A Woman’s Love List At Orillia Opera House – A Review
A Woman’s Love List At The Orillia Opera House With A Woman’s Love List, now receiving its world premiere in the small, 105-seat Studio Theatre at the Orillia Opera House, Norm Foster ventures into the realm of fantasy – or is it magical realism? – and finds it filled with laughter. Carly (Kristen Da Silva) […]
Humour Me At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Humour Me At Here For Now Theatre Humour Me by Beverley Cooper, the amiable bit of fluff currently at Here For Now Theatre, works yet another variation on the time worn theme of two damaged souls who slowly discover they were meant for each other. For me, at least, it didn’t quite work. Evalyn (Martha […]
Quiet In The Land At The Blyth Festival – A Review
Quiet In The Land At The Blyth Festival “For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.” Psalm 35:20 Quiet in the Land by Anne Chislett, the only play being presented this season on the Blyth Festival’s enchanting outdoor Harvest Stage, has a fascinating origin story. […]
On A First Name Basis At The Foster Festival – A Review
On A First Name Basis At The Foster Festival The Foster Festival is celebrating its ten year anniversary by reviving the play that opened their first season, Norm Foster’s artfully crafted and very funny two-hander On A First Name Basis. David Kilbride (Jamie Williams) is a wealthy novelist whose output of spy novels have provided […]
The Wind Coming Over The Sea At The Blyth Festival – A Review
The Wind Coming Over The Sea At The Blyth Festival The Wind Coming Over the Sea, the heartbreaking, elegiac play by best-selling Canadian author Emma Donoghue (“Room”) marks yet another triumph for the Blyth Festival. The Wind Coming Over the Sea tells the true story of Henry and Jane Johnson, Ulster Protestants who formed part […]
Forgiveness At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Forgiveness At The Stratford Festival The current efforts toward “truth and reconciliation” in Canada address the outrages visited upon the country’s First Nations peoples. Forgiveness, by Hiro Kanagawa at the Stratford Festival’s Tom Patterson Theatre, does something similar for Canada’s Japanese minority. Forgiveness is based on Mark Sakamoto’s memoir about his Japanese grandmother Mitsue (Yoshie […]
Sense And Sensibility At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Sense and Sensibility At The Stratford Festival Kate Hamill brings an antic disposition to her adaptations of Jane Austen’s classic novels. Her Sense and Sensibility, now getting an energetic, if occasionally over-emphatic production at the Stratford Festival stays more or less true to the original while mining its comic possibilities. For the non-Austen fans, Sense […]
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 […]