There’s something deeply satisfying about discovering a competent, innovative cover version of one of your favourite songs. I have a great deal of admiration for artists who not only re-record someone else’s tune, but reinvent it and put their own spin on it in a way that showcases just as much artistry as the source […]

 

The two one-act plays that make up Spiel Players’ double bill- currently playing as part of Fraser Studios’ 2015 indie season- are both new adaptations of strange, challenging work from radical French playwright Marguerite Duras. They both revel in meandering, poetic language and the pointed vagueness of their character portraits but that is where their similarities […]

There really are not enough wonderful things to say about The Object Lesson, part of the World Stage series at Harbourfront Centre. I have not seen such an enchanting piece of theatre in a long time. It’s truly a shame that its run is so short as it would offer many, I feel, the chance […]

All it takes is one well-placed, often shocking line to permanently cement a show in my mind. In Necessary Monsters, John Kuntz’s new play, I ran into that line about halfway through the two hour performance, at the pit of this nested, Russian-doll-of-a-show. An upper crust, philanthropic socialite (actually a performer in drag (Thomas Derrah) […]

I thought I was being clever when, as I tripped and scraped and picked my way over the frozen tundra that used to be the sidewalk along Arsenal Street, I said to myself: “I’ll begin the review with some joke comparing the show to the Snowmaggedon that has plagued Boston this month.” After stepping out […]

 “Into the woods you go again, you have every now and then.” If you have never been Into the Woods, now is the time. Between Hollywood’s adaptation of this beloved musical, the availability of the original Broadway cast production on Netflix, and stage productions of Stephen Sondheim’s best work popping up across the country, there […]

I’ve never had much of a taste for the modern James Bond films. The subpar Brosnan films, followed by the latest batch of serious and cold Craig films, have left me with little interest in the franchise. In fact, most action spy thrillers have a tendency to take themselves a little too seriously and never […]

 

I’m sorry. I just can’t see Hannah as a teacher. Girls’ “Close Up” saw Hannah floundering now that she’s back in New York and without Adam. Elijah came back from Iowa too, having done all he could there, and is living with Hannah and eating all her cereal. After an appointment with her therapist, which […]