By Sam Mooney

Until tonight, all I knew about talk was “Clashing views about the Middle East conflict threaten a friendship in this drama.” I expected that it would be difficult to “ignore” the politics and concentrate on the theatre.  I also expected that it would be, if nothing else, an interesting play.

Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s production of talk at the Jane Mallett Theatre is not only interesting, but a wonderful evening of theatre. The play entertained me, left me with a lot to think about and didn’t hit me on the head with a hammer.

Continue reading talk – Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company – Jane Mallett Theatre →

By Darryl D’Souza

I went to the operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci as part of a double bill at the Bickford Centre Theatre put on by the Toronto Opera Repertoire.  I was thoroughly engrossed during the performances of both and impressed by the experience.   

What impressed me most was the calibre of the singing.  In my opinion, the calibre of the singing is the ultimate litmus test for judging whether any opera is a success or failure.  While the Bickford Centre Theatre is certainly not the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, (the home of the Canadian Opera Company), and in all truth seems more like a high school gymnasium than a theatre per se, the singing was as good – if not better – than what you’d expect to hear at the average Canadian Opera Company performance.       

If you feel like opera is not for you, you’re definitely not alone.  In fact, our motto here at Mooney on Theatre is: “Theatre is for everyone…so how come it doesn’t feel that way?”.  If this is true of theatre in general, it’s even more true of opera.  Ever since its inception over 300 hundred years ago, due to high ticket prices, seeing opera has been almost solely the privilege of the bourgeois class.  Continue reading Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci – Toronto Opera Repertoire →