the marquise of O- (the red light district), adapted and directed by Lauren Gillis and Ted Witzel for SummerWorks, is loosely based on an 1808 short story by Heinrich von Kleist, filtered through Kant’s ideas on reality and knowledge, and the remix culture of Reddit.
This story, about a widow whose life and honour are saved from an encroaching army by an instantly-besotted count, and who later mysteriously falls pregnant, is both devotedly retold and revised into a modern exploration of how we treat rape, and how belief and rationalization can be tenuous and dangerous things.
Outside the March’s That Synching Feeling, playing in Toronto as part of the SummerWorks Festival, explores the paradox of the Information Age: through digital communications technology we’re now more connected to other people than ever before in the history of humankind and yet we’re increasingly isolated and alone.
Five strong female dancers took The Theatre Centre BMO Incubator stage in an abstract contemporary dance number that was both physically demanding and also quite intense. Choreographed by well-known choreographer Amanda Acorn, the SummerWorks production multiform(s) was a fluid, dynamic piece that showed a great deal of willpower and endurance.
Seams is a play steeped in history. If your taste is for well-made, conventional theatre, this SummerWorks entry by The Seams Collective is a solid choice .
Set in a Moscow theatre in 1939, Polly Phokeev’s play follows the lives of six costume makers during the troubling political and social climate of Stalin’s Soviet Russia. As these characters tear fabric apart, then sew it back together again, love and hate are woven together. Continue reading Seams (The Seams Collective) 2015 SummerWorks Review→
I leapt at the chance to see 
Outside the March’s 
