The antechamber shows are short, 30 mins pieces, and some of my favourite Next Stage offerings. This year brought two high-energy clown pieces. Leila Live A self-described “real life Persian Princess,” Leila Live (pronounced with a short /i/), offers a 30 min clown/drag cabaret, with singing, puppetry, original song writing, rapping, and of course, lots of laughs. A […]
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 […]
Click Here to read Part I of our Ten-Minute Play Festival coverage The White show and Black Show are a two parts of the four-part series in InspiraTO festival’s ten-minute play festival, the largest ten-minute play festival in Canada. Indeed, there is something really unique about writing a well-rounded narrative in ten minutes. I had […]
I was shocked as I walked into the completely transformed space of Artscape Youngplace to see the Toronto Premier of Bad Jews presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts. Completely decked out with risers, a lighting rig, a full stage and even a kitchen sink(!) I was amazed and slightly wary of the time […]
Two Birds One Stone “Some of this is true and some of it is not” Natasha Greenblatt says to openTwo Birds One Stone, which premiered as part of the Why Not Theatre’s Riser Project, Thursday night. But co-star and creator Rimah Jabr, disagrees. It’s all true, she tells us. What unfolds is an aptly named […]
The beautiful geometric highrises are dark grey, crisp and askew, creating a darkly modern, if slightly nightmarish cityscape which the audience observes as we wait for Acquiesce to begin. Downstage centre, an open briefcase is slightly illuminated with a gentle tungsten spotlight from above. Then, without warning— no dimming of the lights, no audio cue— […]
A Reason to Talk, produced by Why Not Theatre, has already started when you walk into the Theatre Centre mainspace. There creator Sachli Gholamalizad holds old family photos up to her laptop’s camera, which are projected in real time on to the screen above her. In this evocative way, Gholamalizad introduces us to the subtle […]
In the forward to Melancholy Play, Sarah Ruhl, makes a plea to future producers of the show: “The audience knows the different between being talked to and talked at. Talk to them, please.” This phrase is in many ways the essence of Big Plans, the dark comedy by Jeremy Taylor, and directed by Kat Sandler. […]