Holiday! (Bad Dog at The Assembly Theatre) I made it out to Bad Dog Theatre Company’s Comedy on Queen Festival at The Assembly Theatre for one night only, to see an improvised musical based on Sondheim’s Company. With a rotating cast featuring more than a few favourites, I knew it wasn’t one I wanted to […]
“It’s so simple: I need to know you’re listening…” It’s not just a plea to an assailant: it’s a message to audiences at The Assembly Theatre and society at large. The toughest conversations around sexual assault occur behind closed doors, too late to spare one party. By dramatising these so vividly, playwright Amy Lee Lavoie […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2018 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Dora nominee Breanna Dillon is one of an incredible number of women in this year’s Critics’ Pick Awards who produced the show which garnered her nomination. Co-founder of Witchboy Theatre with her director Christopher Hayes, Breanna […]
Gruesome Playground Injuries is all about variations on themes. Director Chris Bretecher writes that, in following the characters through their unlikely and unlucky journey, “we acknowledge topics of mental health, sexual consent, substance abuse, self harm, and risk taking behaviours”. This is far clearer in the literature than the text: the playbill explains the production’s […]
Two small, run-down apartments are the settings for two new George F. Walker plays, which taken together complete his Parkdale Palace Trilogy (begun with last year’s The Chance, which I must confess to not having seen), which are being staged at the Assembly Theatre in a double bill. Put on by Low Rise Productions and […]
It’s said that Sir Isaac Newton believed in a mysterious substance called ‘ether’ which surrounded everyone – a belief which helped him on the road to many discoveries. The thing is, though, it never actually existed. Isaac’s Eye, a new play making its Canadian debut at the Assembly Theatre, grants us discoveries about Newton himself […]
Dry Land is a coming of age tale that digs uncomfortably into both the tenderness and cruelty of North American teenage girlhood. Swim teammates Amy (Veronica Hortiguela) and Ester (Mattie Driscoll) forge a bond over the secret of Amy’s unwanted pregnancy. The strongest aspect of this work is the deep bond of friendship Amy and […]