A clear feeling of community joy permeated the packed lobby of Toronto’s historic Elgin Theatre this week as the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s latest production opened with great fanfare. The ambitious undertaking is a transplant of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s hit New York staging using a Yiddish translation of Fiddler on the Roof that […]
Béla Bartók’s intense, atmospheric one-act Bluebeard’s Castle returns to the COC this spring full of tonal dissonance, all-time-great lighting design, and, of course, the horrors. Béla Baláz’s libretto (based on a French folk tale) is dark as pitch, a cautionary tale where the red flags start in the first minute (dude is insecure about the […]
Anita La Selva has directed some of the best theatre I’ve ever seen- bold, creative, demanding work that left a lasting impact. That fact is the complicating, heartbreaking, contextualizing background to 12 Litres 8800 Steps, her autobiographical solo show currently on stage in the Factory mainspace. The play tells the devastating personal story that, presumably […]
Writer/director Andrew Kushnir’s latest self-referential verbatim project presents his signature style at its complex, emotional best. Docutheatre has a tendency to fall into reporterly coldness as the research-heavy genre often tells stories involving investigations and the dialogue is spoken exactly as originally uttered by the real life characters rather than translated through a playwright’s […]
There are few modern innovations as inspiring as National Theatre Live. Broadcasting high profile stage productions into movie theatres is an astounding arts accessibility measure that knocks hoity toity work right off its pedestal and brings it to actual audiences regardless of their location or disposable income (see also: PBS Great Performances; irreplaceable). It’s downright […]
Jen Silverman’s wild and wonderful take on Brontë-style gothic drama is currently onstage in a riotous new production at the Theatre Centre Incubator. Directed with a bold voice and a light touch by Bryn Kennedy, The Moors is a triumph that dashes expectations at every turn. Silverman’s text is anarchic and inventive while faithfully […]
The Second City Toronto’s latest revue continues the recent trend away from the political and personal and towards more clear cut comedy. As is often the case, I wanted more of a throughline from the established theme of magic (a successful bit featuring Jesus proves the power of recurrence but I always want more). My […]
The musical version of the seminal Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf album Bat Out Of Hell is a marvel of ridiculousness. The book (Steinman), direction (Jay Scheib), and design (Jon Bausor & Meentje Nielsen with tour updates to the set by Ed Pierce) are some of the worst in the history of the form but, dammnit, the […]