Reviews of shows in the Toronto Next Stage Festival
In Morro and Jasp’s new offering, a one-night fundraiser for the virtual 2021 Next Stage Community Booster called Bake Your Heart Out, the two clown sisters are up to their old tricks. The inseparable duo has finally come up against a directive to be separate, and a baby on the way makes their divide even more palpable. However, that’s not going to keep them from sharing their screens – and hearts.
Continue reading Review: Bake Your Heart Out (Next Stage Community Booster 2021)
Blind Confidence, written and performed by Graham Isador, is playing as part of the Storytelling series in the Next Stage‘s 2021 virtual festival Community Booster.
Sometimes things happen in our lives where we end up saying, “Well, at least I got a good story out of it.” When Isador was asked to help create a version of ‘edgy morning television’ for a Montreal market, at least he got a good story out of it.
Continue reading Review: Blind Confidence (Next Stage Community Booster 2021)
We all consume things we know that are bad for us, in order to escape, to connect, to feel. That’s one of the messages of Mara Da Costa Reis’s Fish Water, now playing in the Next Stage‘s 2021 virtual festival Community Booster as part of the Storytelling series.
Reis’ story, which begins as an innocuous flirtation between a young woman and her Thai food delivery girl, contains an unexpected gut punch.
Continue reading Review: Fish Water (Next Stage Community Booster 2021)
The Kindness of Murder is one of the plays in the Theatre Shorts Stream of The Next Stage Community Booster. Written by Steven Elliott Jackson, it’s the story of Dr. Crippen (Andy Trithardt) and Ethel LeNeve (Rebecca Perry), his mistress. It’s produced by Steven Elliott Jackson, Rebecca Perry From Minmar Gaslight Productions and directed by Ryan G. Hinds.
I really enjoyed it. Watching a play on a screen can be difficult; I have friends who won’t do it. They tried early on in the pandemic, hated what they saw, and won’t watch again. I discovered that I love watching staged readings, but plays are really hit or miss. The Kindness of Murder was definitely ‘hit’.
Continue reading Review: The Kindness of Murder (Next Stage Community Booster 2021)
Lacuna, now playing as part of the virtual 2021 Next Stage Community Booster, asks us, “Is theatre even theatre without the exchange of energy?”
Writer Chantal Forde is joined by Mandy Roveda, Juliet Jones-Rodney, and Trina Moyan, in an on-stage representation of a Zoom call, each actress holding a frame around her face as they try to create together.
This attempt at creation is halted by general pandemic malaise and technical difficulties, and their private anxieties. These include the desire for connection vs. the reality of latency, the wearying need to constantly combat white supremacy, the challenge of finding individuality rather than representing a larger community, and the frustrating lack of space for women’s bodies.
Continue reading Review: Lacuna (Next Stage Community Booster 2021)