Reviews of theatre, dance, opera, comedy and festivals. Performances can be in-person or streamed remotely on the web for social-distancing.
The Killdeer, by James Reaney, opened on Friday night at Alumnae Theatre. The play revolves around a murder mystery but it’s much more than that. It’s about small towns and gossip, about parents and children and coming of age, about enduring relationships, about love and jealousy, all timeless themes. Continue reading Review: The Killdeer (Alumnae Theatre Company)
I’m a ‘90s kid. As a teenager I’d experience this ridiculous giddy excitement whenever I’d visit downtown Toronto and make my requisite trips to Sam the Record Man on Yonge and the MuchMusic building on the corner of Queen and John which was a sort of Mecca for my Canadian teen self.
Sadly, nowadays Sam’s is history, the iconic neon sign gone, I download my music and I couldn’t be more blasé when passing by the CTV-Bell-Globe media centre that now occupies the corner of Queen and John. If you can relate to any of the above sentiments then you might enjoy Big in Germany.
Continue reading Review: Big in Germany (Ten Foot Pole Theatre)
In November of 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, political pundits openly mused about entering the era of a post-racial America. Perhaps they, like many of us, were swept up in the overwhelming joy and almost foolhardy optimism of the “hope” and “change” promised by the Obama campaign.
In RACE, the new play by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Mamet, currently presented in Toronto by Canadian Stage, we see that America hasn’t really moved past the issue of race at all but the dialogue has certainly shifted and evolved. Continue reading Review: RACE (Canadian Stage)
I had some trouble not leaping from my seat and yelling “GOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!” as the dancers came out for their bows at the opening of A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football. I hate to revert to puns – actually, I love them – but I think that reaction would’ve been appropriate considering how much World Stage has scored bringing Norway’s Jo Strømgren Kompani to Toronto.
The production, already in its 15th year of existence, takes everything about the game of football –the European kind we call soccer- and throws it together in a powerful, dynamic dance piece both impressive in stamina and theatrical in delivery. There’s also a fair share of humour and it all wraps up in a breezy 55 minutes.
Continue reading Review: A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football (Jo Strømgren Kompani)
Spring Awakening is a great choice for a collegiate theatre program production; most of the young people thinking mostly about success at school, sex, and growing up get to play… young people thinking mostly about success at school, sex, and growing up. For sure the text requires them to dig in a little, but it’s typically forgiving.
Continue reading Review: Spring Awakening (George Brown Theatre)