A woman returns home to see her estranged mother after her grandmother has fallen into a coma. As a comet passes overhead the eerie voice of a boy who disappeared over fifty years ago is heard intermittently on a radio. Who is the boy and how will his return affect the fate of the three women? The Truth About Comets is an atmospheric two-hander presented by The Quickening Theatre as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. Continue reading The Truth About Comets (The Quickening Theatre) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

Fort Isabel, presented by Blood Orange Theatre & Deviant Productions at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace is haunting and sincere.

The venue itself creates a very specific dynamic between audience and performer. It is narrow and high.  No matter where you are sitting, you are essentially looking down on whatever is happening and whomever it’s happening to.  In such a position, characters always seem trapped and scrutinized.  This is entirely appropriate in the context of this particular story. Continue reading Fort Isabel (Blood Orange Theatre and Deviant Productions) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

I waited in anticipation outside The Tarragon Theatre to see The Adventures of a Professional Corpse presented by Bent Spoons as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. Adventure, goofiness, tomfoolery, it is all in the title. Heading into the theatre I expected at least some those different scenarios.

With hopes high, I walked into the main space at Tarragon to find the stage littered with ladders transformed into all sorts of different props. I knew this was going to be a DIY production, maybe a diamond in the rough. Continue reading The Adventures of a Professional Corpse (Bent Spoons) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

A decade ago, the last job  had before I quit having proper jobs forever, was as the marketing director for a children’s theatre company. We did nutritional shows, and not fables, but I’ll confess – a great deal of my interest in The Show Must Go On was in understanding to what fates I had been sending those poor jugglers for that miserable period. Jeff Leard, a dynamic and skilled player who must be the envy of all the other children’s theatre companies, has filled me in.

Leard, lithe and energetic, has a variety of tricks up his ruffled purple quilted sleeve and he uses every one of them – his facility with voices and characters, his masculine grace, his well-projected voice, his peculiar ability to make mouth noises – all of them add to this show.

Continue reading The Show Must Go On (Random Samples Collective) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →

As I stood in the foyer of The Tarragon Theatre this afternoon waiting for Kin, it was apparent that the rain had not dampened the audience’s turn out. As soon as the play started it was obvious that the actors were not going to let the rain affect their stellar acting either.

I was a bit apprehensive when the cheesy music signalled the start of the show, but my fears were quickly pushed aside when the actors took charge of the scene. Continue reading Kin (Tavistock Arts) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review →