Review: Gaslight (Stage Centre Productions)

Stage Centre Productions presents the thriller Gaslight at Fairview Library in Toronto

Photo of Lawrence Stevenson and Hanna Peltoniemi-Fam courtesy Stage Centre ProductionsThe stage at Fairview Library Theatre is adorned with luxuries of a Victorian home in London. Portraits line the walls, a grand piano sits by the window, and gaslights are in every corner of the room. It’s a peaceful scene, but I know the peace won’t last long. This production of Gaslight is an adaptation by David Jacklin of the dark thriller written by Patrick Hamilton. I sit in my row, and wait for the peace to be broken.

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Review: Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top Of The World (Black Rabbit Theatre and The Box Toronto)

Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World, a play about friendship and memory at The Box Toronto

Black Rabbit Theatre’s Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top Of The World, playing at The Box Toronto, is a straightforward two-hander about friendship and memory that was elevated by the company’s committed performances and fine direction. Continue reading Review: Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top Of The World (Black Rabbit Theatre and The Box Toronto)

Review: Séance (Nicholas Wallace)

Nicholas Wallace, the narrator and co-creator of Séance.

Victorian-style ghost show thrills and chills on the Toronto stage

Séance is one of the tightest and tiniest shows you’ll see this season. Your host (co-creator Nicholas Wallace) lectures, guides, cajoles and creeps the audience through roughly 90 minutes of decidedly spooky parlour games. Presented in turn-of-the-century style, and supplemented with a heaping side of ghost stories, all the greatest hits are here: automatic writing, levitating furniture, spirit rapping, mediumship, and the grand finale, a full-blown manifestation.

I’m a skeptic. I went a skeptic, and I came away a skeptic. But even I was moved by the sheer visceral fingers-down-your-spine aspect of Séance — and if you’ve a more open mind than I, your experience will almost certainly be downright spiritual. (Inspired? Possessed?)

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Preview: In Search of Cruise Control (James Gangl)

James Gangl in In Search of Cruise ControlCanadian Comedy Award Winner James Gangl brings his hit one-man Edmonton Fringe show, In Search of Cruise Control, to the Second City John Candy Box Stage this weekend. With dramaturgy and direction by Fringe favourite Chris Gibbs, the show is the true story of Gangl’s attempt to give his teenaged nephew the sex talk.

We asked writer and perfomer Gangl a few questions about the upcoming production:
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Review: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Lower Ossington Theatre)

P8i5GixecrsO658cbGdhOHrXrHdEkBos-iavi23T3asToronto’s Lower Ossington Theatre presents musical bio play Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

I walked into the Lower Ossington Theatre to see Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story not knowing much about Buddy besides the glasses, “the day”, and the hit songs from my mother’s cassettes she recorded when she was not that much older than the rock legend. What I learned was the boy from Lubbock, Texas had heart, soul, and a deep need to rock n’ roll, and rock n’ roll he did in his short time near and at the top of the charts.

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