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.
The Lavender Railroad has “incredible chemistry” in a “tense little play”, on stage in Toronto
The question of who we save, and why we save them haunts In-The-Moment Theatre’sThe Lavender Railroad, playing at The Box Theatre. Despite its heavy-handed title, this is not a show that takes its subject matter lightly, but instead tries to understand how a dark-mirror world could or would inform the traditional values people hold dear.
El Retorno/I Return is “a stroke of beauty” on the Toronto stage
The fight for justice and freedom is not easily defined for families fleeing conflict. In El Retorno/I Return, part of Why Not Theatre’sRiser Project playing at the Theatre Centre, tells the semi-autobiographical story of a family reflecting on their decision to remain in Canada instead of returning to Chile as part of The Return Plan—an international push against Chilean dictator Pinochet.
El Retorno/I Return personalizes the struggle of political refugees, making a complex question—how do you fight for the freedom and peace of your country— into a simple, but hard-hitting, family drama.
While there’s clearly a purpose to the play—to challenge our perspective on these laws, It’s All Tru suffers from unbalanced characters whose behaviour undermines Gilbert’s point of view.
A raunchy, contemporary, Restoration style play, The Millennial Malcontent tries to unpack (and fails to understand) ‘millennial culture’ while still managing to be a laugh-out-loud night at the theatre.
Smyth/Williams brings cold, hard facts to Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
In 2010, Russell Williams was arrested for two rape-murders, and other counts of sexual assault, confinement, and breaking and entering. One Little Goat Theatre Company’sSmyth/Williams playing at the Theatre Pass Muraille Backspace is a dramatization of the transcript of Williams’s interrogation by—and subsequent confession to—OPP Detective Jim Smyth.
It is infuriating, nausea-inducing, and exhausting, sitting on the uncomfortable line between a necessary performance and giving an unnecessary platform to a man who doesn’t deserve our attention.
Storefront Theatre presents a tale of discovery in the new world, on stage in Toronto
The ‘new world’ is more than just a struggle to survive, it’s also a struggle to let go of who you really are in the wilderness. The Storefront Theatre’sDeceitful Above All Things — done in association with Favour The Brave Collective — playing at the Factory Theatre Studio attempts to strip away historical veneers of Canada in the 1600’s to get at the humanity underneath.
While there’s a wealth of material, I can’t help but think all that focus on humanity also lost some of the plot.
Stephen King’s horror classic comes to the Toronto stage
Hart House Theatre’s production of the named Carrie: the musical seems like a good choice for a young cast and an inter-generational audience. Bullying is a great theme, it’s got great visual possibilities because of its story, and the audience will have fans of the book and films offering a little leeway for younger performers.
A good idea does not, however, a good production make.
As a play, it’s a paint by the numbers coming out piece, but in the hands of director Victoria Fuller and an amazing cast, it manages to overcome any shortcomings.
The Lavender Railroad has “incredible chemistry” in a “tense little play”, on stage in Toronto
El Retorno/I Return is “a stroke of beauty” on the Toronto stage
The Cabaret Company presents Sky Gilbert’s newest play It’s All Tru in Toronto
The Millennial Malcontent plays on the Tarragon stage in Toronto
Storefront Theatre presents a tale of discovery in the new world, on stage in Toronto
Stephen King’s horror classic comes to the Toronto stage
Toronto’s Echo Productions presents a grown-up Peanuts gang in the play Dog Sees God