A poetic love story in time for Valentine’s Day takes the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto
How Do I Love Thee? by Canadian Rep Theatre unfolds on the vast stage of the Berkeley Street Theatre. Irene Poole, playing the role of Elizabeth Browning, lies on a swing and recites poetry to the sky. Poole is bursting with passion. She cries out promises of greatness, but her excitement is brought down by her maid. The maid Wilson, played by Nora McLellan, presses a rag of ether to Poole’s face. How Do I Love Thee? begins with beauty and shows a hint of the ugliness that lies beneath it.
How Do I Love Thee? is about the love and marriage of poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I think we imagine love stories to be about a certain type of “love” — romantic and sweet making the audience long for something just as special. Robert and Elizabeth have that type of love in the beginning. They’re poets, after all: sweeping promises of affection spill from their mouths. Their love is grandiose and musical.
The Lower Ossington Theatre presents the rock musical Spring Awakening in Toronto
The current Lower Ossington Theatre (LOT) production of Spring Awakening draws heavily from the original Broadway production with varying amounts of success. The production adequately recreates most of the shows iconic moments to the delight of the audience, but its most outstanding moments are those where the production takes risks and freshly re-imagines the show. Anyone who missed the original Broadway production and the National tours but still loves Spring Awakening– like me – will leave the LOT satisfied with their experience with the show.
Soulpepper updates Dario Fo’s play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, setting it in present-day Toronto
You’re forgiven if you neglect to mention “accidental” when tweeting or talking about Accidental Death of an Anarchist, because death is death, correct?
Awe-inspiring performances in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Wagner’s Die Walküre
Richard Wagner changed opera when he fathered the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk – the Total Work of Art. In his vision, beautiful music and singing were not enough. All aspects of the production, story, set, costumes, lights and score, needed to fit together as equal components of a harmonious spectacle. The Canadian Opera Company’s 2015 production of Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second installment of the renowned Ring Cycle, paid homage to Wagner’s vision with a modern spin on this larger-than-life mythological epic. Continue reading Review: Die Walküre (Canadian Opera Company)→
