Before we announce the winners of the 2013 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Motor-mouthed scene stealer Jordan Pettle is one of the most consistently entertaining performers in the impressive Soulpepper stable. His immense charm and indefatigable stage presence infuse every show he’s in with enough energy to save even the […]
Soulpepper’s 2014 season opener has a cast of great talents. The massive ensemble makes use of the Academy’s rising stars and the bench-depth at Soulpepper is so impressive that they’ve got the likes of Jeff Lillico and Evan Buliung playing bit parts and waitstaff (actually, small part though it is, Buliung’s gentle Austrian workingman is […]
Following up their universally beloved production of Angels in America, Soulpepper has embarked on a fall program that is both varied and ambitious though not altogether successful, at least not comparatively speaking. 2013 was the season of the multi-part play at The Young Centre with The Norman Conquests ‘ three parts playing a key role. […]
Every once in a while, in the middle of writing a review, we’ll be overcome with a feeling of déjà vu. Whether it’s the Sorkin loyalty on our TV branch or My Cinema’s longstanding affection for Soderbergh, sometimes we find ourselves praising a single artist so much that we start to worry about sounding objective. […]
Joe Orton’s black comedy Entertaining Mr. Sloane is a strange but compelling piece of theatre. It slyly speaks (in a strong cockney accent) to the fragility of our moral character while presenting us with people who reach very extreme conclusions. There’s an absurdist bent to the dark realities within these flawed human beings but the […]
The two most recent productions in Soulpepper’s 2013 season have been lively re-interpretations of texts that can only be described as classics. The first, Michael O’Brien and John Millard’s anachronistic take on Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, was a goofy romp-like good time and little more. The sublime pleasure of having the great Dan Chameroy […]
New Yorkers can say what they want (and frequently do), but Toronto is the best city on the planet. If you are tragic and don’t know this for yourself, then you should know because I tell you All The Time. To prove it yet again, I’ve been sampling the theatre scene for you this month- […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2012 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. A 50+ play veteran of the Soulpepper stage, Oliver Dennis has become a beloved fixture in the best of Toronto theatre. Also known to Slings & Arrows fans as the lovable understudy Jerry, Oliver topped his fantastic 2011 (for which he […]
Two of the best productions currently running on Toronto stages share the unique bond of being ballsy enough to tell a beloved play’s story from a different angle. A practice that’s inescapably commonplace on television and often even in film and literature, the spinoff is far from a regular occurrence in theatre. The most famous one is […]
I generally go to Soulpepper openings alone but I was out of town when A Christmas Carol opened, so I had the pleasure of getting to bring my mother to an everyday evening performance of the biennial remount. I like to talk, in case you haven’t noticed, so I relish getting to explain things like how […]
I went into Soulpepper’s recent production of Endgame hoping for the best. They’re my favourite company in the world and have managed to turn me around on more than a few texts I was sure were overrated until I saw them tackled by the flawless acting company at Soulpepper. The folks down at The Young […]
I think someone should start prescribing a night at the theatre for patients who complain of drowsiness, stress, mild depression or self importance. Not just any night at the theatre, I don’t think Endgame would help, but something like Alligator Pie– a piece so brimming with light, happiness and creativity that one can’t help leaving […]
I went on and on about the awesomeness of The Global Cabaret Festival last year, so I’m not going to say it again. What I will say is that this year was even better with only a few mild disappointments in a wonderful weekend of 9 shows in 2 days from October 12th to 14th. […]
Summer for most people is time for pools and barbecues and baseball. And, don’t get me wrong, I both adore and partake in all of those things. But, for me, what makes summer what it is (beyond those iconic Marine Land ads that mark the beginning and end of the season) is theatre. There’s the […]
Death of a Salesman is exactly the sort of piece that Soulpepper does brilliantly- intimate, personal, actor-driven, and a modern classic. The tight-knit company always fares well with family stories and any time you can cast the first couple of Soulpepper- Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk- as the parents at the centre of things, it’s […]
As directed by Laszlo Marton and featuring the Academy members alongside Soulpepper vets, The Royal Comedians is fine. It’s nowhere near the company’s best work but it has some moments of greatness. Bulgakov’s text is not unlike the production’s repertory fellow The Crucible in that it’s a historical parallel to the author’s contemporary struggles. In Albert […]
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in response to McCarthyism in the 1940s-50s, and it is appropriately infuriating. Responding to the communist witch hunt that was targeting writers like himself, Miller wrote a piece that would become one of the most widely produced American plays in history, about an actual witch hunt. He uses the 1692 […]
It drags in a middle but The Sunshine Boys is the best comedy Soulpepper’s done since they last did Neil Simon (in last season’s The Odd Couple). Simon is hilarious, with a wonderfully human touch of sadness, and the seasoned, naturalistic Soulpepper company fits perfectly with his style. Ted Dykstra smartly doesn’t add too much […]
Mamet is a fantastic playwright; one of my favourites. His work is dark and invasive but also incredibly funny. In the right hands, Mamet can be extraordinary to watch or, rather, listen to. He writes in incomplete thoughts, long-winded musings, and abrupt expletives- essentially, he writes how we talk. At least the fast-talkers, he writes […]
Soulpepper was founded by friends. World-renowned, big-name, highly successful friends, but friends nevertheless. And to this day, Soulpepper is run by friends. You can see it when Albert Schultz knows the name of everyone in the lobby or when Derek Boyes uses his day off from You Can’t Take it With You to watch his friends perform […]
One of the most notable things about Soulpepper is the incredible bench depth the company has going for it. The effect is that almost every Soulpepper show feels like it has an all-star cast. This phenomenon was in full force on opening night of the 20th century American comedy You Can’t Take It With You. […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2011 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present the My Theatre Nominee Interview Series. The theatre-savvy city of Toronto was shaken by the arrival of a single superb new work last summer at the annual Fringe Festival. Tickets for Fringe’s Best New Play Award-winner Kim’s Convenience sold so fast […]
Two days after the premiere of High Life, Soulpepper took its study of addiction back almost 100 years to Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical masterpiece Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Studying O’Neill’s very long 5-person (4, really, plus a tiny servant role) opus in University, I struggled withthe fact that it was so often dubbed a “masterpiece”, […]
Last week was the premieres of two new shows from Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company. One’s a Canadian 110 minute black comedy written in 1997, the other a 3 hour American drama from 1956 that’s largely considered the greatest North American play ever written. But they’re both, in some way, about morphine addiction– throughlines! First up […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2011 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present the My Theatre Nominee Interview Series. In honour of Soulpepper’s tremendous production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which opened last night (review to come), today’s interviews are with two of of the production’s outstanding actors. We already heard from stage vet Joseph […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2011 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present the My Theatre Nominee Interview Series. In honour of Soulpepper’s tremendous production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which opened last night (review to come), today’s interviews are with two of of the production’s outstanding actors. First up is Joseph […]