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.
It’s a little unfair for a seasoned comedian, writer and performer like Briane Nasimok to have his show Confessions of an Operatic Mute in the Toronto Fringe Festival, along with every other schmendrik in Toronto who woke up one morning and thought perhaps they had a show in them and $742 to spend.
The cavernous George Ignatieff Theatre was more than half full for the opening on a Wednesday, no doubt filled by fans and friends of Nasimok who arrived to hear stories of wordlessness and wooing among the supernumeraries of the Canadian Opera Company for most of the 1970s.
Pardon Me Cow by Farm Fresh Productions, playing as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, is a fast-paced one man show about growing up, and coming out, on the farm. When his family leaves town for greener pastures, Taylor Scott’s life gets turned upside-down: stripped of the modest luxuries of town life, he finds himself crushing on the dishy veterinarian, mastering his farmer’s blow, and befriending Nadia, a cow who may or may not be a bit of a queer steer herself.
I hit the door of the Al Green Theatre for my first show of the Toronto Fringe, The Urinal Dialogues, full of enthusiasm.
As a gender-studies enthusiast and former bar employee, my experience with all genders of washrooms is vast; I also recently saw and reviewed Queer Bathroom Stories for this site. I was perhaps more enthusiastic than I’ve ever been to be faced with a row of urinals. My excitement, regrettably, did not last.
I hit the door of the Al Green Theatre for my first show of the Toronto Fringe,