Stratford has to have at least one big, impressive, serious classical play a year. 2007- Lear, 2008-Hamlet, 2009-Macbeth, 2010- Tempest, 2011- well, 2011 didn’t have a big tragedy but Twelfth Night was so good and Richard III (in the Tom Patterson) was such a big deal that they made up the difference. In 2012, it’s […]
Good theatre produces reactions; you feel compelled and excited after leaving the theatre. And I was energized after leaving Theatre@First’s opening night of Bent, a harrowing story of the not-so-legendary Pink Triangles. I’ve been disappointed by Theatre@First in the past- most notably their original adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but even their Equus failed to […]
Two weeks after the PQ was elected as Quebec’s minority government- causing concern of renewed interest in nationalist policies- the time could not be more right for a project fusing our country’s strong English playwriting tradition with the electroacoustic music Quebec is renowned for. Montreal-based composer Louis Dufort and Toronto-based writer Tom Walmsley were both […]
Stratford’s new musical commission is nothing short of delightful. As I expected. Robert Service (whose poems form the lyrics and whose story loosely inspired the piece) is a Canadian treasure, both populist and prolific, leaving us with the legendary Cremation of Sam McGee among so many others. Beloved director Morris Panych conceived the musical and […]
Hirsch is the studio production thrown into the Stratford 2012 season at the last minute. It doesn’t really belong in a tangible way, but it’s about an eccentric former Artistic Director, so why not? Alon Nashman is great as John Hirsch- an inarguably fascinating figure in Canadian theatre and the world at large- and I […]
By now I’m sure you’ve read all about how great Ragtime is and may be expecting me to disagree. I’m not going to. In fact, I’m going to pile on . No hyperbole here, I promise… Ready? Okay: I have literally never seen one of the festivals (Shaw, Soulppeper, Stratford) pull off a musical nearly […]
I was pretty sure Elektra would be my least favourite thing at Stratford this season. I’m not big on the Greeks (not that I’m against them, they’re just a tough sell and almost always directed by crazy people who want to make everything into a Very Meaningful Movement Piece). I’m most certainly not someone immediately […]
Would someone please explain to me why His Girl Friday is a play? I get adapting plays into movies, and I even get adapting movies into musicals (so long as the songs are original), but a movie into a play? Chances are there’s no improving on the performances in a movie iconic enough to give […]