How am I doing? Scoring this fall’s theatre preview

Writing spring and fall theatre previews is always risky business. I mean, I’m asked to recommend productions—in most cases, without having seen them. So how well did I do picking winners in this fall’s theatre preview? Some of the shows were remounts that...

11 for ’12: Theatre highlights of the past year

This is the time of year when people choose top-ten lists. Just to be perverse—and because it’s my own damn blog—I’ve chosen my 11 favourite shows from the past calendar year. It’s interesting to note that I saw three of those 11 at the Vancouver...

Leo will trip you out

If you have time to catch Leo at the Cultch this weekend, by all means do it. This excellent show closes on the 15th. Originator and solo artist Tobias Wegner is a handsome and crazily skilled physical performer. Conceptually, he will trip you right out. In the show,...

Respect for the arts—and arts training

I just got back from England, where I went to see my 14-year-old godson, Leon, perform in his first professional acting gig. It’s with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. He’s playing Falstaff’s page, Robin, in The Merry Wives of Windsor....

Holiday entertainment

‘Tis the season—for remounts. Of these, the best, in my books is the Ruby Slippers production of Hotel Bethlehem. Drew McCreadie’s script turns the story of the Nativity into a Fawlty Towers episode that focuses on the famously unaccommodating innkeeper....