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Chronicling a Love Affair with Canadian Theatre

The Bean At The Foster Festival – A Review

the bean

The Bean At The Foster Festival The Bean, by the prolific Norm Foster, is receiving a sprightly world premiere at the charming Sons & Daughters Winery, tucked into the countryside south of St. Catherines. Norm Foster plays are often reports from the front lines of the battle of the sexes. The Bean reports on one […]

The Tempest At The Stratford Festival – A Review

the tempest

The Tempest At The Stratford Festival Departing Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino’s particular brand of rough magic is on fulsome display in his imaginative production of The Tempest by William Shakespeare on the Stratford Festival’s main stage. I have long maintained that Cimolino is, arguably, the greatest interpreter of the Bard in North America, perhaps the […]

And Then There Were None At St Jacobs Country Payhouse

and then there were none

And Then There Were None At Drayton Entertainment I didn’t add Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None at Drayton Entertainment’s St Jacobs Country Playhouse to my list of must-sees for a simple reason. I hate this kind of show. Why? you might ask. For the simple reason that, fiercely intelligent as I am, I […]

Waiting For Godot At The Stratford Festival – A Review

waiting for godot

Waiting For Godot At The Stratford Festival If you have seen Waiting For Godot by Samual Beckett as many times as I have, you approach each new one with trepidation. So it is with relief that I am able to report that director Molly Atkinson’s take on this classic at the Stratford Festival is good […]

Guys And Dolls At The Stratford Festival – A Review

guys and dolls

Guys And Dolls At The Stratford Festival After nine years, Donna Feore’s sublime production of Guys and Dolls is back on the Festival Theatre stage to bathe those who saw the 2017 edition in glorious nostalgia and to enchant those encountering it for the first time. Based on the stories of Damon Runyon, with music […]

The Hobbit At The Stratford Festival – A Review

the hobbit

The Hobbit At The Stratford Festival I saw The Hobbit at the Stratford Festival’s Avon Theatre with an audience of 800 students, some of them quite young. Their verdict is in. They loved it! They seemed to be rapt throughout the entire two and a half hours. They cheered some of the special effects, often […]

The Beaver Club At Lighthouse Theatre – A Review

the beaver club

The Beaver Club At Lighthouse Theatre I feel compelled to warn my readers that The Beaver Club by Barb Scheffler, now playing at the Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover, ON, contains humour that is raunchy, off-colour, smutty, and occasionally downright dirty. I loved every minute of it! Four women of a certain age who live […]

Something Rotten At The Stratford Festival – A Review

something rotten

Something Rotten At The Stratford Festival Donna Feore’s Something Rotten, the big hit of the 2024 season, has been remounted this season along with another of Feore’s smash hits, Guys and Dolls, to celebrate, one can only assume, Antoni Cimolino’s last season with the Stratford Festival. Cribbing shamelessly from my 2024 review, Something Rotten is […]

Death Of A Salesman At The Stratford Festival – A Review

death of a salesman

Death Of A Salesman at the Stratford Festival Starting off with an ear-piercing trumpet solo, Stratford’s Death of a Salesman at the Avon Theatre may be the loudest production on record. Director Dean Gabourie has given us a Salesman full of sound and fury signifying . . . well what exactly? Death of a Salesman […]

I Am An Island At Here For Now Theatre – A Review

i am an island

I Am An Island At Here For Now Theatre I Am An Island by Julia Lederer, now receiving its world premiere at Here For Now Theatre, is described as a “surrealistic drama (with some very funny bits).” Okay, fair enough. I guess that absolves me of any obligation to try to explain it, because quite […]