Director/adaptor Fiona Sauder has always taken kids really seriously. Or, rather, she takes them at least as seriously as she takes adults. Probably more. As a result, she might be the most reliable creator of quality theatre for young audiences I’ve encountered in my career. Her work never takes kids’ attention for granted but neither […]
I do not know how well the Stratford kids programming sells and how that relates to their current strategy for executing said programming. There’s room somewhere in my brain for the possibility that this approach is working at both making and saving money and is therefore helping to fund better, more ambitious art elsewhere at […]
Click Here and Here to listen to our Fringe Audio Preview. Click Here to find our Fringe Landing Page where reviews will be posted throughout the festival. God Save the Sodomites (A) The funniest thing I’ve seen all Fringe, Aliyah Bourgeault and Emmet Logue’s whip smart comedy is about two angels who convince God to let them try […]
Click Here and Here to listen to our Fringe Audio Preview. Click Here to find our Fringe Landing Page where reviews will be posted throughout the festival. Neuro-DIVE! (A-) Every performance of this solo show starring a talking dopamine receptor is listed as a relaxed performance. That means the lights are slightly up, audience members can come and […]
Théâtre Motus’ Tree is a beautiful introduction to live performance designed for the enjoyment of six-months to three-year-olds with a special eye to accessibility for neurodivergent children. I brought my nine-month-old to the show for his first experience as a live theatre audience member (thanks to Cineplex’s Stars & Strollers program, he’s well versed with the […]
Shrek the Musical (Young People’s Theatre) Young People’s Theatre’s production of Shrek the Musical is lean, green, and utterly joyful. It’s one of the biggest productions in the company’s 60-year history and that investment pays off with a strong ensemble, William Layton’s vibrant set design, and an overall high standard of production that could easily […]
The trouble with adapting most children’s books is that they are very light on plot. Niagara’s Carousel Players’ two-person production of Where the Wild Things Are (originally adapted for the stage by TAG Theatre in Glasgow) suffers from this problem- it’s only 65 minutes long and still feels like they’re filling for time. What felt […]
This much-maligned production I think gets a bad rap that’s only partially deserved. There’s a lot that it gets right, it’s just that what it gets wrong it gets very wrong and those things are super distracting (and unhelpfully weighted towards the end, making them more memorable). I’ve long been a fan of the […]