Five for Twenty (Or Less)
Spring is supposed to be here, and while it seems like it’s gotten a little stuck trying to make it through customs, at least there’s some interesting theatre to keep our minds off the fact that it’s not beach weather yet.
Continue reading Cheap Theatre in Toronto for the Week of March 25th, 2013
Here is what’s going on in Toronto theatre this week. There are several great shows to catch for the week of March 25th, 2013. ** Shows marked with the double asterisks and in red are the ones that make Wayne, our Managing Editor, wish he could exist in multiple parallel universes so he could check them all out.
Continue reading Eye-Catching Toronto Theatre for the Week of March 25th, 2013
Not knowing what to expect from sister companies Theatre Lab and Pandemic Theatre, I decided to give this double bill a shot. Playing at Factory Studio Theatre, To The Last Cry and The Lost Sagas of Tjorvi The Flaccid are both hilarious and original.
The section on Japanese Noh Theatre I took in theatre school has finally come in handy. Daniel MacIvor’s Arigato, Tokyo, playing at Buddies in Bad Times, uses forms of Noh Theatre in the story of Carl Dewar, a cynical novelist who indulges in wanton sex and drug use to stave off his loneliness. Dewar travels to Japan for a book tour and the play is peppered with readings from this fictional novel, passages that show both disdain and deep longing for romantic love. Continue reading Review: Arigato,Tokyo (Buddies In Bad Times Theatre)
First, readers will be grateful to know that the charming Buster Canfield has not, as actual flea circus ringmasters sometimes would, harnessed the fleas in fine metal wire collars to wear for the rest of their lives. I feel relatively confident that Theatre Direct wouldn’t permit it; they don’t seem the type. Nor indeed are there any fleas in his act at all, as there typically aren’t in the case of modern flea circuses – instead, there are magnetics, elastics, sleight-of-hand, patter and pure showmanship.
The form as it exists today is an opportunity for a performer to show any number of performance talents, including comedy for certain, and flea circus is having a bit of a resurgence along with storytelling and knitting, other older pastimes and entertainments that still have a lot of good times left in them.
Continue reading Workshop: Buster Canfield & His Circus of Amazing Fleas (Theatre Direct)
