There’s a lot of great theatre going on in Toronto for the week of May 26th, 2014. ** Shows marked with the double asterisks and in red are the ones that make Megan, our Founding Editor, wish there were more hours in a day so she could check all of them out.
Continue reading Play Listings for the Week of May 26th, 2014
The cast runs down the aisle shouting and dancing their way to the stage. The song “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas is blaring on the speakers. The cast members rifle through a box of costumes, loudly declaring what piece is for them. The giddiness of the actors makes the play feel spontaneous. The production of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare In Action at the Arts & Letters Club changes from a long-awaited gala, to an impromptu comedy.
The play’s title refers to the twelfth night after Christmas. This day was previously celebrated as Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival full of drinking and switching of social order. So, on the twelfth night servants dressed as their masters, men as women, and vice versa. Shakespeare’s comedy toys with the idea of switching roles through switching gender and status. Costumes, twins, and trickery all help in creating chaos. Watching the misunderstandings multiply is the best part of the play, other than Malvolio’s bright yellow stockings.
Continue reading Review: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare In Action)
Dead Metaphor, written and directed by George F. Walker, is the final show in the current Off Mirvish series. It opened last night at the Panasonic Theatre.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing it and my anticipation was heightened by a reminder email from Mirvish that contained the best warning about strong language that I’ve ever seen.
“Seriously, folks, this show has some of the filthiest and most wonderful language you will ever hear in a public space. More than just “F” words, there are words beginning with almost every letter of the alphabet, used by the characters in the show, because this is exactly how these characters would speak. But trust us; you’ll love it. It’s quite liberating.”
With the East End Performance Crawl, it’s clear that Crow’s Theatre hopes to begin luring people to the theatre on the east side on the Don Valley. Their tactic is to install solo artists in odd locations around the neighborhood where their theatre is being built, and encourage us to visit them all. My first foray into this excellent ideal was John O’Callaghan’s Who’s Your Daddy, and it was…not excellent.
Freeway Strangler, playing for three weeks at The Box downtown, isn’t so much a dark comedy as a horror comedy. Not that many people are getting knocked off, as the title suggests. This is a more familiar kind of horror: miserable people being horrible. Which, of course, is pretty entertaining.