Written by Jordan Tannahill, directed by Eric Brubacher and Cara Spooner, Concord Floral is currently opening Canadian Stage’s 2016-2017 season. To top it all off, just a few days ago, the play earned Tannahill a nomination for a Governor General’s Award. The play centres around Concord Floral, an old abandoned greenhouse in Vaughn nesting within […]
If it takes seven people to tell a story, you hope it’s a good story. Luckily, The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas is a good story and a gripping performance. At the start of the production, the audience is tremendously confused. There is a guy named George who had bad luck in love and in life, but […]
Noises Off Did we need another 70s-set backstage theatre farce mere months after Jitters? No. But Soulpepper’s production of Noises Off made me laugh louder and with more obnoxious uncontainable shrieks than anything else I’ve seen this year so I’ll welcome the repetition. Simon Fon’s fight and stunt work was still too careful and a […]
Adapting a novel for the stage is certainly no easy feat. Sacrifices and changes must be made to slim down what can be a lengthy and detailed narrative into a coherent, streamlined and more visual medium. The risk lies in the impact this conversion can have on the end-product, specifically whether what works on the […]
There are, or at least have currently been presented, two ways of tackling autism on a London stage, and this probably goes for other mental illnesses as well: a subjective and an objective approach. The subjective integrates symptoms into a play’s form; the objective doesn’t. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is […]
This new adaptation by Matthew Thomas Walker (who also directs) of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian masterpiece written 84 years in the past and set 524 years in the future is big and bold for a company only on its third project. The script is a little bloated, full of draggy exposition that could certainly be shown […]
It’s a grind to attend three hours of theatre. But grinds aren’t always bad. Sometimes, the alienation that accompanies “why I am watching this?” can induce some valuable critical distance. There are good questions to be raised about Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes Home from the Wars. In the process of watching it: “why three parts?”, […]
Filament Incubator is presenting 8 plays in 8 months, creating opportunities for young playwrights to get their work on its feet and in front of an audience. The ambition of that is remarkable and, no matter the merit of any particular production in said slate, it’s an overall extremely impressive feat. It therefore pains me […]