Reviews of productions based in Toronto – theatre includes traditional definitions of theatre, as well as dance, opera, comedy, performance art, spoken word performances, and more. Productions may be in-person, or remote productions streamed online on the Internet.
A story about the pressure of growing into womanhood, on stage at the Tarragon in Toronto
In Girls Like That, onstage now at Tarragon, a group of girls in a small private grade school develop that dreadful, inevitable pecking order of insular communities. When they go to high school, their social dynamics are further complicated by sexuality, boys, and patriarchal contradictions about how they are supposed to engage with their sexuality, and with boys. Continue reading Review: Girls Like That (Tarragon Theatre)→
Ambitious Queen Marie plays at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto
Playing at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto’s Distillery District, Queen Marie is an engaging musical tribute to “great big girl” Marie Dressler. Dressler, whom I knew nothing of previously even though she won an Academy Award and acted with Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin, was an Ontario-born comic actor whose theatrical career spanned decades, right into the first “talkies”. Continue reading Review: Queen Marie (Alumnae Theatre)→
Two challenging, unconventional works currently playing on the Toronto stage
Tell Me What It’s Called and Mr. Truth are the latest examples of the quality independent theatre that the RISER Project has built its reputation on supporting. They are also the latest reasons why The Theatre Centre remains a leading space for risk-taking on stage.
Where There’s A Will comes to the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto
Sawitri Theatre‘s Where There’s A Will, currently playing at the Alumnae Theatre, is a wildly clever two-act comedy penned by renowned Indian playwright Mahesh Dattani. The play shines a light on the lives of a dysfunctional middle-class Indian family as they verbally duke out their deep-seated inter-familial qualms.
First performed in 1639, The Return of Ulysses by Claudio Monteverdi is currently being produced by Opera Atelier. It is one of the earliest operas you are likely to see performed on a 21st century stage. The timelessness of this universally-known story likely has something to do with the work’s ongoing popularity. It’s based on the second half of Homer’s Odyssey, wherein Ulysses (Odysseus), the King of Ithaca, returns home to his faithful wife Penelope. In order to reclaim his kingdom and his wife, he must fight off three evil suitors with a little help and hindrance from the gods. The Opera Atelier production is beautifully rendered and, as usual, a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Continue reading Review: The Return of Ulysses (Opera Atelier)→
A story about the pressure of growing into womanhood, on stage at the Tarragon in Toronto
Ambitious Queen Marie plays at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto
Where There’s A Will comes to the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto