Madeleine Copp saw her first show when she was four years old and it was love at first sight. She pursued a bachelor’s in theatre production and design and English literature, culminating in a love for flexible, innovative, and diverse theatre artists that challenge all our preconceived notions of the stage. Her thesis, Printed Voices: Women, Print, and Performance pushed for new interpretations of closet drama from the early modern to modern period in the hopes of seeing more female playwrights included in the performance canon. Since graduating, Madeleine continues to seek out unexpected, startling, and challenging works that leave her angry, speechless, and wonderfully confused.
Playwright Kaitlyn Riordan had Shakespeare’s women—or lack thereof— on her mind when she constructed Portia’s Julius Caesar for Shakespeare in the Ruff playing in Withrow Park. She decided to create “a new Shakespearean play where we meet all kinds of women” using a mixture of Shakespear’s language from plays, sonnets, poetry and her own writing.
The result is an attempt to flesh out women’s roles that doesn’t quite succeed for me in the execution.
Despite excellent parts, Picnic in the Cemetery feels it should be better than it actually is. Moreover, as an audience member, I feel like I should have liked it better than I did. It’s a show where all the excellent smothers what’s actually good.
At least, that’s how my guest and I felt leaving the theatre. We were haunted, terrified, and struck by just how important it was to hear this specific story in this day and age.
Tarragon Theatre delivers Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet through a rock n’ roll lens in Toronto
There is something to be said on whether or not the type of music integrated into a show can help reimagine a well-known story. Tarragon Theatre’s Hamlet applies a rock and roll ‘lens’ to a familiar tale.
The results don’t rewrite the book, but when a production’s this good, it’s hard to argue.
There is an unsurprisingly apt description of feminism in SaMel Tanz’sThat “F” Word playing at the Factory Theatre Mainspace as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival. A series of expertly choreographed dances informed by questions of femininity, society, race, body image, and gender roles uses words sparingly, preferring the twist of bodies to try and examine that insurmountable word: feminism.
While hitting the mark technically, with wonderful sequences, it’s the show’s on-the-nose interpretation of the issue it seeks to explore that might be its biggest weakness or biggest strength.
Toronto playwright Diane Flacks examines the intersection of women and religion in her play Unholy
I think most people have had that one dinner where they’re told: whatever you do, don’t mention religion. Nightwood Theatre’sUnholy playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatreis that dinner—except imagine that dinner is televised and there are no consequences for letting your opinions fly.
It’s exactly as intense, exciting, and hilarious as it sounds.
Measure for Measure doesn’t break molds but delivers stellar performances, playing in Toronto
Picnic in the Cemetery is beautiful but lacks cohesion, at the Berkeley Theatre in Toronto
Théâtre français de Toronto’s new play Le Menteur is a fast-paced, hilarious romp
A dark comedy of a woman’s life pre birth control, on stage at Streetcar Crowsnest in Toronto
Théatre Français and Théatre la Catapulte presents Le Dire de Di playing in Toronto
Tarragon Theatre delivers Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet through a rock n’ roll lens in Toronto
The problem with a surprise is that you never know whether it’s going to be good or bad. 
Toronto playwright Diane Flacks examines the intersection of women and religion in her play Unholy