Interior Design (Tarragon Theatre) The first play in this week’s roundup features the most complicated exploration of the myriad ways we terrorize each other as it centers on a quartet of friends who presumably (reportedly, ultimately) do love each other. Rosa Laborde’s script about four old friends fighting (or not) to stay friends is a […]
The closing performance of Nick Green’s Dinner with the Duchess on September 28th was a major moment for Stratford’s small but mighty Here For Now Theatre. In front of an audience quietly packed with some of Canadian theatre’s biggest stars, the low-key company closed out their 2024 season with a truly superb performance of a […]
Coming off the exceptional one-two punch of August’s Mary’s Wedding/Murder for Two, I was excited to return to Gananoque’s Thousand Islands Playhouse for a second set of shows as they close out their 2024 season. Unfortunately the combination of Jesus Christ Superstar and Arun Lakra’s Sequence proved less of a slam dunk than what I’ve […]
Despite the Assembly Theatre’s proscenium setup and the show’s relatively conservative (though definitely present, fair warning) use of audience participation, 13 Plays About ADHD All At the Same Time is an immersive experience. The first work in a long time from one of the city’s most interesting creative minds, 13 Plays is writer/director Alec Toller’s […]
I loved Verne Thiessen & Yvette Nolan’s adaptation of the Margaret Laurence novel The Diviners, creatively and energetically directed by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier, but the rest of the straight plays in the 2024 Stratford season left me somewhere on a sliding scale of cold. The remaining plays (meaning not Shakespeare, not musicals, […]
Theatre As fall formally begins and the major Toronto theatre companies launch into their 2024/25 seasons, two star-studded and atmospheric tragedies take centre stage. Each directed by their host company’s reliably inspiring artistic director, Crow’s Theatre’s Rosmersholm (Chris Abraham) and Buddies in Bad Times’ Roberto Zucco (ted witzel) both offer short but heady translations […]
Once again this season, as is often the case, the strongest pieces at the Shaw Festival reside in the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre. Directed by Philip Akin, The House That Will Not Stand is a complex and moving mandate-era exploration of freedom and family. Written in 2014, Marcus Gardley’s New Orleans-set drama explores an […]
My favourite Stratford production so far* this year is undoubtedly The Diviners, Verne Thiessen & Yvette Nolan’s grand adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s novel of the same name. Staged with beautiful fluidity by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier, the production contains some of the season’s grandest celebration and its quietest tenderness. The great Irene Poole […]