Drowning in big ideas and hard truths could be a real downer. Luckily, Luxury Goods’ Consumption Patterns – playing at the Factory Theatre as part of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival -delivers a social deep-dive into despair with a sharp sense of humour and a welcome sprinkling of hope.
Pearle Harbour’s Agit-Pop! is playing as part of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival. The show features a cabaret-style evening of music and storytelling with a political and often dark edge. She aptly describes it as “musical meditations on the pre-post-apocalypse.”
Underneath a warm and glamourous persona, Pearle Harbour delivers social commentary that is incisive, biting, and a little melancholy.
Described as “salty as it is sweet,” Tease has a burlesque heart beating under the “traditional theatre” trappings of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival, and when the show stays true to its internal rhythm, it’s a textured and interestingly nuanced pleasure.
Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain, having garnered great interest in a shorter form during Soulpepper’s collection Welcome To My Underworld last spring, is a wild journey into a difficult and gripping story that emerges, slowly, under pressure. While still shaking out a few last hiccups, the show has an undeniable theatrical power.
Morro and Jasp: Save the Date is being presented by U.N.I.T Productions as part of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival. The show was originally performed as part of the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival. It’s the latest installment in the on-going adventures of two clown sisters. I had never seen any of their previous shows, and I was glad to finally be able to catch one. I found it gentle and charming – a perfect antidote to all the bad news out there.