Theatre Reviews

Reviews of theatre, dance, opera, comedy and festivals. Performances can be in-person or streamed remotely on the web for social-distancing.

Review: The Session (Things Falling Apart Theatre Company)

The Session is an emotional rollercoaster of street life, sex work and salvation at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre

The SessionThe Session is Things Falling Apart Theatre Company’s inaugural production and it’s playing this week at Red Sandcastle Theatre.

The Session tells the story of a young woman named Leslie-Haydn Burke who undergoes a psychiatric assessment and discloses the story of her life. She discusses her upbringing, leaving home at an early age, living on the streets and getting by on sex work, meeting and falling in love with a man who keeps her off the street, and the crime she commits that leads to her incarceration. Continue reading Review: The Session (Things Falling Apart Theatre Company)

Review: An Ideal Husband (George Brown College)

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George Brown theatre program brings Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband to vivid life at Toronto’s Young Centre for the Performing Arts

An Ideal Husband (at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts) opened at just the right moment: as our own chief magistrate tumbles further and further down what appears to be a bottomless well of tawdry personal scandals, Oscar Wilde’s play is especially prescient.

Set in the 1890s, a promising young politician–Sir Robert Chilthern–is blackmailed by the villainous Mrs. Cheveley, who has acquired evidence of an earlier, devastating indiscretion. Aided by the dandified Lord Goring, Sir Robert must obtain the evidence before everything–his marriage, his career, his freedom–is destroyed.

Continue reading Review: An Ideal Husband (George Brown College)

Review: Journey’s End (The Empty Room)

Andrew Petker as Captain Stanhope in The Empty Room's production of Journey’s End in Toronto. Photo by Patrick Lemieux

Journey’s End is a powerful story of soldier life during the Great War, playing at Toronto’s Artisan Factory

As we approach the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of the Great War, The Empty Room has delivered Toronto theatre audiences a tremendous present by remounting R.C. Sherrif’s Journey’s End.

World War I was an immense mistake. Missing Journey’s End at The Artisan Factory would be another gigantic mistake. It is an intimate, firsthand glimpse into a soldier’s life during war.

Continue reading Review: Journey’s End (The Empty Room)

Review: Far Away (Bad Dress Productions)

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A convoluted play exceptionally acted, Far Away is playing at Toronto’s Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation

I had never seen a show written by the playwright powerhouse Caryl Churchill before. My friend and plus-one prepared me by stating that the show was, without a doubt, going to be confusing. So when I sat down to watch Far Away (Bad Dress Productions) at Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation, I was ready to lose myself in Churchill’s strange dystopia.

Far Away does not follow the path of the average story. Most stories begin in a place of confusion and conflict, then unravel into a neat conclusion. Far Away begins in a place of confusion and continues to tangle as the play goes on. There are no clear explanations. There is no clear conclusion. The play simply takes a rest in its twisted state.
Continue reading Review: Far Away (Bad Dress Productions)

A Woman’s Work by Dance Matters (Toronto Theatre Review)

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Dance Matters’ A Woman’s Work is a captivating collection of dance pieces at Toronto’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre

I just got back from seeing “A Woman’s Work” by Dance Matters down at 6 Noble Street, and my head is with swirling with all sorts of THINGS TO TALK ABOUT! I should mention immediately that I am not a Dance professional. I will be speaking from a perspective that is much more attuned to performance art than traditional dance.

Continue reading A Woman’s Work by Dance Matters (Toronto Theatre Review)