As I waited in traffic on the highway leading to JFK airport, I skimmed the review requests filling my Inbox. Despite having a frenzied month at work and preparing to move overseas, as soon as I got word that the President had signed an executive order banning refugees and immigrants from traveling into the country […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2015 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. The gut-punch centrepiece to the Theatre Centre’s spectacular November Ticket was a bold, terrifying, hilarious, provocative, imaginative think piece called We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Soulpepper had a very successful 2014 with plenty of big-ticket productions that made many a year-end and awards list (including ours). The Road to Mecca was not one of those productions; it was a quiet three-hander, placed […]
In tiny spaces just off Queen West last week, two tiny plays took my breath away. One in the more metaphorical sense that it left me speechless and contemplative and moved but uncomfortable with said moving. The other in the literal sense that I was crying so hard I had trouble catching my breath. Playwright […]
Good solo shows are undeniably impressive. It takes a lot of energy, storytelling skill, and presence for one actor to capture and maintain an audience’s attention. That said, Bob Brader has all of those qualities (and then some) in his one-man show Spitting in the Face of the Devil, which I saw at the United […]
Check out our Full List of Fringe reviews HERE and see below for my report from my first day of shows at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Tachycardia (C-) The first show on my Fringe schedule fell victim to that very Fringe-y problem of artistically indulgent accidental silliness. Nadine Bhabha and Joel Edmiston begin the play with […]
Toronto is one of the greatest theatrical cities in the world and this winter I’ve seen a smattering of productions that prove that across style, medium, budget, and venue. Here’s a sampling of some of the standout eclectic work from recent weeks: The Student Show: A friend of mine invited me this past weekend to York […]
I have no idea what is going on at the Panasonic right now. It’s a bafflingly weird 90s-era one-woman comedy show, I guess. But, like, Super Canadian without any of the kind-clean-generous-welcoming-diverse-unassuming-forward thinking traits that make us awesome. Mary Walsh is one of those people- and there are startling number of them- whom I’m told […]
I am not the person to talk about Necessary Angel’s current production of 4.48 Psychosis. Abstract, poetry-driven contemporary theatre is not my cup of tea to begin with, but more than anything I say I’m not the person for this task because 4.48 Psychosis is a deeply personal piece about a woman whom I never […]
Warning. Both this show and this review are heavily experiential. I was just thinking the other day how much I miss those long gone days of university productions that were staged professionally, but with the much-needed energy and liveliness that fresh and ambitious minds can bring to live theatre. I’ve been a bit bored lately, […]
This show has led me to realize that “falling” in love is a rather ominous term. It appears that relationships are doomed from the beginning, especially ones that have started off as a coup de feu: too intense to really survive their original spark. It seems like this is the case between Anabel (Julia Lederer) […]
I read the original version of Without You when it was first released in 2006. It was a lovely book, full of emotional memories and revealing frankness nestled among the awkward prose and insider-y Renthead bait. I, like almost every theatre-loving girl of my generation, have a very special place in my heart for Rent […]
I’d heard so many great things about Melody A. Johnson’s one-woman show Miss Caledonia that my expectations were sky-high. There’s something just so incredibly charming about a woman who grows up and ends up spending much of her writing and performing career paying tribute to her country-girl mother and the much-smaller dreams that led to […]
The stage adaptation of David Sedaris’ first person account of elf life at Macy’s is as smartly sarcastic and belly-shakingly funny as you’d expect from the famous essayist, but what struck me most is how not-so-dark the heart of his dark comedy is. I would even go all the way to sweet. Insofar as a […]
On Dundas East, in Regent Park, there is a fantastic new Toronto theatre. The Aki Studio Theatre in the beautiful Daniels Spectrum community centre is a truly great space: a big convertible black box that feels at once expansive and intimate- the perfect place to house Keith Barker’s new play that touches on how one […]
Hirsch is the studio production thrown into the Stratford 2012 season at the last minute. It doesn’t really belong in a tangible way, but it’s about an eccentric former Artistic Director, so why not? Alon Nashman is great as John Hirsch- an inarguably fascinating figure in Canadian theatre and the world at large- and I […]
The Summerworks Festival is my one big regret of the summer, theatre-wise. After a disappointing Fringe, I was really looking forward to the juried, uniquely Torontonian festival. The lineup looked pretty good and I had my press pass all lined up but I simply dropped the ball. I saw only 6 productions over the course […]
The 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival Has Finally Begun! Actually, it began last Wednesday, but I just saw my first show so I say it has only now officially begun (remember how this site is an evil dictatorship? Never forget again). I’ve just returned from a 1:45pm-12am day consisting of 5 Fringe shows (and a detour […]
Rick Miller’s wackado Macbeth retelling, currently masquerading as a fourth Shakespeare production at the Stratford Festival, uses a comprehensive cast of voices from one of TV’s most successful crazy experiments, The Simpsons. When this silly one act was appearing at fringe and comedy festivals, or when it played at The Factory Theatre last September, it […]
Sometimes a one-act play can be brilliant in its low-frills simplicity (great one-man shows like Modern Love, Bursting into Flames and Ellamentary are like that). Sometimes their shortened length allows for succinct storytelling and tight pacing (particularly in intimate stories like family-centred one-acts Kim’s Convenience and Remember, Maggy?– both wonderful). And sometimes you’re glad a […]
I appreciate when theatre companies aren’t afraid to tackle the tough topics. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing two brash and honest plays by Heart & Dagger Productions. Beyond the Light is a new play by theatre “jack-all-trades” Joey C. Pelletier. His venture into playwriting is rewarding for both the company and the […]