Two strong but ultimately uninspiring productions are currently playing at the Four Seasons Centre as the kick off to the Canadian Opera Company’s 2014/15 season. Though they’re of comparable overall quality, Falstaff and Madama Butterfly have little in common. The former is visually grand with lots of awkwardly long breaks to change the elaborate sets […]
Artichoke Hearts’ We Walk Among You, the puppet show at the tarragon extraspace, is one of the most emotive, and beautifully executed theatre pieces I’ve ever seen. From the world they create, the creatures they bring to live, and the complex story they tell,We Walk Among You is a beautiful, funny and sad story not to […]
Enemy of the People: an open forum Florian Borchmeyer’s modern adaptation of the Ibsen play An Enemy of the People (translated by Maria Milisavljevic) attempts to instill the 1882 play with new immediacy and contemporary commentary. We’re destroying the earth! Bureaucracy will kill us all! Everyone is corrupt! Resistance is futile! It all works fairly […]
Team Kat Goes on Retreat Playwright/director Kat Sandler’s latest one-act at the Storefront Theatre is a wackier and more wildly comedic entry into her ever-expanding canon of thoughtful, witty work. The story of four interns sent on a camping retreat to compete for a single job at a vague but powerful company, Retreat is a […]
We are now approaching the end of what I am tempted to call “Shakespeare Season” in Toronto. In addition to Stratford’s nearby productions (this year King Lear, Antony & Cleopatra, King John, and two excellent Midsummers), Canadian Stage served up Titus Andronicus and As You Like It in High Park, the Fringe Festival played host […]
In 1926, Bertolt Brecht, the innovative German theatre director (and playwright, and theorist), spoke about the future of theatre, saying simply, “we pin our hopes to the sporting public.” Imaging traditional theatre as a sinking ship, he dreamed of a world where people get as excited about theatre as they do about, say, a basketball […]
The Soulpepper Academy is one of the most consistent breeding grounds for up and coming theatre artists in the country. Albert Schultz’s proven eye for talent and an excellent combination of training and mentorship throughout the 2-year program has resulted in a slew of promising players class after class. The program keeps expanding (there are […]
Resident Artist Paula Wing writes program notes for almost all Soulpepper productions. I always read them but I usually forget them the moment I finish. Her notes on A Tender Thing, however, are not quickly forgettable but rather remarkably personal and lovely. She talks about the power of hearing familiar words in a new context […]