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.

Watching Seana McKenna Watch Paint Dry – Toronto Fringe 2014 Press Release

From Press Release

The LACTORS’ Studio and the Toronto Fringe Festival present
Part Waiting For Godot, part Title of Show, with a splash of Twelve Angry Men, WATCHING SEANA McKENNA WATCH PAINT DRY asks the big dramatic questions: what is art? What is life? What is the nexus between them? And what’s that woman on stage doing, anyway?Starring eleven real lawyers (and a faux Seana McKenna**), it’s a hilarious slice of comedic metatheatre.  WATCHING SEANA McKENNA WATCH PAINT DRY plays at the George Ignatieff Theatre as part of the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available via www.fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062 ext. 1, or at the door.The Premise: One of the most widely-acclaimed and best-loved actors of our time stars in a play that is rocking the theatrical world. The reviewers have called it “spectacular”, “thought-provoking”, “moving” and “deep”. It plays to sold out houses every night. But! Is it really such amagnum opus? Or does the empress onstage have no clothes? Two friends attend a performance, and fall into a heated debate. Soon the whole onstage audience is drawn into the fray: tempers flare, insults are hurled, and all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, the show goes on, and the performance continues – even after the paint has dried.Written by practising lawyer Peter Hamiwka and novelist/writer/retired lawyer Diane Baker Mason, with much creative input from the Company, WATCHING SEANA McKENNA WATCH PAINT DRY will change the way you look at theatre (and maybe at lawyers too). Directed by lawyer Llana Nakonechny. Stage managed by cat-herding non-lawyer Aline Madian.

** Presented with the gracious permission of the real Seana McKenna,
who asks to know only one thing: 
“What colour is the paint?”
All proceeds going to Lawyers Feed The Hungry www.lawyersfeedthehungry.ca.
Full Media kit is available HERE.

Show Information for WATCHING SEANA McKENNA WATCH PAINT DRY:
Venue:  George Ignatieff Theatre, 15 Devonshire Place, Toronto.

Dates & Times:
Fri, July 4 @ 8:45pm
Sat, July 5 @ 5:15pm
Mon, July 7 @ 6:45pm
Tue, July 8 @ 10:30pm
Thu, July 10 @ 4:00pm
Fri, July 11 @ 11:30pm
Sun, July 13 @ 1:45pm
Tickets:

$10 at the door (cash only) or $12 in advance (Visa or MasterCard, service charge included)
Beginning June 12 via www.fringetoronto.com, by telephone at 416-966-1062 (ext.1), or at the door.
Show running time is 60 minutes.    **Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating**

TRUE – Toronto Fringe 2014 Press Release

From Press Release

Criminal Theatre in association with Aluna Theatre and the Toronto Fringe Festival Presents TRUE by Rosa Labordé

Citizenry Café 982 Queen Street West

July 2-12

Starring: Layne Coleman, Shannon Taylor, Ingrid Doucet, Sabrina Grdevich and Scott McCord

Lights: Trevor Schwellnus Sound: Thomas Ryder-Payne Costumes: Lindsay Walker

Directed by: Rosa Labordé

Criminal Theatre is launching this summer with an exciting new play. In a gorgeous and intimate venue True takes you into the storefront lives of three sisters who are hurled back in time with the unexpected arrival of their estranged father. Inspired by the café where the play is set, King Lear, Ikebana flower arranging, memory loss, quantum multi-verse theory and piano prodigies, the play is a playful, poignant and piercing look into the nature of memory and how it relates to our present. 

True is written and directed by award-winning playwright Rosa Labordé(Leo, Hush, Like Wolves) whose return to the Fringe as a playwright marks her first since her comedic hit Sugar. She was last seen as a director on the festival circuit with her acclaimed production of Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play. True stars an exceptional ensemble of actors; Layne Coleman (Goodness, The Walls of Africa, Heaven Above, Heaven Below), Shannon Taylor (The Road To Mecca, The Jones Boy, Pride and Prejudice), Ingrid Doucet (Where’s my Money, Melancholy Play, The Happy Woman), Scott McCord (Jump, Hotel Loopy, Naked Hamilton, The Eleventh Hour) and a return to the stage for Sabrina Grdevich (Old Man’s Band, Hamlet, Slings and Arrows, Intelligence).

Criminal Theatre is a new development company committed to supporting writers and creators as they cultivate their original voice. The company’s development strategy will always cater to exactly what the individual artist needs to express his/her vision. Founded in 2012 by Rosa Laborde and Scott McCord, True is their inaugural workshop production.

True runs July 2nd to July 12th, 2014

Citizenry, 982 Queen Street West

Performances:

July 2nd, 8:30pm                     July 8th, 8:30pm

July 3rd, 8:30pm                      July 9th, 8:30pm

July 4th, 8:30pm                      July 10th, 8:30pm

July 5th, 8:30pm                      July 11th, 8:30pm

July 6th, 8:30pm                      July 12th, 8:30pm

Please note that there is no latecomer seating and at only thirty seats per show, seating is limited.


Tickets:

Tickets will be on sale as of June 12th/2014 and you can book them here:

http://fringetoronto.com/fringe-festival/tickets-and-passes/

By Phone: 416-966-1062

In Person: During the Festival Box Office in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s 581 Bloor Street West

Real Dead Ghosts – Toronto Fringe Press Release 2014

From Press Release

NYC-Based Shelby Company Makes International Debut With Award-Winning Real Dead Ghosts

Shelby Company is proud to announce the Canadian premiere of Real Dead Ghosts at the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Graham and Amber are a young married couple who promise to spend their anniversary in a secluded cabin away from work, friends and other distractions. But disappointments, secrets and regrets bubble to the surface when they’re haunted by past choices and future responsibilities. A modern day ghost story. Unfinished business kind of shit.

Real Dead Ghosts is written by award-winning playwright Jonathan A. Goldberg (Sousepaw) and directed by Courtney Ulrich (White Hot). The cast features Lara Hillier (EXIT/ENTRANCE) and Nathaniel Kent (Trevor). The design team includes April Bartlett (scenic), Deanna Frieman (costumes), Kevin Brouder (sound) and Dan Henry (lighting). It is produced by Shelby Company. It premiered at the 2014 FRIGID New York Festival to sold-out houses and was awarded the Audience Choice Award.

Real Dead Ghosts will play at Venue #9 – The Robert Gill Theatre, located at 214 College St., 3rdFloor  (St. George St. Entrance) on Wednesday, July 2 at 7:00pm, Thursday, July 3 at 10:30pm,Sunday, July 6 at 5:45pm, Wednesday, July 9 at 12:15pm, Thursday, July 10 at 5:45pm, Friday, July 11 at 9:45pm, and Saturday, July 12 at 8:45pm.

Tickets are $10 for General Admission, $8 for Students/Seniors. Tickets go onsale on June 16, 2014 and can be purchased by visiting www.fringetoronto.com or calling the Toronto Fringe Box Office at (416) 966-1062 x1. For more information about the show and the producing company please visit www.shelbycompany.org.

Jonathan A. Goldberg (playwright) has had work seen at HERE, Ars Nova, Dixon Place, The Public Theater and many other venues.  His play The Jew and the Demon won the Rita and Burton Prize for Theater.  His short work was featured at Ephemerama at the Magnet Theater and he won the Israel Baron Award for How to Shoot a Bull Moose. He’s had plays developed by the Inkwell in Washington DC and won the 2013 In Process Short Play Festival at Hudson Valley Shakespeare.  His playSousepaw has received critical acclaim around the country. He is a contributor to #serials at The Flea. He won the 2012 L Magazine short fiction contest and has an MFA in playwrighting from NYU Tisch.

Courtney Ulrich (director) is a New York-based Director. Recent credits include Tommy Smith’s White Hot and #serials at The Flea Theater where she is a Resident Director. In New York, she has worked with New Dramatists, Target Margin Theater, The Foundry Theatre, Rising Circle Rep, The Culture Project and Powerhouse/NYSAF at Vassar College, in LA with Cornerstone Theater Company, and in DC with Sojourn Theatre Company and Arena Stage.

Shelby Company was founded in December 2008 in NYC. They are a playwright-centric theatre company devoted to creating new works for the stage. Over the past five years they have produced over a dozen original works in nine US states. Selected productions include Fallsway (MN Fringe 2013); Font of Knowledge (MN Fringe 2012); Sousepaw: A Baseball Story (17 Frost Space, Brooklyn 2013; MN Fringe, IndyFringe and SF Fringe 2011); The Land Whale Murders (Theatre 3, 2010); The Luck of the Ibis, The Mike and Morgan Show and You May Be Splendid Now (Access Theatre 2010); My Father Is A Tetris Game (HERE Arts, 2009); Winnemucca (three days in the belly) (San Jose Stage, MN Fringe and FringeNYC 2009); and New Beulah (The Creek and the Cave, Planet Connections 2009; The Pear Ave. Theatre 2010). As well as full-length productions, Shelby Company has produced a monthly comedy show, Ephemerama, which has amassed nearly 100 short comedic plays and played to sold-out houses all over the USA.

Spilling Family Secrets – Toronto Fringe 2014 Press Release

From Press Release

At age 11, Susan Freedman snooped in her mother’s closet and found a shoebox full of love letters written between1927 and 1937 by her parents when they were just 19 years old. Susan thought they were hilarious – and embarrassing. Today, can the letters spill the secrets of their inspiring marriage – and shed light on Susan’s own marital misadventures? Come to SPILLINGFAMILY SECRETS, playing July 2-13 at the Tarragon  Solo Room as part of the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available via www.fringetoronto.com or 416-966-1062 ext. 1, or at the door.

Sixty years later that shoebox of letters is Susan’s – given to her by her mother who said:“You’ve read them anyway!” Amid laughter and tears, Susan pared the letters down to the excerpts she felt best told their love story – and caused her to look at her own romantic life with fresh eyes. “Getting to know my parents at age 19 was an amazing gift.“  SPILLING FAMILYSECRETS is a touching remembrance of her parents’ love, and a wry, witty look at how Freedman’s own marital mistakes are a stark and funny contrast to her parents’ idyllic match.

This is Susan Freedman‘s fourth one-woman Fringe comedy. Her three previous shows have had critically acclaimed sold-out runs across the Canadian Fringe circuit. Directed by Dora-winning writer/performer Rondel Reynoldson (Stage: White Trash Blue Eyes, Platform 9. Film: Man of Steel, Warner Bros.)

“Funny and heartwarming” ~ Montreal Gazette

“Freedman is wise and witty company” ~ Edmonton Journal 
     
“Evokes both uninterrupted laughter and inner reflection” 
~Vancouver Province

SPILLING FAMILY SECRETS reminds us all that our parents really were young once; they experienced youthful romantic hopes, dreams, and disappointments just as we do. They were people long before they were parents, and their lives have wonderful stories to tell us…and unexpected lessons we may learn while we’re laughing.

Full Media kit is available HERE.

SHOW INFO for SPILLING FAMILY SECRETS:
Venue: Tarragon Theatre Solo Room, 30 Bridgman Ave, Toronto.

Dates & Times:
Wed, July 2 @ 6:30pm
Fri, July 4 @ 4:45pm
Sat, July 5 @ 6:45pm
Sun, July 6 @ 2:45pm
Tue, July 8 @ 3:15pm
Wed, July 9 @ 4:45pm
Fri, July 11 @ 3:30pm
Sat, July 12 @ 8:00pm

Tickets:
$10 at the door (cash only) or $12 in advance (Visa or MasterCard, service charge included)
Beginning June 12 via www.fringetoronto.com, by telephone at 416-966-1062 (ext.1), or at the door.
Show running time is 45 minutes.    **Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating**

birdy… or, how not to disappear – Toronto Fringe 2014 Press Release

From Press Release



 If you ask anyone who knows me they would tell you, “Birdy? She smiles all the time.”
 

Birdy is afraid she might be crazy. It runs in the family, she thinks. Her grandfather had religious hallucinations. Her father was hospitalized for depression and self-harm. Birdy spends her life worrying—wanting so much to save the world, to help each person she sees. She’s haunted by the fear she’s inherited her family madness and there’s nothing she can do about it. Part memory play, part manifesto of compassion, and part anxiety attack, Karie Richards’ deeply personal solo show BIRDY… OR, HOW NOT TO DISAPPEAR plays July 2-13 at theHelen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse as part of the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available via www.fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062 ext.1, or at the door.
“The play’s honesty and unexpected universality make it powerful, its contrasts make it sad, and its humour make it hopeful.” ~ Plank Vancouver
BIRDY… is a beautiful and unexpectedly funny confessional about keeping your balance, and a near-tragedy suffused with hope. An intimate story of memory, fear, love and loss, and the power of art to save us—from madness.
“Nothing short of stupendous. 5 stars (out of 5).” ~ Winnipeg Free Press
BIRDY…OR, HOW NOT TO DISAPPEAR was created as part of a Playfinding Master Class with Daniel MacIvor at The Banff Centre. Creator/performer Karie Richards (interrogation, Fairly Lucid Productions; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? & Summer and Smoke, Alumnae Theatre) premiered BIRDY at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival in 2012. It went on to great reviews at the 2013 Winnipeg Fringe and Atlantic Fringe Festivals. The production isdirected by highly-acclaimed solo-show performer and director Jeff Culbert (as creator/performer: The Donnelly Sideshow & archy and mehitabel, Ausable Theatre; as director: 2012 Fringe circuit hit Underbelly; Fall Fair & Boat Load; Stars and Hearts).
Karie is donating 5% of the ticket sales from BIRDY… to the Yonge Street Mission, an organization which reaches out to meet the needs of people living with poverty in Toronto with programs that have made a positive difference in the lives of families, seniors, socially isolated adults, street-involved youth and children growing up in low-income communities.
Full Media Kit is available here.
SHOW INFO for BIRDY…OR, HOW NOT TO DISAPPEAR:

Venue: Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, 79 A St. George Street, Toronto.

Dates & Times:
Thu, July 3 @ 8:45pm 
Sat, July 5 @ 1:45pm  
Mon, July 7 @ 9:00pm
Wed, July 9 @ 4:00pm
Fri, July 11 @ 11:00pm
Sat, July 12 @ 5:15pm
Sun, July 13 @ 12:00pm

Tickets:

$10 at the door (cash only) or $12 in advance (Visa or MasterCard, service charge included) Beginning June 12 via www.fringetoronto.com, by telephone at 416-966-1062 (ext.1), or at the door. Show running time is 50 minutes.    **Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating**