Richard II At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Richard II At The Stratford Festival For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings. Before I get to Jillian Keiley’s and Brad Fraser’s Frankenstein monster of an adaptation – a “revolutionary” adaptation no less – of William Shakespeare’s Richard II, let me get something off […]
Wizard of Oz: The Panto At Drayton – A Review
Wizard of Oz: The Panto at Drayton Wizard of Oz: The Panto at Drayton Entertainment’s Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend, Ontario, is keeping a beloved tradition alive. When impresario Ross Petty announced his retirement in 2019 after Peter’s Final Flight, there was a danger that pantomime might fade from the Canadian consciousness. That would […]
Liars At A Funeral At The Blyth Festival – A Review
Liars At A Funeral At The Blyth Festival The Blyth Festival in tiny Blyth (pop.1,000), Ontario, is kicking off its 49th season with Liars at a Funeral by Sophia Fabiilli, a smashing farce by a playwright who deserves to be better known and more widely produced. Liars at a Funeral recounts the machinations of Mavis […]
A Wrinkle In Time At The Stratford Festival – A Review
A Wrinkle In Time At Stratford A Wrinkle In Time, based on Madeleine L’Engel’s best-selling children’s novel of 1962, is 2023’s entry in the Stratford Festival’s ongoing series of Schulich Children’s Plays at the Avon Theatre. A Wrinkle In Time, the book, is a lumpy mixture of sci-fi, fantasy, and Christian hermeneutics. I found the […]
Much Ado About Nothing At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Much Ado About Nothing At The Stratford Festival After the major disappointment of this season’s King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing at the Stratford Festival’s Festival Theatre comes as a relief. Under the expert guidance of director Chris Abraham, this Much Ado proves that the Festival is still capable of mounting world-class productions of William […]
Buddy At Drayton Entertainment – A Review
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at Drayton I have often maintained that the fare served up at Drayton Entertainment’s archipelago of Southwestern Ontario theatres serves as a palate cleanser for the hoity-toity, highbrow stuff on offer at the Stratford Festival. Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story is a perfect case in point. After sitting through Grand […]
Grand Magic At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Grand Magic At The Stratford Festival Grand Magic by Eduardo De Filippo, in a new version by John Murrell and Donato Santeramo, is unfolding in three – dare I say – magical acts at Stratford’s Tom Patterson Theatre. Under the assured direction of artistic director Antoni Cimolino, this production proves that great theatre is no […]
King Lear At The Stratford Festival – A Review
King Lear At The Stratford Festival Where’s Geoffrey Tennant when you need him? I really, really wanted to like the Stratford Festival’s King Lear by William Shakespeare currently playing at the Festival Theatre and I strove mightily to do so. But try as I might I couldn’t get past Kimberly Rampersad’s inept direction and the […]
Casey And Diana At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Casey And Diana At The Stratford Festival A small miracle is unfolding at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre where the world premiere of Casey and Diana by Nick Green is receiving a splendid – and far too brief – production under the assured direction of Andrew Kushnir. Casey and Diana weaves a tale of courage, […]
Rent At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Rent At The Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is trying to attract a younger audience and they seem to be succeeding, at least for their full-throttle production of the musical Rent. The packed houses at the Festival Theatre are reminiscent of the “youthquake” Froghammer produced for New Burbage in season two of Slings and Arrows.* […]