D&T Productions presents their debut production of Marion Bridge at Toronto’s re-branded Theatre Machine
Set in Nova Scotia, Marion Bridge is the life-affirming story of what happens when a woman returns home to be with her sisters while their mother is on her deathbed. Written by Daniel MacIvor, this is one of the first plays to be mounted by D&T Productions at Toronto’s re-branded The Theatre Machine.
What I found exceptional about Marion Bridge is the writing and acting. Together, they make for a play that almost anyone can relate to.
Canadian Stage’s Helen Lawrence uses technology to blend live theatre and film on the Toronto stage
Helen Lawrence is a visually stunning hybrid of theatre, film and visual art. The brainchild of Vancouver-based visual artist Stan Douglas and Canadian screenwriter Chris Haddock, the show takes the performances of live onstage actors filmed against a chromakey blue screen and blends them with CGI scenery to create a sort of real-time, live-action film that’s projected onto a scrim in front of the stage.
The Confidential Musical Theatre Project returns to surprise and entertain Toronto audiences for a second time
On a… I want to say balmy?… evening in late July, I had the good fortune of watching the first performance of the Confidential Musical Theatre Project. But you could fool me into believing that it was raining frogs that evening, for all it matters, since the only thing I remember from that day was the thrilling experience of witnessing the start of this new performance concept.
The Femme Playlist is an intense autobiographical piece on queer feminism on stage at Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times
b current, sulong theatre company, and Eventual Ashes‘s production The Femme Playlist (currently playing at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre space) is a fascinating look into the life of a queer femme woman of colour: Catherine Hernandez. Hernandez invites us into her space for 45 minutes to reveal to us the realities of her life from masturbation to motherhood, body shame to burlesque. By meeting the show on its own terms I feel like I learned a lot and was left heartily entertained and wanting more time with this talented performer.
Brotherhood Blends Performance, Mythology and Street Culture
Sebastien Heins‘s award-winning rap parable Brotherhood: The Hip Hopera has an undeniably eye-catching title, but what gets me is the article — the “the.” It’s a small detail, but it makes a strong point: if any play were to capture and define such a genre as “hip hopera,” this is the one.
Currently playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as part of b current theatre company’s afteRock Plays series (the other offering is Catherine Hernandez‘s The Femme Playlist), Brotherhood prepares the audience before the house lights go down with a montage of lo-fi videos from hip hop shows in the nineties. In this way, Heins lets Tupac and Jay-Z invoke the spirit of classic stadium rap that will animate this entire performance, where big dreams and gritty realities collide.
