I laughed. I cried. There were sex jokes galore, and tales of blowjobs gone horribly, horribly wrong. Mostly I watched one woman’s heartfelt story of finding love, and herself – with the help of a children’s book and potent hallucinogens – in Dance Naked Productions’ performance of Lust & Marriage, part of Toronto Fringe Festival’s 2015 lineup. Continue reading Lust & Marriage (Dance Naked Productions) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review
HEADLESS/The Play by Marbles Theatre is currently playing at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace for this year’s Fringe Festival. The title is a bit misleading, since the show is less of a grim murder mystery and more of a comedy. The show (directed by Bruce Hunter and written by Tommy Jeff McAteer) is based on a real 2014 George Brown playwrighting class, and centres around the meta-commentary of the nature of writing, acting and theatre.
Continue reading HEADLESS/The Play (Marbles Theatre) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review
In Amphitheatre’s Mandelshtam, presented as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, a Russian poet (Osip Mandelshtam) criticizes Stalin and winds up in the Lubyanka. The tireless efforts of friends and family are able to secure a sort of pardon, but leave him with a difficult question: can he bring himself to pen a syrupy “Ode to Stalin” and thus save his skin at the expense of his ideals?
Continue reading Mandelshtam (Amphitheatre) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review
You Know I Know by Fourth Gorgon Theatre, playing at the Toronto Fringe, is not just a performance — it is an experience. It started as unexpectedly as it ended and made me feel like I was an integral part of it from beginning to end. Continue reading You Know I Know (Fourth Gorgon Theatre) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review
It’s tough to be a girl, especially when you’ve got world domination on the mind. So claims Shevil, the comic-book musical playing at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse during Toronto Fringe, about a female supervillain and her struggles against good and the sexist world she lives in. What’s even worse, though, is to see the genuine potential in such a strong premise mostly go to waste.
Continue reading Shevil: The Musical (Comic Shop Productions) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review