Reviews of productions based in Toronto – theatre includes traditional definitions of theatre, as well as dance, opera, comedy, performance art, spoken word performances, and more. Productions may be in-person, or remote productions streamed online on the Internet.
A Lover Improper, playing at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival, is one woman’s personal tale of acknowledging, accepting, finding, and enjoying love and sex. One-person shows of a personal nature are always either a hit or a miss and it comes down to how engaging the story teller is. In this case, Arianne Shaffer is endearing, uplifting, and a lot of fun to watch.
Continue reading A Lover Improper (Templeton Productions) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review
YellowZoned is a one woman show put on by You, Me and Us at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace for the Toronto Fringe Festival. It’s an emotional and realistic look at how anxiety manifests itself as a mental illness. It’s performed, written and directed by Alia Etienne.
What worked best for this production was how true it rang. At first you’re not quite sure what it has to do with mental illness, as Etienne begins on a passionate tangent on the disservice of designing ugly shoes. As she moves around the stage, her mannerisms start to feel familiar. The way she jumps from one story to another, her emphatic gestures, the words she uses feels as though she is speaking to me earnestly, privately.
Continue reading YellowZoned (You, Me and Us) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review
Silk Bath, mounted by Silk Bath Collective, is a chillingly powerful Toronto Fringe Festival debut with its own original take on things like reality television and futuristic dystopias. Currently playing at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, this hour-long show forces its audience to consider the dilemma of four immigrants forced to fight for a place in their new country via a reality show competition.
As Silk Bath‘s four characters try to secure their futures, resigned to accepting crude stereotypes and incomprehensible rules, what will they be forced to do for our benefit? This glimpse into a too-plausible future is excellent theatre: disorienting, unsettling, provocative.
Continue reading Silk Bath (Silk Bath Collective) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review
You Are (Not) Dead, a one-woman Shed Show about first loves, first heartbreaks, and mental illness, is currently playing inside the Fringe Club at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Performer/Director/Writer Katie Bell packs a lot into this 30-minute show, but her sensitive and heartfelt delivery of the difficult material shows a lot of promise.
Continue reading You Are (Not) Dead (Earnest Artist Productions) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review
I chose the best way to kick off this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival — with a cold beer at the air conditioned ROUND venue for a rock show. Well, kind of. Binge is the story of two band mates wrapped up in the drunken downfall of rock and roll resulting in one helluva ride.
Continue reading Binge (Epigraph Collective) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review