Classic Opera Revels in “Fluff and Nonsense,” now on the Toronto stage
Much of the music of The Barber of Seville (Gioachino Rossini, 1816) is familiar to me from the iconic Bugs Bunny sketch “Rabbit of Seville” and constitutes one of my earliest exposures to opera. It is clear when watching Canadian Opera Company’s current production that the rascally rabbit took notes on comedic genius from Rossini and librettist Cesare Sterbini. Two hundred years later, this quintessential opera buffa is still effervescent hilarity. Continue reading Review: Barber of Seville (Canadian Opera Company)→
What would you do if you only had 8 minutes 17 seconds? Blue Ceiling danceposes this question in its science-infused dance work presented in the Franco Boni Theatre in The Theatre Centre. It is the exact amount of time it takes for light to travel from the sun to the earth. It is how much time we would have if the sun were to die.
Conceived and co-choreographed by Lucy Rupert, the evening consists of twelve performers using dance to explore a range of emotions and responses to this time constraint, with input from local physicists.
Beautiful double bill tells powerful stories that have audiences both laughing and in tears
What is the price of safety? What must you leave behind forever in transit to a new life? Theatre Passe Muraille, in collaboration with Theatre Mada, raises these questions in Suitcase/Adrenaline, a timely double bill of one-act plays by Ahmad Meree, on the multilayered experiences of Syrian refugees.
Presented in Arabic with English surtitles (with some in-ear described performances available), the program invites us to meet these characters on their own terms.
The Trip to Bountiful is a touching tale of one woman’s devotion to her roots
Written by Horton Foote, The Trip to Bountiful at Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre evokes differences between city life and country life and between the needs of the elderly and the younger generation. But the heart of the story goes much deeper than that as it expresses one woman’s unshakable longing for her roots.
Mama Watts (Jane Hunter) is an elderly woman who’s cooped up in a Houston, Texas apartment at a busy street corner. She’s living with her son Ludie (Jamie Johnson) and daughter-in-law Jessie Mae (Kim Croscup). Mama Watts yearns to return to her hometown Bountiful (also called a “swamp” by Jessie Mae) and this desire is all-encompassing. She hasn’t been home for 30 years.
Classic Opera Revels in “Fluff and Nonsense,” now on the Toronto stage
Written by Horton Foote,