For about a year now, I’ve been receiving press releases from the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. I don’t live in London or even have much excuse to go there, but I read each one with increasing interest. With the North American premiere of Chariots of Fire (UK playwright Mike Bartlett’s adaptation of the iconic […]
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, […]
Thalia Kane’s new play offers up a dark version of four young women’s coming of age in a rural Canadian high school. While the script needs some development, the play makes a significant contribution to current political conversations around consent and assault. Entering the space, the set is immediately impressive. Strings hanging from the ceiling […]
Girls Like That (Tarragon Theatre) The more I think about this fantastic ensemble piece about teenage girls dealing with the age of slut-shaming gone viral, the more shocked I am that it was written by a man. Playwright Evan Placey captures the complexities and contradictions and crushing, inescapable pressures of girlhood with such painful authenticity […]
The cryptic title of this Tom Noonan two-hander refers to a story within the play. Taken as a suggestion as to what the play itself might be, it hints that something is coming, pulling the audience to the edge of our seats as we await the inevitable devastation. What actually happens is mostly fairly mundane, […]
Every now and then a play comes along which helps to define its time. Ella Hickson’s The Writer does just that. With an explosive script, stunning design, and phenomenal acting – led by Romola Garai in what may be her finest performance to date – the Almeida’s new production is compelling. While the play takes […]
Transferring after an exceptionally well-received run at the National Theatre in London, Tony Kushner’s epic drama exploring the intersection of AIDS, politics, religion, faith and social commentary in New York City in the 1980s, Angels in America, has not been seen on a Broadway stage since it closed in 1994.* Yet the current revival feels as […]
Theatre can be a gamble so sometimes it’s nice to see something you’re relatively sure about going in. On stage now in Toronto there are three such shows- one a critical favourite (Second City), one from a never-fail company (Coal Mine), and one with the sort of dependable source material that’s impactful no matter what […]