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.
What if you got the opportunity of the lifetime but you had to play up every stereotype you’ve spent your life battling? Bobby Del Rio’s Professionally Ethnic playing at the Toronto 2017 SummerWorks Festival explores the consequences of that decision and has a little fun on the way.
Continue reading Professionally Ethnic (Bobby Del Rio) 2017 SummerWorks Review
There is a place where Garth Brooks never pursued fame, Dolly Parton is a chef, and Shania Twain owns a boat. It’s a world unlike our own in whoischrisgains’s Nashville Stories playing at the 2017 SummerWorks Festival.
Continue reading Nashville Stories (whoischrisgaines) 2017 SummerWorks Review
The Nails by JSquared Theatre at SummerWorks 2017 is a psuedo-abstract coming of age story where our lead character grows up in a violent, racist, and disillusioned world. Through a mixture of monologues, two-hander scenes, and clever staging, we watch as a young woman reluctantly embraces her world and, her attempt to reconcile it.
Continue reading The Nails (JSquared Theatre) 2017 SummerWorks Reviews
Christopher Ross-Ewart’s show Explosions for the 21st Century isn’t just something to go see, it’s something to hear. It’s being put on at The Theatre Centre Incubator as part of SummerWorks 2017 And I really recommend you give it a watch and a listen.
Ross-Ewart is a sound designer, and among many other things this show is an ode to his passion for the craft. He gives off the air of a dorky tech-guy that’s been put up in front of an audience. He opens by cracking nervous jokes and then starts monologuing while using his soundboard as an aid. Almost immediately, you’ll realize that not only is Ross-Ewart very funny, he has a lot to say Continue reading Explosions for the 21st Century (Pressgang Theatre) SummerWorks Review 2017
Are there sentences or phrases you can hardly bear to think about, let alone say? For me, one of those is ‘the only good Indian’. I was fairly surprised after I found myself blithely asking someone “Is this the right line for the only good Indian?” while at Factory Theatre. I guess it’s all in the context because The Only Good Indian is the name of a show that opened on Friday as part of 2017 SummerWorks Performance Festival.
It’s presented by Pandemic Theatre and is hard to describe because it doesn’t fit neatly into pre-defined theatre categories. It’s a solo show created and performed by Jivesh Parasram, Tom Arthur Davis, and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. The three performers alternate shows. Continue reading The Only Good Indian (Pandemic Theatre) 2017 SummerWorks Review