12 Dinners At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
12 Dinners At Here For Now Theatre Longtime Stratford Festival star Steve Ross, now wowing audiences as Albin in La Cage Aux Folles, has reunited with director Jan Alexandra Smith to bring us 12 Dinners at Here For Now Theatre’s intimate tent at the back of the Stratford Perth Museum. When I saw his beautifully […]
Halfway There At Drayton Entertainment – A Review
Halfway There At Drayton Entertainment Drayton Entertainment is doing southwestern Ontario a favour this summer by mounting two of Norm Foster’s best plays, Doris and Ivy in the Home at St Jacobs and now Halfway There at their eponymous playhouse in tiny Drayton, Ontario. Halfway There is Foster at his best. If you are an […]
The Golden Anniversaries At The Blyth Festival – A Review
The Golden Anniversaries At The Blyth Festival Following up on Saving Graceland, the Blyth Festival has another hit on its hands with Mark Crawford’s dark – very dark – comedy, The Golden Anniversaries. Crawford seems to go from strength to strength. The Golden Anniversaries may be his most accomplished work yet, blending as it does […]
Those Movies At The Foster Festival – A Review
Those Movies At The Foster Festival Those Movies, the latest Norm Foster play, is receiving its world premiere at the Foster Festival’s spiffy new venue at Ridley College in St. Catherines. It is Foster in a distinctly minor key. Foster has hung this short on laughs comedy on the slender conceit that we are all […]
The Last Timbit At The Elgin Theatre Toronto
The Last Timbit At The Elgin Theatre Toronto Happy Birthday Tim Hortons! Tim Hortons, Canada’s phenomenally successful home-grown donut and coffee chain, is 60 years old. What will their future look like? Well, Hortons’ senior management must have seen Something Rotten because they decided that the future is MYOO-sicals! Specifically a musical called The Last […]
Twelfth Night At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Twelfth Night At The Stratford Festival Seana McKenna, one of the Stratford Festival’s great leading ladies, is directing her first play by William Shakespeare on the Festival’s formidable main stage. Her stripped down production of Twelfth Night dispenses with the visual distractions that directors frequently slather on so she can concentrate on the text. The […]
Paul And Linda Plan A Threesome At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Paul And Linda Plan A Threesome At Here For Now Theatre Once again, Here For Now Theatre is performing in an outdoor tent at the rear of the Stratford-Perth Museum, and once again it is opening its season (its fifth) with an uproarious comedy. This year it’s the world premiere of the incredibly sexy Paul […]
The House That Will Not Stand At The Shaw Festival – A Review
The House That Will Not Stand At The Shaw Festival The House That Will Not Stand, an ambitious work by Marcus Gardley, now receiving a sturdy production at the Shaw Festival’s Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, opens a fascinating window on a little-known period of American history. In the early decades of the nineteenth century New […]
Saving Graceland At The Blyth Festival – A Review
Saving Graceland At The Blyth Festival Artistic director Gil Garratt’s new play, Saving Graceland, is a quiet triumph for the Blyth Festival, a perfect example what Blyth does best – tell stories about real people that have not just relevance but resonance with its audience. On the surface, Saving Graceland is a downbeat tale of […]
The Secret Garden At The Shaw Festival – A Review
The Secret Garden At The Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival’s production of The Secret Garden is often lovely to look at. It boasts some arresting stage pictures, beautiful fantasy costumes (Judith Bowden), and inventive stagecraft. It has a clever set (Beyata Hackborn), effective lighting (Kevin Lamotte), and a solid cast. Yet, for me at least, […]