Bad New Days presents two starkly different physical performances at Toronto’s Theatre Centre

Italian Mime Suicide // Three Red Days (Bad New Days) is an experimental theatrical production that is perfectly suited for the innovative and nurturing environment that is Toronto’s Theatre Centre. The production incorporates two plays based on anecdotes from two artists. Both rely upon gestures, imagery and metaphors more than dialogue. Continue reading Review: Italian Mime Suicide // Three Red Days (Bad New Days) →

The Toronto Irish Players presents John Patrick Shanley’s generational family drama Outside Mullingar

Up until last night, my only experience of Irish theatre was seeing The Playboy of the Western World at Shaw twenty years ago. I was nineteen then and doubt I fully appreciated John Millington Synge as I remember hardly anything about the play. I am inspired to revisit it, though, because of the Toronto Irish Players‘ quite lovely production of Outside Mullingar, a more contemporary Irish play by John Patrick Shanley, currently playing at Alumnae Theatre. Continue reading Review: Outside Mullingar (Toronto Irish Players) →

The Numbers Game continues with episodes 3 and 4, now on stage in Toronto

A few weeks ago, I binged episodes one and two of The Numbers Game, the multi-part play series currently running at Toronto’s Storefront Theatre. The idea is to replicate the experience of a Netflix-style miniseries, the type you can burn through episode-by-episode. When transferring the idea to the theatre, this takes the form of shorter plays running throughout October and into early November, with opportunities to catch past episodes just before the new one comes out.

Having really enjoyed the first two episodes, I was eager to get back to the world of these plays, where the racially-charged turf wars of two gangster operations in the post-Prohibition New York area had only begun to play out between Dutch Schultz (Jamie Cavanagh) and Queenie St. Clair (Karine Ricard). Continue reading Review: The Numbers Game, Episodes 3 & 4 (The Pulp Collective) →

Bob Paisley embodies the 42nd American president at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille

It’s a bit ironic that I missed watching the debates last night to see Bill Clinton Hercules, a politically charged one-man show being put on in the Passe Muraille Backspace by Central Standard Theatre. Though after reading up on and watching clips of last night’s debacle, I can’t help but think that my evening was better spent and significantly less infuriating.

Continue reading Review: Bill Clinton Hercules (Central Standard Theatre) →