There are a few operatic conventions that really get me down. The first is a wackadoo story that let’s say isn’t exactly grounded in human truth. The second is overdramatic Tragedy with a capital t. Though the two productions that make up the Canadian Opera Company’s spring season embody, respectively, these qualities to a tee, […]
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As the second to last episode of Mad Men began it was hard to ignore the title card that appeared on my Tivo. The Milk and Honey Route. This week’s episode was written by Carly Wray and Matt Weiner and directed by Weiner. As the title suggests it was all about finding the Promised Land. […]
Umnikelo (Offering)
The opening night of Luyanda Sidiya’s double-bill performances of Umnikelo and Dominion was dedicated to putting an end to xenophobic violence…
It Follows has a concept that sounds like it’s from a terrible B movie. An invisible, homicidal creature follows, at an incredibly slow pace, those that have sex with people that are already being followed. The comparison to B-movies is not entirely without merit, since the film clearly appears to pay homage to those types […]
Spoiler Alert right off the top because this was the first episode of TV in quite some time that Facebook actually ruined for me the night-of (usually it’s more of a “this happened 3 months ago, at this point you deserve to be spoiled” kind of thing). I fight with people about The Big Bang […]
Tom at the Farm (Buddies in Bad Times) This gorgeous and disturbing piece of personal theatre from Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard is one of the first truly great productions I’ve seen this year. Making its English language debut through Linda Gaboriau’s poetic and honest translation, Tom at the Farm is staged with searing insight […]
Creditors (Coal Mine Theatre) The final piece in Coal Mine Theatre’s fantastically successful inaugural season is a dark domestic drama from August Stringberg set in a 19th century world of rampant misogyny and even more rampant psychotic jealousy. The solid production benefits greatly from director Rae Ellen Bodie’s background in dialect coaching (there’s a clarity […]
Montréal is one of my favourite cities to visit. Perhaps it’s the surreal experience of walking down a city street, not entirely unlike a Toronto street, and seeing familiar corporate logos with unfamiliar French names. The feeling of stepping into an alternate reality where things are just different enough that you’re forced to pay attention […]