This week’s selected listings feature many classic tales and operas! We’ve got our publisher Megan on hand to pick out a few of her top choices, listed in red. Check them out below the cut:
Continue reading Playlistings in Toronto for the week of April 24th
Young People’s Theatre’s play brings the stories of Robert Munsch to the Toronto stageWith a pair of seven-year-olds and a stalwart spirit I ventured to Young People’s Theatre on a sunny Saturday for their new show Munschtime! Adapted from four classic Robert Munsch tales by longtime YPT director Allen MacInnes and collaborator Steven Colella. The stories are framed by a granddaughter who keeps asking for just one more story and her grandparents who, of course, indulge her. I wasn’t ready for another after the show on Saturday, but I liked the ones I got just fine.
Continue reading Review: Munschtime! (Young People’s Theatre)
Canadian Stage brings the classic painting by Hieronymus Bosch to life in TorontoThis weekend only (April 19-23, 2017), you can see renowned choreographer Marie Chouinard’s rich and vivid work bringing the art of Hieronymous Bosch to the stage in Hieronymus Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights at the Bluma Appel Theatre.
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter in the 15th and 16th Centuries that created some fantastical imagery of religious scenes. Here, choreographer Marie Chouinard captured the imagery and spirit of Bosch’s most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Continue reading Review: Hieronymous Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights (Canadian Stage)
Sound of the Beast is a challenging, powerful work now on stage in TorontoTheatre Passe Muraille‘s mixed-media production Sound of the Beast takes us on an intense, challenging journey that moves from Tunisia to Toronto and back. Solo performer Donna-Michelle St. Bernard uses a well-crafted mixture of rap, song, spoken word, and story to share her experiences at the intersection of race and institutional power.
This unusual show isn’t for the politically faint of heart; St. Bernard is forceful and direct in her condemnation of racist cops, racist power structures, and our racist society. But her message is so strong, and the issues she discusses are so important, that I found the show to be very rewarding.
Continue reading Sound of the Beast (Theatre Passe Muraille)
The hit show Banana Boys returns to the Factory Theatre stage in TorontoBanana Boys is currently making its triumphant return to the Factory Theatre stage. Originally developed by the fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company in 2002, the show is now one of the most culturally relevant modern plays currently in production.
The show itself is a fast paced, witty, and at times raunchy look at what it means to be a “banana” — a cultural term indicating someone who is ‘yellow on the outside and white on the inside’. A displaced Asian with roots in the East but born and raised in the West. From the perspective of five young Chinese-Canadian men, they explore their struggles with career, education, love, friendship, identity, and the ever present pressure from mom and dad.