The Shark Is Broken At The Royal Alexandra – A Review
The Shark Is Broken At The Royal Alexandra The Shark Is Broken, Ian Shaw’s heartfelt homage to the memory of a father he hardly knew, is receiving a sterling production at Mirvish’s Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. Shaw and co-writer Joseph Nixon imagine the frictions and frustrations experienced by actors Robert Shaw (Ian Shaw), Roy […]
Singin’ In The Rain At The Princess of Wales – A Review
Singin’ In The Rain at The Princess of Wales No, the Mirvish production of Singin’ in the Rain, currently packing them in at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre does not come close to matching the razzle dazzle of the 1952 MGM screen classic starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. But I don’t think […]
Have Pot, Will Cook: Cannabis Cooking at Stratford Chefs School
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 legal cannabis stores in Stratford. […]
Stratford Announces 2023 Season
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 memories of a previous plague […]
Hamlet-911 At The Stratford Festival – A Review
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 Festival, and the exclusion of […]
Uncle Vanya At Crow’s Theatre – A Review
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 most impressive sets I’ve seen […]
1939 At The Stratford Festival – A Review
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 was created to turn the […]
Shaw Announces 2023 Season
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 four weeks, from late February […]
Long Wharf Theatre, Meet The Blyth Festival
(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 article will fill you in. […]
John Ware Reimagined At The Blyth Festival – A Review
(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 Janelle Cooper, director, music director, […]