With so many productions to see (and some of our staffers headed out of town to cover San Diego Comic-Con), we’ve brought on extra help this year to review more Toronto Fringe Festival shows than ever. Over 10 days, 7 critics will be tackling nearly 100 productions. Check out the full list below. The My […]
The Stratford Festival is having some women issues this year with a season that includes a dispiriting number of plays with misogynistic themes and not enough female-led works (though the late openers may help matters, hopefully). In contrast, at least in my opinion, The Shaw Festival is killing it on the female front despite the gender […]
A storm was supposed to be coming. Said forecast moved Desiderata Theatre Co’s production of Lot and His God from the Citizenry Cafe patio to its limited indoor space for one night only. Citizenry is too nice to really pass for the dilapidated Sodom cafe described in the text but, trapped inside with too many […]
M’dea Undone (Tapestry Opera) This world premiere one-act opera from Tapestry is smart and character-driven with a cleverly modern libretto by Marjorie Chan and superb performances from its 7-person cast, including Jacqueline Woodley as a refreshingly savvy and complex Dahlia and the brilliant Lauren Segal in the title role of the scorned wife of aspirational […]
The use of white makeup as a base for exaggerated features has become a fairly standard practice in productions with a sense of heightened reality. This month in Toronto there are three shows all making use of the convention, albeit in wildly different ways. Trudeau & Levesque Their distinctive makeup is arguably the most […]
There are a few operatic conventions that really get me down. The first is a wackadoo story that let’s say isn’t exactly grounded in human truth. The second is overdramatic Tragedy with a capital t. Though the two productions that make up the Canadian Opera Company’s spring season embody, respectively, these qualities to a tee, […]
Tom at the Farm (Buddies in Bad Times) This gorgeous and disturbing piece of personal theatre from Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard is one of the first truly great productions I’ve seen this year. Making its English language debut through Linda Gaboriau’s poetic and honest translation, Tom at the Farm is staged with searing insight […]
Creditors (Coal Mine Theatre) The final piece in Coal Mine Theatre’s fantastically successful inaugural season is a dark domestic drama from August Stringberg set in a 19th century world of rampant misogyny and even more rampant psychotic jealousy. The solid production benefits greatly from director Rae Ellen Bodie’s background in dialect coaching (there’s a clarity […]