Known for their elaborate escape rooms and interactive experiences, Secret City has teamed up with Netflix to bring to life Rian Johnson’s whodunnit film series Knives Out in the form of an immersive dinner theatre experience called The Perfect Bite. It’s an original mystery set at a dinner party where you’ll be served a four […]
Written and performed by Dora Nominee Ahmad Meree, UNCIVILIZEDdraws from Meree’s experiences of coming to Canada as a refugee from Aleppo, Syria, in 2016. The set up is instantly striking. We find Meree centre stage, facing a video camera projecting his image onto the back screen. A disembodied woman’s voice comes over the loudspeaker, […]
Currently onstage at Buddies in Bad Times, director Jay Northcott’s production of the ridiculously named Bootycandy is a triumph. Blazingly funny and brutally sad, Robert O’Hara’s zinging text links together a vignette structure through unexpected metatheacricality that brilliantly interrogates itself as well as the larger landscape of contemporary theatre in all its diverse, performative, well-intentioned, […]
A 1s1 Theatre and Nightwood Theatre co-production in association with Modern Times Stage Company and Why Not Theatre, playwright Erin Shields’ poetic and at times gruesome one-act To A Flame is a visual treat and sensory rollercoaster set in a lush world of gothic horror, directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo with additive beauty to be fully accessible to deaf audiences (with […]
Icarus Theatre’s production of Walden currently playing in the Theatre Centre’s BMO Incubator is an intimate and intricate presentation of a bold and inspiring text. Amy Berryman’s script (here receiving its Canadian premiere) is my favourite kind of script, one that is accessible and enjoyable on a blind first viewing but also makes me […]
Two of the strongest productions at the Shaw Festival this year, this duo of dramedies features witty, vibrant women and the flimsy men who take up too much of their time. Among women who can seriously sing in Canada, to the best of my expertise, Sara Farb is probably the best actress. That’s a […]
Rock solid tragicomedies with memorable visuals, rich design, and reliable casts, this duo of productions represent what the Shaw Festival does best. In Sleuth, the excellent directorial debut of fan favourite performer Peter Fernandes, a badger-haired Patrick Galligan brings his veteran gravitas to a role that perfectly capitalizes on the little twinkle he always […]
Director/adaptor Fiona Sauder has always taken kids really seriously. Or, rather, she takes them at least as seriously as she takes adults. Probably more. As a result, she might be the most reliable creator of quality theatre for young audiences I’ve encountered in my career. Her work never takes kids’ attention for granted but neither […]