Inside Box 4901 are some very different missed connections. Novelist Brian Francis makes his debut as a playwright and performer with a look back at a time when it was much harder to be himself. In 1992, as a young student with one foot still in the closet living in a straight house in a […]
Tom Hearn’s monthly show Lipsynced is a wild and fun improv competition that successfully combines improv, lip sync and drag, balancing them all with a funny cast and some drag assassins who just put on a…………..killer performance. They hit the target on that one. Their lip syncs are really in sync. Ok that is my pun limit. […]
Usually the premise for a comedy troupe is quaint, maybe a little quizzical. Dead Parents Society answers your first question right away and rejoices in how uncomfortable it makes you. Its members all lost a parent at a young age and combine to give a portrait of grief that’s darkly, uniquely comic and all the […]
Michel Marc Bouchard’s classic play Lilies (Les Feluettes) was made into one of the most beautiful Canadian films in the 90s, and more recently an opera (2016, Opéra de Montréal) that has been described as containing an “uncommon dramatic intensity.” This latest staged adaptation Lilies; Or, The Revival of a Romantic Drama, unfortunately, misses that […]
In the play OUT, first produced at the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival, writer-performer Greg Campbell takes us on a personal walk in 1977 Montreal, channelling his autobiography through Glen as he slowly comes out, amidst the unfolding gay liberation movements across North America. It’s captivating to see a story rooted in a time when “gay” […]
Without a doubt, I am a huge fan of non-linear work. I feel it’s more reflective of how our brain’s complex neural pathways actually work. Red Light District and Buddies’ co-production of LULU V.7//Aspects of a Femme Fatale has had four years and seven versions to explore the intimate relationship one has with the subconscious, […]
Set in a dystopic future post-war landscape and based on T. S. Eliot’s Wasteland, Bloom is a story of an old war veteran, Gerontion (Peter Farbridge), a young boy who lives with him (Liz Peterson), and Maria (Kim Nelson), a woman who haunts his memories. The story centers around Gerontion in old age, dealing with […]
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 […]
In Small but Mighty Productions’ eighties-inspired musical cabaret, six criminal misfits with superhuman abilities are sent to Villains Boot Camp, a secret project that aims to reform criminals and make them productive members of society. Isolated on an unknown island, they’re fed on a strict diet of healthy smoothies and forced to adhere to a […]
Blood Weddings is currently on stage at Buddies in Bad Times. Federico García Lorca’s play is a classic, and has a rightful place in theatre history, but is a difficult play to stage in part because it is so stylized. It is the story of three families: a Mother (Beatriz Pizano) and her son the […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Anna Chatterton is a different kind of triple threat: as a librettist, playwright, and actor, she is a force to be reckoned with. She brought much of that talent to her portrayal of another force- the quiet but […]
This Small But Mighty Productions musical murder mystery opens with Derek and his 6 lovers – five women and one man – gathered together in his secluded suburban home. They are there by invitation, but no one knows from whom. Derek is attempting to explain himself when he collapses and dies. Two cops arrive and […]
Nightwood Theatre defines itself as a feminist theatre company whose mandate includes providing an ‘essential home for the creation of extraordinary theatre by women.’ These two pieces, currently on stage at Buddies in Bad Times, certainly hit that mandate. Quiver Written and performed by Anna Chatterton, Quiver is a story about a mother and her […]
Dead End (Theatre Lab) This light-hearted one-act from playwright Jonny Sun and director Michael Orlando is the perfect Halloween-themed diversion in Toronto’s current sea of self-serious theatre. Sun traps bantering high school pals Christian Smith and Chris Wilson* in a dead end hallway as they flee the zombie horde that’s taken over their school, inviting […]
This month we were treated to two pieces that weren’t really musical theatre, nor were they strictly concerts. They were cabarets, I guess, but they were really stage-bound musical explorations of people and place by musicians who make theatre and theatre people who make music. Ryan G. Hinds’ Say Grace Sidelined for 6 months after […]
I have only 4 rules when it comes to great theatre: – make it coherent – make it honest – make it mean something – limit blackout set changes That’s it. That’s all I ask. The following three companies refuse to adhere to this final point with their current productions and it’s perhaps telling that […]
Conceived and created by The Independent Aunties, Gertrude and Alice is currently onstage at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Written and performed by Anna Chatterton (as Alice B. Toklas) and Evalyn Parry (as Gertrude Stein), in collaboration with dramaturg and director Karin Randoja, the script also incorporates texts written by Stein and Toklas themselves. The […]
M’dea Undone (Tapestry Opera) This world premiere one-act opera from Tapestry is smart and character-driven with a cleverly modern libretto by Marjorie Chan and superb performances from its 7-person cast, including Jacqueline Woodley as a refreshingly savvy and complex Dahlia and the brilliant Lauren Segal in the title role of the scorned wife of aspirational […]
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 […]