Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is one of the most interesting theatrical pieces written in the 20th century. It’s quick-witted and academic, funny and touching, thought-provoking, heart-breaking and wildly entertaining. With heavy parallelism linking the superb characters between two eras in a single household (1809 and 2011- the studied and the studying), Arcadia becomes a sort of […]
I’m a little bit in love with Argos Productions. With a charismatic artistic director and a mandate to perform original works with the writer involved in the development, Argos is the latest company after my heart. Their inaugural production, however, is a little shaky. Junkie, a new work by John Shea, takes the form of […]
I saw Billy Bishop Goes to War years ago. The version I saw featured a middle-aged Billy boastfully recounting his historical triumphs and the antics of his charismatic younger self. It was light and full of energy, clear but reflective, a really enjoyable and engrossing piece of theatre. But as the years have passed, creators […]
It’s been a very up and down summer for my guilty reality fix. It started with a twist that could have been wonderful (Chilltown! The Renegades!) and ended up mediocre (The Donatos? Brenchel?) and a cast of clueless newbies who couldn’t get their act together. Read on for my week by week recount of the […]
There were a couple shows that we just couldn’t get to (but really wanted to) during Fringe this year. Luckily, there’s The Best of Fringe Uptown where the best of the best productions are remounted for a handful of performances each. This year the selections included some of our favourites from our week at the […]
Chris Colfer stepped up to the plate and delivered an uneven season one home safely. Darren Criss pulled season two back from the brink of absurdity. Since we know we can’t rely on Ryan Murphy to do it, who is going to save Glee‘s third season? Sunday night gave us that answer. The Glee […]
Aaron Hill and John McDonald may not be the best baseball players ever to don Blue Jays uniforms but they are and always have been, without competition, my favourite players to do so. With their recent trade to the National League Arizona Diamondbacks, it’s unlikely I’ll be seeing my boys play live again for quite […]
Ted Dykstra’s solo interpretation of Tolstoy’s novella was a fascinating and engrossing work. A dynamic and surprising performer, Dykstra captivated an audience for the entire run time by doing nothing more or less than telling a story. Within the profound piece that framed artistic collaboration as the ultimate intimacy, Dykstra faced the impossibly lonely task […]