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.
In Pack Animals (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival), an unlikely pair of scouts get cut off from Camp Oyster Bay, and have to rely on each other (and the magic of the forest!) to make it out alive. But it’s not as dark as it sounds: sit by the campfire, eat some snacks, sing some songs, and put those merit badges to good use.
Continue reading Pack Animals (Scantily Glad Theatre) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
It’s the thing at the back of Tracey Erin Smith’s throat that’s going to kill her, warns her healer. Those stuck half-sentences: what she can’t say. THE BIG HOUSE, presented at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival, asks the question, “When you’re a little kid and your Dad goes to jail, does a part of you go with?” Fringe darling Smith has created smash hits from The Burning Bush to The Clergy Project with her story-based Soulo Theatre, which deals in well-crafted, heartfelt confessionals and autofiction. In 2012, Smith covered the effects of her father’s suicide in Snug Harbor. It’s something even older, though, that forms the source of the blockage: her father’s imprisonment in 1977 for fraud, when Smith was a young child.
Continue reading The Big House (Soulo Theatre) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
High School High (Toasted Theatre Company) is a solo musical performance featuring Alli Harris, currently playing at Factory Theatre Studio as part of the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival. High School High is a series of musical vignettes relayed through different characters, among which are the freshman and her mother, the overachieving bake sale fundraising student, the too-cool school DJ, the class runt, a number of eccentric teachers, and a ghost.
Continue reading High School High (Toasted Theatre Company) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
Icarus challenges us to take a glimpse of the ambitious yet reckless nature of humanity. With high-flying lifts and incredible feats of strength, Toronto Fringe Festival presents the contact improv/viewpoints-based production Icarus at the Al Green Theatre.
Continue reading Icarus (Arrowwood Theatre Co.) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
If you’re looking for an abstract dance show at the Toronto Fringe Festival that explores the anxieties of young adulthood as a woman, make sure to check out Glimpse at the Factory Theatre Mainspace. It is an elegant exploration of our complex emotions.
Continue reading Glimpse (ParaSOUL Dance) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review