All posts by Jennifer McKinley

Review: 3 Desis And A Diva (Orangeshot Productions)

3 Desis and a Diva

Toronto’s Winchester Kitchen and Bar hosts a play about three disagreeing brothers

3 Desis and a Diva is a slice of life of two brothers and their cousin. The play opens with Kavin waxing poetic about the agony of life, flitting from wine bottle to wine bottle before moving on to a pocket flask and a cleverly concealed mini.

Enter Charles, Kavin’s cousin and roommate. Charles is an academic and a writer and the heady foil to Kavin’s tortured poet.  Both men find themselves at odds with each other’s writing process and philosophy. Continue reading Review: 3 Desis And A Diva (Orangeshot Productions)

Review: The Power of Harriet T! (Young People’s Theatre)

A vivid theatrical production about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad hits the stage in Toronto

The Power of Harriet T! is the story of the iconic Harriet Tubman, a woman born into slavery in Maryland, who escaped to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Not only did she escape her own bondage but she also risked her liberty eleven times by returning to the South to lead over three hundred to the North and to Canada between 1851 and 1857. Continue reading Review: The Power of Harriet T! (Young People’s Theatre)

Review: Love Letters (Encore Entertainment)

Note-worthy theatre in Love Letters, playing at Toronto Centre for the Arts

Love Letters, the Pulitzer nominated play by A. R. Gurney, follows the relationship between the two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, over the course of fifty years. It is an epistolary play written as a series of notes, cards and letters back and forth between the two characters. Continue reading Review: Love Letters (Encore Entertainment)

Review: Toward Light: A Tribute to Rachel Browne (Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers)

Toronto’s Fleck Dance Theatre hosts a moving display of movement by Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers

Toward Light: A Tribute to Rachel Browne is a collection of dance pieces choreographed by the late Rachel Browne, Winnipeg’s pioneer contemporary dance champion. After two sold out shows in Winnipeg, Toward Light and Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers landed in Toronto for a single performance on Saturday January 12 at the Fleck Dance Theatre.

Eight pieces were selected from the canon of Browne’s work and performed in two acts. Continue reading Review: Toward Light: A Tribute to Rachel Browne (Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers)

2013 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Liza Live! (Total Betty Productions)

Liza Live! is conceived, produced and performed by Jennifer Walls in the Factory Theatre Ante-chamber as part of the Next Stage Festival. It is a 30-minute cabaret backed by a two-man band and it includes 5 songs, a trivia contest and some anecdotal history.

Jennifer Walls is stellar as Liza. Her stance and gestures are spot on and she nails Liza’s cadence, lisp and breathing.

Dramaturg Ryan G. Hinds helps to deliver a script rife with self-deprecating jokes for the fans especially, among whom I count myself. Continue reading 2013 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Liza Live! (Total Betty Productions)