All posts by Madeleine Copp

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.

Review: It’s All Tru (The Cabaret Company)

Photo of David Coomber and Tim PostThe Cabaret Company presents Sky Gilbert’s newest play It’s All Tru in Toronto

I don’t envy Sky Gilbert’s attempt at creating an honest and open-ended discussion of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada. The Cabaret Company’s It’s All Tru playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre lays important creative groundwork in discussing poorly defined laws around unprotected sex and HIV, systemic limitations on enforcing these laws, and the consequences of such enforcement.

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.

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Review: The Millennial Malcontent (Tarragon Theatre)

Photo of Frank Cox-O'Connor in The Millennial MalcontentThe Millennial Malcontent plays on the Tarragon stage in Toronto

What do you get when an apathetic woman, a vainglorious, misogynistic and self-absorbed youtuber, and a performance studies academic go out on Nuit Blanche? Shenanigans ensue in Tarragon Theatre’s The Millennial Malcontent playing at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace.

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.

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Review: Smyth/Williams (One Little Goat Theatre Company)

Photo of Kim Nelson, Deborah Drakeford, and Lynette Gillis

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’s Smyth/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.

Continue reading Review: Smyth/Williams (One Little Goat Theatre Company)

Review: Deceitful Above All Things (The Storefront Theatre and Favour The Brave Collective)

Photo of Genevieve Adam and John Fitzgerald Jay in Deceitful Above All Things 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’s Deceitful 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.

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Review: Carrie: the musical (Hart House Theatre)

Photo of Tiyana Scott as Carrie WhiteStephen 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.

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