By Crystal Wood  

What are the different ways of dealing with grief? Buried, now playing at the Next Stage Theatre Festival, explores just that.

The play begins with the funeral of the family matriarch Jean, and continues with the days following it as her family tries to cope in their own ways. One daughter, Rachel, over-sentimentalizes; another daughter, Anne, micromanages. Bill, the father of the family, can’t remember what has happened at all because of his struggle with Alzheimer’s. Continue reading Next Stage Festival – Buried – Theatre Awakening →

By Sam Mooney

How is it that I’ve never seen Chris Gibbs until now?  He’s very funny, a bit weird, definitely quirky, and incredibly entertaining. 

His show – Like Father Like Son? Sorry – is part of the Next Stage Festival running until January 17th. 

According to the blurb Like Father Like Son? Sorry “… playfully explores the fears, worries and surprises of being a new father, and the absolute terror of wanting to be a good one.” But this one-man show (it says “one-man show creator” in the blurb so I figure I can say it here,) is about so much more than fatherhood. 

The show opens with Chris channelling Marlon Brando as Jor-El – Superman’s father.  He comes back to Superman and other super heroes at various points in the 95 minute show.  Some of his lines are almost throw-aways, if you aren’t paying attention they’re gone and you find yourself thinking, “Wait!  I missed that.  Go back!”

Continue reading Next Stage Festival – Like Father Like Son? Sorry – Chris Gibbs →

By Crystal Wood

Just East of Broadway, playing at the Next Stage Theatre Festival, is a play that doesn’t take itself too seriously. This, I think, is both its strength and its weakness.

In the grand tradition of Fringe Festival spoof musicals, Just East of Broadway takes all the old musical conventions and runs with them – from the fighters who become lovers, to the little theatre company that could, to a bumbling henchman out to thwart the leading man. Rex Maverick (played by Cory O’Brien) is a washed-up Hollywood star who is shipped off to small-town China to star in a play that might be his last hope for a comeback. Let the laughs ensue. Continue reading Next Stage Festival – Just East of Broadway – Gig Productions →

By Dana Lacey

The first scene of Next Stage Festival‘s gas sets the tone for the rest: a platoon of American soldiers shout in unison as their commander screams insults and inspiration. The response echos in the tiny Factory Theatre space: “No I do not want to fuck your wife, sir!” Continue reading Next Stage Festival: gas- Factory Theatre →

by Lucy Allen

The Fringe tent definitely feels different when it’s January and -15 degrees outside, but that didn’t stop the crowds from lining up for the first night of the Next Stage Festival, host to eight new and reworked shows. My first show of the festival this year was Screwed & Clued Theatre Company’s Quite Frankly.  To get the obvious joke out of the way: Quite frankly, it’s worth seeing.

Written and performed by Justin Sage-Passant, Quite Frankly is a one-man show telling the story of a socially awkward man, named Frank, unable to ever quite integrate into normal situations of his society. Specifically, it focuses on his relationship with his constantly over-bearing and needy mother, who he cares for.

The moment that Sage-Passant shuffles uncomfortably onto the stage staring uncertainly and wistfully at the audience you’re immediately endeared to him. From his eye twitches to his slow methodical way of speaking, every detail of the character is explored and Sage-Passant does a wonderful job of bringing each and every one to life.

Continue reading Next Stage Festival: Quite Frankly- Screwed & Clued Theatre Company →