Two Plays by Marguerite Duras, on stage at Toronto’s Fraser Studios, is a gem not to be missed
If you like theatre that is written with originality, performed by passionate, talented actors and challenges its audience as much as it entertains, check out the Spiel Players production of Two Plays by Marguerite Duras. Onstage at Toronto’s Fraser Studios, these plays are a one-two theatrical punch not to be missed.
Two Plays by Marguerite Duras is comprised of the plays Savannah Bay and Le Shaga. Both are very different and very engaging, surreal and dreamlike. One is sweet and tender, the other is way ‘out there’. It’s a little like seeing two Fringe plays back to back at the same venue.
Becky Shaw, playing at the Sterling Theatre Company in Toronto, misses the comedic mark
Becky Shaw is billed as a comedy, but the Sterling Theatre Company‘s current production garnered only a few laughs on opening night. The emotional entanglements of the characters played out like melodrama most of the time. I can see the potential in the script to be satire, but this production’s teeth were too dull to bite. Continue reading Review: Becky Shaw (Sterling Theatre Company)→
Anita Majumdar brings her one-woman theatre-dance show Fish Eyes to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto
Anita Majumdar’s one-woman show, Fish Eyes, has been on my radar for a whole decade. A friend of mine saw the premiere back in 2005 and I still recall her enthusiasm for it. I finally had the opportunity to see it myself at the Aga Khan Museum where it is playing this weekend as part of its Canadian tour.
Majumdar has written, choreographed and performs this dance-theatre show. She tells the story of Meena, a teenager trained in classical Indian dance who just wants to fit in to cool high school society. Being seventeen, she desperately wants to let her teenage hormones run rampant, but her “Auntie” expects her to take part in a dance competition back in India… just when poor Meena thinks she has a shot with her heartthrob obsession, Buddy. Continue reading Review: Fish Eyes (Nightswimming)→
R-E-B-E-C-C-A, on stage at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, explores living with a developmental disability
Sara Farb gives an absolutely must-see performance in R-E-B-E-C-C-A now playing at Theatre Passe Muraille. The writer-star of the show draws on real-life experiences with her sister to craft an interesting what-if look at what life might have been for the developmentally delayed title character had she been born just two months later.
Using a Fight Club-like double character, Farb tells the story of two Rebeccas: the developmentally delayed Rebecca born in May who longs to go to a summer camp and the profoundly depressed Rebecca born in July who is a camp counselor. The story starts on “May’s” 18th birthday when she gets in trouble after asking for a second piece of cake and ends on “July’s” 18th birthday when she feels like her world is going to end.
Pleiades Theatre presents the award-winning Sound of Cracking Bones on stage at the Passe Muraille in Toronto
I was drawn to see The Sound of Cracking Bones, a play presented by Pleiades Theatre with the support of the Theatre Passe Muraille, for various reasons — the subject matter of the liberation of child soldiers spoke to me as both a journalist and a humanitarian and simply the very visceral and guttural nature of the title itself. I have a strong appreciation for theatre with heavy subject matter and significant points of view — I want to experience these performances and leave feeling equally strong emotions be them enlightened or pained or angered.
After the performance I left the theatre speechless feeling all those things and more.
Sara Farb gives an absolutely must-see performance in 