The worst time of year for me will always be Finale Season because all my shows are leaving me for at least four months. To make it worse, it coincides with summer, which most people enjoy, but without my shows, I run out of excuses to stay inside indefinitely. Hitting me particularly hard this year […]
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into the Young Centre for a performance of Neil Simon’s the Odd Couple. On the one hand, this is a Soulpepper production, which suggests a high bar of artistic talent. On the other hand, this is a comedy from the 1960s, an era that is rife […]
“Book of the Stranger” comes to us, the viewers, as a hardball, line drive, forward thrust into the meat of the episode. This is the kind of episode memes come from, where we can have frank discussions about nudity and sex, where serious discourse regarding power struggles and political intrigue come into play (Tyrion Lannister […]
In troubled times, there are those who seek sources of strength from which they can derive solace or answers. For some, religious faith is the healing crutch on which they rely – a belief in some greater power with the ability to lift away pain and burdens (for the devout, of course). Unfortunately, blind belief […]
Penny Dreadful is back, and it was worth the wait. The first two episodes of Season 3 expanded the show’s universe with new locations, and teased of new horrors to be explored. (Spoilers ahead). Ethan’s storyline is probably the best example of expanding the show’s world. He is being escorted by Inspector Rusk through the […]
London in 1966 has been brought back to life in the dark and smoky setting of the Old Red Lion. The Local Stigmatic by Heathcote Williams tells the story of Graham and Ray, two men with sociopathic tendencies obsessed with betting on dogs and following mildly famous actors around the city. The plot may sound […]
It is easy to become cynical about the state of modern movie making – to focus on the role that international sales (mostly to China) and established franchises play in making a movie profitable and to assume, as it can be easy to assume, that this means the death of art. But movie making has […]
Well, season six of Game of Thrones is off to the races. The board is set, the pieces are moving, and the plot is unfolding like a complex origami maze. And like any origami, it takes a long time for the full story to reveal itself entirely. Yes, we’ve now hit the start of what […]