The Tennessee Williams’ classic receives a lively remount at Toronto’s Hart House Theatre
It’s hard to believe that Tennessee Williams‘ classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire (UC Follies Theatre Company), is 67 years old. Its portrayal of mental illness has become only more resonant over the years, and with society becoming even more educated and aware of mental illness, A Streetcar Named Desire will only continue to be a compelling piece of theatre. It’s currently playing at the Hart House Theatre.
A Streetcar Named Desire focuses on Blanche Dubois, a woman who’s flighty demeanor is questioned when she comes to New Orleans to visit her sister, Stella, and Stella’s brutish husband, Stanley Kowalski. The dynamic between Blanche and Stanley is one based on mounting tension-both emotionally and sexually. Much like a kettle coming to boil, Blanche’s world becomes unravelled when she is forced to comes to terms with reality.
Human Furniture explores an average couple’s hidden kink proclivities at Toronto’s Storefront Theatre
Human Furniture (Red One Collective/Triangle Pi Productions) examines the secret life that a seemingly “regular” suburban couple lives behind closed doors. It’s a life of kinky sexual preferences and activities. Throw a few uninvited guests into the mix and you have yourself a farce of epic proportions. Human Furniture is currently playing at the Storefront Theatre.
Written and directed by Claire Burns, Human Furniture takes a close look at the delicate balancing act of managing a conventional life, one with a nine to five job and a home in the suburbs with a sexually adventurous one full of BDSM. The play centres around a sex party that is to occur that evening and, as is the case with any classic farce, things don’t go according to plan. Continue reading Review: Human Furniture (Red One Theatre Collective/Triangle Pi Productions)→
Circle Jerk is Raw, Experimental, Intimate Theatre
Circle Jerk (Soup Can Theatre, safeword, and Aim For The Tangent) is the collaborative effort of three Toronto based theatre companies. The show consists of four one act plays and their only connection to one another lies in the shared use of the first and last lines of dialogue. On a grander scale, connections can be found in each play’s effective commentary on the human condition. Circle Jerk is currently playing at the lemonTree studio.
The Toronto Irish Players bring the comedy of book club meetings to the Alumnae Theatre stage with Bookworms
To me, the idea of women inviting their husbands to a meeting of their book club is both intriguing and hilarious. Luckily, playwright Bernard Farrell wrote a play based on this very premise – and although it is undoubtedly a comedy, it can also be considered an in-depth character study. The Toronto Irish Players opened their 40th season last night with Bookworms, which is now playing at the Alumnae Theatre.
Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre presents To Kill A Mockingbird as a play adapted for young audiences
When I first heard that Young People’s Theatre was opening their forty-ninth season with To Kill A Mockingbird I was admittedly a little skeptical. Could a play with such heavy subject matter be successfully staged for younger audiences? The answer is, undoubtedly, yes. YPT’s solid production manages to embody this story’s message of conviction and courage without shying away from its harsher themes of racism and injustice.
