The backbone of the Shaw Festival is and has to be the work of George Bernard Shaw. As much as success with work closer to the edges of the mandate is a boon to the company that continues to push its long stagnant boundaries, at the end of the day what this company has that […]

I don’t quite understand what happened here. This was my most anticipated production of the season- a small chamber piece from and featuring two of my favourite festival artists- but I’m fairly certain the show was pitched as an original (performers Marla McLean and Graeme Somerville are credited as “co-creators”), an intimate work crafted out […]

I wanted so badly to like this multi-disciplinary piece from the thoughtful duo of Devon Healey (writer/performer) and Nate Bitton (performer/co-director with Mitchell Cushman). The show is produced by their company Peripheral Theatre alongside unconventional space pioneers Outside the March and the National Ballet of Canada whose apprentices appear as a beautiful but confounding supporting […]

 

A very strong ensemble of some of Shaw’s (and Canada’s) best highlight this strange(r than usual) Will Eno show, an adaptation of Ibsen’s epic Peer Gynt that falsely claims you don’t need to know the original to follow along. You absolutely need to know the original in order to feel rooted at all in this […]

Before we announce the winners of our 2024 Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series.   This is playwright Nick Green’s second year in a row with season-stealing plays in both our Outstanding New Work and Outstanding Production categories. After last year’s triumphant Casey & Diana, Nick did it again with Dinner […]

The ultimate test of any great theatre script lies in its second production. Though unfortunately sporting the same director as the original 2023 Stratford run and its 2024 Soulpepper transfer and thus perhaps not as thought through from the drawing board as I may have liked, playwright Nick Green’s glorious Casey & Diana is currently […]

Before we announce the winners of our 2024 Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series.   One of our favourite productions of the 2024 Toronto Fringe Festival, Desperate Measures featured a funny and fresh script co-created by Rachel Moore & Catherine Teichman. We spoke with the Outstanding New Work-nominated playwrights to hear […]

Quite possibly the most high profile Canadian theatre production of the year, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Canadian Stage is a big, flashy production complete with high profile script, household names, a totally unnecessary rotating stage, and even a last minute behind the scenes shakeup. But despite its theatrical event status and […]