Billed as “music theatre”, Njo Kong Kie’s first production in his residency with Canadian Stage is more of a concert with multimedia aspects than it is a piece of theatre. Inspired by his experiences picnicking in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, composer-pianist Njo Kong Kie cleverly uses this juxtaposition of life and death to create music that […]
Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, which premiered with Canadian Stage on Thursday, April 12th, is a fascination meditation on Love, Information, and the many places these two concepts meet. Under the direction of Tanja Jacobs and Allistar Newton, any production of this play is no small feat. A production has anywhere between 51 and 76 scenes and […]
The Overcoat: a musical tailoring (Canadian Stage with Tapestry Opera & Vancouver Opera) This new opera is a strong achievement for Tapestry- a smallish contemporary opera company that suffers for exposure while staying admirably dedicated to their fresh-feeling operatic ideals (James Rolfe’s score is pretty and the opera is light, modern and distinct in a […]
Toronto theatre is navigating tricky times by making great art this winter. It’s a boom of full-throttle theatre-making, reflected most acutely in midsized-to-large companies taking on the sort of challenging, headline-making contemporary work that brings people to the theatre and inspires them to come back. It’s not all great, but it is all ambitious and […]
Declarations, a new show by celebrated Toronto Playwright Jordan Tannahill, is yet another testament to the author’s ability to present innovative, new theatre. A fascinating meeting of text and movement—of the ephemeral and what remains—Declarations is a thoughtful, evocative exploration of form, body, text and grief. “This is the thing; This is not the thing.” So begins Declarations, as […]
I went back and forth on the title of this On Stage in TO roundup, the options being “small to big” and “best to worst” because both descriptions apply to the shows I’m about to discuss in the order in which I’m going to discuss them. Read into the pattern what you will- perhaps small, […]
The best word I can think of to describe The 7 Fingers’ new show triptyque is magical. I know, I know, cheesy. But when a show can really make me feel, bring me into a zone where the rest of the audience fades away… I mean, that’s magic. The 7 Fingers return to Toronto for the 30th […]
Red Sky Performance’s Backbone, playing at Canadian Stage from Nov 2 to 12, is the first production of a two year residency at Canadian Stage—to be followed up in 2018 by Trace. This multi-year residency is the first of its kind given to a dance company by Canadian Stage, and it seems most appropriate that […]