Toronto’s Classical Theatre Project combined Shakespeare with beer for a one-night performance
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare {Abridged} played twice on Saturday night, the latest event in The Classical Theatre Project‘s ShakesBeer series. The name is fairly self-explanatory: Shakespeare plus beer. As it turns out, those two things go very well together. Throw in talented performers, a great script, and some timely pop culture references, and you have a winning combination indeed. The one-act show was performed at Artscape Wychwood Barns, on a stage with a simple red-curtained backdrop, some simple lights and men in colourful tights. It was quite the sight to behold.
All-Female Glengarry Glen Ross Shines at the Red Sandcastle Theatre
Remember the thrill of riding roller coasters when you were young? The anticipation, the speed and intense power would leave you breathless. Leaving the ride, tears would be almost airbrushed to your cheeks and you wanted to get right back in line. If you think those kind of thrills are a thing of the past, think again. There’s an all-female version of Glengarry Glen Ross now onstage at Red Sandcastle Theatre on Queen Street East in Toronto, and seeing this play makes those adolescent thrills seem pale by comparison.
Glengarry Glen Ross is Pullitzer Prize winning play written by David Mamet. It is a play about real estate agents, all of them male. It’s also set in New York City, so dialogue moves along at supersonic speed. The thing that sets this production of Glengarry Glen Ross apart is that all the characters are played by female actors. And for me, that is as exciting and inviting as spring!
Crimes of the Heart is an “Exhilarating”, “Empowering” Piece of Theatre
A beloved childhood horse is struck by lighting, granddaddy is in a coma and a husband has been shot by his own wife: it’s a bad day for the MacGrath sisters.
The Barber of Seville, on stage at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto, is a charming blend of merriment and song
There’s a Christine Lavin song that begins with: “I am at the opera, I don’t like the opera / But he loves the opera, and I love him.”
It’s clear to me that the man Christine Lavin sang about did not take her to The Barber of Seville at the Canadian Opera Company. The Barber of Seville is a great starter opera – it’s funny, it celebrates love, there’s lots of physical comedy and it is entirely without tragedy. The opening night audience included more children than I’ve ever seen at a COC production, and with good reason. The Barber of Seville is an opera buffa: it was written to be accessible, funny and easily enjoyed by people without training and literacy in opera. This is a perfect opera (and a marvellous production) to use as a gateway drug, so people who have never been to (or have never enjoyed) opera can begin to fall in love.
The play falls into the Theatre of the Absurd genre and was written by Slavomir Mrozek in Communist Poland in the early 1960s. The play is full of ‘lessons’ that are as relevant today as they were 55 years ago in Poland. The wonderful thing about Theatre of the Absurd is that no one beats you on the head with a stick. The play is very funny, the wordplay is brilliant. Continue reading Review: Out at Sea (Leroy Street Theatre)→
