In time for Spring Break, The Miller and his Wife is playing at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
Stepping firmly into their 40th year of entertaining audiences with impressively imaginative puppetry, the Puppetmongers have remounted their very first production of The Miller and His Wife for a special spring break run at Theatre Passe Muraille’s Backspace. Full of whimsy for the little ones, pop-culture interjections for the slightly older ones and chuckle-worthy dry humour for the adults, it’s a refreshingly nostalgic reminder of just how magical theatre can be.
Written and directed by Grace Smith, the show fast forwards to two years after Cyrano’s death, focusing on how Roxane has been living and coping with the idea that everything she ever knew about her love for her husband, Christian, and her cousin, Cyrano, was perhaps not as it seemed.
A father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s is paired with urban dance in The Radio Show at Toronto’s Harbourfront
The Radio Show, making its Canadian premiere at the Fleck Dance Theatre as part of Harbourfront’s World Stage season, is more than a dynamic piece of contemporary choreography. It’s the exploration through movement of both the individual and collective memory, punctuated by the iconic rhythms of Motown and the fresh beats of hip hop.
The story is largely based on choreographer Kyle Abraham and his days growing up in Pittsburgh, listening to the only two urban music radio stations on air before they were abruptly silenced in 2009, and supporting his father who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the very same time. His work fuses the two events by mirroring the loss of voice of a community with that of Abraham’s father.
Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre presents a story of the witch trials in England in The Lady’s Not for Burning
For a gusty and frigid January evening, the Alumnae Theatre had a nicely sized audience for the Friday night opening of Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not for Burning. A play that seeks to countermand the authority of the mob mentality, making a case for being tolerant of the unknown, The Lady’s Not for Burning is a fairly decent comedy.
Taking place somewhere in the 1400s, The Lady’s Not for Burning centers around a young woman who is accused of being a witch by the town and is, therefore, sentenced to burn as ordered by the mayor. Concurrently, a young soldier arrives at the mayor’s house seeking help to end his own life in the gallows. Confusion, plenty of wordplay and minor fisticuffs ensue as the mayor’s household wrestles with the notion of the woman’s innocence, and the soldier comes to terms with his own desire to live.
Bad Dog Theatre celebrates all things Joss Whedon in this hilarious holiday improv at Toronto’s Comedy Bar
Based on the success of their first Whedonesque show over Labour Day weekend, Bad Dog Theatre decided to revisit the world of Joss Whedon for their last performance of 2013 with Whedonesque for the Holidays. Last Saturday, three back to back improv shows based on Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the short-lived series Firefly took over Comedy Bar’s theatre space. Each performance lasted just under an hour with the cast mixing it up for each show by playing different characters.
