With 60 acts taking part in The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival 2015, there’s bound to be something to tickle your funny bone.
Representing the asinine and absurd side of things, O Dat Dum and Stupid Time Machine took to the stage Saturday night in front of a packed house of eager spectators at The Comedy Bar.
Two hilarious comedy troupes: one fantastic night of sketch comedy.
Continue reading Review: O Dat Dum + Stupid Time Machine (Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival 2015)
On Friday night, I made my way down a staircase at 688 Richmond Street West, followed the instructions to remove my outdoor footwear, hung up my coat, padded into a studio on the lower level, and settled in for A Triple Bill. The evening consisted of an opener by improv troupe “Seinfeld?!?”, a one-woman show by Katie Ford and a production of Edward Allan Baker’s Dolores. I’m still trying to figure out what the connection was between the three, and why new theatre company Restless Spirit Productions decided to showcase them together, but I have a feeling that will remain one of life’s great mysteries. Continue reading Review: A Triple Bill (Restless Spirit Productions)
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow took America by storm in a spree of high stakes bank robberies during the Great Depression that also resulted in the deaths of various police officers and civilians along the way. Their wave of crime came to an ultimate fiery end in 1934. Since then, their lives of crime have been the focus of numerous shows and movies including Echo Productions‘ latest show.
Continue reading Review: Bonnie and Clyde (Echo Productions)
Theatre for a young audience has two important components: one, it must keep children engaged for its duration, and two, it must entertain the adults as well. Theatre Direct’s Beneath the Banyan Tree playing at the Artspace Wychwood Barns manages both.
With only an hour for its run time, the play packs a colourful, simple, and fun story about a young girl’s experiences after moving from India to Canada. Anjali, played by the charming and exuberant Natalia Gracious, frequently seeks comfort from the spirit of the Banyan Tree (Qasim Khan). Together they share the Panchatantra fables involving elephants, monkeys, crocodiles, mice, and peacocks. Continue reading Review: Beneath the Banyan Tree (Theatre Direct)
Forty years after it premiered in 1975, Fawlty Towers remains one of the most important sitcoms ever made, famous for merging slapstick with clever writing, and piling up streams and piles of convolutions in a compact half-hour format.
Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience (that’s “Faulty” with a “U”) extracts three of the characters — the bumptious owner Basil, his shrewish wife Sibyl, and the befuddled waiter Manuel — to serve a genuine three-course meal in the basement of the Sony Centre. As the bread rolls fly, they recreate famous sequences from the show, introduce new material, and improvise with the audience.
Continue reading Review: Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience (Starvox)