The play is divided into scenes in which character relationships are explored. Mother and daughter Joan and Alice live together near a dairy farm run by Margery and Jack. Relations appear strained when gluttonous Joan requests yeast from austere Margery. Added to this strain are Jack’s attraction to Alice and his unsolicited sexual advances. Alice and her friend, Susan, speak frankly about their desire and sexual agency. The unfortunate young neighbour, Betty, is branded an hysteric by the doctor because she feels pressured to marry a man she does not love.
Tensions rise when a series of mystical and/or inexplicable events occur. Margery’s butter fails to come, her bread doesn’t rise and her calves get sick. John suffers from erectile dysfunction and Susan miscarries after taking a potion from the ‘cunning woman’, Ellen. In this culture of superstition and fear, witchcraft becomes the scapegoat and accusations fall on the faultless with grave and gruesome consequences.
Soulpepper adapts Of Human Bondage, the classic novel of unrequited love and the human condition, to the Toronto stage
At the end of the first act of Soulpepper’s production of Of Human Bondage, based on the 1915 classic novel by W. Somerset Maugham, I asked my companion what he thought so far. He liked the staging but found that the story was overly focused on unrequited love. I argued that there were other themes as well: addiction, poverty and class; the value of art vs medicine in society; and the role of loyalty in friendship. But I also agreed that, to someone with minimal engagement to older literature, some of the romantic histrionics might seem irrelevant. But didn’t unrequited love still exist? Aren’t modern relationships just as fraught? I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing from the play. Continue reading Review: Of Human Bondage (Soulpepper)→
Three people’s lives intertwine in the face of a horrific crime in Frozen on stage at the Box Theatre in Toronto
Standing in the lobby of the Box Theatre (which was essentially on the street) I was trying really hard not to reel off bad puns about being cold and waiting to see En(live)n’s production of Frozen. Needless to say I was relieved that the small theatre space was not cheap with their heating.
Frozen looks at three people’s experiences with forgiveness, remorse, and their ability to change. The characters’ lives begin to intersect when Nancy’s 10-year-old daughter disappears on her way to her grandmother’s house. Some 10 to 20 years later, we hear the story of how these characters’ lives touch. Ralph is convicted of abducting and murdering an unspecified number of children – Nancy’s daughter is one of them. Agnetha is studying serial killers. Continue reading Review: Frozen (En(Live)n Productions)→
The works of Caryl Churchill are featured in this year’s Playwright Project starting with A Number at The Downstage
The Playwright Project is both a celebration of influential playwrights and a showcase for indie theatre companies here in Toronto. This is the third installment since the festival began in 2012. The project brings several theatre companies together to mount selected works from a particular playwright. This year’s choice is Caryl Churchill.
The Protestant Reformation and a famous painting set the scene for a mystery in A God in Need of Help at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre
The Protestant Reformation was a schism in Western Christianity in the sixteenth century which divided the Holy Roman Empire into two religious factions, the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. Some Protestants were iconoclasts, who believed that any graven images of God (i.e. something painted or sculpted) should be destroyed.
The sixteenth century. The Protestant Reformation. Roman Catholics, Protestants, iconoclasm, and the blessed Mary. Woven together into a single production, you may not expect these subjects to form a detective-style mystery. Yet that’s exactly what you get in A God In Need of Help, and the result is, for the most part, enjoyable theatre.
Vinegar Tom is a thoughtful, evocative addition to Toronto’s Playwright Project
Standing in the lobby of 
