Possibly pure theatrical perfection at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto

The thing you must understand about True West – playing at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts – is that director Nancy Palk likes toying with her audience. That’s how Sam Shepherd’s play lures you in: frivolous comedy, throwaway gags, cheap shots between ill-assorted siblings, one of them straight-laced and the other a freewheeler. The lines are clever enough, but there’s a degree of contempt: wasn’t The Odd Couple in their 2011 season? What gives?

But then, all of a sudden, just when you think you’ve got a handle on this show, a proverbial anvil lands on top of you, knocking the wind out and crushing your assumptions. I suppose that innocent jab from five minutes ago wasn’t so frivolous after all. Then another: wow, there was much more behind that remark than I realized. Then another, and another, each successive landing setting off a cascade of revision and rethinking. If that joke really meant this, then that must have meant…

And somewhere in the catwalk, you can just make out the director, cackling with glee as she prepares to throw the next one.

Continue reading Review: True West (Soulpepper) →

A comic touch and Chilean politics are blended together on the Factory Studio Theatre stage in Toronto

I attended opening night of Carmen Aguirre’s Chile Con Carne at Factory Studio Theatre. Chile Con Carne is a solo show starring the incomparable Paloma Nuñez; the play is a fusion of politics and comedy, two of my favourite things, and I invited Mike, one of my most politically astute friends, to come along.

Chile Con Carne is the story of Manuelita, an eight-year-old Chilean refugee who fled her country with her family in the aftermath of the 1973 coup d’état. Manuelita shares her experiences as a newcomer to Canada, the trials her family faces as refugees and political activists, her struggle with her shifting identity, her desire to fit in and her crusade to save her favourite tree, Cedar, from a destructive development plan. Continue reading Review: Chile Con Carne (Alameda Theatre Company) →

Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille presents Atomic Vaudeville’s Legoland, prequel to their Ride the Cyclone

Back in 2010 Victoria-based Atomic Vaudeville took Toronto by storm with their quirky hit musical Ride the Cyclone at the SummerWorks Festival and again in 2011 when it was subsequently picked up for a run at Theatre Passe Muraille. The company returns to the Passe Muraille stage to present their follow-up entitled Legoland.

Described as a prequel to Ride the Cyclone, Legoland tells the story of Penny and Ezra Lamb; a sister and brother duo who grew up in a hippie commune outside the town of Uranium, Saskatchewan. When Penny leads Ezra on a road trip across the continent to meet her pop star idol the two are eventually arrested for drug trafficking after selling Ezra’s ADHD medication. Continue reading Review: Legoland (Atomic Vaudeville/Theatre Passe Muraille) →

You probably haven’t seen anything like This at Toronto’s Berkeley Street Theatre

The title of This, currently produced by Canadian Stage, lends itself to a lot of wordplay, sometimes unintentional. When I walked into the Berkeley Street Theatre I gasped and said to my companion “I’ve never seen it like this.” I wasn’t referencing the play itself, though I laughed about it a second later. But I think the designer’s decision to strip away the stage from the space was intended to evoke a reaction to “this” and thus set the mood for the play. Continue reading Review: This (Canadian Stage) →