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 […]
Amadeus At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Amadeus At The Shaw Festival Amadeus, the 1979 hit by Peter Shaffer, is receiving a workmanlike revival under the direction of Shaw’s Artistic Director Tim Carroll. One wonders why. Amadeus tells the wildly ahistorical tale of the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Michael Therriault) and Antonio Salieri (Tom Rooney) in late eighteenth century Vienna. Fun […]
Euchre Night At The Foster Festival – A Review
Euchre Night At The Foster Festival Playwright Norm Foster’s gift for creating fully rounded and psychologically acute female characters is on ample display in his Euchre Night now enjoying its world premiere at the Foster Festival, at the Mandeville Theatre in St Catherines. By the way, if you (like me) have no idea what euchre […]
Early Genius At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Early Genius At Here For Now Theatre Early Genius, the thoroughly delightful new play by Steve Ross, receiving its world premiere at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre is, according to their website, sold out for its entire run. So what’s the point of writing this rave review? Well, you can always hang out at the […]
The Last Mayor Of Rusty River At The Blyth Festival – A Review
The Last Mayor Of Rusty River At The Blyth Festival Small town politics receives the Blyth Festival treatment in the delightful The Last Mayor of Rusty River, a broad comedy by David Scott and Blyth Artistic Director Gil Garratt, with original songs by John Powers. The action takes place in the council chambers of the […]
The Odyssey And The Oddity
The Odyssey And The Oddity I took a break from theatre to go see Christopher Nolan’s bladder-busting three-hour blockbuster The Odyssey. I can confidently report that it’s okay. I won’t presume to “review” it. Film criticism is above my pay grade, but I will permit myself some observations. It seems that, in addition to inventing […]
A Stratford (and Shaw) Travelogue
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Bob Krist, retired photographer for National Geographic magazine, who is now sharing his professional know-how along with a growing collection of travel videos on YouTube. Like me, he has a life-long love of theatre so a pilgrimage to Canada’s two major festivals was a natural for […]
Schoolhouse At 4th Line Theatre – A Review
Schoolhouse At 4th Line Theatre Schoolhouse, a memory play by Leanna Brodie, is getting a spirited revival under the inventive direction of Monica Dottor at the rural – very rural – 4th Line Theatre. Developed at 4th Line and premiered at the Blyth Festival in 2006, Schoolhouse takes us back to 1938, to SS #1 […]
Curveball At The Blyth Festival – A Review
Curveball At The Blyth Festival Following up on the success of Sisters of ’78, and with much the same cast, the Blyth Festival’s world premiere production of Curveball tells the story of Stratford’s Kroehler Girls. Like Sisters it is the tale of Canadian women struggling to make their mark in a world dominated by men […]