If you want an inside look at the zany rehearsal process in the life of a Shakespearean actor, then Shakespeare-mash-up-parody  The Peers is a show for you. Toronto Fringe Festival presents The Peers at the Annex Theatre.

Continue reading The Peers (INFEMOUS) Toronto Fringe Review →

The Art of Kneading by Helen Knight (presented by Farenheight350) was a late entrant into the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival, so it isn’t in the printed program. This absence of advertising means that Knight needs (kneads?) all the help she can get to avoid playing to small houses. That would be a shame, as her passionate, well-written and partially autobiographical show about the lengths mothers will go to make sure their children are fed deserves an audience.

Millennial Knight is attending a bread-baking class; a very bourgeois act, she admits, for a woman who grew up on welfare. As she wrestles with the dough and whether or not to snap a selfie of her yeast-wrangling, she reminisces about her mother’s struggle to raise three children as a pot-scrubber, and her resolute belief that pride bows before sustenance. She’s also catapulted back to the story of Annie Moore, the Irishwoman who was the first immigrant to cross through Ellis Island, and a more present story of a young nurse on a school placement in Zambia, combating both AIDS and childhood malnutrition.

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I was REALLY looking forward to going to Tales Of A Cocktail  at Al Green Theatre, it had my name written all over it. Old timey jazz music? Check. Vintage costumes? Check. Cocktails? Double check! I’m a huge fan of these “story through dance” shows or “dansicals” as some people like to call them. I assumed that Tales Of A Cocktail would be similar to shows like “Come Fly Away” (that’s “fly” not “from”!) or “Contact” and I quickly found out that the choreographer was definitely striving for that category.

Continue reading Tales Of A Cocktail (Breakaway Entertainment) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review →

Room 4 at Scadding Court is transformed into the fantastical world of a child’s bedroom, where the stars are so far away, yet a lot closer than you think. Theatre Born Between, presents Beneath the Bed, an age accessible story about trauma, grief, and hope, playing at at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival

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Swallowed Whole (at the Toronto Fringe Festival) is a Second City-style sketch revue, written entirely by surrealist Rachel Parry. The result is as off-kilter and unpredictable as you’d expect: it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a blend unlike anything else you’ll find at the festival.

Continue reading Swallowed Whole (Irrelephant Productions) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review →