Programs or Programmes
My ever so polite “rant” about programme policies at Ontario theatres has been posted at Stratford Festival Reviews. I encourage you to not only read it but to share your thoughts in the comments. Not mentioned in the article is the fact that the minuscule Foster Festival, which one might assume is the most impecunious […]
1812 At The Foster Festival – A Review
1812 at the Foster Festival While you and I were spending the pandemic hunkered down, trying to figure out what to watch next on Netflix or any of a dozen other streaming services, Norm Foster was busy banging out 10 plays. That’s how you become Canada’s most prolific playwright. One of them, the tersely titled […]
The Woman Behind ‘Chicago’. No, Not Donna Feore
Maurine Watkins, The Woman Behind ‘Chicago’ My article about Maurine Watkins, the woman who wrote the “blasphemous” play, Chicago, in 1926 has been posted on the Stratford Festival Reviews website. I hope you’ll give it a read. It’s a fascinating story, if I do say so myself. And I do! If you’d like to delve […]
Billy Bishop Goes To War At Drayton’s Schoolhouse Theatre – A Review
Photo: Jim Hodgkinson and Jacob James, Drayton Entertainment Billy Bishop Goes To War At St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre Billy Bishop Goes To War, at Drayton Entertainment’s St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre, tells the stirring story of William Avery “Billy” Bishop, a Canadian World War One air ace and hero. Most of my fellow Americans have probably […]
Richard III At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Richard III At The Stratford Festival Richard III can wait. Let us now praise theatre architecture. The Stratford Festival’s new Tom Patterson Theatre is an unalloyed triumph. It’s as if the stage of the old Tom Pat died and went to heaven. The acoustics are superb, the seats are comfy, the upgrades are first-rate (real […]
The Complete Wingfield Farms
The Complete Wingfield Farms Cycle at Stratford-Perth Museum In what some aficionados will no doubt consider the theatrical event of the season, the Stratford-Perth Museum will be presenting the entire Wingfield Farms canon, all seven plays, starring Rod Beattie, on seven consecutive Sundays from July 3 to August 14. The shows will be presented at […]
Chicago At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Chicago at The Stratford Festival I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Donna Feore is a genius and her production of Chicago, currently gracing the MainStage at the Stratford Festival is yet further proof of that immutable fact. Broadway doesn’t know what it’s missing and, for the sake of the Stratford Festival and […]
Donna Feore Has Competition
Donna Feore Has Competition As we await the reviews for the Stratford Festival’s production of Donna Feore’s Chicago, there’s this . . .
Hamlet at The Stratford Festival – A Review
Hamlet at The Stratford Festival At last! A fardle-free Hamlet! ’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. The director, Peter Pasyk, has given the Stratford Festival a wild and wildly erratic, not to mention much anticipated Hamlet, with visually striking moments producing gasps alternating with ludicrous ones that produce laughter when stunned silence should be […]
Damn Yankees at the Shaw Festival – A Review
(Image: Shaw Festival) Damn Yankees at The Shaw Festival Two hits, no runs, and plenty of errors pretty much sums up my reaction to the mainstage revival of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’s 1955 musical Damn Yankees that swings and misses at the Shaw Festival. A riff on the Faust legend, Damn Yankees tells the […]