“I wanted to write about obsession, about creativity, about risk-taking, about love and loss,” playwright Carolyn Smart writes about Hooked, now playing at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. Certainly all of these elements and more are present in this intimate montage of the lives of 7 women. This eclectic one-woman show exemplifies not only the […]
Ale House Theatre is Toronto’s indie original practices producer, a purist mandate of which I was very wary before I finally saw their excellent Othello. It turns out that, despite what recent Stratford seasons have taught us, original practices actually can showcase Shakespeare at its best (though I still don’t agree that they come inherently […]
Hatched begins with an iconic image, Mamela Nyamza, topless and back to the audience in a long clothespin tutu, strong and statuesque, beautifully silhouetted by the artistry of lighting designer David Hlatshwayo. The dance begins with Nyamza couruing en point across the stage, her back still to the audience and still beautifully silhouetted, her clothes […]
Brantwood (Sheridan College) It’s a shame that this immersive, site-specific, multi-narrative, multi-genre theatrical experience will be closing on May 3rd so that the century-old school in which it’s housed can do what it’s prophesied to do in the show (be turned into condos) and the cast can do as their characters do in the final […]
Written by Jane Taylor, directed by William Kentridge, and produced by the Handspring Puppet Theatre (War Horse), Ubu and the Truth Commission is a large scale production created by some of South Africa’s biggest names. Revived for the 2014 Grahamstown National Arts Festival in celebration of South Africa’s 20 years of democracy, Ubu and the […]
Created by Why Not Theatre, The RISER Project is a new initiative that pairs established companies with emerging artists to share resources and make producing indie theatre just a little bit easier. The inaugural RISER season is taking place at The Theatre Centre with two shows currently on stage (closing May 3rd) and another two […]
On the cusp of second wave feminism and nearly a decade into Apartheid rule, Athol Fugard created a female character that would, against all odds, defy the roles society would try to force her into. Queeny, played by Masasa Mbangeni, holds the center of the action while the remaining characters orbit around her. James Ngcobo, […]
A large paper scroll leads us up the stairs to the Berkeley Theatre. On the landing Mamela Nyamza is crouched on the floor, scrawling over and over “I must not have a big bum,” “I must not have a big bum”. As we continue up the stairs we can see how line-by-line the written form […]