My dad does this thing that drives me crazy. I mean, my dad does countless things that drive me crazy, but this one drives me particularly crazy. Every time I ask him to see one of Shakespeare’s oft-produced masterpieces- like Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, or King Lear– he says “I’ve seen it already”. Cue my […]
Cymbeline is the production I’d been waiting to see in Stratford all season. It’s really good Shakespeare. That’s what Stratford does- really good Shakespeare- and I think it’s telling that most of the really good productions this year aren’t that. There are quite a few good musicals, one decent Shakespeare, and one that’s close to […]
Stratford has to have at least one big, impressive, serious classical play a year. 2007- Lear, 2008-Hamlet, 2009-Macbeth, 2010- Tempest, 2011- well, 2011 didn’t have a big tragedy but Twelfth Night was so good and Richard III (in the Tom Patterson) was such a big deal that they made up the difference. In 2012, it’s […]
I was pretty sure Elektra would be my least favourite thing at Stratford this season. I’m not big on the Greeks (not that I’m against them, they’re just a tough sell and almost always directed by crazy people who want to make everything into a Very Meaningful Movement Piece). I’m most certainly not someone immediately […]
While this was my first Happy Medium show, I have heard good things about them. I was hoping for a moving experience, unfortunately there was something missing in this production. I’ll save you the anticipation: the show was poor. What interests me here is why it was such a deeply flawed production. With the resources […]
“I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?” -Benedick to Beatrice (IV.i) The 2012 Stratford season isn’t very good. 80% of the reason I say that is Much Ado About Nothing. There are places to improve Henry V, Charlie Brown, The Matchmaker and so much else, but they […]
I’ve always liked Humber River Shakespeare, mostly because I always like Shakespeare- anywhere, in any form, by any company- but their 2012 Macbeth is by far the best thing I’ve ever seen from them. It helps that I attended their very first (and only, this season) show at Casa Loma. A relatively bare-bones company, Humber […]
I have seen a lot of Shakespeare in parks, but I am fairly new to other theater presented outdoors. The last show I saw from Apollinaire was Cyrano de Bergerac, also in Mary O’Malley Park. Even though it was not Shakespeare, that text has a certain poetic bombast that doesn’t feel out of place when […]