Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series.   We’re doing most of our interviews in person this year (as evidenced by the branded portraits). Talking in person means we get to adjust on the fly, ask follow-up questions, dive deeper and have more of […]

This is not a review. The Company Theatre’s production of John– a dense, complex, hilarious personal epic by celebrated playwright Annie Baker- is extraordinary on a hundred different levels and every single person who has seen it (or certainly written about it) has said pretty much the same thing. I’m usually skeptical of consensus but […]

Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series.   Recent LAMDA graduate Andrea Creighton earned herself a nomination for Outstanding Actress in this year’s Toronto MyTheatre Awards for the way she brought the character of revolutionary political activist Anna Mendelssohn to life in Elevated State’s The Angry […]

Created by Khari Wendell McClelland, Freedom Singer is a gorgeous, thrilling, and refreshing theatre experience. The show is launching the Scotiabank Community Studio space at Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre in Toronto, and will be going on a cross-Canada tour throughout February (Black History Month). Juno-nominated singer-songwriter McClelland narrates his search to find out what he can […]

 

Written and performed by Laurel Brady, Surfacing is a story of a young woman telling her mother about her mental illness. In the programme notes, Brady confesses that the show was inspired by a monologue that she wrote about her own depression and anxiety. These are stories we are often afraid to tell other people, […]

The Canadian Opera Company has been slogging through Wagner’s interminable Ring Cycle over the past three seasons. And I’ve been slogging through my reviews of said marathons of melancholy Germans singing about dwarves. The summary was always the same: the set is bonkers but impressive, the singers and orchestra are technically sound, no one is […]

 

Liv Stein at Canadian Stage manages to achieve the strange combination of beautiful mediocrity. Nino Haratischwili’s play is about a couple, Liv and Emil, their angst over the loss of their son, and that aftermath of that grief. Liv (Leslie Hope) is a pianist, someone once renowned for her interpretations and performances of Rachmaninov but […]

Kate Hennig’s contemporary history play traces the story of King Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr (Kate) – beginning with his awkward and aggressive pursuit of her, her negotiation of their marriage (and sex life, which was pretty impressive), to Kate’s attempt to be both a mother and political advocate for Mary and […]