Having previously worked with First Nations teen moms, I was particularly interested in watching the SummerWorks show Maria Gets a New Life. Cherish Violet Blood, who plays the First Nations single mom Maria Grace, was captivating right from the beginning as she commanded the stage with her black high-heel boots and strong presence.

There was a sense of mystery right from the beginning when the audience walked into the theatre and saw a stage filled with stacked empty boxes. What could all those boxes mean?  We later discover that it was a very creative set-design to resemble a vacant house that Maria and her two teenage children, Honey and Baby, inhabited.

Continue reading Maria Gets a New Life (Cardinal/Kantor Productions) 2013 SummerWorks Review →

It’s disconcerting to leave a theatrical production thinking fondly about tormenting the testicles of the playwright – and mean it in a good way. Which may indeed encompass most of my feelings about To Myself At 28, Sky Gilbert’s SummerWorks production: disconcerting, fond, painful, and good.

Continue reading To Myself At 28 (Cabaret Company) 2013 SummerWorks Review →

iShow is a completely mind-blowing experience! Oh, I’m gushing. I can’t help it.  I went into this thinking it looked neat, but it moved me in ways I never expected. It hit nerves I didn’t even know I had. It is fun, and funny, and smart, and hypnotic, and sexy! It crept under my skin and now it won’t leave me alone.

This is a multi-media performance.  Now, you should probably watch the very exciting trailer to get some sense of what that looks like.  The show may not be to everyone’s taste.  But if you have a sense of adventure, I urge you to give this show a chance.  It might just rattle your brain and seize your heart too!

Continue reading iShow (Les Petites Cellules Chaudes) 2013 SummerWorks Review →

Everyone in Wild Dogs on the Moscow Trains (playing the Scotiabank Studio as part of SummerWorks) is trapped; in a shitty apartment, in undesirable careers, in each other’s company, in hospital beds, in addiction, in alcoholism, but above all in a crumbling, smothering country which rejects the very idealism that people of their age and status are meant to embody. In this universe, success is given to those who keep their heads down, refuse to ask questions, and pay the right bribes.

In their own ways, all three characters rebel against this norm. And all three fail.

This isn’t a fun show, but it’s told well enough, and with enough clarity of vision, to be worthwhile.

Continue reading Wild Dogs on the Moscow Trains (Live Lobster Theatre) 2013 SummerWorks Review →

SideMart Theatrical Grocery‘s production of Trying for the Kingdom, playing at the Lower Ossington Theatre as part of SummerWorks is a complex, passionate multimedia theatre performance. “This is a period piece made by the future about now,” a character says at the beginning of the play for the audience’s benefit. The show quite capably manages to make a powerful presentation of just how confusing, difficult and rewarding it can be to be young and creative in the city in our era.

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