If you believe a hair salon an unlikely place to find community, you’d be wrong. In fact, in Trey Anthony’s iconic play ‘da Kink in my Hair, directed by Weyni Mengesha, it’s even more than that: it’s a place of healing, a forum where the vulnerable or voiceless step into the spotlight for a moment. […]
Kelly Bedard
Before we announce the winners of the 2019 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual …
Alexander Franks
Now the fact I was wearing a heavy sweater probably added to this, but I exited out of The Runner (Human Cargo Productions, written by Christopher Morris) just absolutely sweating. I was exhausted by this play, but I would see it again and again. Directed by Daniel Brooks and the sole role of Jacob played by […]
Dom Harvey
Hannah Moscovitch’s Secret Life of a Mother is a raw and compelling portrait of the darker side of motherhood – one rarely acknowledged in polite conversation, forcing the arts to shoulder the burden of challenging these long-standing taboos. Moscovitch herself is the titular mother but the lead in this one-woman (but many-women) show is Maev […]
Amy Strizic
I think I have a new Christmas tradition. I’ve always known the story of A Christmas Carol, but it’s never been a big part of my life. It’s the one with the crotchety old man? Bill Murray was in the movie? In The Three Ships Collective production, however, there are no low blows, and it […]
Kelly Bedard
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, […]
Mark Kreder
The Resistance Continues. That’s the sub-title of The Second City’s latest run of their feminist sketch phenom She The People. And there are a lot of things to resist: those who are against vaccinating their children, men telling women what they can and can’t do, or double standards that women have to deal with. Carly Heffernan, […]
Lisa McKeown
Initially staged at SummerWorks in 2015, Erin Shields’ Beautiful Man features Jennifer, Sophie, and Pam (Ashley Bottling, Mayko Nguyen, and Sophía Rodríguez), who perch on stools facing the audience. They chat about their favourite show featuring a woman detective who investigates violent crimes targeting beautiful young men. They gush over her darker side – she’s […]
Lorenzo Pagnotta
In the play OUT, first produced at the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival, writer-performer Greg Campbell takes us on a personal walk in 1977 Montreal, channelling his autobiography through Glen as he slowly comes out, amidst the unfolding gay liberation movements across North America. It’s captivating to see a story rooted in a time when “gay” […]
Steve Fisher
Two shows that had smaller stage runs when they first debuted are back in Toronto, with more room to breathe. At Factory Theatre, Bears is back, after a far too brief run (just ten shows) at the Theatre Centre last spring. Created out west by Aboriginal Performing Arts and Punctuate! Theatre (whose Matthew MacKenzie both […]
Lisa McKeown
This Crow’s remount of the 2017 Shaw production of Will Eno’s Middletown, is the story of a generic town, equidistant from its neighbouring towns, with a stable population, elevation, not too big, not too small. This is, not surprisingly, a kind of metaphor, and the play is less about a grand narrative than it is an […]
Kelly Bedard
Before we announce the winners of the 2017 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Playwright Steven Elliott Jackson’s Outstanding New Work-nominated play The Seat Next to the King was the big runaway hit of the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. The intimate two-hander about two men navigating an illegal romance in […]
Kelly Bedard
Before we announce the winners of the 2017 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. One of the most beautiful voices in Canadian musical theatre belongs to sweetheart tenor Josh Epstein. He’s nominated this year for Outstanding Performance in a Musical as tragic good guy Lensky in Amiel Gladstone & Veda […]
Kymberley Feltham
The lush golden light of the Peter Pan set was a welcome contrast to the sharp cold evening we had rushed through en-route to the theatre, and the space itself served as a refuge from the busy Christmas Market (which Soulpepper ticket holders receive free admission to) surrounding the Young Centre for the Performing Arts […]
Lisa McKeown
Inspired by the true story of an opera singer and a French diplomat, Mr. Shi and His Lover is a semi-operatic play currently on Tarragon’s mainstage. The narrative traces a story in which the two fall in love, and proceed to have a twenty year relationship, during which time Mr. Shi believed his lover to […]
Lisa McKeown
Adam Lazarus’s play Daughter is about masculinity. Or rather: it is a play about toxic masculinity. Or, even more accurately: it is a play about the ways in which the patriarchy molds men into defective moral agents. This is a very intellectual description for a theatre review, and of a very visceral experience. So let me […]
Chelsea Dinsmore
Director Ravi Jain’s adaptation of Salt-Water Moon distills the classic Canadian play by David French to its essence: two lovers under a star-filled sky. The story centers on the return of Jacob Mercer to Coley’s Point, Newfoundland after his abrupt departure for Toronto a year earlier. Although his old flame Mary Snow is now engaged […]
Kelly Bedard
Vikki Velenosi and Kasey Dunn are the co-founders of Brick and Mortar, an artist-run company that owns and operates three independent theatre spaces in Toronto- The Box, The Attic, and, their latest addition, The Commons. All year round, those spaces are filled with indie artists mounting new, creative, challenging work. But for 5 days in […]
Lisa McKeown
Eric Peterson is back once again performing Billy Bishop – a Canadian war hero from the First World War. Forty years since its creation, this production celebrates not just Peterson and Maclachlan Gray’s creation, but brings Soulpepper through Canada’s own 150th birthday. The set stands out immediately as interesting and effective: around the stage set […]
Kelly Bedard
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Bendy Sign Tavern (A-) This site-specific puppet rom-com from Fringe favourites Sex T-Rex is a lovely departure from their usual action/adventure fare and a great showcase for their MVP Kaitlin Morrow whose puppetry skills won her our Honorary MyTheatre Award for 2016. The company […]
Lisa McKeown
Walking into the theatre, the audience also walks into a crime scene. Chairs line the walls of Tarragon’s upstairs workspace, facing the middle of the room where a woman in a red hoodie lies on the floor, surrounded by pieces of paper. We’re in her apartment, but what has happened? The pre-show for Circlesnake’s remount […]
Lisa McKeown
Of Human Bondage is back for its third staging at Soulpepper. Written by Vern Thiessen, and based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, the play traces the life of Philip Carey, an artist turned med student. Philip isn’t just just training to care for others but has himself a physical vulnerability – he has […]
Lisa McKeown
At this point, Kim’s Convenience hardly needs an introduction. Having toured nationally, with multiple remounts, and having been turned into a CBC series (it’s just been renewed for a second season), this summer Ins Choi’s play will head to New York City for its U. S. Premiere. But for now, it’s back at Soulpepper. The […]
Lisa McKeown
Kate Hennig’s contemporary history play traces the story of King Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr (Kate) – beginning with his awkward and aggressive pursuit of her, her negotiation of their marriage (and sex life, which was pretty impressive), to Kate’s attempt to be both a mother and political advocate for Mary and […]
Kelly Bedard
Toronto Fringe’s winter mini-fest Next Stage is in a tricky spot. It plays host to the first productions of every year in Toronto theatre; the audience full of hope and anticipation and ready to have the bar set for the year to come. Curated and titled as it is, it’s not hard to expect something […]
Kelly Bedard
Toronto’s (Canada’s?) most ambitious professional theatre company is undoubtedly Soulpepper. The artist-led organization has never been shy about making their mark on the city but lately they’re expanding at a rate worth noting. This is especially noticeable at Christmas time, a season which used to consist of just two signature productions remounted in alternating years […]