The Nefarious Bed and Breakfast, a comedy about superheroes gone awry, is playing at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
In its 5th anniversary show, Monkeyman Productions takes over the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace with The Nefarious Bed and Breakfast, a play that hearkens back to the kookier days of superhero comics. Where characters were allowed to be a bit zany and the cells were brightly coloured and lacking the grit and darkly tortured souls of today’s heroic universe.
Dr. Nefarious is a retired super villain, recently married, and about to embark on a new business venture as a small-time hotelier. On the weekend of his bed and breakfast’s grand opening, he and the disembodied voice of his wife, Margot, welcome two couples to stay as the properties’ first guests. One of the couples is actually a pair of retired superheroes, who seem to believe that Dr. Nefarious hasn’t quite given up his evil ways. The second couple -a pair of newlyweds- have their own peculiarities and secrets that are revealed throughout the course of the play. Along with Dr. Nefarious’ trusty demi-primate henchman Half-Ape, the ensemble proceeds to have quite the whirlwind adventure.
360 Screenings takes audiences to the edge of fear with The Exorcist at the Ontario Heritage Centre
It was a dark and rain-filled pre-Halloween evening, the perfect atmosphere to step into the latest event from the 360 Screenings team. Having been building up the hype for the event, and with a top mention in Buzzfeed’s list of hottest Halloween tickets, it’s not surprising that the limited number of screenings should be sold out. I’d been anticipating attending the event since I’d heard about its Amélie screening earlier in the year, and was especially pleased to be waiting outside the Ontario Heritage Centre to experience the latest incarnation of its Halloween edition.
Harsh Yukon winters clash with the lives of three young people in Canadian Stage’s Yukonstyle playing at Toronto’s Berkeley Street Theatre
Yukonstyle is the second play by emerging Quebec playwright Sarah Berthiaume to be produced at Canadian Stage this season. It’s a show that seeks to override our impulse to define what being “Canadian” means, through the lens of three young people surviving as best they can through an unforgiving Yukon winter.
Shrek the Musical brings to life your favorite characters from the movie playing at Toronto’s Lower Ossington Theatre
Shrek the Musical is a delightful romp that will take you back to the first instalment of the Shrek film franchise, but with more foot-tapping musical numbers. This theatrical take on the popular film about an ogre who decides to blow fairy tale convention out of the water and write his own story is dynamically produced by the Lower Ossington Theatre and performed on the stage of the Randolph Theatre.
This was my first time seeing a LOT production and while I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, I was incredibly surprised at the quality of the show’s performances. I saw Shrek the Musical a few years ago on a visit to New York City, where I was lucky enough to see the original cast. Not having heard anything about it beforehand, I was struck by how catchy the music was and how seamless it felt to watch the Shrek story told in musical format.
Greek mythology meets a small Quebecois fishing village in The Flood Thereafter playing at Toronto’s Berkeley Theatre
I’d never really thought about Greek mythology in the context of a small Quebecois fishing village, but Sarah Berthiaume’s The Flood Thereafter is an interesting re-imagining of the travels of Odysseus, brought to vivid corporeality at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Theatre.
The Flood Thereafter hones in on the specific involvement of the sirens in the Odyssey, gorgeous sea creatures who enticed sailors into the depths with their song. The sirens in Berthiaume’s story are Grace and her daughter June, both seemingly tied to the village and its men, unable to move on. Grace owns a diner, and June has taken to stripping to earn her living, her nude form so potently beautiful that it makes the men cry. It’s the arrival of a stranger, a young man named Denis, who starts to shake things up.
