A Woman’s Love List At The Lighthouse Festival – A Review
A Woman’s Love List At The Lighthouse Festival I saw A Woman’s Love List by Norm Foster last season at the Orillia Opera House and liked it quite a bit. This season I took friends to see a remount of the play, with a different cast and director, at the Lighthouse Festival in Port Dover. I […]
Looking Ahead To The 2027 Season
Looking Ahead To The 2027 Season So what joys does the 2027 season have in store? The crystal ball is still a bit hazy with only a few companies announcing their 2027 seasons. Here’s what we know so far. The Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival’s 2027 season should prove to be quite entertaining if slimmer […]
Chong Is Wrong
Chong Is Wrong Joshua Chong, the Toronto Star’s chief theatre critic, recently wrote a think piece with the headline “Canada must not freeze out American artists as Donald Trump attacks cultural institutions.” It was written in response to the “scores” of letters and comments he has received from people who think that Canadian theatres should […]
It’s Not A Cult, It’s A Salon
It’s Not A Cult, It’s A Salon Recently, I spent a fascinating evening at The Leonor and the memory has been haunting me ever since. The occasion was a reading of a work in progress by Canadian actress and, yes, superstar, Chilina Kennedy. The piece she is developing with the dramaturgical assistance of playwright Robert […]
The Tao Of The World At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Tao Of The World At The Stratford Festival Playwright-director Jovanni Sy, whose magisterial Salesman in China (co-written with Leanna Brodie) was the smash hit of the Stratford Festival’s 2024 season, is back with an intermittently funny bit of cultural appropriation called The Tao of the World, set in the world of upper crust Singapore. Let […]
Suzannah At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Suzannah At Here For Now Theatre Suzannah, a meditation on the life of Henrik Ibsen’s wife, by Norwegian Nobel laureate Jon Fosse in a translation by Dr. May Brit Akerholt, is receiving a reverential production under the precise direction of Peter Hinton-Davis at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre. Fosse presents us with three iterations of […]
Saturday, Sunday, Monday At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Saturday, Sunday, Monday At The Stratford Festival Among the many good things retiring Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has done during his nearly forty years at the Stratford Festival is championing the work of Italian playwright Eduardo de Filippo (1900-1984). His Saturday, Sunday, Monday from 1959 is receiving a resplendent production at the Avon Theatre under […]
Ship To Shore At The Port Stanley Festival – A Review
Ship To Shore At The Port Stanley Festival Like most Norm Foster two-handers, Ship To Shore begins simply. The deck of a cruise ship. One man. One woman. One deck chair. Who will prevail? But then, to quote a catchphrase from this engaging comedy, the plot thickens. Erin Walsh (Cailin Stadnyk) and James Goffman (Mark […]
The King James Bible Play At The Stratford Festival – A Review
The King James Bible Play At The Stratford Festival The awkwardly titled The King James Bible Play, by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, is a fascinating melange of ideas and notions of a distinctly feminist cast inspired by the work in the title. It is receiving a sprightly world premiere under the direction of Nina Lee Aquino at […]
The Odd Couple At Drayton Entertainment – A Review
The Odd Couple At Drayton Entertainment The Odd Couple, arguably the best thing ever written by Neil Simon, the United States’ Norm Foster, is getting a laugh-filled revival at Drayton Entertainment’s St. Jacobs Country Playhouse. The basic premise is no doubt familiar to everyone thanks to the long-running sitcom the 1965 Broadway hit inspired. The […]