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Chronicling a Love Affair with Canadian Theatre

Here For Now Theatre Announces 2025 Season

here for now

Here For Now Announces 2025 Season Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre has announced a 2025 season of five one-act plays, all premieres of one sort or another, running from May 28 to August 31. This will be the company’s first season in its new indoor space in Stratford’s former Registry Office near the library in […]

Vale Atque Ave or Wither Stratford?

mengesha

Vale Atque Ave or Wither Stratford? The Latin scholars among you may recognize that headline as an inversion of the more traditional “Ave Atque Vale” (Hail and Farewell). I refer, of course, to the upcoming changing of the guard at the Stratford Festival, where Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino will be stepping down after the 2026 […]

Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf At Canadian Stage – A Review

virginia woolf

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf At Canadian Stage I’m not a big fan of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and the new production at Canadian Stage’s Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto did nothing to change my mind. Perhaps when it debuted in 1962 this three hour plus exercise in concentrated bitchiness seemed envelope-pushing. […]

Wights At Crow’s Theatre – A Review

wights

Wights at Crow’s Theatre Wights, a noble failure of a play by Liz Appel, is getting the high-tech, razzle-dazzle treatment from director Chris Abraham that’s fast becoming his signature style at Crow’s Theatre in Toronto. Despite its drawbacks, I found it well worth the schlep into T-Town. In a house in New Haven, Connecticut, a […]

Heist At The Grand Theatre – A Review

heist

Heist At The Grand Theatre Playwright Arun Lakra, whose Heist is enjoying an exuberant production at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, is a self-confessed fan of heist movies. His favourite and the apparent inspiration for Heist is Ocean’s Eleven, the star studded caper flick of 2001. Heist, the stage play, follows the Hollywood formula: […]

Eden At Yale Rep – A Review

eden

Eden At Yale Rep The Yale Rep kicks off the new year with a welcome revival of Steve Carter’s 1976 play, Eden. The first of Carter’s so-called Caribbean Trilogy, Eden won awards both in New York and Los Angeles, but as far as I can tell has been revived only sporadically. That’s too bad. Eden […]

Orgasmos At Teatro Arlequin In Madrid – A Review

orgasmos

Orgasmos at Teatro Arlequin in Madrid Based on the title, one might expect that Orgasmos (Orgasms), which enjoyed a recent one-night stand – how appropriate! – at Madrid’s Teatro Arlequin Gran Via, was devised to lure in sad old men in greasy raincoats and Japanese tourists, rather like O Calcutta of blessed memory. In fact, […]

What Was I Thinking?

un sogno a istanbul

What Was I Thinking? As I was meandering through Europe, contemplating exile, I found myself in Siracusa, Italy, taking it slow and relaxing in a nice hotel as I recuperated from back and leg pain (long story). Once I was feeling better I ventured out to explore Ortigia, Siracusa’s “old town,” a charming tangle of […]

Lucia Di Lammermoor At Bayerische Staatsoper – A Review

lucia

Lucia Di Lammermoor At The Bayerische Staatsoper Before I get to Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor, and in the interest of full disclosure, let me begin by confessing my profound ignorance of classical music and all things operatic. Not only is it an art form for which I have no instinctive appreciation, I find most of […]

Rampersad Helms Red Shoes At RSC

the red shoes

Rampersad Helms ‘The Red Shoes’ At RSC Following in Tim Carroll’s footsteps, Kimberley Rampersad, the Associate Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival is directing and choreographing The Red Shoes at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. This Red Shoes is a new version of Hans Christian Andersen’s “dark fairy tale” by Irish playwright Nancy Harris, […]