Sexy striptease meets a unique history lesson in The Firecrackers Present: Bad Girls of History, a cheeky and sensual burlesque show at Toronto’s Club 120
History is an important subject to study, but sometimes it is easy to drift away from the tomes and documentaries that seem to repeat the same stories. If only there was a way to spice up a history lesson, so that your eyes popped instead of drooped down with boredom. Club 120 may have found the perfect solution that stimulates that brain, among other things.
Toronto’s The Weaker Vessels present Would You Rather…?, a sketch comedy show that may have left the audience in stitches but still managed to fall short
I’m not a comedian. So in reviewing The Weaker Vessels, I brought one along.
We’ve covered these guys before, and they sounded right up my alley: clever, existential, absurdist and whip-smart sketch comedy. All five performers are pedigreed: the programme is literally filled with Second City This and Upright Citizens That. And tonight, we were promised an evening of good, not-altogether-clean fun, casting a jaundiced eye towards the theme of choice.
Jokes were told. People laughed. But on the whole, my guest and I both wished they’d made different ones.
An emotionally heart wrenching story about Canada’s tainted blood scandal, Tainted is playing at Toronto’s Aki Studio Theatre
On Friday evening I saw Tainted at the Aki Studio Theatre at Daniels Spectrum. It’s a powerful play; the story of one family deeply affected by the tainted blood scandal and how they deal with it.
It puts a human face on an inhuman chapter in recent Canadian history. The tainted blood crisis was the worst public health crisis that Canada has experienced. Almost 30,000 people contracted HIV and/or Hepatitis C as a result of receiving transfusions of tainted blood. Hemophiliacs were especially hard hit.
This is a play that everyone should see, not just for the story but for the writing, the direction and the acting. It’s a beautiful production.
Toronto’s Studio BLR takes Tennessee Williams’ classic A Streetcar Named Desire and pairs it with punk rock and live music for a richly impassioned theatrical performance
I’ve spent quite a bit of time studying the works of Tennessee Williams. What kept me entranced was the way he wrote characters so vastly layered that the unpeeling of which would pit them directly against reality and a built up fantasy would crumble away.
When I learned that Studio BLR would be presenting a punk rock version of A Streetcar Named Desire I was immediately intrigued. Finding out that each performance would feature original music from a different local rock band spoke sweetly to my music geek side. Learning all of this from a friend who would be playing a role solidified my need to attend.
The Best Brothers, playing at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, is a well staged and performed dark comedy about family ties and bonds in the wake of a mother’s funeral
In Tarragon’s production of Daniel MacIvor’s new play, The Best Brothers, Hamilton (played by MacIvor) and Kyle (John Beale) are dealing with the sudden death of their mother, Bunny, and all the attendant concerns, like coordinating the visitation, answering condolence cards and caring for her dog. These activities are complicated by tension between the two, based primarily on Hamilton’s jealousy of the relationship Kyle had with their mother.
This may not sound like a setup for a comedy, but it is. The repartee is familiarly sibling-like, but graced with MacIvor’s sharp wit. The brothers deliver retorts the rest of us can only dream of thinking up on the spot when fighting with a family member. Continue reading The Best Brothers (Tarragon Theatre)→
