Looking to see some theatre this week? Look no further! Here are our theatre listings for the week of September 8th, 2o14. Anything highlighted in red and preceded by two asterisks comes recommended by our Managing Editor, Megan.
Continue reading Play Listings for the Week of September 8th, 2014
The Headstrong Collective’s Romeo and (Her) Juliet thrives under the direction of Urban Bard Productions‘ master director Scott Emerson Moyle. He leads the cast to thrilling performances that alternate between side-splittingly hilarious and deeply emotionally resonant.
Continue reading Review: Romeo and (Her) Juliet (Headstrong Collective)
Dames, private eyes, a dirty business, and a Red Herring, all in one burlesque club! What else can you expect from an improv sketch burlesque show? Willing to take unexpected philosophical side-trips into the nature of fish and man, Murder at the Burlesque: Episode 1: The Mal-Tease Falcon at The Social Capital Theatre/Black Swan Comedy is always ready to have fun with their material. Before I continue in this review, I will outright admit my bias: I love burlesque and I love murder mysteries. Therefore I am excited to report that the combination works (for the most part, anyway). Continue reading Review: Murder at the Burlesque, episode 1: The Mal-Tease Falcon
Hair may be the best artifact we have of the late 1960s: other shows sing love letters to the period, but few of them capture the feeling of being inside the hippy movement at this unique moment in our history, when a generation’s blistering anger and outrage suddenly gave way to an outpouring of optimism, love and understanding. The Lower Ossington Theatre’s production (which plays off-site at the Randolph Theatre) takes that task seriously: they aren’t just delivering a good time, they represent and embody one of the most important and radical social movements our culture has ever produced — something never seen before or since.
![MisunderstandingFrontPostcard[1]](http://www.mooneyontheatre.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MisunderstandingFrontPostcard1.jpg)
According to the French philosopher Albert Camus, life is absurd. Not silly or screwy or goofy, but fundamentally absurd, at the deepest level. His reasoning is pretty straightforward: the world doesn’t make sense and never will, but we humans can’t stop ourselves from desperately wishing and often pretending that it does, and so we experience a perpetual, gnawing disappointment that we can’t escape or articulate. Don’t despair, though; it makes for great theatre.
The Misunderstanding, an adaptation of Camus’ play about a prodigal son who returns home to visit his mother and sister, is currently playing at the charming Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse on University of Toronto campus. Needless to say, the returning son doesn’t find quite the joyous reunion he was hoping for. (The title may be the most sardonic joke in the play.)
Continue reading Review: The Misunderstanding (Lester Trips Theatre)