Poking comedic fun at biblical tales, Genesis & Other Stories is playing at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre

Genesis & Other Stories (playing the Red Sandcastle) is playwright Rosamund Small’s love letter to amateur dramatics: to 14-hour cue-to-cues held in sweltering church basements and freezing middle-school gymnatoriums; to the tumbledown sets, costumes & props that volunteers dig out of their closets or laboriously assemble with their bare hands and loads of duct tape; and, above all else, to the strange, overly-earnest creatures who inhabit this world.

Director Christoper’s late father adapted the Book of Genesis to suburban America in the 1960s, and–as a final act of devotion–he tries to shepherd his ramshackle cast through the truly awful script for the play-within-a-play.

Sadly, even the otherworldly guidance of our deceased writer can’t save this company of misfits, wannabes and has-beens from their personal and public melodramas.

Happily, we get to laugh at their misery. And laugh, we do.

Continue reading Review: Genesis & Other Stories (Aim for the Tangent) →

the dreamer examines his pillow explores marred and broken relationships at Toronto’s Box Theatre

JR Theatre is presenting the dreamer examines his pillow at The Box Theatre, a small studio space with a lot of gritty character – think exposed pipes and painted-over brick. Since this is another 1980’s John Patrick Shanley play produced in an unconventional space, like Danny & The Deep Blue Sea which I reviewed in November, it’s impossible not to draw comparisons. Both plays feature working class characters trapped in their circumstances but while in Danny & The Deep Blue Sea two people meet and struggle with their histories and situations to let themselves fall in love, in the dreamer examines his pillow we see people whose relationships are old and twisted and torn and no longer resemble love at all.

Continue reading Review: The Dreamer Examines His Pillow (JR Theatre) →

A candid look at the inner world of pro wrestling, The Heel vs Screwjob is playing at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel

Now, you’ve probably heard that there’s nothing ‘real’ about the world of professional wrestling. But have you ever stopped to think about the lives of those behind the illusion?

The Heel vs Screwjob is a candid two-part Code White production that chronicles the life of one family during the notorious event in the WWE’s history known by fans as the “Screwjob” – where a famous pro-wrestler was supposedly double-crossed by the franchise’s ownership.

Continue reading Review: The Heel vs. Screwjob (Code White) →

A father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s is paired with urban dance in The Radio Show at Toronto’s Harbourfront

The Radio Show, making its Canadian premiere at the Fleck Dance Theatre as part of Harbourfront’s World Stage season, is more than a dynamic piece of contemporary choreography. It’s the exploration through movement of both the individual and collective memory, punctuated by the iconic rhythms of Motown and the fresh beats of hip hop.

The story is largely based on choreographer Kyle Abraham and his days growing up in Pittsburgh, listening to the only two urban music radio stations on air before they were abruptly silenced in 2009, and supporting his father who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the very same time. His work fuses the two events by mirroring the loss of voice of a community with that of Abraham’s father.

Continue reading Review: The Radio Show (Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion and Harbourfront World Stage) →

Canadian Stage presents the Toronto premiere of Nina Raine’s award-winning play Tribes.

We rely on tribes to build our sense of identity. Liberal or conservative, iPhone or Android, Leafs Nation, Ford Nation, LGBT, metalhead, vegan; these are groups that people use to identify others who share common values.  British playwright Nina Raine’s play Tribes is a timely examination of our bent toward tribalism. In our digital/web culture we increasingly segregate into individual tribes; online communities become echo chambers where we seek affirmation for our world views. But does this reliance on tribalism inhibit our ability to actually connect with people?

Continue reading Review: Tribes (Theatrefront / Theatre Aquarius / Canadian Stage) →