Drama is where the Stratford Festival tends to swing for the fences, doubling down on heavy hitting actors playing incredible tragedy on big stages through brutal runtimes. A sampling of the dramatic plays in the 2019 Stratford season reveals some of the festival’s greatest strengths even as the drama gets harder and harder to witness. […]
After I saw Brigadoon, the Shaw Festival’s magical staging of a reimagined classic musical, I right away sat down to write about the experience. At least for me, the night I saw it, the mood I was in, Brigadoon was a fully contained theatrical moment about which I had plenty to say. Another staff writer […]
Soulpepper’s summer season consisted mainly of two small-cast one-acts (plus music director Mike Ross’ “Steinbeck Through Song” concert which was, as usual, sublime): Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, an American tragedy about love, and ‘Art’ (quotation marks included)- a French comedy about friendship. Fool for Love, helmed by reigning Critics’ Pick Award Outstanding Director Frank […]
Michael Healey’s new adaptation of the much-adapted 1928 Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur newspaper farce starts with boredom. It starts with a bunch of sloppy newsmen and a single newly incorporated newswoman (Michelle Giroux, right at home) just sitting around waiting for something to happen. As a purposeful contrast to the madcap zip of the […]
Anne van Leeuwen is a pillar of the Toronto theatre community, co-founder of one of the city’s most important independent arts spaces The Assembly Theatre, an incredible actress, an insightful director, a badass Artistic Director, a Critics’ Pick Award winner, and a great interview. When Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this summer, her […]
805-4821 (A) “805-4821 is a trans coming out story made out of other stories: a dialogue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a half-remembered swim lesson, and an 80,000 word Facebook correspondence” This is how the promotional material introduces Davis Plett’s work, directed by Gislina Patterson. I added it to my roster expecting a show that could be […]
This show hit me straight in the heart. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to say that about a Shaw musical and I’m grinning ear to ear to be able to say it now (also because I literally just left the theatre so the post-musical glow has yet to wear off). Loewe’s love […]
The label “immersive” is thrown around carelessly these days; Outside the March is working tirelessly to remind us all just what it means. Their latest project, Tape Escape, takes participants back in time and into a 90s video store – albeit with more brainteasers than the boarded-up Blockbuster down the street. This is a truly […]