Edges is a musical with which I feel I should share some enduring connection, given attending an amateur production of it was one of the first experiences I had with university life. I recall the production being rather good, inspiring me, even, to get involved with the local university theatre society. However, in the years […]
The old art form known as commedia dell’arte appears infrequently in modern U.S. theatres. With masked, clown-like actors engaging in loud, brazen and eccentric sketches, commedia dell’arte relies heavily on lowbrow humor and audience participation to entertain, uninhibited by carefully scripted and staged material. When done well, commedia dell’arte can bring a smile to even […]
The Sweethearts is a show not to be missed. Telling the story of a girl band going to give a charity concert to British troops in Afghanistan in 2014, it promises a night filled with emotions from humor to sadness, and it forces the audience to question both individual and societal values. The Raise Dark […]
Like A Generation is Coyote Collective’s re-mount of an earlier production from 2013 with an updated multi-media set and lighting design. Written by Max Tepper, and directed by Blue Bigwood-Mallen, the show is a show “about television (or I suppose streaming since no one actually watches TVanymore,” Bigwood-Mallen writes in the show programme. And indeed […]
Despite the vast number of diverse theatre productions in New York City, there is a noticeable lack of plays that depict the lives of Americans living in the middle of the country. Susan Merson’s new musical play Between Pretty Places does just that in a surprisingly genuine way while also exploring themes of grief and […]
I have a theory about the (arguably, I guess) three most important theatre companies in Ontario. In any given season, if one of the three companies is under-performing (as one inevitably is), the others raise their game (to compensate? compete? rub it in their face? who knows). They seem to rotate- in a superb Soulpepper […]
An odd, rarely produced adventure at sea that many Shakespeare fans have never seen, Pericles is the only one of the four Shakespeare plays currently at the Stratford Festival to be relegated to one of the smaller theatres. Dreary Hamlet, overly traditional Shrew and uneven Love’s Labours are all playing on that famous festival stage […]
Of the many “just do the play” attempts at Shakespeare this season on the Stratford mainstage, director John Caird comes closest to presenting an incarnation of true interest. Patrick Clark’s overly pretty design traps the actors and distracts the audience and a few casting missteps drag the affair down but, armed with arguably the most […]