Based on Pushkin and Tchaikovsky’s nineteenth century poem and opera, respectively, with themes including love at first sight, unrequited love, and regret, one might be weary of another attempt to adapt old tales for our current times. However, you will be very surprised with what The Musical Stage Company has created with Onegin. A powerful […]
Wolf Manor Theatre Collective’s Caesar is a sporadically competent reimagining of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with five actors playing multiple roles. Julius Caesar, Cassius, and Brutus are all played by women (Melanie Leon, Maddelena Vallecchi Williams, and Megan Miles, respectively). The cast is rounded out by Kevin Kashani as Marc Anthony, and Felix Beauchamp as Casca. […]
I enjoy comic relief in a tragedy. Some say it butchers the essence of the play but I like it. Richard III at the Arcola takes a rebellious spin turning the hunchback king into a leather jacket-wearing sarcastic bad boy played by Greg Hicks. He turns to the audience and speaks in a way that […]
Soulpepper’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow is Enuf is now on at the Yonge Centre. Ntozake Shange’s play was originally written in 1974, but still resonates today as deeply relevant. Directed by Djanet Sears, the show depicts seven women, each distinguished by different colours, representing every colour of the rainbow, […]
What a delightful pleasure to familiarize myself with the unique performance style of Haley McGee for the first time…
I’m gaslighting myself in going to the big shows. Shows that scream, shows that flash, shows that flail their banality around like spaghetti and people clap. They clap! They clap. Why review? It’s hard to be in a room with 890 people who probably disagree with you. I wasn’t in love with Angels; I don’t […]
The lights go down, the famous crashing motif begins and the curtain immediately flies up to reveal the chapel of a massive Roman church, into which an escaped prisoner appears, searching for refuge. Giacomo Puccini’s famously sensational work cuts through all the introductory formality (no overture!) and instead plunges us straight into the drama, sparing […]
The final offering of the Canadian Stage Spotlight Festival: Australia was The Return by Circa, a genre-defying combination of cirque and opera. The stage is shared equally between the circus artists and the live chamber ensemble, with the former occupying stage right, and the latter stage left. An imposing black wall spans the width of […]