Late Night, tell-it-how-it-is radio — a premise with the potential for shocking, humorous and meaningful dialogue, but Eric Bogosian’s play lacks depth and originality, with this production feeling in turns forced and unnatural. Barry has risen to fame due to the success of his listener phone-in show, and we join him along with his production […]
I’m a big fan of Antony Raymond whom I consider one of the city’s rising star playwrights. He creates rich unique characters with clear voices. As tensions and emotions inevitably build throughout his plays, the characters are primed to clash with each other. That said, the plot of his latest play, Apartment 301, feels undeveloped […]
Read All Our SummerWorks Reviews HERE The Only Good Indian (B+) It’s difficult to grade this solo show from Pandemic Theatre because half its runtime is just a “long table” discussion that will surely be completely different every day (the one I attended was heady and somewhat confrontational though smartly moderated by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard) […]
Jessica, a play written by Patrick Vermillion, showing at the IRT Theater brings science fiction and artificial intelligence to the stage. But an overly ambition script falls short in execution as too many plot points must be explained in unnecessarily complicated detail, such as the minutia of implausible technological advancements As a result, it is […]
Flooded is set on a boat, but not just any boat. One warm and sunny (thank god) Toronto July evening I found myself on The Pirate Life Boat sailing around the Toronto Islands, witnessing a beautiful, funny, and intense spectacle. Directed by Ara Glenn-Johanson, the production consists of four performers (Hayden Finkelshtain, Melanie Leon, Duncan […]
Soulpepper’s Of Human Bondage features a strong cast of talented actors, and some truly innovative staging. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to save the production from a tiresome story filled with unlikeable characters. Of Human Bondage is a solid production. But if you don’t like stories about selfish people making selfish decisions while barely growing or […]
Immigrants. Gentrification. Two subjects that are inescapable when living in New York City. Sometimes it’s easy for New Yorkers to think we have the monopoly on them (as we like to think we have a monopoly on everything). But the Torontonian theater company Soulpepper proves otherwise with Kim’s Convenience, which handles heavy issues with sharp humor […]
The big joke of Ink is that a play about a dumb, sordid newspaper is itself dumb and sordid. The audience doesn’t realise that, Rupert Goold doesn’t, James Graham doesn’t. But it is. Dumb. Sordid. Describing a play as ‘sordid’ makes me sound puritan. But it’s not the content that’s sordid, although Ink is about […]