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.
Melody A. Johnson delivered top-notch comedy in her solo show at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto
Person of Interest is a one woman show for the ages expertly written and performed by the undeniable Melody A. Johnson.
Johnson plays herself, an actress in a sort of “transitionary” period in her life. When she moves into her new house, she finds out that the neighbours speak fluent “dick” (her words not mine) and eventually reaches a point of desperation where she’ll do anything to get them to move out, even if it means breaking the law… Cue Law and Order transition music.
Black Boys is “campy, joyful, and riotous”, on stage at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto
After a successful nation-wide tour, the 2016 hit Black Boys returns to Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. I never saw the first production, but it certainly left an impression on the theatre scene. All of us who missed it were appropriately disappointed. The Saga Collectif has returned with their exploration of queer male Blackness and, with it, your chance to partake in this dynamic and provocative experience before its two-week run is over. Continue reading Review: Black Boys (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)→
After Wrestling explores love, death, and mental illness, at the Factory Theatre in Toronto
On Thursday evening I saw the world premier of After Wrestling at Factory Theatre. It’s billed as “a slacker-comedy turned suicide mystery” and when I first read that I thought ‘whatever that means’. Turns out that it’s as good a description as any.
It didn’t mention the emotional roller coaster ride my friend Marg and I experienced though. The play can turn on a dime. So many times I’d be laughing and then, literally in my next breath, be crying. And vice versa. Playwrights Bryce Hodgson and Charlie Kerr have written a play that pulled me in and had me caring about the characters from almost the first minutes of the piece. It took Marg longer, about 15 minutes. Continue reading Review: After Wrestling (Blood Pact Theatre with the support of Storefront Theatre in association with Factory Theatre)→
Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny takes to the stage at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre
I don’t often recognize myself in a character as much as I did at the opening night of Bunny, Hannah Moscovitch’s new play at Tarragon. Maev Beaty, one of the most splendid actors this city has to offer, plays Sorrel. As a teenager, Sorrel is a dorky, top-of-the-honour-roll student who’d rather read old novels than try to “fit in.” But as she moves further into adolescence, she discovers one thing that’s as pleasurable as reading: kissing, and more than kissing, with more than one boy. While Sorrel is described by all as stunningly beautiful, which does not describe me, I identify so much with her twin passions of sex and fiction, as well as her socially awkward sense of humour. Beaty’s Sorrel is so much herself, with no time for inhibition, that it’s hard not to love her.
Melody A. Johnson delivered top-notch comedy in her solo show at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto
Black Boys is “campy, joyful, and riotous”, on stage at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto
After Wrestling explores love, death, and mental illness, at the Factory Theatre in Toronto
Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny takes to the stage at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre
The Chekhov Collective brings a new twist to the Bard’s classic comedy to Toronto audiences