Dorianne is a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies joint program between University of Toronto, Erindale campus and Sheridan College. She writes short stories, plays and screenplays and was delighted to be accepted into the 2010 Diaspora Dialogues program and also to have her short story accepted into the 2011 edition of TOK: Writing The New Toronto collection. She is also a regularly contributing writer on http://www.sexlifecanada.ca. You can follow her on twitter @headonist if you like tweets about cats, sex, food, queer stuff and lefty politics.
Happy Woman humours at Toronto’s Nightwood Theatre
Nightwood Theatre set and costume designer Denyse Karn is kicking buttocks on the Toronto scene these days. In January they had the stunning Penelopiad and now they’ve followed it up with The Happy Woman at the Berkeley Street Theatre. The stage is divided into three areas, brightly coloured in green, blue and yellow, and these colours appear on every single set piece in their respective area. The five characters all have an individual colour that predominates their costumes. The symbolism is not subtle – the promiscuous woman wears red, for example – but it is striking and thus effective.
As the title indicates, the play is about a woman who is determined to be happy. But plays aren’t written about people who are actually happy (that would be boring.) And life for everyone inevitably has unfortunate situations; being determined to be happy all the time means ignoring anything that may be problematic – even to the extent of ignoring the suffering of your children, both when they are young and when they are grown.
Amy Nostbakken’s one-woman show engages through song at Toronto’s Factory Theatre
I’m wary of one-person shows. I’m very wary of one person shows from Fringe Festivals and I’m particularly wary of one person shows from Fringe Festivals about heavy topics like depression. The Big Smoke is all of these but I went to see it at The Factory Theatre Studio Space anyway. The press I saw from its launch at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was very good and I was intrigued by a show that was sung-through, A capella. I was not at all disappointed. The show is a feat for performer Amy Nostbakken, and for director Nir Paldi; the pair of them also wrote the script together.
Perhaps “script” isn’t even the correct word, as the show is almost entirely sung. But it’s a monologue, an aria if you will, not songs with verses and choruses. Nostbakken plays the character of Natalie, a bright and talented young painter who has a fantastic opportunity to enter the world of high art in London, UK. But Natalie finds she can’t paint. She can barely get out of bed. Continue reading Review: The Big Smoke (Theatre Ad Infinitum Canada in association with Why Not Theatre)→
Toronto’s CanStage and Queen of Puddings Music Theatre explore Samuel Beckett’s absurdist plays using Irish classical music in Feck It!
One of the first things you get to see in Beckett: Feck It! is a very phallic-looking device, followed by an actor presenting his bum and scrotum. This isn’t obscene – the actor is wearing underwear – but it is very funny. The combination of lowbrow humour with rather highbrow existentialist concepts is one of the hallmarks of Absurdist Theatre. The humour is necessary comic relief because the philosophy expressed would be too depressing, and the rote repetition of the stage action would be insufferable, without it.
Bad Dog Theatre’s improv shows are now at the Comedy Bar with great shows every week
Bad Dog Theatre used to be at Broadview and Danforth and was known as Toronto’s home of improv. I saw many hilarious shows there, most of which are reviewed elsewhere on this site. So it was very sad when they shut down the venue, at pretty much exactly this time last year.
It wasn’t surprising though. They weren’t hurting for audience, but the space had tiered seating it was ineligible for a liquor license. Not only do booze and comedy go hand in hand, but bar sales are an important source of revenue for comedy clubs.
After only a brief hiatus, Bad Dog’s flagship show Theatresports was up and running again at Comedy Bar (945 Bloor West.) And now, one year later, Bad Dog and Comedy Bar are happily cementing their relationship. Comedy Bar has a new cabaret space that means Bad Dog can have shows even when there is a headliner in the main space. Bad Dog will be staying in Comedy Bar for the foreseeable future. I interviewed Bad Dog‘s Artistic Producer Julie Dumais about the arrangement. Continue reading Bad Dog Theatre Now Permanently Residing At Comedy Bar→
The production captures the atmosphere perfectly: shabby poverty that dreams big in the dirty corners of the great American metropolis, jazz and blues all night long, too many cigarettes and booze that’s illegal so if you’re going to drink you may as well get seriously drunk. Continue reading Review: Hughie (Alley Theatre Workshop)→
