The new year is here and so is the new theatre season, kicking off as it always does with the Toronto Fringe’s curated winter festival. The Next Stage Theatre Festival takes place at the Factory Theatre where a heated tent stretches over the licensed courtyard to create a hub of ticket sales and line waiting […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Tears of a Bullet (A-) You don’t have to know anything about sci-fi writer Thomas Disch who inspired the subject matter, to appreciate this strongly written play by Josh Downing, effectively directed by Jeff Kennes. The feat of this show is the convincing delivery […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews The Awkward Hug (A) This is a play that uses all the technical aspects of theatre that I love. It’s a monologue (check) that breaks the fourth wall (check) that skews timelines with tangents (check) that uses self-deprecating humour but not too much (check) […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews The Last Party (A-) Steven Gallagher adapted this musical (with help from composer Nicky Phillips) from his own play Memorial, which I fell in love with when it opened the As Written reading festival we helped produce back in 2015. A tender three-hander about […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Josephine, A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play (A+) POC can, should, and will tell their stories. I am thrilled they do because I get to learn about fabulous people like Josephine Baker. Tymisha Harris sings and dances her way through the stories that explain how […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews The Preposterous Predicament of Polly Peel (A) This is an odd one to review because it’s not really a Fringe show like the others. Most of the Fringe is small-scale short plays, sometimes executed poorly but pretty much always finished. Polly Peel is the […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Grade 8 (A) I am actually a fairly easy mark for songs I already like, sung well. With an absolutely stunning voice and selections that included material from Queen, Blondie and Tom Petty, Lara MacMillan did not have to do a whole lot of work […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Birds Make Me Think About Freedom (B+) This ensemble work is a powerful and powerfully collaborative look at the abusive history of multiple mental institutions in Ontario, from the 19th century to the closure of the remaining centres (of which there were sixteen in […]