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.
If you’re not in the theatre industry then there’s a reasonable chance that you haven’t heard of the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Which, really, is kind of a shame, ‘cause it’s a pretty cool prize. They awarded this year’s prize last night.
A quick description from their website:
The Siminovitch Prize in Theatre was introduced in 2001 and dedicated to renowned scientist Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore, a playwright. Sponsored by BMO Financial Group, Canada’s largest annual theatre arts award recognizes direction, playwriting and design in three-year cycles
This year it was playwriting. And the award went to Daniel MacIvor – honestly, I’m not sure I could think of a more perfect person for it to go to.
I didn’t expect much from Classical Theatre Project’s interpretation of “The Great Gatsby.”I only hoped for good-looking actors clothed in high style.My hopes were low and they were wrong.The costumes were merely adequate and I was irritated by the length of Gatsby’s jacket sleeves throughout.But the play was well-executed by both cast and crew.More importantly, it made the right choices.
It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before. Wild Dogs is a set of monologues woven together, often competing with each other. The premise, straight from the playbill: “each evening at dusk, six people gather at the edge of the woods calling their dogs back–dogs that have turned wild.” Relationships bloom as the group battles loneliness and loss,
trying to understand why their dogs left them and just what it means to be wild.
The play is an adaption of Helen Humphreys’ novel, and fans can appreciate that all of the play’s dialogue is lifted directly from the book. The result? Not quite play, not quite book reading, Wild Dogs is simply staged poetry (“To be wild is to live by instincts, not imagination.”) It’ll make you uncomfortable in an eerie, I’m-learning-something-about-myself way.
So I have a confession to make. I have never seen A Midsummer Nights Dream. Theatre sacrilege, I know. You purists can send your hate mail to someone who cares. However, when I realized that Offensive Shadows being put on by Studio 180 was the sequel to said classic, I thought it would be prudent to at least read a Wikipedia synopsis on the subject.
Thank God I did, or I would’ve been bored out of my mind for the first half of this relatively short piece. I even did my research and still felt like the outsider of an inside joke.
The first thing I should warn you about Factory Theatre’sScratch: you will be itchy for most of it.
Don’t think so?
Kudos: maybe you’ve got stronger will power or are merely more mentally stable. I only know that for me, just typing the word LICE makes my scalp crawl with imaginary insect vampires.
