Sterling Studio Theatre in Toronto brings a Woody Allen classic, Central Park West, to their May One Acts

Woody Allen’s Central Park West isn’t so much about people and the things that happen to them as it’s about the idea of how funny and awful they can be. Those familiar with Allen will find all his trademark obsessions here: New York socialites, neurotic rambling, and—my favourites—the unforgiving cosmos and the terror of existence.

I have a fondness for much of Allen’s earlier work, but not for this particular one-act. I did, however, generally enjoy Sterling Studio’s production, which plays for the second week of their May One Acts. Continue reading Review: Central Park West (Sterling Studio Theatre) →

The Canadian Opera Company’s Don Quichotte is “a stylish feast for the senses, truly a spectacle”

From the opening strains of the overture, the COC’s production of Don Quichotte by Massenet ensnared the hearts and imaginations of the audience and did not let go until the opera’s stirring conclusion. Don Quichotte is a 19^th century French retelling of Don Quixote by Cervantes. Continue reading Review: Don Quichotte (Canadian Opera Company) →

Contractions, at Toronto’s Storefront, is absurd, oppressive, touching, and very, very important

The Storefront Theatre is packed and the air is prickling with excitement on the opening night of Contractions by Red One Theatre Collective. The audience members chat amongst themselves, filling the room with noise. Then, the lights go out. The sound of high heels click across the floor. A woman appears in a smart business outfit and sits down at a desk. She waits in her office, not saying a word. A ripple goes through the audience. This scenario feels all too familiar. We sit in attentive silence, as if we are in line for our own corporate interview.

Contractions is an adaptation of Mike Bartlett’s radio play “Love Contract” from 2008. The play is the simple story of a hard-working employee named Emma who finds herself being monitored by her company for pursuing a romantic relationship with a coworker. Emma is forced to endure multiple “chats” with her unrelenting manager about company policy with cases of coworker relationships. The interviews escalate in levels of absurdity, showing a manager’s strict concern about Emma placing her life as a priority above her company.
Continue reading Review: Contractions (Red One Theatre Collective) →

Ruff explores theatre life after a stroke, on stage at Daniels Spectrum in Toronto

I understood, sitting with my program at Daniels Spectrum, that Ruff is a show about making work after a stroke. And even still, when theatre legend Peggy Shaw limped onstage carrying an orange and one shoe, my heart sank. Were things so bad she couldn’t put on her own shoes? Then, when she handed the shoe to one audience member and the orange to another, I signed with relief. Just another in a long line of Peggy-Shaw-ignores-the-fourth-wall moments. Phew.

Shaw, whose list of awards and distinctions is longer than even the internet has room for, is a 68-year-old theatrical powerhouse  and lesbian trailblazer who has been making work for more than forty years. In 2011 she had a stroke, and  – as she quips in the show – “woke up a straight white man. I was missing half my brain.” The performance, on a green seamless strip with three video monitors showing the text and visual cues of the show, is classic Shaw: a series of beautiful and complex metaphors that wind around each other, eventually.

Continue reading Review: Ruff (Tangled Festival of Art & Disability) →

Love does not conquer all in Mies Julie on stage at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre

Not every love story is a love story. At the heart of Mies Julie — a masterful and punishing play by Yael Farber, currently on stage at the Harbourfront Centre — are two people who genuinely love each other, as confusingly and urgently as people ever do. And as usual, it’s a problem.

Typically in love stories, when love is the problem, it’s also the solution. Even if the star-crossed lovers feel the need to tragically kill themselves, at least dying restores them to the unity of their love. But love is not the solution in Mies Julie, and this is not a love story.

Continue reading Review: Mies Julie (Harbourfront Centre) →