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.

Teaching the Fringe – Toronto Fringe 2008 Review

Review by Lauren Hatchard  (Megan Mooney’s 15 yr old cousin)

image A deep plunge into the pool of laughs and hysterics.  Teaching the Fringe goes into and analyses a letter from an appalled fan.

Using voices, facial expressions and twinges of words and irony, the show satisfies your laugh craving.  The only thing I didn’t like about this play was that it was a tad drowned out.  Otherwise, a must-see for those who are looking for an amazingly timed, easy laugh.

 Teaching the Fringe is playing at the Glen Morris Theatre for one more day on Saturday, July 12.  For more info see the Toronto Fringe website.

Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman – Another perspective

Review by Lauren Hatchard

Editor’s Note:  In the review of Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman by Sam Mooney she mentioned that she saw the show with "My 82 year old mother and 15 year old niece are fringing with me for three days" – Lauren is the 15 year old niece she was referring to.  And now, without further ado, on with the review (see how that rhymed?  pretty cool eh?)…

From the perspective of three generations, this play could have been worse, it could have been better.  Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman has potential, but also a broad area with room to improve (including cutting the painful chant at the beginning.)  It also had a plethora of humorous moments.

Continue reading Sherlock Holmes & The First English Gentleman – Another perspective

Toronto Fringe 2008 Recommendations (the short version)

I have been seeing so many shows that I haven’t had time to spend on my site.  It’s both wonderful and sad at the same time.  But tomorrow (Thursday) I have arranged it so that I’m not going to my first show until late afternoon, so I’ll be spending the majority of the day at Jet Fuel sipping lattes and pulling together content for this baby.  I figured in the meantime though I’d reprint some of the reviews I’ve done for blogTO for the shows I highly recommend, since we’re running out of time for the festival.  Please note, this is only a selection out of what *I* have seen.  So I am no doubt missing some great shows in this list.

Keep reading for reviews re-posted from blogTO of:

– A Girl Named Ralph

– Exploding Breakfast

– JEM ROLLS: how i stopped worrying and learnt to love the mall

– One-Woman Show

– Stand up Monkey Poet

– Teaching the Fringe

Continue reading Toronto Fringe 2008 Recommendations (the short version)

Jem Rolls – how i stopped worrying and learnt to love the mall by jem rolls (Toronto Fringe 2008 Review)

jem-rolls First – go see Jem Rolls.  Even if you have to skip something else. 

His show is an hour of high-energy, full-body "theatricalised performance poetry".  I had no idea what that meant when I read the blurb in the program but it sounded interesting so I went with no expectations. 

 

 

Continue reading Jem Rolls – how i stopped worrying and learnt to love the mall by jem rolls (Toronto Fringe 2008 Review)

Sherlock Holmes & the First English Gentleman by Doug Warwick (Toronto Fringe 2008 Review)

Review by Sam Mooney

sherlock My 82 year old mother and 15 year old niece are fringing with me for three days. My mother loves big musicals but she’s open to seeing other theatre. She sees this as an experience. My niece doesn’t have a lot of theatre-going experience. As a bonus, Megan was with us.

The play was long by Fringe standards, 85 minutes. It could have ended at least 5 minutes earlier. None of us really understood why the last scene was included.

Peter Treadwell, who played Dr. Watson and other characters, was terrific. Not that Nick Cumming and Tina Sterling weren’t.

Continue reading Sherlock Holmes & the First English Gentleman by Doug Warwick (Toronto Fringe 2008 Review)