Obeah Opera playing in Toronto is filled with voices that will take your breath away
Obeah Opera playing at the Bathurst Centre is an operatic production that tells the story of African/Caribbean women living in Salem during the time when women practicing Obeah were put to death for being witches.
At first glance this production seems simple. The venue is beautiful; the stage is made of what looks like an oversized wooden crate placed under a cathedral-style, peaked wooden ceiling. I couldn’t imagine a better space for this piece. There are few to no props and the show is carried by sheer talent, no bells and whistles. Continue reading Review: Obeah Opera (b current & Theatre Archipelago)→
Forbidden Broadway presented by Toronto’s Civic Light Opera Company is a musical about Broadway musicals
Forbidden Broadway at the Civic Light Opera Company (whose home theatre is tucked cleverly under the Fairview Library in North York) was full of charming surprises. Some of them I’m embargoed from discussing, at the request of the company, in order to preserve that pleasurable frisson of “That’s not….is he…oh, he is,” that the audience gets to enjoy. As a reviewer, of course, it takes a little of the fun out of the job, but since it might preserve the fun of the reader I’ll play along gladly.
Taptoo commemorates the bicentennial War of 1812 at Toronto’s Jane Mallett Theatre
Taptoo! is an operetta that is set around the War of 1812 and explores the founding of Upper Canada and Toronto. The short run of Taptoo! at the Jane Mallett Theatre is the professional world premiere of the play and the opening night even featured an appearance (and speech) from the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, David C. Onley, O. ONT.
The music was composed by John Beckwith, while the libretto was written by James Reaney. Perhaps the most interesting part of the script was that Reaney managed to include verbatim quotations from the journals of Major John Graves Simcoe and his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Simcoe. He also included quotations from a drumming manual of the time which was fitting because the main character of the play, Seth, was a drummer boy for American rebels and British troops. Beckwith
incorporated several 18th century musical pieces into the operetta, including the crowd-favourite “Yankee Doodle”, which I thought was a nice touch.
Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the stuff that 15-year-old Soulpepper was founded on. A piece of classic American theatre, it is the largely biographical story of Eugene O’Neill’s family, published 25 years after his death. Who other than Soulpepper to tackle an arduously long and painful microscope into an Irish American family at the turn of the century?
I have to admit that during a grey midwinter week this play comes as a double whammy. I walked into the theatre from a particularly bumming week, with a friend who felt the same, and braced myself for a whole lot of sadness. We weren’t disappointed, just driven to drink afterward. Continue reading Review: Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Soulpepper)→
Toronto’s Soulpepper delivers a gripping heist story in a High Life
I watched Soulpepper‘s High Life on opening night in the Distillery a couple of nights ago. Needless to say, I was very excited to see this show as Soulpepper’s reputation for excellence definitely adds special anticipation to their shows.
The show started off with an announcement asking the audience to turn off their f**king cell phones which made everyone laugh and cheer. This pretty much set the tone for the show. The show is filled with profanity, drinking, smoking and even needle-injecting onstage, all while keeping it humourous and never getting too dark, which considering the subject matter is no small feat in itself.
