All posts by Joslyn Kilborn

Review: Kuwaiti Moonshine (Better to Burn Out Productions) and By A Thread (Sterling Studio Theatre)

Kuwaiti Moonshine 1 LG

Double bill Kuwaiti Moonshine and By a Thread playing at Toronto’s Sterling Studio Theatre are personal stories that though entertaining, fall short in their conclusions

Double bills are often hard nights of theatre to sit through. They’re long, for starters, and they also ask the audience to suspend disbelief twice in a row, bring us from climax to conclusion only to do it all over again. Just as one story settles we’re thrown into the next.

One-man-shows can also be hard nights of theatre to sit through. It is more difficult for a single actor to create what many can. Listening to the same person talk for a whole hour is trying in any setting, in or out of the theatre.

Sterling Studio Theatre’s current double bill of one-(wo)man-shows Kuwaiti Moonshine and By A Thread makes for a demanding night of theatre.

Continue reading Review: Kuwaiti Moonshine (Better to Burn Out Productions) and By A Thread (Sterling Studio Theatre)

Review: Shoreditch Madonna (3 seeds productions)

3 seeds productions Shoreditch Madonna playing at Toronto’s StoreFront Theatre is a Rent-esque story that will intimately draw you in and connect you with the human spirit

Shoreditch Madonna is one of those productions that leaves me really happy to be, in my small way, contributing to Toronto’s indie theatre scene. There are moving productions quietly being staged behind storefronts and down alleys all over the city and I want to make some noise about them! I want Torontonians to be checking upcoming shows at their favourite local theatre the same way they would music listings at their favourite local bar.

StoreFront Theatre is one of those theatres for me, and 3 seeds productions’ Shoreditch Madonna is further proof why. The description for this play didn’t really interest me – young artists having a dramatic time living together in London’s East End sounds like a story I’ve heard before – but it’s being staged at StoreFront so I trusted it to be good.

And it is.

Continue reading Review: Shoreditch Madonna (3 seeds productions)

Cheap Theatre in Toronto for the Week of September 3rd, 2013

Five-for-Twenty (Or Less)

Women! We all know a few. Some of us are them. Most of us came out of one. This week cheap theatre is all about ‘em! We’ve got burlesque, all-female-Chekov, a performance put on by a women’s shelter, and Terrific Women comedy. Hook up with your mom or your aunt or your wife or your bff and go check out some lady-celebrating performance.  Continue reading Cheap Theatre in Toronto for the Week of September 3rd, 2013

Cheap Theatre in Toronto for the Week of August 27th, 2013

Five-for-Twenty (Or Less)

Summer is leaving and I’m going to miss it. To say goodbye I’m giving this week’s cheap theatre the theme: All The Things I Want To Go See. This final week of the golden season should be nothing but a celebration of all things good, and I’m going to contribute by selecting some theatre I think might be. Continue reading Cheap Theatre in Toronto for the Week of August 27th, 2013