Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre brings Roald Dahl’s classic to life
A memorable Christmas present for your little one would be tickets to the musical production of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. On stage at Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre, this all-ages pleaser is a must-see.
Orphaned English boy James (Alessandro Costantini) is sent to live with his aunts, two money-hungry meanies sporting wild hairdos (Nicole Robert and Karen Wood). Fortunately, a magical giant peach begins growing in their backyard, becoming his getaway vehicle. More importantly, the fruit becomes home to him and his new family. Continue reading Review (Kid +1): James and the Giant Peach (Young People’s Theatre)→
Believe it or not, it’s December! And one other thing you may not believe is how many shows are popping up in the city! Check out what’s playing below. If it’s got two asterisks and highlighted in red, it’s highly recommended by our Acting Managing Editor, Mike.
Soulpepper’s Christmas Carol is “An Outright Pleasure from Start to Finish”
If “humbug” were a word that people still used, it would come in handy right about now. One doesn’t have to be a miserable soul to feel irritated by Christmas, or at least, skeptical of some of its gifts: the manic shopping, the bad music, the cheap sentiments.
But there’s no denying that some of the traditions are beautiful and satisfying, not least of them the annual viewing of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Soulpepper has brought back their adaptation by Michael Shamata, and even for the Scroogiest among us, it’s an outright pleasure from start to finish.
The Stronger Variations is “dark Christmas magic” playing at Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
Theatre Rusticle’s current production of The Stronger Variations is pure Christmas magic – if, like me, you like your magic to have a dark side and the potential to drive you mad. Given the range of interpretations of the play’s source text covered over the evening, there should be something to whet every audience member’s whistle.
The experimental play is a series of variations on August Strindberg’s 20 minute play The Stronger, in which two women – a wife and her husband’s mistress – meet in a chance encounter on Christmas Eve. The wife then expresses her complex feelings towards the mistress in a long monologue. In The Stronger Variations, each of the play’s five actresses alternatively plays the wife and the mistress one right after the other, running the gamut of nearly every possible interpretation of the scene. By the end of the play, I was left as mentally exhausted as the heaving, panting characters were physically — and every bit as satisfied.
