I see so much theatre that sometimes a really great show can slip through the cracks and not get reviewed. If I see something without a press ticket, or on closing weekend, or when I’ve already got an overwhelming pile of playbills on my desk, I have a bad habit of telling myself I’m not […]
I’ve heard nothing but glorious praise for Acting Up Stage/Obsidian Theatre’s recent production of Caroline, or Change at the Berkeley Street Theatre. After Acting Up Stage’s glorious production of Parade last winter and their exceptional Joni Mitchell/Leonard Cohen concert in the spring, and knowing as I do what a phenomenal talent leading lady Arlene Duncan […]
The one-man show is a tricky form that seems to always work best in Fringe Festivals-where plans are spontaneous and ticket prices are low- because it’s a tricky thing to wrap your head around that one person can carry a show. Of the many brilliant one-man acts I’ve seen, all have had low budgets, most […]
People always seem incredibly surprised when they find out I had, until recently, never seen The Laramie Project. I’m big on gay rights, extreme violence irks me more than almost anything else on earth, I’m a sucker for life-based theatre and I even grew up in a small town that made national news because an […]
The latest offering at Toronto’s Factory Studio Theatre comes from TheatreRUN, a quirky collective created by Jaques Lecoq-trained artists (translation: theatre professionals with some of the best movement and mime training in the world). Known for the Dora-winning hit Spent, Adam Paolozza once again explores dark comic territory with his oldschool, jazzy take on modern […]
Ever since I had the pleasure of seeing their impressive production of Next Fall last September, I’ve been consistently surprised and excited by SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2011-2012 season. Their most recent production of the Tony-winning Red delivers even stronger performances by the small, but intensely talented cast. Not only is the direction and acting strikingly poignant, but the […]
Sometimes you see those shows where everything clicks from the script to the acting to the production elements. Everything works as an integrated whole to create a visceral experience. My night at the Huntington’s God of Carnage was one of these experiences. I wasn’t familiar with Yasmina Reza, the playwright, or her work, but I’ll […]
Soulpepper’s 12-play 2012 season officially began last week with the January 19th opening of Kim’s Convenience. The heartfelt, hilarious and supremely Torontonian play is an essentially unchanged remount of the same production from last summer’s Toronto Fringe Festival. The set is a little bigger- now a fully-dressed convenience store on the Michael Young Stage, oddly […]