Bad Dog Theatre Company’s annual Combustion Festival runs through June 9th at their theatre on Bloor St. West. It’s a week of performances, workshops, drop-in classes and general partying that fosters a spirit of collaboration, community, and plain old celebration of good times and letting them roll and all that. I ventured into the merriment […]
Canadian musical theatre is on the rise. I hate to give all the credit to Come From Away but, with the success of Come From Away, all of a sudden we’re seeing companies take chances on programming musicals and the next wave of composers getting a little more exposure. The slow-developing bridge across the great […]
Attention on the British royals escalated to mania for the second time this year when, following the birth of the third royal baby, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot earlier this month to much fanfare. Yet, while the millennial British royals have seized the spotlight from their elders, the drama that enveloped the […]
Walk into the Young Centre and buy a ticket, it doesn’t matter to what. Soulpepper Theatre has three productions running right now and, for the first time in memory (and my memory stretches back much further than a few months), they’re operating at full power. The company has always sought balance in its repertory […]
Trauma reverberates through a life in ways that are almost always unquantifiable, and it is a state that lends Bryony Lavery the title of her 1998 play, produced by Seven Siblings Theatre and onstage at the b current studio theatre in Artscape Wychwood Barns. All three characters are caught in an emotional paralysis, frozen as […]
Seven Siblings Theatre is coming off their strongest season yet with a staged reading, a festival of new work, and two mainstage productions including the Critics’ Pick Award-nominated Fringe run of Eliza Clark’s Recall. They’re kicking off their 2018 season with Bryony Lavery’s Frozen, an emotionally potent drama about tragedy and trauma. Before tonight’s preview, […]
Despite featuring several intriguing characters and relationships, Corbin Went’s new play Old Names for Wildflowers suffers from a lack of focus and originality – resulting in a two and a half hour meandering plot dotted with compelling moments. Exploring themes of ostracism, religious morality, taboo relationships and the many social constraints facing women, Wildflowers uses a post Civil War […]
The eclectic pairing of a visually ambitious but narratively light 20th century Russian mixed bill directed with theatrical ambition and a rich Italian bel canto full-length narrative with restrained character-focused direction makes for a beautifully balanced spring season for the Canadian Opera Company, a stretch of programming that offers something for everyone no matter why […]