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, […]
#neverlookback You see the above hashtag for a second of Sh!t Theatre’s hour-long show. It’s in footage of Manor House, the duo’s local area, on a billboard apparently for an E-cig company called Vivid; I thought it was from Nike (of ‘Just Do It’ fame), because both sentiments suggest a vaguely life-affirming yet thoughtless life […]
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 […]
The Winter’s Tale (Groundling Theatre Company) I’ve talked about this production before, focusing mainly on the problems that overwhelm the action of the first and last acts of this strangely dichotomous play. Sicilia is grey, over-dramatic, over-acted and full of unnecessary melisma but what I discovered upon a return trip (this time set against the lantern-lit […]
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 […]
Dirty Great Love Story started as a 10-minute poetry duet featuring the two writers, Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna. It then went on to Vault Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and became a massive success in various theatres across the UK. Poetry in a play? I was reluctant, to say the least. It seems that every time we […]
The Summoning, by Charlotte Ahlin, is an ambitious slapstick three-person play with comedic moments that never quite becomes more than the sum of its parts. From the moment I sat in my seat and saw a giant pentagram chalked on the stage floor, I really wanted to like this play. As a fan of science […]