Toronto’s Studio BLR takes Tennessee Williams’ classic A Streetcar Named Desire and pairs it with punk rock and live music for a richly impassioned theatrical performance
I’ve spent quite a bit of time studying the works of Tennessee Williams. What kept me entranced was the way he wrote characters so vastly layered that the unpeeling of which would pit them directly against reality and a built up fantasy would crumble away.
When I learned that Studio BLR would be presenting a punk rock version of A Streetcar Named Desire I was immediately intrigued. Finding out that each performance would feature original music from a different local rock band spoke sweetly to my music geek side. Learning all of this from a friend who would be playing a role solidified my need to attend.
The Best Brothers, playing at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, is a well staged and performed dark comedy about family ties and bonds in the wake of a mother’s funeral
In Tarragon’s production of Daniel MacIvor’s new play, The Best Brothers, Hamilton (played by MacIvor) and Kyle (John Beale) are dealing with the sudden death of their mother, Bunny, and all the attendant concerns, like coordinating the visitation, answering condolence cards and caring for her dog. These activities are complicated by tension between the two, based primarily on Hamilton’s jealousy of the relationship Kyle had with their mother.
This may not sound like a setup for a comedy, but it is. The repartee is familiarly sibling-like, but graced with MacIvor’s sharp wit. The brothers deliver retorts the rest of us can only dream of thinking up on the spot when fighting with a family member. Continue reading The Best Brothers (Tarragon Theatre)→
Louise Pitre’s one-woman autobiographical musical, On the Rocks, is playing at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
On The Rocks is Theatre Passe Muraille’s season opener. It’s also Louise Pitre’s first play. It’s an autobiographical one-person musical. As well as writing the play, she wrote the lyrics. W Joseph Matheson wrote the music.
This was a highly anticipated show; opening night was sold out so I went on the second night. Opening nights are fun, there’s a definite buzz, but second nights are good because the audience isn’t as weighted with family and friends so the reaction is less biased.
FeverGraph’s adaptation of John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger is filled with raw, probing performances playing in Toronto’s historic Queen West district
A faded copy of Look Back in Anger has been collecting dust on my shelf for over ten years. In preparation for my review of FeverGraph’s “physical and auditory deconstruction of John Osborne’s classic text”, I finally cracked it open to see what it might have to say to me. This is precisely what FeverGraph has done: dusted off this play to unveil whatever insight it offers now, almost sixty years after it was written.
The venue at 1093 Queen Street West has a rough, transformed-space atmosphere. The performance area is long and narrow, with the audience facing each other at opposite sides of the stage. There is a very intense intimacy with the actors that results from such close proximity; they are, at times, only a foot away from the audience. Continue reading Review: Look Back in Anger (Fevergraph)→
Toronto’s Angelwalk Theatre kicks off their season with tick, tick…Boom!, the emotionally driven autobiographical musical by Rent creator Jonathan Larson
I find that modern musicals can be kind of hit or miss for me. I’ve seen some that I’ve absolutely loved right from the first number and I’ve seen others that I just haven’t connected with. At first I thought that tick, tick…BOOM! was going to fall into the miss category.
The first two numbers just didn’t touch me in any way. I found myself thinking that the music sounded generic, as if I’d heard it before in other musicals. Not that I could tell you which musicals I thought I’d heard it in.
And then…BOOM! With the third number I was hooked.
