Toronto’sLuminato Festival presents the world-premiere of a two-part epic staging of One Thousand and One Nights by director Tim Supple at The Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre (Canadian Opera Company) through June 19.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the Dash Arts production ofOne Thousand and One Nights commissioned by Luminato ever since it was announced last year. I was absolutely floored by director Tim Supple’s previous production at Luminato in 2008; the stunning, avant-garde re-imagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring an Indian/Sri Lankan cast performing in English, Hindi, Bengali, Sinhalese, Sanskrit and a host of other Indian dialects.
Supple’s production of Dream was so dynamic, vibrant, gorgeous, sexy and utterly breathtaking that I couldn’t wait to see what he’d come up with for his re-imagining of another classic story.
When one first hears the idea of a group of lawyers playing Shakespeare, “fun” and “lighthearted” are not necessarily the images that jump to mind first. However, Nightwood Theatre’s annual Lawyer Show: As You Like It is a pleasant surprise.
Here are all of the shows we wish we could get out and see this week! Take your pick from our list of great theatre escapes for the week of June 13, 2011:
I had the pleasure of watching this 10-time Tony-nominated musical for the first time, which won Best Book, Score and Direction. Urinetown has also won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical.
Magic shows are… well they’re magical. We suspend belief, gasping with delight as the coins pour from someone’s nose and applauding wildly when the torn crumpled pieces of paper turn out to be whole. Even the most jaded skeptic responds to magic.
Not that tonight’s audience at the Luminato presentation of David Ben’s show Natural Magick were jaded, but there were definitely some skeptics who were there under duress. After the show I overheard one man saying how glad he was that he had gone, how much he had enjoyed the show and how much he really didn’t want to go.
Another lovely thing about magic shows is the age range of the audience- from children to great-grandparents – and the balance of men and women.
