Hamlet-911 at The Stratford Festival If you’re not feeling sufficiently woke, hie thee to Hamlet-911, Ann-Marie MacDonald’s cheerfully anarchic mishmash of a play now receiving it’s much-delayed world premiere at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre. Hamlet-911 is a satiric comedy about white male privilege in the theatre, specifically the Stratford
Uncle Vanya At Crow’s Theatre The astonishment of Artistic Director Chris Abraham’s electrifying production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre begins with the set and lighting. Co-designers of set and props Julie Fox and Josh Quinlan have transformed the Crow’s capacious Guloien Theatre into one of the
1939 at The Stratford Festival In a canny bit of programming at the Studio Theatre, the Stratford Festival has paired its production of Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well with 1939, a masterful and moving play about Canada’s residential schools, by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan. The residential school system
(Image: Blyth Festival) John Ware Reimagined at the Blyth Festival Something remarkable is happening on the bucolic, outdoor Harvest Stage at The Blyth Festival. What could have been a disaster — the last-minute illness of a lead performer — has become the occasion for a remarkable tour de force for
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) The Real Poems at Here For Now With its closing production of Robert McQueen’s beautifully written, magnificently performed, and quietly devastating The Real Poems, Here For Now Theatre once again establishes itself as a theatrical company that, despite vast differences in scale and resources, is
Death and the King’s Horseman at Stratford Wole Soyinka’s poetic and elegiac play, Death and the King’s Horseman, widely considered the masterpiece of this Nigerian Nobel Laureate in Literature, packs quite an emotional wallop. Director Tawiah M’Carthy mounted this play just two years ago at Soulpepper in Toronto with a
March 31 – April 23, 2022 Yale University has a long and distinguished vocal tradition. There are the undergraduate Whiffenpoofs, of course, and the School of Music confers advanced degrees in choral conducting. So it’s perhaps not too surprising to find that Choir Boy features one of the greatest small
Dream Hou$e at Long Wharf Theatre Playwright Eliana Pipes has furnished her new play Dream Hou$e (as it is styled in the program) with an abundance of themes in a variety of styles. The overall effect is striking but cluttered. The Castillo sisters are trying to sell their recently deceased
I Am My Own Wife at Long Wharf Theatre The Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, is giving Doug Wright’s Pulitzer prize-winning one-person play, I Am My Own Wife, a respectful if ultimately disappointing revival starring a very talented young actor, Mason Alexander Park. The play revolves around
London Assurance at The Irish Rep – A Review After the deaths of Richard Sheridan (School for Scandal) and Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops To Conquer), the English-speaking stage seems to have lain fallow until the emergence in the late nineteenth century of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, at least
My Name Is Lucy Barton on Broadway “LAURA LINNEY IS LUMINOUS” a sign outside Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater announces. If only the same could be said of My Name Is Lucy Barton. This one-woman show, which I am compelled to report, received rapturous reviews from the New York critics,
Tootsie on Broadway Tootsie, currently playing at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre, is a musical comedy that’s strong on the comedy and surprisingly weak on the musical side of the equation. Based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman, Tootsie tells the tale of Michael Dorsey (Santino Fontana), a forty-ish actor who,
List of Sites that Review Theatre in Ontario Canada You don’t have to take my word for it. I often find myself in a minority when it comes to opinions on plays and films, for reasons that are more fully explained on the About This Site page. It’s a phenomenon
Have Pot, Will Cook: Cannabis Cooking at Stratford Chefs School Shakespeare isn’t the only thing in Stratford that can transport you to another time and place. Now that cannabis (a.k.a. pot, grass, weed) is legal in Canada, some visitors may be tempted to visit one of a number of perfectly
Stratford Announces 2023 Season Somewhat later than used to be the case, the Stratford Festival has announced its 2023 season, with four plays by The Bard. Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino likes to build each season around a central theme. Reflecting on the toll taken by the recent pandemic and the
Shaw Announces 2023 Season The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, has announced an ambitious 17-play 2023 season and it looks promising. The Shaw’s 2023 season will kick off with a two-part, six-hour updating of the Sanskrit epic The Mahabarata, featuring an all South Asian cast. It will run for just
(Image: Monica Silvestre) Long Wharf Theatre, Meet The Blyth Festival Jesse Green’s recent article in the New York Times about ending racism in theatre kicks off with a discussion of changes at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre If you are not up to speed on Long Wharf’s current situation, Green’s
(Image: Drayton Entertainment) Mamma Mia! Returns To Drayton Good news for Mamma Mia! fans. Drayton Entertainment is bringing back its sold-out summer hit to the St Jacobs Playhouse for a limited run, November 1 to 20, 2022. Whether you have seen every iteration of this quintessential juke box musical or,
Why Drayton Is Important I had been coming to Canada for several years, sampling the theatrical riches of the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, before I discovered the Blyth Festival and added it to my theatre-going repertoire. It was several more years before I discovered the archipelago of theatres operated by
