Major Barbara At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Major Barbara At The Shaw Festival I keep forgetting how deliciously witty, falling down funny, and eternally topical George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara is. Fortunately, the Shaw Festival remounts it from time to time to remind us. The current revival, the first since 2013, is helmed by Peter Hinton-Davis. It may not be the definitive […]
Forget About Tomorrow At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Forget About Tomorrow At Here For Now Theatre Forget About Tomorrow, a play by Jill Daum now receiving its Ontario premiere at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre, may be tough going for some, but thanks to sensitive direction by Peter Pasyk and a talented cast it rewards our close attention for its 80-minute length. Jane […]
Sir John A At The Blyth Festival – A Review
Sir John A At The Blyth Festival Most theatre companies in Canada give a nod to the righteous anger of the country’s indigenous (or First Nations) population by opening every show with a performative and, to my mind, meaningless “land acknowledgement.” The Blyth Festival has a history of placing the issues underlying those acknowledgements front […]
Norm Foster’s Halfway There Is Back
Last season, Drayton Entertainment revived Norm Foster’s Halfway There at their namesake venue in Drayton and I absolutely adored it. So when I learned they were bringing it back this season, this time at their very stylish Cambridge location, I was quick to book tickets and bring friends along. The show boasts the same cast […]
Anne of Green Gables At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Anne of Green Gables At The Stratford Festival I had any number of nits to pick with Anne of Green Gables, adapted and directed by Kat Sandler from the 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but in the end none of that mattered. Swept along in a shameless sea of sentiment and schmaltz, buoyed by […]
Winter’s Tale At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Winter’s Tale At The Stratford Festival Thank God for director Antoni Cimolino! His searing, lyrical, and ultimately shattering production of Winter’s Tale at the Tom Patterson Theatre is the best Shakespeare I’ve seen at Stratford – or anywhere else for that matter – in many years. I came to this Winter’s Tale wondering if Cimolino […]
As You Like It At The Stratford Festival – A Review
As You Like It At The Stratford Festival William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, now being presented at the Stratford Festival’s Festival Theatre under the direction of Chris Abraham, is a pastoral comedy. Well, it’s supposed to be. The play contrasts the regime of the usurper Duke Frederick of France with the idyllic and idealized […]
Macbeth At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Macbeth At The Stratford Festival I saw Robert Lepage’s production of Macbeth at Stratford’s Avon Theatre and I came out humming the scenery. If you saw his Coriolanus at Stratford or Kà, still playing in Las Vegas, you know that Lepage is a visual artist of considerable genius and one of the best theatrical magicians […]
Tons Of Money At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Tons of Money At The Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival’s laudable tradition of reviving forgotten comic gems from the so-called “mandate period” (Shaw’s long lifetime) continues with the 1922 farce Tons of Money by Will Evans and Valentine (the pseudonym of Archibald Thomas Peachey). Alas, Tons of Money is not tons of funny. (Feel free […]
Anything Goes At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Anything Goes At The Shaw Festival Anything Goes, directed and choreographed by Kimberley Rampersad is yet another musical comedy triumph for the Shaw Festival. Rampersad and the Festival are most definitely on a roll. Rampersad seems to have made a decision to foster a troupe that can tap dance like nobody’s business. Her success in […]