It’s opening night for Compagnia Pippo Delbono’s Questo Buio Feroce (The Wild Darkness) and the audience is abuzz.
The impossibly thin performer Nelson Lariccia couldn’t make the flight from Italy, he was too ill, so local movement performer Jeffrey Simlett has subbed in and has had merely hours to prepare. No matter. Simlett is as seamless as the production is beautiful.
The Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage festival delivers on bringing theatre unlike anything else you will see in Toronto.
Stage Combat is sort of like the equivalent of theatrical gaming. And I’m going to be super upfront here: Dungeons and Dragons was never my thing. So I walked into True Edge Productions “Duel of Ages” at the Next Stage festival knowing nothing about the piece other than there was a strong possibility that I would see a duel or two. Or nine, as it turned out.
Heat does not for comedy make. This is the lesson I learned as I caught the sweltering Barfly on the Wall. It’s not that the show is flawless – far from it. I’ll get to that.
But c’mon, how in the hell can anyone be funny as they nearly slip on their own sweat and even more importantly, how can an audience find anything funny as they….well…slip on their own sweat?
A double bill of two long form Improv ensembles, S&P and Sega Geniuses, respectively – this show is a testament to the caliber and talent of long form improv in Toronto.
Feeling like a particularly good night at the Comedy Bar or Bad Dog Theatre, the show begins with a stage, some chairs and audience interview in an easy chair with cast member Jimi Shlag. Interestingly, Shlag lets the audience volunteer nominate herself for both sets.
