If you’ve got nostalgia for classics or new takes on old tales, then this is a fine week of Toronto theatre for you. There are also plenty of new stage productions debuting this week. I’ve highlighted the shows that our editor Samantha Wu would love to see this week red text. Perhaps they’ll strike your fancy or you may find something else that’ll tickle your interest. Continue reading Toronto Play Listings for the Week of May 11, 2015
A gold mosaic framed the Canadian Opera Company’s 2015 double feature production of psychological thrillers Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartόk and Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg. This production is a remount of director Robert Lepage’s operatic debut for the COC in 2001. Continue reading Review: Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung (Canadian Opera Company)
When I was a kid, I used to play soldier with my friends, not really knowing what any of it meant. When we grew tired of the game, we’d all go back to the comfort of our homes. I now realize that this sense of security is something my friends and I, like most children, took for granted.
Half a League, currently playing until May 31st at Fraser Studios, follows the dystopian tale of three young men as they engage in pretend war games in an abandoned trash dump. Like the garbage that surrounds them, they too have been discarded by society. Continue reading Review: Half a League (Rarely Pure Theatre)
I love a good farce—the awkward physicality, the slamming of doors and the silly predicaments. I also love the 70s—the Farrah Fawcett hair, the skintight bellbottoms and those bead curtains. Soulpepper’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce has all of the above and is a lot of fun.
So, we open on 70s Britain—four couples, three bedrooms. Continue reading Review: Bedroom Farce (Soulpepper)
There’s no way to undo the damage of the residential school system, but stories about them need to be shared, explored and honoured, as is done in Drew Hayden Taylor’s new play God And The Indian produced by Native Earth (in partnership with Firehall Arts Centre). It captures an evening between two people, Assistant Bishop George King and Johnny, a Cree woman who has recognized him from her youth in a residential school and followed him home. It’s fiction, but like all good art, it tells truth. Continue reading Review: God And The Indian (Native Earth Performing Arts/Firehall Arts Centre)