A. R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour is a witty, boozy comedy that shines a light on the many flaws and subtle delights of one WASP-y household in Buffalo during the 1970s. This autobiographical play centers on John (James Waterston), a repressed, neurotic publisher moonlighting as a playwright. John visits his parents in their twilight years […]
“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” Sherlock Holmes was right – such is the reality of being a Watson. No, I am not simply talking about Holmes’ friend, Dr. John H. Watson. As […]
Increasingly, some of the most solid theatre on the Toronto scene has come from companies you could classify as “Indie 2.0” (technically an Equity term but one I’ve decided to allocate a bit more freely). These are companies that operate along indie lines, with small-ish budgets and casts, but use union artists. The effect is […]
I have no idea who Robert Lepage is. Shame on me. Well, I haven’t been all too familiar with any of the directors whose work I’ve discussed for this website – some famous, others not. It’s clear that my background is not in theatre. Lacking a refined perspective, I once again assert the minor (but […]
Walking into Baro Theatre’s opening night production of Danny And The Deep Blue Sea on Saturday night felt more like walking into an underground, bare-knuckle boxing match than into a theatre. The concrete floors, exposed pipe and fore stage, red-lit bar gave the theatre its gritty feel. Director Aaron Willis and his production team didn’t […]
When I first spoke to Red Light District Artistic Director Ted Witzel in preparation for his 2010 production of Woyzeck, three things stood out to me. The first was his obvious intelligence and sense of artistic adventure- he’s a jumble of 8-syllable words and avant-garde German theatrical philosophy. The second was a heightened social conscience- […]
It may be widely known that I don’t like original shows. I feel they’re often underrehearsed, poorly cast, and underrealized. That includes a script for which the playwright needs a few more rewrites. However, I was blown away by the Boston Playwright Theatre’s production of “Burning” by Ginger Lazarus. I can’t quite understand why everything […]
The secret to successful entertainment in any form is conceptually simple: know your audience. I suspect that the producers of Samuel Beckett’s All That Fall at 59E59 Theatre had an audience in mind when they chose to produce the show. I am also confident that I am not that audience. In a single word, I […]