15 years ago, Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman adapted for the stage a novel by Gregory Maguire that was itself an adaptation, or perhaps more accurately a revision, of The Wizard of Oz. The novel was dark and strange and long, full of deeply unlikeable characters and bleak allegorical observations about a world more real […]
Premiering this Friday, July 6th and playing through July 15th (full schedule below), Living Will is one of 159 plays taking part in this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. A world premiere by Helen-Claire Tingling, the play is described as “a timely drama about end-of-life issues”. The production is directed by Jillian Rees-Brown and marks the return to […]
Sitting in the audience of a dance performance, feeling fully enveloped by the movement, is one of the most delicious experiences I can think of. The Cuban based Malpaso Dance Company brought to Luminato 2018 three mesmerizing performances that, along with the superb accompaniment of Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, suspended time […]
A theme you will find in my reviews of Luminato shows is that I tend to feel like the festival is not really for me. I have fairly conventional theatre taste and fairly passive political beliefs (at least among the liberal consensus of my community) so Luminato’s artsy, brazen, avant-garde vibe is really just not […]
Cannibal Galaxy: A Love Story, currently running at The New Ohio Theatre on Christopher Street, benefits from strength of concept and cast-demographic. It relies on a relatively small cast of well-featured eccentrics, each bringing their own troubled, idiosyncratic journeys to the table. We have a group of distinct, diverse, psychologically interesting characters and relatively strong […]
Luminato 2018 promised to interrogate the issues of human-rights, justice and inclusion, and Swan Lake/Loch na hEala does not disappoint with its dark themes of loss—of innocence, of purpose, and of hope—rape, suicide, police brutality and populist politics all feature. Written, directed and choreographed by Michael Keagan-Dolan, performed by Teac Damsa dance theatre and accompanied […]
It is remarkable that the principal themes of Machinal, an expressionist 1928 play by Sophie Treadwell, should resonate so acutely with the dominant questions of the modern world. Ideas of a woman’s role in an industrial and patriarchal society, whether one can be trapped by society and whether there is any ‘way out’ are in many […]
With a sharp and witty script delivered with crisp precision, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is highly entertaining throughout, combining comedy and drama gracefully to produce a wonderfully crafted story. A highly entertaining new play, based on Lola Shoneyin’s novel, it tells the tale of a polygamous relationship in modern day Nigeria and […]