Blood Wild is produced by Rabbit in a Hat Productions from Montreal, which kind of sucks for their opening night at the Next Stage Theatre Festival. If you’re a Toronto company your family and friends come to your opening so you have a nice sized audience. The audience tonight was sparse which was a shame because it’s a very funny show. I wasn’t the only person snickering at the death scene.
Continue reading 2016 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Blood Wild (Rabbit in a Hat Productions)
Fresh from its critically-acclaimed debut at the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival, All Our Yesterdays, playing again at the Factory Theatre Studio as a part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival, is a gripping, polished production that tackles the issues of sexism, stigma, and female education in a harrowing story ripped from recent headlines.
Do you remember Avatar? The blockbuster 2009 James Cameron movie featured Sigourney Weaver, a bunch of blue aliens (the “Na’vi”) and a beat-you-over-the-head environmental message. For its latest venture, TORUK – The First Flight, Cirque du Soleil has created a “live experience,” specifically designed for arenas, that takes place in the universe that Cameron created for the film. This is the first time the company has based a show on a pre-existing film property and the results are … interesting. Continue reading Review: TORUK — The First Flight (Cirque du Soleil)
Aim for the Tangent’s Heart of Steel is a sort of Canadian fable. A young woman who has never seen anything that wasn’t Cape Breton; a destitute family; a war in Europe; and the world’s largest steel plant, suddenly desperate for women to fill a shortage of men. All song and dance and screwball comedy, Heart of Steel explores this unique period in Canadian history, and the experiences of the women who took to the mills. Continue reading 2016 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Heart of Steel (Aim for the Tangent)
Dance takes on a narrative flow in BreakinGround’s Urban Myth playing at the Factory Theatre Mainspace as part of the 2016 Next Stage Theatre Festival.
Unfortunately, tight footwork and high energy doesn’t quite give seven dance vignettes the chance to take off.
Continue reading 2016 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Urban Myth (BreakinGround)