Kenneth Collins’ play You Are Not Alone at the Toronto Fringe Festival is a sometimes-poignant, often goofy story about teenagers finding love and acceptance among their peers at a Catholic boarding school. Although I found it a little after school special-y at parts, I would describe it as kind of like the really great episodes of Glee or Degrassi that kept me watching those shows season after season.
Continue reading You Are Not Alone (Paprika) 2015 Toronto Fringe Review
My experience of seeing Theatre Asylum’s FORNÉS X2 was a lot like the experience of eating at an exceptionally good pop-up restaurant. I went in not knowing a whole lot about the brilliant Maria Irene Fornés or her plays The Successful Life of 3 and Mud (the two plays that make up FORNÉS X2), but I was assured that I was about to see something of high quality. Thankfully, I enjoyed both plays immensely and was left fully satisfied.
Wolf Manor Theatre Collective’s Macbeth is an intelligent, heart-pounding 90 minute interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Director Claren Grosz’s brilliant use of double-, triple-, and even quadruple-casting draws out smart connections between characters, and her astonishing staging choices make their telling of the play lucid and fast-paced.
Continue reading Review: Macbeth (Wolf Manor Theatre Collective)
In Stage Centre Productions’ production of Harvey, director Steven Jackson re-imagines the classic 1940s comedy as a Buddhist text. For me, this change in delivery and pacing makes the madcap comedy dull and unfunny more often than not.
Still, the audience – myself included – did manage to find a few hearty laughs in those parts of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning text that did hit the mark.
Alexander Showcase Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd now playing at the Al Green Theatre is a fresh, funny take on Steven Sondheim’s classic musical about a revenge-seeking, murderous barber and his pie-making neighbour. While some of the aspects of this musical are definitely not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, this production emphasizes the musical’s comedic aspects, making it a laugh-out-loud fun night at the theatre.
Continue reading Review: Sweeney Todd (Alexander Showcase Theatre)