Guardians of the Galaxy Episode Four: Who Needs You has a serious identity crisis going on: at first, it seems like one of the most legitimately episodic adventures do date, with our heroes trapped underground and on the run from rock-eating space worms. While the change in scenery from temples was nice, the scenario felt […]
Fractured fairy tales. Re-imagined classics. Call them what you will but traditional fairy tales have been reincarnated again and again through various mediums. They have been parodied, merchandised by the Mouse, and transformed, often exploring themes and teaching lessons unaddressed or counter to those set forth in the source material. Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s Beauty […]
Director Ravi Jain’s adaptation of Salt-Water Moon distills the classic Canadian play by David French to its essence: two lovers under a star-filled sky. The story centers on the return of Jacob Mercer to Coley’s Point, Newfoundland after his abrupt departure for Toronto a year earlier. Although his old flame Mary Snow is now engaged […]
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (National Theatre presented by Mirvish Productions) I saw the UK’s National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time when it played Broadway a few years ago with the incomparable Alex Sharp in the lead role of Christopher, an autistic teenager who […]
Theatre Lab’s new musical comedy, currently onstage at the Factory Studio Theatre, can be summarized in one word: clever. The title- The Adventures of Tom Shadow- suggests a Peter Pan-type protagonist and a familiar tale of his far-flung adventures. The opening scene features the expected happy nuclear family at bedtime and, when the parents leave, Tom Shadow takes […]
Aptly timed, this DMT Productions prequel to Waiting for Godot is currently playing at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace while Soulpepper’s production of Beckett’s play is starting to wrap up. I have a deep personal affinity for the original: I first read it in high school, I have taught it in a class on existentialism, […]
The social world envisioned by Oscar Wilde in his famous novel is overpopulated with vain and calculating social-climbers. It remains a merciless, appropriately florid thesis on how desire and vanity exist in tandem with artistic creation, almost inevitably corrupting the soul of both the artist and the subject of their art. In this updated adaptation, […]
Heading into this show, I wasn’t convinced I would like it. I haven’t, I will admit, watched many Alfred Hitchcock films, and the play seemed a bit like it might be like an old James Bond film, but an old and vaguely forgotten Roger Moore one. The crowd around me seemed like the kind of […]