This week, we have a whole rush of new shows opening up! Whether you’re heading back to school or just looking forward to the start of fall, the theatre scene in the city is brimming with new productions. We’re spoiled for choice here in Toronto, so to make things easier, our editor Lin is here to pick out her most-anticipated in red text!
Continue reading Playlistings in Toronto for the Week of September 12th
School is in session with a drag twist, now on stage in TorontoTucked away in the difficult-to-find Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, Justin Miller’s drag alter ego Pearle Harbour teaches Pearle Harbour’s Sunday School class to the audience. We are her boys and girls and other non-traditional gender identities, learning Christian theories with a dark undercurrent. The somewhat haphazard focus of the show is on the catchphrases and concepts of current progressive ideologies. Continue reading Pearle Harbour’s Sunday School (Pearle Harbour)
Kill Your Parents has laughs and tension, now on stage at the Storefront TheatreMy first and last impressions of Kill Your Parents In Viking, Alberta were “wow.” The show is a co-production of the Storefront Arts Initiative and Blood Pact Theatre and currently plays at The Storefront Theatre. It is a dark comedy with focus on the highs and lows of three siblings meeting after the death of their grandmother.
My first “wow” came the moment I stepped into the theatre space. The set, designed by co-writer Bryce Hodgson and Producer and Production Manager Bri Proke, was like every suburban kitchen I have ever set foot in. The older appliances, worn table and chairs perfectly capture the Canadian small-town aesthetic. Continue reading Review: Kill Your Parents In Viking, Alberta (Storefront Arts Initiative/Blood Pact Theatre)
Harold Pinter’s memory play takes to the Toronto stageFirst performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1971, Toronto indie theatre company Unit 102 Actors Co. have brought Harold Pinter’s Tony Award winning play Old Times to The Dirt Underneath. Old Times is categorized as one of Pinter’s ‘memory plays,’ where he explores the ambiguities and fluidity of memory and how our recollection of past events can affect the dynamics and relationships of the present and future.
Contra Theatre’s Kingdom tackles a complex, disturbing subject with nuanced precisionSeeing Contra Theatre‘s Kingdom tonight at Tarragon Theatre satisfied dual parts of me: the part that loves morbidly creepy stories, and the part that loves really good theatre.
Kingdom is a story about long-term captivity and the complicated ways that can play out. It’s about memory, imagination, and how humans can and do adapt to terrifyingly horrible circumstances.