the choreography and […]
The history of Shakespeare Bash’d, up to and including their current production of Macbeth at the Monarch Tavern, reveals a pattern of wonderful comedy and middling tragedy. Some of this has to do with the Fringe Festival comedies being shorter and more fun, enlivened by the festival environment. But, mostly, I think it comes down […]
You used to be my favourite. In fact, you’re the first network I remember watching (that includes YTV, and Canadian 90s kids lived for YTV). Full House, then Sister Sister and, perhaps most importantly, Boy Meets World– these were the shows that shaped my worldview more indelibly than any others. My dad worked a […]
Mere months have passed in ACN’s world since we left The Newsroom. That was election night, November 6th 2012 (September 2013 for us). Will and Mac were engaged, Sloan and Don were tentatively together, Jim made it home from the campaign trail with an awesome new Streep-y girlfriend, Maggie’s mental state was finally beginning to […]
At our My Theatre Awards party back in April, there was an extremely loud table in the back corner, which the inhabitants called the “Single Safe Soup” table (a mashup of Single Thread, safeword, and Soup Can Theatre). In a theatrical landscape with limited resources from money to playing space to really great actors, one […]
Steve James’ documentary about Roger Ebert- filmed in the last few weeks of his life and release after his death- moved me more than any other movie in 2014 so far. The scenes shot in the hospital are harrowing, the unbelievable strength of Roger’s wife Chaz is inspiring, and the film’s dedication to portraying the […]