Toronto Theatre Reviews

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.

Party Today, Panic Tomorrow (The Second City Mainstage)

Second City’s newest sketch show delivers the laughs on the Toronto stage

If you’re looking for a great evening out, look no further than The Second City‘s  Party Today (Panic Tomorrow), a new sketch revue that’s on until December 30th at their location on 51 Mercer St. That’s plenty of time to check this show out, and I recommend you do.

I love reviewing comedies, but I’ve never actually been to a Second City Mainstage show (only the children’s Christmas show). I left this production thinking I’d been missing out all these years.  Continue reading Party Today, Panic Tomorrow (The Second City Mainstage)

Review: Two Gentlewomen of Verona (Dauntless City Theatre)

Photo from Two Gentlewomen of VeronaDauntless City Theatre presents an al fresco gender-bent Two Gentlewomen of Verona in Toronto

Theatre’s greatest triumph as a medium is getting us to engage in dialogue and ask questions. Dauntless City Theatre‘s latest production poses an age-old question: would it be awesome to do a gender-bent, inter-sectional feminist, immersive adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona with a dog wearing a tiny cowboy hat? Yes, yes it would.

Continue reading Review: Two Gentlewomen of Verona (Dauntless City Theatre)

Landline (XO Secret) 2017 SummerWorks Review

Photo from Landline

What XO Secret is doing with Landline, playing during the final weekend of the SummerWorks Festival, is breaking apart every notion of what traditional and standard ‘theatre’ actually is. Here, one individual doubles as both audience member and actor as they traverse the city on their own, listening to audio cues on an MP3 player. While on their journey — which, without this element, can feel rather isolating — they are texting back and forth with an individual in Hamilton, taking part in the Hamilton Fringe, who are simultaneously embarking on the same journey but in their own way.

This is the kind of interactive performance that takes ‘audience participation’ to a whole new level where everything that you can take out of it is entirely dependent on what you put into it.

Continue reading Landline (XO Secret) 2017 SummerWorks Review

These Violent Delights (Guilty By Association) 2017 Summerworks Review

Memorials surround us every day, depicting tragedy, triumph, famous people, and famous events that are no longer around, asking us to remember and learn. But does the act of Memorial actually achieve the things we claim? With These Violent Delights, Guilty By Association from British Columbia take a hard look at this seemingly benign act and demands we ask ourselves why we really do it.

Continue reading These Violent Delights (Guilty By Association) 2017 Summerworks Review

The Archivist (Shaista Latif) 2017 SummerWorks Review

The Archivist SummerWorks 2017Early in Shaista Latif’s solo show The Archivist, a disembodied, cartoonish voice starts asking her questions about whether she wants a lawyer, disregards her answers, and tells her she has to swear to tell the truth using a complicated oath that involved spinning around.

The show—which opened on Saturday at Pia Bouman – Scotiabank Studio Theatre as part of the 2017 SummerWorks Performance Festival—Latif says, will prove that she’s Afghan. Continue reading The Archivist (Shaista Latif) 2017 SummerWorks Review