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.
by Jenna Rocca
The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund and The Second City presented their annual showcase of “Toronto’s Hottest New Comedians” on Monday, October 4th. The pageant of all the Fresh Meat was a juried event that will reward $5000 to one up-and-coming comedian, along with a scholarship to the Second City
Conservatory.
Continue reading Review: Fresh Meat (the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund)
by Lucy Allen
Do you like puppets? Do you like Charles Dickens and his commentary on social class structure? Then Puppetmongers‘ Hard Times, currently playing at Theatre Passe Muraille, is right up your alley. And if you’re one of the many who are thinking that a puppet show would be meant for children, this is the show that will teach you otherwise. Continue reading Review: Hard Times- Puppetmongers
by Winston Soon
Filled with beautiful music and some thoughtful performances, Direct Flight’s latest project is set against the brick walls of The Gladstone.
Continue reading Review: Twelfth Night (Direct Flight Theatre Company)
by Dorianne Emmerton
When I first walked into the Walmer Centre Theatre to see Birdland Theatre’s SoulSeek I wasn’t sure what I was seeing: was the back of the stage covered in a multitude of different sized crosses because the building is a repurposed church or was that part of the set?
Turns out it’s part of the set. It must have been a lot of work to prepare: there were hundreds of white crosses suspended to cover the entire back wall. It is just one example of the massive amount of preparation that was obviously put into SoulSeek. Director Stefan Dzeparoski has embraced multi-media to an impressive extent for a non-profit theatre company like Birdland Theatre.
by Jenna Rocca
Buddies in Bad Times opens its season with the daring Blasted – a violent, darkly sexual meditation on the suffering that humans can inflict on one another. It succeeds because it also observes the potential for love and tenderness that is intrinsic to human relationships.
The production slowly builds its message like a snowball. The 2-hour show has no interval, and is very deliberately and meditatively paced with incredible soundscapes filling the extended darkness between scene-changes. It reaches a crescendo in the second half, resolving itself in a mess of terror, death, and redemption.