Karen Hines takes on Toronto real estate nightmares in her play Crawlspace at Videofag

Renters, you’ll stay put after watching Karen Hines’ Crawlspace, a horrifying and enlightening story of home ownership playing at Videofag in Kensington Market. Inspired by a true Toronto real estate nightmare, Crawlspace will keep you from browsing MLS listings again.

It’s the kind of story you want to talk about as soon as you get home: “You gotta hear about Crawlspace — the mice, the holes in the wall, the piece of the house that went over the neighbour’s property, the deceitful flipping.”  Continue reading Review: Crawlspace (Videofag) →

Antigone, now on stage in Toronto, is inconsistent but provoking

Confronting ideology often requires simplifying the conflict. Alumnae Theatre Company’s Antigone by Jean Anouilh, playing at the Alumnae Theatre Mainstage, clearly wants to find the heart of the struggle in the conflict, but can’t quite find its feet.

Continue reading Review: Antigone (Alumnae Theatre Company) →

Toronto’s Hart House Theatre opens its season with George F. Walker’s play We The Family

Hart House’s world-premier production of George F. Walker’s We The Family is polished and entertaining. Brandon Kleiman’s minimalist, multi-tiered set is an urban showcase with steel girders set against a cityscape backdrop. Some very colourful characters pop out of this inner-city jungle and their interactions are swift and punchy. This looks and feels like it wants to be a musical, and I may have liked it more had it been. Continue reading Review: We The Family (Hart House) →

The 20th of November, on stage at Buddies in Toronto, is theatre that is “challenging” and less “entertainment”

Leaving the theatre after the opening of The 20th of November at Buddies in Bad Times, I ran (almost literally) into Toronto cabaret luminary Ryan G. Hinds arriving for the season’s opening party. “Did you enjoy the show?” he asked me with enthusiasm? I blinked at him, still getting my emotional bearings, and slowly replied “I… don’t think it’s a show you’re supposed to enjoy.”

Continue reading Review: The 20th of November (Buddies In Bad Times) →