Lisa McKeown

The Harold Experience This Assembly Improv show invokes the Harold Technique of audience participation to get suggestions from the crowd on which the theme of the show is based. The night I went, actors came down and bantered with the crowd, asking questions and making fast and funny connections between audience members until finally one […]

  Thea Fitz-James

Jonno Another topical Next Stage piece, Jonno, offers a fictional account of a powerful, well-known radio host sexually assault women in Toronto. Most Canadians will recongnize the play as a thinly veiled fictional reworking of Jian Ghomeshi’s ‘alleged’ of sexual assault and hassment. In the first few moments, actor Jason Deline, playing the title character, starts his […]

Our favourite Fringe Festival ever, expanded dance coverage, and a shifting indie landscape were the defining features of our 2017 in Toronto theatre. Our staff collectively saw hundreds of productions and below are our picks for the best of the best over the past 12 months. Who Qualifies? Any production one of our Toronto writers […]

  Kelly Bedard

2017 was rough on a lot of people but the art, boy, the art was something else. This year saw a flood of television masterworks, a ton of killer theatre, and more fantastic movies released in the course of 12 months than we can remember in our lifetimes. It was something to see and we […]

  Kymberley Feltham

The lush golden light of the Peter Pan set was a welcome contrast to the sharp cold evening we had rushed through en-route to the theatre, and the space itself served as a refuge from the busy Christmas Market (which Soulpepper ticket holders receive free admission to) surrounding the Young Centre for the Performing Arts […]

  Lorenzo Pagnotta

Rightfully branded as a family show, The Lorax is a feast for the senses, and enjoyable for adults and children alike. Straight from London’s The Old Vic, this stage adaptation (David Greig) is carefully directed (Max Webster) beat by beat, taking us on a metaphorical journey from industrialization to late capitalism. I believe this production […]

  Kelly Bedard

To supplement their mainstage season of big American tours, Toronto’s one real commercial theatre presenter Mirvish Productions has been bringing in slightly smaller shows produced by Canadian companies to occupy the mid-sized mid-town venue formerly known as the Panasonic (it’s now the CAA Theatre, which I doubt I’ll ever get used to). In general, this […]

Pencil Kit Productions’ The Hungriest Woman in the World is certainly an interesting show. It bills itself as a ‘sexy and elliptical new play’ by Canadian poet and playwright Shannon Bramer. It follows a young woman – Aimee (Nora Jane Williams) – as she escapes from the loneliness and confusion of her own life into […]