Noises Off Did we need another 70s-set backstage theatre farce mere months after Jitters? No. But Soulpepper’s production of Noises Off made me laugh louder and with more obnoxious uncontainable shrieks than anything else I’ve seen this year so I’ll welcome the repetition. Simon Fon’s fight and stunt work was still too careful and a […]

 

This new adaptation by Matthew Thomas Walker (who also directs) of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian masterpiece written 84 years in the past and set 524 years in the future is big and bold for a company only on its third project. The script is a little bloated, full of draggy exposition that could certainly be shown […]

 

Originally produced during the Pan Am Games, Tarragon’s remount of this show kicks off its 2016-17 season. A new Canadian play, The Watershed was commissioned as a piece on the theme of ‘water.’ Playwright Annabel Soutar took up the challenge, investigating the topic both literally and figuratively, in order to write a play about what […]

What it’s Like is the first production on The Theatre Centre’s eight work Dance Card—an initiative bringing a wealth of contemporary dance to The Theatre Centre’s stage during their 2016/2017 season. What it’s Like is a co-production between The Theatre Centre and choreographer Heidi Strauss. The work was created in residency at The Theatre Centre, […]

Filament Incubator is presenting 8 plays in 8 months, creating opportunities for young playwrights to get their work on its feet and in front of an audience. The ambition of that is remarkable and, no matter the merit of any particular production in said slate, it’s an overall extremely impressive feat. It therefore pains me […]

 

Friday night, Bad Dog Theatre Company premiered the first two new formats in their fall season: Past Dark and La Grande Jatte. Because the improv company’s Bloor West theatre offers the best deal in town (see an additional show for only $5!), I stayed for the 11pm performance of fan favourite Network Notes as well. […]

 

I can only imagine that the experience of a refugee is one of exhaustion, fear, and utter resolve. But it must be one of tedium as well; so much time spent travelling in such uncomfortable, de-humanizing surroundings. Set in a literal shipping container which has been set up in the Berkeley Street Theatre courtyard, Zachary […]

 

Kill Your Parents in Viking, Alberta (Storefront Arts Initiative & Blood Pact Theatre) A vibrant, fraught, fast-paced new tragi-comedy from playwrights Bryce Hodgson & Charlie Kerr, the oddly named Kill Your Parents in Viking, Alberta plays out in real-time in the kitchen of young mother Susan (Allie Dunbar, hilarious in her immovability) as she attempts […]