MDLSX, produced by Italian theatre company Motus, bravely opened the Progress Festival at Toronto’s Theatre Centre. It certainly lives up to the festival’s intentions. Just like Progress brings together theatre collectives with a contemporary focus from across the world, MDLSX itself has been developed in collaboration with many European collectives and festivals, extending from Paris […]
Calpurnia is a meta play written and directed by Audrey Dwyer, a black Torontonian woman, about Julie, an upper class black Torontonian woman who is writing an updated version of To Kill a Mockingbird from the perspective of the Finch-family maid Calpurnia. It is a co-production by Nightwood Theatre and Sulong Theatre companies at Buddies […]
Declarations, a new show by celebrated Toronto Playwright Jordan Tannahill, is yet another testament to the author’s ability to present innovative, new theatre. A fascinating meeting of text and movement—of the ephemeral and what remains—Declarations is a thoughtful, evocative exploration of form, body, text and grief. “This is the thing; This is not the thing.” So begins Declarations, as […]
In Ise Lyfe and Matt Werner’s new play Agnus, everything about 2047 feels unnervingly familiar. A soothing artificial intelligence called “Sequoyah” relays information upon command, screen-obsessed citizens are stirred into fervors by corporate media sensationalism, privately run prisons become breeding grounds for unethical behavior and the government seeks ways to control both the content and distribution […]
The Theatre Centre has started 2018 off with a bang. Bears, the newest creation by Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and Punctuate! Theatre, is everything you could hope for in a theatre production. It is filled with surprises, twists and wonder. Floyd, played by the talented Sheldon Elter, is being hunted through the wilderness of western […]
He lives in a pineapple under the sea and now that pineapple has come to Broadway. The new Broadway musical SpongeBob SquarePants is perhaps the best musical that it could be given the fact that it is about a psychedelic world where a sponge, a squirrel and a starfish go on bizarre adventures under the sea. The […]
Originally written (and performed) by Dave Deveau, My Funny Valentine is a play based around the true story of a gay teen who was killed by his classmate in 2008. The narrative weaves through the surrounding community in the aftermath, and shows us the ways they are processing (or not processing) their grief, and the […]
Death and marriage are all the rage on Toronto stages at the moment with four current productions totally preoccupied with one or both. The most prominent is Groundling Theatre Company’s Lear, the young company’s best-to-date by miles. The press release for director Graham Abbey‘s well-focused production claimed that the company was presenting “Lear with […]