Cirque Alfonse brings circus artistry with a razor edge to Toronto’s Fleck Dance Studio
At opening night of Timber!, playing as part of this year’s PANAMANIA festivities, the theatre was swarming with excited francophone children and frazzled francophone parents, equally keyed up for 90 minutes in the dark with Cirque Alfonse. This lumberjack-inspired cirque thrilled and terrified in equal measure — the poor kid behind me was beside himself more than once: “S’il manque le cible, il cassera son tete!” — and blew the top off the Fleck Dance Theatre. What’s not to like?
Last night, I reviewed three of the twelve plays being presented at The Social Capital Theatre as part of The Short Short Play Festival. It’s a great idea: present four different groupings of three plays twice each over four nights in a casual setting with a bar.
As the adorable, tiny shorts hanging from a clothesline on the ceiling indicate, these are short works of theatre, twenty minutes tops, that don’t often get to see the stage. After my second night, and having seen half of the festival, I’m inclined to agree that good things come in small packages.
Battle for the North brings a break dance showcase to Toronto audiences as part of PANAMANIA
The Young Centre for the Performing Arts is keeping slightly different company with Battle for the North, a break dance showcase and competition produced as part of PANAMANIA in Toronto. Crews from all over Canada were invited to battle head to head against each other for a cash prize of $2,000, all before a live audience of urban dance enthusiasts and newcomers to the genre alike.
On the second night of the three-night event, 16 crews were slated to battle one on one. The top eight teams would then move on to the last round where four would be pronounced the best of the best. Each round lasted seven minutes, with the three judges given about one minute to decide a winner.
The Short Short Play Festival delivers bite-sized plays on stage in Toronto
The Social Capital Theatre serves up a buffet of short plays in an intimate Toronto setting in The Short Short Play Festival — a perfect evening for those who find hour-long plays to be taxing. It’s snack-size theatre, full of variety; a 20-minute play has to make its point quickly, and leave us with one indelible impression.
Plays of this length rarely get a chance at performance and so an appetizer menu of 12 plays over four days is a treat. As Shakespeare might say, though, they be but little, they are fierce.
PANAMANIA presents Betroffenheit, a hybrid of dance and theatre in Toronto
