In 1995, the suitcases of patients who once occupied the Willard Asylum between the years of 1910 and 1960 were found piled up behind a plastered-in section of the Asylum attic. Suitcases is a show created and directed by Rosanna Saracino, directly inspired by the stories of the patients to whom they belonged. The contents […]
A few years back, November was a pretty quiet month theatre-wise in Toronto, but it seems that everybody figured that out at the same time and decided to do something about it… at the same time. So now November is insane. According to the Canadian Theatre Opening Night Directory, there are 30 new shows opening […]
In the Room, a new play at showing at Alchemical Theater Laboratory, written by Lawrence Dial and directed by Adam Knight, aims to expose the uncomfortable and unresolved. This play takes place over several successive weeks of a writing workshop for aspiring playwrights. As the weeks progress, the six aspiring writers and their teacher reveal […]
The beautiful geometric highrises are dark grey, crisp and askew, creating a darkly modern, if slightly nightmarish cityscape which the audience observes as we wait for Acquiesce to begin. Downstage centre, an open briefcase is slightly illuminated with a gentle tungsten spotlight from above. Then, without warning— no dimming of the lights, no audio cue— […]
This is a one (and a half) man show about the life and music of John Lennon. Part tribute, part investigation of a life, writer John Waters attempts to use Lennon’s music to investigate and highlight the emotional journey of one of the biggest musicians of the 20th century. The production features Daniel Taylor as […]
The blatant irony of a title like Breathing Corpses, as with something like The Walking Dead, is that it is the ostensibly living characters who are all to some degree deceased: both because their lives are caught in a deadlock, and also because by the end of the play we know that many of these […]
The Belarus Free Theatre has taken on a challenge by putting on Tomorrow I was Always a Lion. Portraying mental health onstage, especially schizophrenia, is no easy task. Because many people do not know how to address the issue, it can be a little overwhelming to go see a play that is entirely centered on […]
Nightwood Theatre defines itself as a feminist theatre company whose mandate includes providing an ‘essential home for the creation of extraordinary theatre by women.’ These two pieces, currently on stage at Buddies in Bad Times, certainly hit that mandate. Quiver Written and performed by Anna Chatterton, Quiver is a story about a mother and […]