S. Bear Bergman has great faith in the power of theatre to make change, and has been putting his money where his mouth is on that one for some time. A writer, performer, and lecturer, Bear works full time as an artist and cultural worker and loves to see as much live performance as possible – making this a fantastic gig for him.
Just in case The Addams Family hadn’t given me my fill of teenaged theatregoers last week, I stepped it up this week with a performance of (would you say the name of this play?*) at Young People’s Theatre on Wednesday morning. The piece, originally titled nggrfg, appears to have been renamed in a bid to make it play better on school permission forms. Judging from the packed house on Wednesday morning, it was a good gamble.
I entered the Toronto Centre for the Arts for the opening night of The Addams Family swept up in a gaggle of young teens, all wearing coordinated black, white and dark-purple outfits, chattering excitedly in anticipation of the show. Accompanied by someone’s patient Dad, who distributed tickets while accepting stern instructions from his daughter not to go near them until the show was over, I found myself carried away in their enthusiasm. I hope they enjoyed the show as much as they wanted to; I must confess that I found it rather uneven.
It was such mazel to get to see landsman Yisrael Campbell’s show Circumcise Me! last night at the Jane Mallett Theatre. You might not agree, but then, I’m Jewish – sometimes I don’t even agree with myself.
If the first sentence of this review made sense to you, and the second elicited a knowing chuckle, then takeh, you’ll love this show. If not, well? Maybe not.
The first thing I need to tell you about the Studio 180/Buddies in Bad Timesco-production of The Normal Heart is that you must go and see it. Must. Utterly non-optional for anyone who ever likes theatre a little bit, which I presume you must since you are reading a theatre blog. Go ahead and click over to get your tickets, I’ll wait.
James Gangl, bless him, is perfectly honest: he wants to find a girlfriend. He’s aware that he is not, in the classic sense, A Catch, and so – like many of us with more charm than grace and more brains than looks – he has decided to work what he’s got. In Gangl’s case, aided by director Chris Gibbs and a few dark weeks on the Theatre Passe Muraille schedule, what he has is a really, really good story.
