MEASURE FOR MEASURE: A Disastrous Misinterpretation
Measure for Measure is about brutal sexual coercion. But, in his adaptation, director Jivesh Parasram frames the play as broad comedy — and he thinks he’s doing abuse survivors a favour. In the story, Duke Vincenzio is concerned about the number of brothels in Vienna...
CATS: For a Show I Don’t Like, I Liked It a Lot
Cats would probably like Cats: it’s a shiny bauble that keeps moving around and doesn’t require you to think at all. Cats could probably happily spend a couple of hours, plus intermission, watching Cats. I am not a cat and have never been impressed by Cats — the...
THE SCHOOL OF ROCK: Joy Arrives
It takes a while for The School of Rock — the musical itself, more than the production — to find its groove. Or maybe it just takes a while for it to find my groove. If you asked the creators of School of Rock, the musical or the non-musical movie upon which it’s...
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Some Errors, Some Comedy
Watching this production of The Comedy of Errors is kind of like waiting in a two-hour lineup for a 15-minute ride. The show doesn’t really pay off until the very end. Before that, it burbles along pleasantly enough, but it’s weirdly shapeless. So what’s going on? A...
RING OF FIRE: It’s Empty
If you’re looking for a musical revue with no story or ideas, you’re in luck. This Arts Club production of Ring of Fire is well staged, well designed, it contains some strong performances and, of course, it features a bunch of great songs by Johnny Cash and others,...
HAMLET: Unexpected Elsinore
Clarity is both the blessing and the curse of director Stephen Drover’s production of Hamlet — mostly the blessing. I was grateful to have some parts of the story more clearly defined than they’ve ever been for me. But it’s also important to remember that the play is...
TWELFTH NIGHT: What country, friends, is this?
A couple of hours before the lights went up on this Bard on the Beach production of Twelfth Night, Kate Besworth got the call that she’d be going on as Viola: Camille Legg, who is cast in the role, has been laid low by a nasty bug. Besworth is the understudy for...
MEDICINE: I Could Use a Stronger Dose
For at least the first two-thirds of Medicine, I was bored. It was never the actors’ fault, it was the script’s. When hope made an appearance in the story, I started getting into it. Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s 2021 work is set in an activity room in a psychiatric...
BARBU: Again! Again!
So sexy. So much fun. For a good time, call Barbu at 604-251-1363. That’s The Cultch’s box office number. Created by Montreal’s Cirque Alfonse, which is a family-and-friends operation, Barbu sets out to recreate the feel of the circuses that toured Québec at the turn...
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