The Mermaid Collective’s play Dive is a visceral experience at Toronto’s Array SpaceDive, presented by The Mermaid Collective and playing at The Array Space, lives up to its billing as “a visceral experience” in telling the story of two men conflicted by love and loss and how one man’s encounter with an enchanting mermaid in his youth shaped the rest of his life.
Guild Festival Theatre presents a contemporary Romeo & Juliet in Toronto’s Guild ParkGuild Festival Theatre’s contemporary production of Romeo & Juliet at the Greek Stage in Guild Park has a slew of commendable performances and impressively high production values, especially considering that it’s set outdoors.
Continue reading Review: Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (Guild Festival Theatre)
Phenomenal performances in Randolph Academy’s Toronto production of rock musical Spring AwakeningIt’s no secret that Spring Awakening – Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s rock musical about the trials and tribulations of sexually repressed teens in 19th century Germany – is one of my favourite plays of all time. So, when I was given the opportunity to review the Randolph Academy’s production of the play – cast with actual teenagers – I was delighted.
After seeing it, I’m kind of torn about how I feel about the Randolph Academy production. On the one hand, there are several really phenomenal performances in it and I loved the multi-harmonied sound of the full cast in some of the group numbers. On the other hand there are an equal number of moments where the staging is flat (and so are the singers).
Continue reading Review: Spring Awakening (Randolph Academy)
I’m a big fan of the musical The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown’s complex and emotional roller-coaster ride through five years in the lives of two lovers, whose doomed relationship is told two ways. Specifically, he tells the story chronologically while she tells it backwards, allowing for them to meet only once in the very middle. It’s a good pick for the Toronto Summer Music Festival to put on at the Isabel Bader Theatre, as the score can really live and die based on how adept its leads are at carrying a vast range of weighty emotion.
Thankfully, this production more than does justice to the material.
Continue reading Review: The Last Five Years (Toronto Summer Music Festival)
A caribou recites poetry. An orca serves as an ark. A bear fights an excavator. A possum plays dead (as you may have guessed). These things and more can be seen at Animal Nature, a musical puppet show running in Dufferin Grove Park until August 16.
Continue reading Review: Animal Nature (Clay and Paper Theatre)