If, like me, you are craving a good police drama right now and are counting the seconds until the new series of Broadchurch and Happy Valley are released, Vagrant and Bad Dog Theatre Company’s True Blue, playing as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, could not come at a better time. And the good news is that it is improvised, so you can watch a whole British series of it (that’s six episodes) and each show will be different.  Continue reading True Blue (A Vagrant Theatre and Bad Dog Theatre Company) 2016 Toronto Theatre Fringe Review →

I’m not usually a patron of contemporary dance, but I might have been converted by (un)boxed a performance from Jay9 Dance Projects at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It made such great use of the space available, lighting, music and of course performance. It played like a Disney animated short except it was real life.

Continue reading (un)boxed (Jay9 Dance Projects) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review →

Canadian Comedy Award-winning duo and Fringe mainstays Peter N’ Chris would like you to know that they have been doing comedy together for ten years – or maybe eight. In their latest Toronto Fringe Festival offering, Peter Vs Chris, they intend to go mano a mano for the last time, and only one will be left standing on the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace stage (this is, in some ways, a literal statement: there is a lot of falling down). As is befitting a Peter N’ Chris show, this may or may not be true, but part of the duo’s delight comes from the way they are always able to keep the audience just slightly off-balance.

Continue reading Peter Vs Chris (Peter N’ Chris) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review →

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a “gamer”. I like video games and spend a decent amount of time playing them, but with things like Gamergate and the often toxic environment of online gaming I generally try to distance myself from the culture outside of my own little bubble. When I sat down to watch Searching for Party I was a little nervous I was going to have to brave my way through that uncomfortable world.

Thankfully the Arcturus Players have chosen a much different direction, focusing instead on the humour and joy intrinsic to playing games and the possibilities that can arise from partaking in them.

Continue reading Searching for Party (Arcturus Players) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review →

Many people find improv — particularly in front of an audience — to be terrifying. An equally large number find singing in public to be just as daunting. To promise what Songbuster Musical does in their Toronto Fringe Festival show, Songbuster – An Improvised Musical, therefore, takes an enormous leap of faith: an hour-long musical, created and performed in real time at the Randolph Theatre, on the spot.

Well, in tonight’s improvised musical, a priest may have lost his faith, but I didn’t: an extremely talented cast of comedians and musicians largely delivered on their promise on opening (and closing) night.

Continue reading Songbuster – An Improvised Musical (Songbuster Musical) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review →