Despite my love for all things Shakespeare, it has been over ten years since I last saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed live.* Therefore, Hamlet Isn’t Dead’s intimate production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Westbeth Artists Community was an enjoyable re-introduction to one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies with a strong, energetic ensemble of […]
Toronto has some killer young actresses, a few of whom have found particularly big showcases in small productions currently on Toronto stages. Below are a few of note, in order of impact. Changeling; A Grand Guignol for Muderous Times (Desiderata Theatre Co.) There’s a lot to like about Harrison Thomas’ brutal and inventive production […]
There’s only one more week to see The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? playing at Unit 102 Theatre, and see it you should. Leroy Street Theatre’s production is a stunning example of the excellent indie theatre scene currently flourishing in Toronto. Directed by Christ Bretecher, this staging of Edward Albee’s play about a man who […]
The latest production at the Storefront Theatre is a stop-and-go situation. There are long swaths where I struggled to stay engaged; meandering monologues from playwright Jason Maghanoy’s broad characters in a time and place surprisingly ill defined considering the seeming importance of time and place in Maghanoy’s underdeveloped story about an outlaw unsuccessfully hanged. It’s […]
John Steinbeck’s novella is such a staple of middle and high school reading lists that it may be easy (in my experience, at least) for it to blend into a series of vaguely recalled Western frontier archetypes typical of The American Novel, ranches and all. Unit 102’s intimately staged production of the author’s self-penned stage […]
Scarberia (Young People’s Theatre) As the lights dimmed on Evan Placey’s coast-jumping, Shakespeare-referencing, mind-bending one-act about two sets of teenage boys tied together by a young woman who goes missing in Scarborough, Ontario and shows up in Scarborough, England, the early-high school audience began muttering that it was “too complicated” and “confusing”. It is really […]
The Archivist as a title for a performance piece suggests an exploration of a reserved, organized and knowledgeable figure. It can also suggest someone with a degree of detachment from the material they are curating; when I think of archivists, I think of slightly senior employees who labour away in the bowels of an institution, […]
Heather Litteer is not a stripper or a prostitute or a junky who will go to any length to score a fix – but, as she explains at the beginning of her new play Lemonade, she plays one on television and in films. Litteer’s autobiographical play explores her disappointing type-casted acting career as a sexualized […]