All posts by Dorianne Emmerton

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.

Review: Lo (Dear Mr Wells) (Nightwood Theatre)

Nightwood Theatre’s nuanced play takes to the Toronto stage

Lo (Dear Mr Wells), a Nightwood Theatre production in association with Crow’s Nest, tells the story of a sexual relationship between a high school student and a teacher. Going into it, I expected the teacher to be a “bad guy”, obviously predatory, allowing the audience to comfortably condemn him. Instead, Mr Wells is a developed character, a likeable human person. I believed that he really did love Lo. Continue reading Review: Lo (Dear Mr Wells) (Nightwood Theatre)

Review: The Fish Eyes Trilogy (Factory Theatre/Nightswimming)

Toronto’s Factory Theatre opens its season with Anita Majumdar’s play The Fish Eyes Trilogy

Anita Majumdar is a force to be reckoned with in The Fish Eyes Trilogy, the one-person show she’s written, choreographed, and is performing at Factory Theatre. You’d need an oil tanker, not a fishing boat, to hold the amount of ferocity she brings to playing three teen girls (and a host of other minor characters) living in Port Moody. Told almost as much through dance as through voice, The Fish Eyes Trilogy probes into the tender places where racism and misogyny burrow into adolescent sexuality, with complex psychological repercussions.

Continue reading Review: The Fish Eyes Trilogy (Factory Theatre/Nightswimming)

Preview: Serenity Wild (Tender Container) 2017 SummerWorks Preview

Theatre artist Katie Sly has returned from Vancouver to present their play Serenity Wild at the Summerworks Festival. Sly is a significant figure in the vanguard of exploring sex and sexuality onstage.

They have produced the Two Queer: A Bi Visibility Cabaret series (which once featured my work), and performed in Sky Gilbert’s The Terrible Parents, and they have been featured in Summerworks previously, with their autobiographical show Charisma Furs.  I had the pleasure of seeing a staged reading of Serenity Wild some years ago. Here is my conversation with Sly. Continue reading Preview: Serenity Wild (Tender Container) 2017 SummerWorks Preview

Review: Ghost Rings (Luminato)

Ghost Rings, part of the Luminato Festival in Toronto, is “whimsical” and “wonderfully wild”

David Pecault Square is home to the Famous Spiegeltent for Luminato, serving as the venue for performances including Ghost Rings, from NYC company Half Straddle. Ghost Rings is a pop-punk experimental musical about girls who are close when they are young, but grow estranged as they become adults. Continue reading Review: Ghost Rings (Luminato)

Review: The Youth/Elders Project (Buddies In Bad Times)

The Youth/Elders Project tackles issues affecting the LGBTQIA community, on stage in Toronto

In partnership with The 519 and the Senior Pride Network, Buddies in Bad Times has put LGBTQIA people under 25 and over 55 together in a yearlong process to create this show, The Youth/Elders Project. The results are sincere and charming, if a bit patchy.  Continue reading Review: The Youth/Elders Project (Buddies In Bad Times)