Dorianne is a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies joint program between University of Toronto, Erindale campus and Sheridan College. She writes short stories, plays and screenplays and was delighted to be accepted into the 2010 Diaspora Dialogues program and also to have her short story accepted into the 2011 edition of TOK: Writing The New Toronto collection. She is also a regularly contributing writer on http://www.sexlifecanada.ca. You can follow her on twitter @headonist if you like tweets about cats, sex, food, queer stuff and lefty politics.
Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig is a cabaret night in the style of the 1920’s; songs interspersed with comedy acts from the MCs, who also give you a two part story number regarding a corrupt, buffoonish character who becomes burgermeister (mayor) in a remote Bavarian town, a narrative attuned to the municipal politics of Toronto today.
A lot of the songs are from Kurt Weill who is, in my mind, one of the best examples of musicianship with an impact both emotional and political. He may have died in 1950 but his songs remain resonant today, and are adeptly handled by Soup Can Theatre. The costumes are fabulous, the music and song almost always compelling and the staging has that underground feel, where it is well choreographed but never too polished to delude you that these aren’t real, actual people up there. Continue reading Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig (Soup Can Theatre) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review→
Clay and Paper Deliver a Fantastic Day in Toronto’s Dufferin Grove Park.
The cold rain on Sunday morning concerned me, as I was looking forward to spending the afternoon outside with my partner and our adorable son. June 16th was both our 6th anniversary and his 11 month birthday and we were going to Clay and Paper’s Day of Delight in Dufferin Grove Park. There aren’t many events where I can kill two birds with one stone and spend time with my new family while also reviewing for Mooney. Day of Delight fulfills this double duty perfectly. Continue reading Review: Day of Delight (Clay and Paper Theatre)→
Theatre that takes it back to the 90s at Buddies in Toronto
I expected to laugh and I expected to sing along but I didn’t expect A Very Christerical 90’s Cabaret to make me cry. In retrospect it’s not so surprising: for one thing, the show is in Tallulah’s Cabaret at Buddies, which is a space with a bar, so I was softened up by the pitchers my companion and I were downing. And music is very good at evoking emotion, and music from a significant period in a person’s history has even more of an impact. Chris Tsujiuchi is slightly younger than I, but his tales of growing up queer in the 90’s definitely resonated with me. It also helped that he is a very good story-teller and an absolutely delightful performer.
Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre explores the queer and the religious with Sister Mary’s a Dyke?!
Sister Mary’s a Dyke?!, produced by Cahoots Theatre, had its start in life as a monologue for a youth arts program, and unfortunately it still feels like that a lot of the time. There is, however, a strong thread running through about a quarter of the show that has the potential to become a queer camp classic. Playwright and performer Flerida Peña is still quite young so there’s hope for it. Continue reading Review: Sister Mary’s a Dyke?! (Cahoots Theatre)→
Classic absurdist theatre comes to Toronto in The Dumb Waiter
The Dumb Waiter, currently being produced by Wordsmyth Theatre, is a classic piece of absurdist theatre involving two hit men waiting in a small room for their mark to arrive. Suddenly the dumb waiter begins sending orders down – a dumb waiter is a little elevator intended to carry food and other smallish sundry items from one floor to another without the need of human accompaniment. Obviously it is a bit of an archaic device, as is the “speaking tube”, also featured in the play, that allows the men to communicate with the forces that be. Continue reading Review: The Dumb Waiter (Wordsmyth Theatre)→
Clay and Paper Deliver a Fantastic Day in Toronto’s Dufferin Grove Park.
