Coal Mine Theatre’s Bull is Chilling — You’ll Need a Drink
The gloves come off as three employees battle for two jobs at Toronto’s Coal Mine Theatre on the Danforth. This corporate horror called Bull will send shivers down your back: you’ll witness how the upcoming downsizing brings out the worst in two workplace bullies.
As we walk into this basement theatre (which is downstairs from The Magic Oven), we already know there won’t be much niceness to be observed: the angry music got me into fight-or-flight mode before the performance even started. To make the setting even darker, the arena-like theatre had us sitting in a U-shape around the stage, and with the mesh walls around it, the stage was like a ring. Perfect for bloody office combat. (While I didn’t mind the mesh, my guest found it a bit cumbersome to see through and questioned its necessity.)
A Woman is a Secret, at the Theatre Centre, is No-Strings-Attached Joy
All I knew about A Woman is a Secret before going in was that it was a world premiere and that it was written by John Patrick Shanley — who, despite an impressive body of work, is still probably best known for writing Moonstruck. It’s how I prefer to go into something if possible: no expectations.
I was first struck by the beautiful set as I walked into the space at the Theatre Centre. Once the piece started I was enveloped by the wonderful live music: musician Matthew Barber is on stage the whole time and provides an interlude between each vignette. Which brings me to my next bit of information: instead of being one long play, this is a series of mini-plays. Little snippets of life — or fantasy — played out for us in bite-sized pieces.
You know that exciting feeling of getting in on something on the ground floor? Well, this Monday night (March 23, 2014) you can have that by attending a live taping of the pilot of The Panel Show for CBC Radio Comedy at Bad Dog Theatre.
Now, just because it’s the pilot for radio doesn’t mean it’s a new show, just new to radio. In fact, Mooney on Theatre covered the very first The Panel Show back in 2011. That means they’ve been doing this now for four and a half years and it’s a well-oiled machine.
This year the annual New Ideas Festival graces the Toronto stage for 27th time and still delivers
Recently I was fortunate enough to visit one of my favourite venues in Toronto – Alumnae Theatre – and finally saw a sure sign of spring: The annual New Ideas Festival. It’s as much reminder of spring and things just around the corner as the date on a calendar.
The New Ideas Festival is everything that is right about theatre. It’s also as exciting and optimistic as spring. Now in its 27th year, the festival fosters new ideas and theatre talent, inspiring actors, directors, playwrights, designers, technicians and, of course, audiences. This year more than 120 artists will stage 12 plays and present 3 readings over three weeks. Now this is the type of positive energy that means spring is in the air!
Unit 102 presents a vampire horror-comedy at the Theatre Machine in Toronto
What does a person do when their enemy is stronger, faster, and smarter than them by being older than them by a few millennia? Is a fight worth it? Is it pointless? Or is it something more sinister? Vampires are powerful and vampire hunters are human in Luis Fernandes’s The Hungry presented by the Unit 102 Actors Co. at the Theatre Machine.
You know that exciting feeling of getting in on something on the ground floor? Well, this Monday night (March 23, 2014) you can have that by attending a live taping of the pilot of 
