Created by Why Not Theatre, The RISER Project is a new initiative that pairs established companies with emerging artists to share resources and make producing indie theatre just a little bit easier. The inaugural RISER season is taking place at The Theatre Centre with two shows already wrapped and another two currently on stage. Paolozzapedia […]
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 […]
With the weather warming up and city-dwellers coming out of hibernation, the Toronto theatre community is providing plenty of places for them to go. You could head down Yonge Street to see Once (starring the always likeable Ian Lake) or to The Annex for The LOT’s Hairspray (with the amazing Matt McKay as Seaweed) then […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. The role of real life military prisoner Chelsea Manning in Jonathan Seinen’s Unknown Soldier may have been the most challenging task given to any actor this year. In the SummerWorks one-act, Best Solo Performance nominee Jeff Ho […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. A rare nominee being celebrated for multiple productions, Melanie Hrymak features in the opposite categories of Solo Performance and Best Ensemble. The captivating work she did at the Fringe Festival in her Best Solo Performance-nominated show Licking Knives, […]
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 […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Denise Mader’s intensely personal solo show about her mother’s death was both fantastically funny and devastatingly sad. To help with her audience’s emotional recovery, she served pie after every performance of This One (pie she’d baked fresh onstage!). […]
I first saw Fufu and Oreos in a staged reading. Obehi Janice performed her one-woman creative memoir at Company One’s 2014 XX PlayLab, only slightly hindered by carrying a binder-script and lacking props. The piece piqued my interest, and I was looking forward to seeing it fully produced. Bridge Repertory Theater has taken it up: […]
Read Thea’s Reviews and Lorenzo’s Reviews of the NSTF. Graham Clark Reads the Phonebook I loved comedian Graham Clark’s solo show at last summer’s Fringe Festival. So did everyone else, including Fringe head honcho Lucy Eveleigh. So Lucy invited him back for the Next Stage Festival. This, in theory, makes sense (especially considering they have […]
In tiny spaces just off Queen West last week, two tiny plays took my breath away. One in the more metaphorical sense that it left me speechless and contemplative and moved but uncomfortable with said moving. The other in the literal sense that I was crying so hard I had trouble catching my breath. Playwright […]
Good solo shows are undeniably impressive. It takes a lot of energy, storytelling skill, and presence for one actor to capture and maintain an audience’s attention. That said, Bob Brader has all of those qualities (and then some) in his one-man show Spitting in the Face of the Devil, which I saw at the United […]
Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and our Full Listing of SummerWorks 2014 reviews. New This Year: The My Theatre Favourite Discount If your Fringe or SummerWorks show scores an A+ or A, you can cash in on that goodwill with a 50% discount on advertising your next show on My Entertainment World. If you scored an […]
Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 3 and our Full Listing of SummerWorks 2014 reviews. New This Year: The My Theatre Favourite Discount If your Fringe or SummerWorks show scores an A+ or A, you can cash in on that goodwill with a 50% discount on advertising your next show on My Entertainment World. If you […]
Be sure to check out Part 2, Part 3 and our Full Listing of SummerWorks 2014 reviews. New This Year: The My Theatre Favourite Discount If your Fringe or SummerWorks show scores an A+ or A, you can cash in on that goodwill with a 50% discount on advertising your next show on My Entertainment World. If you scored an A- […]
I Think Therefore I’m Graham (A) Like most shows in the Tarragon Solo Room, Graham Clark’s Fringe show is essentially stand-up comedy and, like most shows in the Tarragon Solo Room, it lives or dies by the charm and wit of the lone performer. Luckily for I Think Therefore I’m Graham, Graham Clark is among […]
The Legend of White Woman Creek (B+) This show should cut its framing device. At the heart of Katie Hartman & Nick Ryan’s no-frills musical drama is a stirring story about love and hate in the burgeoning American west. Alone on stage with just her guitar and her atmospheric and strong (though sometimes a little […]
Amusement (B+) How cute are Johnnie Walker and Morgan Norwich. And what an enjoyable performance they’ve put together to celebrate Nobody’s Business Theatre’s 10th (along with Redheaded Stepchild, review forthcoming). Amusement is funny, brilliantly written and wonderfully executed. This comedy, and sometimes musical, is the perfect fix for any 28, going on 19-year-old out there. […]
[Editor’s Note: Jess Couture (one of My Sports’ founding Contributing Authors) wasn’t scheduled to help us review the Toronto Fringe. In fact, she’s only in town for a couple of days. But she happened to accompany me when I went to review One Legged Dancer. Jess has years of experience working with the disabled community so […]
Great Battles in History (A+) Mark Shyzer is the breakout star of the Fringe so far, at least in my estimation. Only Human is a big part of that (which I’ll talk about in a minute) but it’s his solo show that’s the most remarkable achievement. Superficially, Great Battles in History is a meta comedy […]
Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl (B+) Rebecca Perry’s semi-musical solo show about an overqualified twentysomething slinging coffee to make ends meet is incredibly charming. Advertised as an anthropological study of coffeeshop culture, it’s really more of a modern fairytale, complete with a handsome patron serving as both prince charming and fairy godmother. The storytelling […]