Author Archive
Review: The Real Inspector Hound & After Magritte (Alumnae Theatre)
By Dana Lacey
Tom Stoppard’s duo of one-act comedies: you’ll laugh, you’ll giggle, you’ll try to keep up.
By Dana Lacey
Alumnae Theatre’s production of two one-act Tom Stoppard comedies, After Magritte and The Real Inspector Hound, will most likely change your life. The physical comedy, the bad puns, the double-entendres, the surreal surprises, the belly laughs, the subtle irony… it’s reminiscent of the masters of various genres (you decide which).
Review: Photog (Boca del Lupo)
By Dana Lacey
By Dana Lacey
Uncompromising and raw, Photog uses new media to give a glimpse into the world of conflict photojournalism.
The first rule of conflict photography: never let your boss know you’re anything but “normal.” The second rule: don’t get killed.
Photog is a new-media mash-up of true stories from conflict photojournalists, quoted verbatim but told as first-person events by the fictional Thomas Smith, played by writer/performer Jay Dodge.
The project began in Brooklyn, 2008, when theatre company Boca del Lupo interviewed a number of conflict photographers about the nature of their experiences trying to reconcile the worlds they photograph with the worlds they live in. In a series of raw and revealing revelations, photos and videos, they talk about privilege, about feeling disconnected from the world, about following the sound of gunfire instead of running from it. It was commissioned as part of the Harbourfront Centre’s Fresh Ground program.
Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Glengarry Glen Ross (Column 13)
By Dana Lacey
By Dana Lacey
Column 13′s Glengarry Glen Ross will have you handing over cheques you didn’t intend to write. Just don’t let your significant other know.
The first step to enjoying Column 13′s production of Glengarry Glen Ross is to remember that the 1992 movie version (based on a 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play) is packed with big-name, untouchable, uber-masculine actors — Pacino, Baldwin, Spacey, Lemmon – and features a whole lot of dull, dragged-out and often confusing scenes mixed with explosive, expletive-ridden dialogue. Now, imagine that movie stripped of the boring bits and you’ll get a better idea of what you’re in for.
Column 13′s version of the play skips straight to the goods: at one hour, it’s short, loud, hilariously action-packed and will have you swearing like a sailor for the rest of the week. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: The Year of Magical Thinking (Tarragon Theatre)
By Dana Lacey
Joan Didion’s heartbreakingly hilarious grief memoir comes alive onstage
“Life changes fast. Life changes in an instant. You sit down for dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity.” So begins The Year of Magical Thinking, a grief memoir written by author and journalist Joan Didion at the end of what had been for her a terrible year that began on Dec. 30, 2003, when her husband’s heart seized and left her a widow. Soon after, her adult daughter undergoes emergency neurosurgery and spends months hovering just above death. Just before the book was published, her daughter died.
Afternoon Tea with Jane Austen (Orange Wine Productions) – 2010 Toronto Fringe Review
By Dana Lacey
Love letters, rejected manuscripts and an intimate evening with the woman who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility…what more could an Austen fan want?
By Dana Lacey
The Big Lie (Audeamus) – 2010 Toronto Fringe Review
By Dana Lacey
In which our intrepid reporter must solve the mystery of a magician-turned-physic, dodge the distractions of dames and meet his deadline.
By Dana Lacey
No, the play doesn't star Cary Grant. But it could have.
Amy Zuch's Key to Key (Combustive Theatre) – 2010 Toronto Fringe Review
By Dana Lacey
By Dana Lacey
Fat animator becomes skinny performer – a story of what happens in between playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival
Songs about Orangeville, life lessons learned at Sheridan College, an ode to a yet-unconceived ugly baby. These are just a few gems from the 2010 Fringe Festival’s Amy Zuch’s Key to Key. On the surface, it’s about a fat animator who becomes a skinny performer. But it’s more than that – it’s a personal tale (starring the writer herself) that portrays her younger, lumpier and obsessive-compulsive self as she takes the steps toward a healthier self and a career that doesn’t revolve around creating unrealistic Disney princesses. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Frankenstein – Catalyst Theatre
By Dana Lacey
By Dana Lacy
Frankenstein on stage as Toronto’s Canadian Stage’s last 2009-2010 show in the Bluma
You all know the story of Frankenstein. What if Dr. Seuss wrote it?
I’m one of those people who can’t stand watching movie trailers for fear of ruining the experience. Same goes with plays: when I read that Frankenstein was lurching into town, I booked my ticket and avidly avoided all other information about the play. This time, it was especially important: the story of a mad genius who creates life has been told countless times in countless ways, and I liked that there’d still be an element of surprise, even if the story was one I’d heard before. It was worth the wait.
Review: Art – Bluma Appel Theatre
By Dana Lacey
By Dana Lacey
My room mates and friends are artists, my neighbours run an art gallery, and I’m around art a lot. But me, well, I’m not an artist, or even a dabbler–call me an appreciative outsider. So when I read the sell lines for The Canadian Stage Company’s production of Art–something about defining “art”–I almost passed on the play. Yet another exploration of the shit-or-art debate? No thanks.
But in the end, I was lured by star power (albeit of the dimly-lit-Canadian variety) of Colin Mochrie, who stars as art connoisseur Serge. In my youth, I spent many an afternoon enjoying the comedian’s Whose Line antics, and I felt like I owed him one.
I’m glad I went. Read the rest of this entry »
High Fidelity- Hart House
By Dana Lacey
Hart House Theatre‘s musical adaption of High Fidelity has a lot working against it. Namely no John Cusack.
