Ranking: #11 At 2 hours and 15 minutes, The Shaw Festival’s weakest production of the year drags unforgivably. The story of a weak-willed Prime Minister whose sudden socialist enlightenment causes great tumult, On The Rocks has within it some great themes of idealism in government and the importance of standing for something, but it falls […]
Company, is a masterpiece in Sondheim’s body of work. The simple story is so nuanced and steeped in human reality that it is actually one of the composer’s most complex works. So when the NY Philharmonic announced that they’d be assembling an all-star cast to take on all the “Sorry/Grateful” contradictions of the piece, I […]
The final show of Soulpepper’s summer season baffled me a little bit. Judith Thompson’s White Biting Dog was effectively executed by first time director Nancy Palk and Soulpepper’s stellar acting company, but the point somewhat eluded me. It had its moments of poignancy, some of them very pronounced, but overall left me some mixture of […]
In our first year covering Toronto’s Summerworks Festival we saw a total of 10 vastly different productions. From the beloved to the despised; from uber professional to pathetically amateur; pretentious to earnest; new works, established favourites, ensemble projects, two person vignettes, musicals, absurdist parables, dance pieces, hits, bombs, comedies, dramas and every possible thing in […]
As the background notes in Soulpepper’s Glass Menagerie playbill remind us, Tennessee Williams had a preoccupation with delicate people. He loved them. Himself being a fairly delicate person, he found them the most sympathetic, the most relatable. I, who greatly admire Williams’ poetic language and unrelenting dedication to emotional complexity, really struggle with the plight […]
Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is one of the most interesting theatrical pieces written in the 20th century. It’s quick-witted and academic, funny and touching, thought-provoking, heart-breaking and wildly entertaining. With heavy parallelism linking the superb characters between two eras in a single household (1809 and 2011- the studied and the studying), Arcadia becomes a sort of […]
I’m a little bit in love with Argos Productions. With a charismatic artistic director and a mandate to perform original works with the writer involved in the development, Argos is the latest company after my heart. Their inaugural production, however, is a little shaky. Junkie, a new work by John Shea, takes the form of […]
I saw Billy Bishop Goes to War years ago. The version I saw featured a middle-aged Billy boastfully recounting his historical triumphs and the antics of his charismatic younger self. It was light and full of energy, clear but reflective, a really enjoyable and engrossing piece of theatre. But as the years have passed, creators […]