The Master Plan At Crow’s Theatre – A Review
The Master Plan At Crow’s Theatre I was familiar with the work of director Chris Abraham mostly through classics like Much Ado About Nothing and Uncle Vanya, so I was eager to see what he would do with The Master Plan, Michael Healey’s new “ripped-from-the-headlines” play at Crow’s Theatre. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s terrific. The […]
The Amen Corner At The Shaw Festival – A Review
The Amen Corner At The Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival’s production of The Amen Corner, James Baldwin’s searing tragedy set in a Pentecostal church in 1950s Harlem, marks the first time a play by a Black author has graced the mainstage of the Festival Theatre. Having seen Kimberley Rampersad’s blockbuster production, it’s hard to image […]
The Shadow Of A Doubt At The Shaw Festival – A Review
The Shadow Of A Doubt At The Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival has a history of rediscovering long-forgotten plays. With The Shadow Of A Doubt they’ve done themselves one better by producing the world premiere of a 1901 play by none other than Edith Wharton, the first woman to receive a Pulitzer, not in drama […]
The Clearing At The Shaw Festival – A Review
The Clearing At The Shaw Festival Shaw Festival artistic director Tim Carroll has a soft spot in his heart for the English Interregnum (1649-1660) and its aftermath. In 2019, he presented (and directed) Victory, a scabrous little play by Howard Barker. This season it’s the far superior The Clearing from 1993 by English playwright Helen […]
Love’s Labour’s Lost At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Love’s Labour’s Lost At The Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival’s production of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is giving some younger and newer members of the company a chance to brush up their Shakespeare. The presence of a number of seasoned pros in the cast is no doubt beneficial for the development of their less […]
Queen Maeve At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Queen Maeve At Here For Now Theatre Judith Thompson’s Queen Maeve, now receiving its world premiere at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre, is a bleak but powerful portrait of a demented nursing home resident, one Mrs. Nurmi. The staff calls her “your Majesty” because she is convinced that in addition to being an 88-year-old “ordinary […]
Les Belles-Soeurs At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Les Belles-Soeurs At The Stratford Festival Les Belles-Soeurs (the Sisters-in-Law) by the francophone Quebec playwright Michel Tremblay holds an iconic position in Canadian theatre history. It is receiving a thought provoking revival under the enthusiastic if occasionally over-emphatic direction of Esther Jun. The year is 1965 in the working class east end of Montreal and […]
The Real McCoy At The Blyth Festival – A Review
The Real McCoy At The Blyth Festival The Blyth Festival is rounding out its 49th season with a smashing revival of Andrew Moodie’s 2006 play, The Real McCoy. A flawless cast and a sprightly script add up to an altogether marvelous show that is alternately hilariously funny and heartbreakingly sad. Elijah McCoy was the son […]
The Fox At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
The Fox At Here For Now Theatre Playwright Daniela Vlaskalic has adapted the D. H. Lawrence short story “The Fox” into an intriguing 90-minute play of the same name. It is receiving its world premier at Here For Now Theatre’s modest tent in the woods behind the Stratford-Perth Museum. The short story has never been […]
Frankenstein Revived At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Frankenstein Revived At The Stratford Festival Frankenstein Revived by Morris Panych at the Avon Theatre is a riveting piece of theatre and quite unlike anything I have ever seen at the Stratford Festival. Frankenstein Revived is an adaptation of the famous 1818 epistolary novel “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus,” by teenaged Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. That […]