What does it take to get someone to show you their most vulnerable parts, to get them to reveal them not just to you, but to themselves? George F. Walker’s new play, Fierce, gives us one kind of answer to that question. It’s also one of the best theatre experiences I’ve had in a while. […]
The Shakespeare Bash’d production of Richard III at the Monarch Tavern was just the thing for one of these wintry February nights. In contrast to the weight of the play, the atmosphere is cozy as we walk into the space: the narrow space has been transformed into a stage – chairs line the sides of the […]
Originally written (and performed) by Dave Deveau, My Funny Valentine is a play based around the true story of a gay teen who was killed by his classmate in 2008. The narrative weaves through the surrounding community in the aftermath, and shows us the ways they are processing (or not processing) their grief, and the […]
The Harold Experience This Assembly Improv show invokes the Harold Technique of audience participation to get suggestions from the crowd on which the theme of the show is based. The night I went, actors came down and bantered with the crowd, asking questions and making fast and funny connections between audience members until finally one […]
Pencil Kit Productions’ The Hungriest Woman in the World is certainly an interesting show. It bills itself as a ‘sexy and elliptical new play’ by Canadian poet and playwright Shannon Bramer. It follows a young woman – Aimee (Nora Jane Williams) – as she escapes from the loneliness and confusion of her own life into […]
Manwatching is a one-man show written by a woman. That’s all I know about the author going in to see the show, because she remains anonymous. And each night a different male comedian sees her script for the first time, as he performs it. This was such a weird premise for a show that I […]
Inspired by the true story of an opera singer and a French diplomat, Mr. Shi and His Lover is a semi-operatic play currently on Tarragon’s mainstage. The narrative traces a story in which the two fall in love, and proceed to have a twenty year relationship, during which time Mr. Shi believed his lover to […]
Poison, currently on at The Coal Mine Theatre, is a story about two people. Actually, it’s a story about three people. We open on a man (Ted Dykstra) waiting in a lobby. Eventually, a woman (Fiona Highet) enters. There is immediate tension. What follows is a simple but heartbreaking story about grief. Originally written by […]