From July 5-16, six of our Toronto staffers- Kelly Bedard, Duncan Derry, Lisa McKeown, Mary-Margaret Scrimger, Lorenzo Pagnotta and Chelsea Dinsmore- reviewed 100+ plays in this year’s Fringe Festival. We gave out more A grades than ever before in the best-reviewed Fringe we’ve ever seen. Click on the links to read more. The Reviews (in […]
Immigrants. Gentrification. Two subjects that are inescapable when living in New York City. Sometimes it’s easy for New Yorkers to think we have the monopoly on them (as we like to think we have a monopoly on everything). But the Torontonian theater company Soulpepper proves otherwise with Kim’s Convenience, which handles heavy issues with sharp humor […]
The big joke of Ink is that a play about a dumb, sordid newspaper is itself dumb and sordid. The audience doesn’t realise that, Rupert Goold doesn’t, James Graham doesn’t. But it is. Dumb. Sordid. Describing a play as ‘sordid’ makes me sound puritan. But it’s not the content that’s sordid, although Ink is about […]
This dance-opera conceived and designed by co-directors Michael Greyeyes and Yvette Nolan and librettist Spy Denommé-Welch investigates the emotional history and contemporary cultural significance of Canada’s residential school system. The production itself is multi-faceted, combining orchestral music, a choir, opera, and modern dance. The story divides into three movements: in the first, the dancers enter […]
Cavalia’s performance of Odysseo has returned and hardly needs an introduction. The show teases prospective audience members with the promise of galloping horses, flowing manes, impressive circus feats, and magic. And honestly, it does not disappoint. The company, founded in Montreal by Normand Latourelle boasts the world’s largest touring company and tent, as well […]
Adorning Shakespeare’s Globe theatre’s ornate and columned stage loom two large blackened missiles directed toward the soggy groundlings who are fighting the rainy elements on the day of this performance. This is my first play experience in the classic Globe and what better play to to take in than Shakespeare’s iconic story of teenage star-crossed […]
Dear Eleanor, written and directed by Estelle Girard Parks, premiered for one night only at the Kraine Theater. It billed itself as a murder mystery halfway between an Agatha Christie novel and Neil Simon’s Murder by Death. Unfortunately, it lacked the cleverness and intrigue of a Christie novel and the wit of a Simon play. […]
Blind Date (Tarragon Theatre) I’ve already reviewed this wonderful improvised clown show and its creator Rebecca Northan won the 2015 MyTheatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for her work alongside a random audience member who became her spontaneous date for the evening. After a succesful same-sex run at Buddies in Bad Times last year, this […]