Liv Stein at Canadian Stage manages to achieve the strange combination of beautiful mediocrity. Nino Haratischwili’s play is about a couple, Liv and Emil, their angst over the loss of their son, and that aftermath of that grief. Liv (Leslie Hope) is a pianist, someone once renowned for her interpretations and performances of Rachmaninov but […]
Kate Hennig’s contemporary history play traces the story of King Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr (Kate) – beginning with his awkward and aggressive pursuit of her, her negotiation of their marriage (and sex life, which was pretty impressive), to Kate’s attempt to be both a mother and political advocate for Mary and […]
Nightwood Theatre’s Unholy stages a debate about whether you can be both religious and a feminist. Written by Diane Flacks and directed by Kelly Thornton, the production presents us with four women, two a side, arguing both for and against institutionalized religion. On the pro side, we have Yehudite, an Orthodox Jewish leader and mother, […]
Kristen Thomson’s new play The Wedding Party opens not only the 34th season of Crow’s Theatre, but has the honour of being the inaugural production of the new Toronto theatre Streetcar Crowsnest. Those of us who have been to a few weddings (or a few dozen, as the case may be) will know that although the wedding […]
The Magic Hour, created and performed by Jess Dobkin, is nothing less than pure delight from beginning to end. The audience is ushered into the upstairs lobby, where we are invited to hang up our coats and remove our shoes. Dobkin enters, wearing a dress made out of a burlap bag, greeting the audience at […]
Rosemary Doyle’s Red Sandcastle Theatre holds a lot for a small venue, seating up to 70, and almost every seat was taken on one of the first snowy nights of winter. It’s an unassuming place – and you definitely don’t want to arrive too early, especially on a cold night, because they really mean it […]
The Angry Brigade by James Graham takes place in 1970s London, and as I walk into the theatre, I’m wondering what it might have to say to us in our current political climate. The stage floor is painted with a Union Jack: a colourful and intense symbol, and one which evokes a history of colonialism, […]
This Is The Point, a joint production of both Ahuri Theatre and The Theatre Centre, describes itself as a play about ‘love, sex and disability.’ It lives up to its description, but it’s actually about a lot more: it’s about stereotypes and reality, vulnerability, violence, relationships, communication and what it means to have a voice. […]