The Miser At The Stratford Festival – A Review
The Miser at the Stratford Festival Intermittent hilarity and a bravura central performance manage to salvage the Stratford Festival’s uneven production of Moliere’s The Miser, one in which high comedy style at times verges on desperation. In Ranjit Bolt’s new version of the 1668 comedy, the miser Harpagon becomes despicable Canadian skinflint and usurer Harper […]
Spit At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) Spit at Here For Now Theatre Here For Now Theatre continues its admirable run of plays by and about women with Irish playwright Noelle Brown’s brief (just an hour) but powerful Spit, which with admirable economy lays bare the shame of Ireland’s infamous Mother and Baby Homes. Sisters Jessica (Siobhan […]
Just To Get Married at the Shaw Festival – A Review
(Image: Shaw Festival) Just To Get Married at the Shaw Festival One of the hallmarks of Jackie Maxwell’s tenure as Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival was the revival of forgotten comedies from the “mandate period” (Shaw’s lengthy lifespan), and they proved to be some of the most enjoyable plays the Festival produced. The mandate […]
The Doctor’s Dilemma At The Shaw Festival – A Review
(Image: The Shaw Festival) The Doctor’s Dilemma at the Shaw Festival There’s a bit of bait and switch going on at the Shaw Festival. Since I’d never seen George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, I looked forward to the Shaw’s production, helmed by Diana Donnelly. I still haven’t seen George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, […]
Gem Of The Ocean at the Shaw Festival – A Review
(Image: Shaw Festival) Gem Of The Ocean at the Shaw Festival August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, the first installment in his ten-play “Century Cycle” (although the ninth to be written), is receiving a powerful, even explosive production in the intimate confines of the Shaw Festival’s Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre under the taut direction of […]
Take Care At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) Take Care At Here For Now Take Care by Ellen Denny, now at Here For Now Theatre, strikes me as an earnest effort to depict a woman at a crisis point in her life. But a game cast and some deft direction failed to make the piece even remotely believable […]
Wingfield’s Inferno At Stratford Perth Museum – A Review
(Image: Huron Perth Museum) Wingfield’s Inferno At Huron Perth Museum Read and weep. The entire run of Wingfield Farms: The Complete Works starring Rod Beattie is sold out (deservedly so) and has been for quite some time. I was fortunate enough to catch Wingfield’s Inferno, the penultimate installment of the seven play series that has […]
Girls & Boys At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) Girls & Boys At Here For Now Theatre Girls & Boys is the deceptively benign title of the most powerful play you are likely to see this season, or any other season for that matter. What’s more, this solo piece is graced with one of the most deeply moving performances […]
Every Day She Rose At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) Every Day She Rose At Here For Now Theatre If you can’t decrypt the acronym 2SLGBTQIAA+ then Every Day She Rose may not be the play for you. If, however, you have even a passing interest in the kaleidoscopic changes in sexual and identity politics that are sweeping not just […]
All’s Well That Ends Well At The Stratford Festival – A Review
All’s Well That Ends Well At The Stratford Festival All’s Well That Ends Well was one of two plays by William Shakespeare that inaugurated the Stratford Festival in 1953; the other was Richard III. Both are being revived to celebrate the opening of the new Tom Patterson Theatre. While I had some quibbles with Antoni […]