Before we announce the winners of the 2013 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. One of our Best Actor nominees in Toronto’s Regional Category, Alex McCooeye was a refreshing, funny and terrifying Richard III. The success of Shakespeare in the Ruff’s 2013 production in Withrow Park rested squarely on […]

Before we announce the winners of the 2013 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. A Best Supporting Actor nominee in the regional category this year, Scott Farley’s dynamic take on the much-abused and abusing Malvolio in Matthew Gorman’s scholarly Twelfth Night was one of the highlights of Hart House’s standout 2013 […]

 

As You Like It is my absolute favourite Shakespearean comedy. It’s both sweepingly romantic and wryly realistic about love and marriage. It’s fantastically witty but also deeply melancholy. It has as much to say about friendship as it does about romance. It’s philosophical, fun, touching and generally a pretty easy slam dunk of a show. […]

I was pleasantly surprised to find a new Shakespeare play to enjoy on a chilly December night. Actors’ Shakespeare Project tackles the rarely-produced Henry VIII by the famous bard. This play is one of his later plays but without much of the memorable depth of King Lear or Winter’s Tale. In fact, I was surprised […]

Two very different productions of two of Shakespeare’s most popular plays are currently gracing Toronto stages. One, a clever inside-baseball exploration of Twelfth Night, best suited to the sort of audience who has already seen the melancholy comedy too many times. The other a faithful bare-bones rendering of the bard’s most enduring tragedy, Romeo & […]

 

I have strong feelings about Romeo and Juliet. There, I said it before and I’ll say it again. I always wait with baited breath during the Prologue to see how this new production will interpret this timeless classic. Sometimes, I leave merely disappointed; other times, I leave damned confused. Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production leaned towards […]

*sigh*  It’s now been 2 years since Stratford put on a Shakespeare production truly worthy of the festival stage. Last year’s Cymbeline was pretty good and there are 2 near-great productions in this year’s lineup (Othello and Merchant of Venice) but nothing with the excitement of 2011’s fabulous Twelfth Night and thrilling Titus, or the […]

Ah, Shakespeare. In a Broadway season filled with Hamlets, Macbeths, and Romeos, there is no short supply of good old Bill. Admit it. The word “Shakespeare” conjures up very specific images (a skull named Yorick, perhaps?). For a lot of people, the word “Shakespeare” also conjures up bad memories of a high school literature class […]