At about the fifteen minute mark of seeing this show, a thought crossed my mind that whined, “Oh (insert expletive) me, is this gonna be art with a capital (insert expletive) A?” But what I found myself instead was a state of deep intimacy, emotional connection and an environmental love. From the theatre performance group […]

If you believe a hair salon an unlikely place to find community, you’d be wrong. In fact, in Trey Anthony’s iconic play ‘da Kink in my Hair, directed by Weyni Mengesha, it’s even more than that: it’s a place of healing, a forum where the vulnerable or voiceless step into the spotlight for a moment. […]

On stage until December 18th in a well-cast and capable production at Crow’s Theatre, Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet tells a fictionalized account of the life of Ira Aldridge, one of the first Black actors to become a prominent Shakespeare performer.   The production is a testament to Crow’s heads up approach to casting within the […]

The success of Hannah Moscovitch’s new play Post Democracy largely comes down to wether or not Jesse LaVercombe manages to make you think he’s generally a somewhat okay guy.   The rest of the production is strong in less crucial ways. Teresa Przybylski’s stylish set has a cleverly critical total lack of character and is […]

John Patrick Shanley’s difficult drama Doubt has aged oddly. First produced in 2004, one year after the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team won a Pulitzer for its reporting on abuses in the Catholic Church, the play twists itself into knots attempting to keep as much, ahem, doubt as possible alive in the audience’s mind, presumably as […]

Kim’s Convenience makes me a little bit sad. Don’t get me wrong, the hit CBC show is never even a little bit sad. That’s what makes me sad. Five seasons of lighthearted sitcomery, a controversial ending marred by behind the scenes drama, new CBC shows for two of its supporting actors, and post-Canadian major franchise […]

It’s confusing to me that there hasn’t been more August Wilson at the Shaw Festival (though in Canadian theatre in general). Especially as our major institutions have been putting in the effort to include more diverse voices in their seasons, bumping uncomfortably against limiting mandates that are by design exclusionary. August Wilson fits beautifully in […]

I love the concept behind Soulpepper’s bold Lear Family Double Bill that pairs a very solid production of Shakespeare’s King Lear with a new play by Erin Shields that imagines what might have happened seven years earlier to inform the behaviour of the characters in King Lear. Shields’ play Queen Goneril focuses not just on […]