Warning: Extreme negativity ahead. Why don’t you read Rachael’s piece about all the Friends Thanksgiving episodes instead? Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots (Tapestry) Conceptually, this evening of short opera scenes tied together with corresponding shots of curated liquors was a brilliant idea. How do you battle every simplistic but not altogether unfounded accusation of “long, boring, old, […]
Sextet (Tarragon) This new theatrical dramedy from Morris Panych is a six-person character piece that plays out almost in real time between three motel rooms occupied by a string sextet on tour during a snow storm. It’s emotionally complex but conceptually simple, a combination that pretty much always reaps great rewards, particularly with a cast […]
The history of Shakespeare Bash’d, up to and including their current production of Macbeth at the Monarch Tavern, reveals a pattern of wonderful comedy and middling tragedy. Some of this has to do with the Fringe Festival comedies being shorter and more fun, enlivened by the festival environment. But, mostly, I think it comes down […]
Hart House’s Tempest, which runs until November 22, was certainly big on ambition. While there were moments of brilliance here, they often came too few and far between. The ensemble of nymphs, expertly choreographed by Ashleigh Powell, executed coherent and well-rounded physical and vocal performances. The Troupe of white-clothed and white-powdered spirits (compliments of […]
Australian acrobatic company Circa has livened CanStage with a refreshingly new and desperately needed contemporary circus show. Opus is 75 non-stop minutes of circus feats, but also shows the audience a new side of modern circus. It was a difficult transition, it seemed, for many patrons to adjust their pre-show anticipation into respectful awe and […]
At our My Theatre Awards party back in April, there was an extremely loud table in the back corner, which the inhabitants called the “Single Safe Soup” table (a mashup of Single Thread, safeword, and Soup Can Theatre). In a theatrical landscape with limited resources from money to playing space to really great actors, one […]
The Bakelite Masterpiece (Tarragon Theatre) This new one-act by Kate Cayley tells the thematically rich (and fictionally embellished) story of Han van Meegeren (Georgie Johnson) whose sale of a Vermeer painting to a Nazi in occupied Holland put him on trial for treason at the end of the war. His life-saving argument that it was […]
The newest theatrical anthology from Toronto’s geek theatre company is shaped around four instalments of “Sidekicks”, a rumination on the role of henchmen and second fiddles by Manda Whitney & Errol Elumir (of Debs & Errol). Starring Andrew Gaunce, adorable as a hapless but mouthy minion, and the charming Jordi O’Dael in the much more complex […]