There are few modern innovations as inspiring as National Theatre Live. Broadcasting high profile stage productions into movie theatres is an astounding arts accessibility measure that knocks hoity toity work right off its pedestal and brings it to actual audiences regardless of their location or disposable income (see also: PBS Great Performances; irreplaceable). It’s downright […]
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, to deal with isolation and lack of live theatre, we started gathering some of our favourite people every Tuesday & Saturday night to read scripts over Zoom. We read all 38 Shakespeare plays in six months. Then we kept going. We decided to create mini-seasons featuring highlights from the canons of […]
Jen Silverman’s wild and wonderful take on Brontë-style gothic drama is currently onstage in a riotous new production at the Theatre Centre Incubator. Directed with a bold voice and a light touch by Bryn Kennedy, The Moors is a triumph that dashes expectations at every turn. Silverman’s text is anarchic and inventive while faithfully […]
The Second City Toronto’s latest revue continues the recent trend away from the political and personal and towards more clear cut comedy. As is often the case, I wanted more of a throughline from the established theme of magic (a successful bit featuring Jesus proves the power of recurrence but I always want more). My […]
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Film Festival. The festival as a whole showcased 16 features and as many more shorts over the course of six days. I caught the final two days of the festival and enjoyed an impressive run of 12 films. Here’s a short round-up in chronological order: […]
The musical version of the seminal Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf album Bat Out Of Hell is a marvel of ridiculousness. The book (Steinman), direction (Jay Scheib), and design (Jon Bausor & Meentje Nielsen with tour updates to the set by Ed Pierce) are some of the worst in the history of the form but, dammnit, the […]
Last weekend was Toronto’s annual Comicon. I say annual but it’s really bi-annual as FanExpo, the company that runs the event, runs another weekend (appropriately titled “FanExpo”), also at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, that resembles Comicon in nearly every way except that it’s about three times the size (45,000 attendees vs 135,000, roughly). […]
