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.
Pat Burtscher’s Patopotamoose (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival‘s Solo Room) is described as a work-in-progress.
Towards the end of the set, he promises the audience that it gets better: it’s always kind of frantic and weird towards the start of the run, and if we come back later on, it’ll be more settled, more mellowed… essentially, better. I’m not so sure.
Continue reading Pat Burtscher’s Patopotamoose (Pat Burtscher’s Company) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review
With a name like Eat, Poo, Love (Squint & Grunt Productions), I have to admit it was hard for me NOT to see this Fringe 2012 show. The synopsis for this show read “this true story is full of shit.” And full of shit it was…literally.
Although I was very nervous about the bathroom humour element, (I once watched an episode of King of the Hill which was almost entirely about the Dad trying to poop) it was less American Pie than I feared. Continue reading Eat, Poo, Love (Squint & Grunt Productions) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review
I first encountered William Shakespeare’s The Tempest in a survey course in university. The nuances evaded me and the plot and intrigue were overwhelming. All that has become clear now that I have experienced The Tempest … A Puppet Epic! at Palmerston Library Theatre, part of FringeKids! at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
The Tempest … A Puppet Epic! is written by Tom McGee (and William Shakespeare) and directed by Sarah Bruckschwaiger. Continue reading The Tempest … A Puppet Epic! (Shakey-Shake & Friends) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review
Most Fringe shows have two problems: a weak script and a lack of polish. It’s to be expected– the Toronto Fringe Festival is as much about workshopping pieces and developing talent as it is performance–but it’s often disappointing when promising ideas or actors end up stuck in a show that isn’t very well-written or wasted in one with poor execution.
Randolph Academy, by digging out Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, has completely avoided the first problem, and the production (running at the Annex Theatre) gets dangerously, fiendishly close to avoiding the second. Continue reading The House of Bernarda Alba (Randolph Academy) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review
Being what some might call slightly obsessed with King Henry VIII and his wives, I was eager to see Ladies-In-Waiting at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival playing at Theatre Passe Muraille. The play centers around the Henry’s five dead wives as they congregate in the room waiting for him to die. Imagine putting five women, many of whom don’t like one another very much, who have shared the same man in a room and you get a sense of what happens in Ladies-In-Waiting.
Continue reading Ladies-in-Waiting (Little Black Dress Theatre) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review