Discover up and coming opera talent at the Centre Stage Competition at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre
If you’re prepared to accept on principle that there’s some way, however small, in which General Director Alexander Neef is like Simon Cowell then the new – and frankly quite exciting – Centre Stage event at Canadian Opera Company on November 26 might be called a rarified version of American Idol. Nine young, talented, Canadian opera singers from across the country will battle it out live onstage for cash, glory, and – though it will be announced after appropriately more complex deliberations – possible invitations to join COC’s famed Ensemble Studio.
A musical journey of self-discovery, Pieces of Me is playing at the Theatre Passe Muraille
I love musicals, but they’re tricky beasts. I love how effortlessly they can whisk me away to the land of melodrama, to a place where it doesn’t seem weird for people to drop their briefcases and burst into song, yet they can so easily become awkward or ridiculous. There are many moments in Deon Denton’s Pieces of Me (which opened last night at the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace) that transported me with whimsical abandon, but they are sometimes disjointed from the rest of the action.
I enjoyed the flashy dance numbers, but spent most of the first act rather discomfited regardless. The songs are not, in my opinion, particularly memorable. They are uptempo and fun, but they are bouncy even during the story’s gloomy patches which disrupts the emotional reality the songs should enhance. But deeper than that, I found the implications of the story itself—at first, anyway—quite troubling. Continue reading Review: Pieces of Me (Promise Productions)→
A fun show for parents and kids, Alligator Pie is playing at Toronto’s Young Centre for the Performing Arts
I’ve been enchanted with Dennis Lee‘s book of poem’s Alligator Pie since I was little. So has my son. That means the performance of poems by Lee that has once again taken the stage at Soulpepper, also called Alligator Pie, has a lot to live up to, for both of us.
And it does.
Max, my four-and-three-quarters year old son, and I loved the singing and romping and make-shift instruments that showcased the well-loved poems in a different light than our usual bedtime recitals. That said, the knowledge of the poems is certainly not a must, because there’s a lot of action on that stage, and it’s a great way to introduce kids to a Canadian icon.
Heaven Above Heaven Below is an intimate conversation playing at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
Linda Griffiths’ play Heaven Above Heaven Below opened last night at Theatre Passe Muraille’s Backspace. Thirty years ago I saw her one-woman show Maggie and Pierre and I’ve never forgotten it. Not that I remember specific lines but I remember the feel and look of the play.
I think I’ll also remember Heaven Above Heaven Below. I might even remember some of the lines that I particularly loved.
This week’s selections of theatre on a budget are all about lovers’ relationships gone awry. What happens when two people fall out of love, try to rekindle love or simply rediscover who they really are in and out of love. As told through tragedy, comedy, and even dance (with a selection from the good ole’ Bard thrown in for good measure), these stories may prove better than soaps on the tube.
