Casimir and Caroline opens on a balcony. No…. more than that. The play opens on a balcony at a corporate office party while the heads of corporate are in fact up in the sky in a zeppelin. Now have you ever actually really experienced a balcony at a corporate office party while the heads of corporate are […]
There is something quite delightful about walking into a bar, grabbing a beverage and settling in to watch a show. If you are familiar with this feeling, odds are you have seen a few Shakespeare BASH’d shows in your day. Their take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins the way any good show should- with […]
Strong design elements and performances give Girl in the Machine,…
Set in the British Columbia town of Kelowna against the backdrop of the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, Dock Mother God Society, Blood Pact Theatre’s latest production, is the story of personal, familial, and societal dysfunction that is both tragic and hilarious in its storytelling and delivery. In this one act play, we meet […]
Both the best and worst thing about theatre, and indie theatre especially, is its ephemerality. Productions close so fast that you never have the time you need to tell every person you’ve ever met, and some you haven’t, that they have to see the show you just saw. And in the Toronto independent theatre landscape, […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Emotional Labour (A) Written and performed by Jess Beaulieu and Luis Fernandes, this clever two-hander about the division of labour, both emotional and physical, in modern relationships is devastatingly relatable. It’s not subtle, but I fear if it were any more subtle it would […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Off the bat, because all our other Fringe reviews have letter grades right beside the title, let’s get this out of the way and just say The Huns is getting an A. But read on for too much explanation of why that grade doesn’t quite […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. I, Malvolio (B+) Justin Otto’s performance in I, Malvolio is powerful. If you can take anything away from this review, let it be that. Otto demands the audience’s attention from the moment they enter the room. There is an air of chaos about Otto’s […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Omen: The Musical (A) This modern witchy musical about a post-climate change (aka post-apocalyptic) world is eerie and enchanting. All three protagonists are individual and well developed. The musical direction of the show is consistent and unique. The setting and concept of the show […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Fuckboys the Musical (B) I quite liked this sassy American import featuring a cast of a bunch of standout women and a couple forgettable men. It’s too long and the storytelling is pretty muddled as the show attempts to service four main characters while […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII (B) The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Til Death is how impressive Tara Travis’ stamina is. Seven characters. One actor. It’s a feat, that’s for sure. Travis jumps, rolls, moves across […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE News Play (A-) Madeleine Brown has concocted another show with a unique, funny and disarmingly rich story. Siblings and Joy (Charlin McIsaac) and Phoebus (Greg Solomon), one a writer and the other an illustrator, are forced via lack of work, as well as blackmail, […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Clotheswap (A-) I love a good in-real-life clothes swap, so I was quite excited to see Amanda Barker’s and Dale Boyer’s production, Clotheswap. I was even more happy to see that I could bring my own clothes to the show and that those clothes […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. Night Cows (A) A percussive heartbeat punctuates the soundscape of Night Cows/Les vaches de nuits. Eléonore Lamothe sits curled into a broad cowhide chair. The only other objects adorning the stage are a mobile of crows and a beautifully crafted cow skull hung from […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. The Ballad of Frank Allen (A) “Fringe veterans performing an award-winning show” sets your expectations high; “sci-fi buddy-comedy about a tiny man who lives in another man’s beard” scrambles your expectations beyond repair. Audiences go into this show not knowing what they’re walking into […]
Take a look at our full list of 2019 Fringe reviews HERE. The December Man (B+) This December will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, where fourteen women at École Polytechnique were murdered in an act of targeted, violent misogyny (their pictures line the wall of the Eastminster performance space). One question that […]
It’s Toronto Fringe Festival Time! See the list below to find reviews of everything our team saw this Fringe. The Huns (A) Emotional Labour (A) Omen: The Musical (A) The Ballad of Frank Allen (A) Night Cows (A) News Play (A-) It Girls (A-) The Weight of It All (A-) Sweet Kisses, Tender Limbs (A-) Philip & Lucinda Dino-Show (A-) Death Ray […]
“The sadness. It gets in your fabric.” The Doll Play: A Miniature Revolution, presented by Witchboy Theatre and Blood Pact Theatre at the recently opened Grand Canyon, sounds disarmingly simple: a bunch of dolls in a child psychologist’s office, fed up of being by jostled and torn by damaged young brats, resolve to reclaim their […]
Theatre company Shakespeare BASH’d “is an actor initiative that… produces Shakespeare’s plays in social settings”, “with simple staging, clear and sympathetic language, and an emphasis on the text and actors telling the story”. (This is all cribbed from their program.) They stage their work in pubs and bars, in the round, and have progressively gotten […]
“It’s so simple: I need to know you’re listening…” It’s not just a plea to an assailant: it’s a message to audiences at The Assembly Theatre and society at large. The toughest conversations around sexual assault occur behind closed doors, too late to spare one party. By dramatising these so vividly, playwright Amy Lee Lavoie […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2018 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Most theatre artists have to slog for a long while at the start of their professional careers before getting any faint public praise, or even mention of their work. Few would dare hope to be cited […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2018 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. The indefatigable Anne van Leeuwen is the Artistic Director of Leroy Street Theatre and co-founder of The Assembly Theatre, the young Parkdale venue that won an Honorary Critics’ Pick Award last year for its entrepreneurial spirit and […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2018 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Wesley Berger had a hand in four different nominations for this year’s Critics’ Pick Awards. As the director of Outstanding Production nominee Kill the Poor with Leroy Street Theatre, he shepherded Outstanding Leading Performance contender Anne van […]
Many Shakespeare plays present an imposing barrier to entry even for educated audiences. Directors devise increasingly inventive ways to make them accessible or relevant – or at least to have their own fun and leave their own mark on the work in the guise of doing this. Othello weds a simple plot, touching on familiar […]
Gruesome Playground Injuries is all about variations on themes. Director Chris Bretecher writes that, in following the characters through their unlikely and unlucky journey, “we acknowledge topics of mental health, sexual consent, substance abuse, self harm, and risk taking behaviours”. This is far clearer in the literature than the text: the playbill explains the production’s […]
Be sure to check out our full list of Next Stage reviews. A Bear Awake in Winter Bullying as a topic in theatre, especially for young people, has been ascendent for the past few years. But it’s rarely examined with such nuance and even-handedness (and humour, even) as in Ali Joy Richardson’s script here. Richardson’s […]