The Rendezvous with Madness Festival – known for its films – expanded this year to include visual art and performance. The mental health themes addressed in the festival are relevant in today’s world more than ever, and the programming was fittingly launched on World Mental Health Day. I had the opportunity to catch some of […]
Paradise Lost Lucy Peacock is a fabulous spotlight-stealing supernova as Satan in this excellent new adaptation by Erin Shields. She wears fabulous clothes, says fabulous lines, directly addresses the audience, and just generally swags the place up. But the really compelling stuff comes from Qasim Khan and Amelia Sargisson as Adam and Eve. They’re a […]
Bed & Breakfast This delightful play from Mark Crawford and the production directed by Ann-Marie Kerr currently playing at Soulpepper is wonderful for a ton of different reasons. Firstly, it’s a lovely script- both local and contemporary, light and fun but emotional and not-always-so-light. The play calls for two actors who each play a multitude […]
Artistic Director Tim Carroll programmed the 2018 Shaw season with a throughline of war stories, mostly World War I stories. The theme is so pervasive that it seems to divide the season pretty much down the middle, so that’s how I’ve decided to group the plays together- War & Peace. Read about the season’s civilian stories […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of SummerWorks Reviews Café Sarajevo episode 1 (A+) A surprising diversion from the usual SummerWorks lineup, Café Sarajevo is a live SummerWorks LAB podcast discussing the nature of humanity, the implacable human spirit, the importance of language and the heartbreaking struggles of war. Inspired by a famous […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of SummerWorks Reviews Third World (B+) & ZAYO (A) Movement and stories of obstacles overcome merge in these two fascinating, viscerally performed dance pieces. dancer FLY LADY DI opens Third World with a brief, funny and insightful summary of her relationship to dance as a discipline. What […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of SummerWorks Reviews … And You’ll Never Believe What Happens Next (A) The sneaky dissonance of this latest storytelling show from Pressgang Theatre’s Graham Isador adds an intriguing layer of unspoken complication to an already rich and rewarding hour. Demonstrating once again his uncanny knack for […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of SummerWorks Reviews fantasylover (A+) fantasylover was weird and wonderful. The characters presented onstage were so clear and defined, and had the audience in peals of laughter. The show had a good flow throughout, rising and falling in energy, and the amount of thought and work that […]