Snow In Midsummer At The Shaw Festival – A Review

Snow In Midsummer At The Shaw Festival The programme for Snow In Midsummer by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, now showing at the Shaw Festival’s Studio Theatre, tells me that the play is “based on the classical Chinese drama The Injustice to Dou E that Moved Heaven and Earth by Guan Hanqing.” The distinguished scholar and critic […]
Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery Of The Human Heart At The Shaw Festival – A Review

Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery Of The Human Heart At The Shaw Festival It is with heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these last words in which I shall ever record the singularly entertaining piffle that is Sherlock Holmes And The Mystery Of The Human Heart by Reginald Candy, now playing […]
Candida At The Shaw Festival – A Review

Candida At The Shaw Festival The works of George Bernard Shaw seem to be almost an afterthought these days at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was founded precisely to honor his considerable output. Severn Thompson’s smashing production of Candida is a bracing reminder that the Festival ignores the master at its peril. The Candida […]
The Melville Boys At The Foster Festival – A Review

The Melville Boys At The Foster Festival The Melville Boys, an early play by Norm Foster, is marking its 40th anniversary with a sterling revival at The Foster Festival in St. Catherines, Ontario. The Melville Boys was Foster’s second published play and according to the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia the one that put him on the […]
Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes At The Blyth Festival – A Review

Onion Skins And Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes At The Blyth Festival The Blyth Festival is capping its 50th anniversary season with Onion Skins And Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes, a vibrant and moving story of the thousands of young women who volunteered to work the fields of Ontario during the Second World War, while the farm […]
Kiss Me Kate At Drayton Entertainment – A Review

Kiss Me Kate At St. Jacobs Country Playhouse I grabbed a ticket for Kiss Me Kate at Drayton Entertainment’s St. Jacobs Country Playhouse when I saw that the cast included that fabulous farceur Eddie Glen and that immense talent Neil Barclay as the gangsters. And indeed their rendition of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” was was […]
Get That Hope At The Stratford Festival – A Review

Get That Hope At The Stratford Festival Toronto’s Little Jamaica is coming apart – quite literally in Get That Hope, Andrea Scott’s earnest if somewhat shambolic play now receiving its world premiere at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre. As nearby gentrification-fueled demolition causes plaster to shower down from the ceiling of their flat, the Whyte […]
The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia? At The Stratford Festival – A Review

The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia? At The Stratford Festival In the spirit of full disclosure let me say at the outset that I am not an Edward Albee fan. I did not expect to like The Goat Or, Who is Sylvia? now playing at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre. Honesty compels me to record […]
Naked Radio At Drayton Entertainment – A Review

Naked Radio At Drayton Entertainment Naked Radio, the genial comedy with music enjoying a first-rate production at the Drayton Festival Theatre chronicles the travails of station WHLO (“Well, Hello!) in Middletown, a fictitious town somewhere in Ontario. Bart Dunwood (Jeff Culbert), a third-generation DJ, welcomes eager-beaver DJ wannabe Mike Young (Kaden Forsberg) to his new […]
The Saviour At Here For Now Theatre – A Review

The Saviour At Here For Now Theatre Here For Now Theatre marks yet another artistic triumph with a searing production of Deirdre Kinahan’s The Saviour, featuring a tour-de-force performance by Rosemary Dunsmore. Before The Saviour begins, we see the elements of Fiona Mongillo’s simple but ingenious set grouped together and covered by a sheet. A […]