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 Megan Mooney
On Tuesday March 9, 2010, at the Supermarket in Kensington Market you have the opportunity to see two one-man shows for $10. Basically you’re getting two-for-one. And the one is very reasonably priced…
The two shows are: Nile Seguin’s Fear of a Brown Planet and Gavin Stephens’ Spectacular! Spectacular! and the event is being put together by Nerdgasm Comedy
By Leanne Milech
My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding or MMLJWW for short, is, to put it bluntly, colossal Canadian yummyness.
After an amazing run at the 2009 Fringe Festival, Mooney on Theatre writer Sam Mooney raved about MMLJWW in her review of the show. After Fringe, Mirvish swiftly picked MMLJWW up and extended its run as long as it possibly could before it had to make room for a previously scheduled production. During that run, our very own editor, Megan Mooney, reviewed the show, professing her love for the production just as earnestly as our first reviewer did.
Indeed, Mirvish chose wisely when it decided to pick up this touching true love story of Claire, played by Lisa Horner, and Jane, played by Rosemary Doyle, two middle-aged women who fall for each other.
As a lesbian and a Jew, I had actually been a tad skeptical about this show: could they really pull off the whole lesbian thing without making all of the usual stereotypes and without being cliché or boringly political?
Continue reading My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding – Mirvish
By Sam Mooney
Until tonight, all I knew about talk was “Clashing views about the Middle East conflict threaten a friendship in this drama.” I expected that it would be difficult to “ignore” the politics and concentrate on the theatre. I also expected that it would be, if nothing else, an interesting play.
Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s production of talk at the Jane Mallett Theatre is not only interesting, but a wonderful evening of theatre. The play entertained me, left me with a lot to think about and didn’t hit me on the head with a hammer.
Continue reading talk – Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company – Jane Mallett Theatre
By Darryl D’Souza
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I went to the operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci as part of a double bill at the Bickford Centre Theatre put on by the Toronto Opera Repertoire. I was thoroughly engrossed during the performances of both and impressed by the experience.
What impressed me most was the calibre of the singing. In my opinion, the calibre of the singing is the ultimate litmus test for judging whether any opera is a success or failure. While the Bickford Centre Theatre is certainly not the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, (the home of the Canadian Opera Company), and in all truth seems more like a high school gymnasium than a theatre per se, the singing was as good – if not better – than what you’d expect to hear at the average Canadian Opera Company performance.
If you feel like opera is not for you, you’re definitely not alone. In fact, our motto here at Mooney on Theatre is: “Theatre is for everyone…so how come it doesn’t feel that way?”. If this is true of theatre in general, it’s even more true of opera. Ever since its inception over 300 hundred years ago, due to high ticket prices, seeing opera has been almost solely the privilege of the bourgeois class. Continue reading Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci – Toronto Opera Repertoire