Fresh Sheet Full Reviews logo
CASEY AND DIANA: MAYBE YOU HAD TO BE THERE

CASEY AND DIANA: MAYBE YOU HAD TO BE THERE

A strange thing is happening to what is, to me, recent gay history: it’s being made holy. I’m thinking of director Joe Mantello’s TV version of playwright Mart Crowley’s 1968 script, The Boys in the Band, for instance. Mantello’s interpretation is an endless parade of...

read more
DANCE NATION: A FRACTURED STATE

DANCE NATION: A FRACTURED STATE

The Search Party’s production of Dance Nation didn’t leave any residue, it didn’t leave a mark on me, which is disappointing. In an essential way, the world of Clare Barron’s script is a perfect fit for the themes she sets out to explore. She introduces us to a group...

read more
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE — AND COARSENESS

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE — AND COARSENESS

Jane Austen’s novels are known for their wry wit and nuanced observation of gender and class among the landed English gentry in the late eighteenth century. Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is more like… a cartoon? A panto? A very long...

read more
DEAD DRONE: DEAD ON ARRIVAL

DEAD DRONE: DEAD ON ARRIVAL

Dead Drone is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen thousands of shows. It’s the writing. Even scripts this bad often start off with the best of intentions, of course. In Dead Drone, playwright David Mott takes on climate change, the toxicity of social...

read more
BURNING MOM: DIDN’T LIGHT MY FIRE

BURNING MOM: DIDN’T LIGHT MY FIRE

It’s not terrible. That's the best I can muster. Playwright and director Mieko Ouchi’s Burning Mom, which is based on her own mom’s experience, is about a 63-year-old Calgary woman named Dorothy, who heads off to Burning Man with her adult son Kevin and his pal...

read more
BEHIND THE MOON: EXTRAORDINARILY WELL REALIZED

BEHIND THE MOON: EXTRAORDINARILY WELL REALIZED

It’s been two years since Behind the Moon premiered in Toronto. Since then, it’s had only one production, in Victoria. That’s kind of nuts. This script should be getting produced across the country. So thanks to director Lois Anderson and the impeccable company of...

read more
Freshsheet Reviews logo reversed

Subscribe Free!

Sign up for the FRESH SHEET newsletter and get curated local, national, and international arts coverage — all sorts of arts — every week.

Contact

Drop a line to colinthomas@telus.net.

Support

FRESH SHEET, the reviews and FRESH SHEET, the newsletter are available free. But writing them is a full-time job and arts criticism is in peril. Please support FRESH SHEET by sending an e-transfer to colinthomas@telus.net or by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Copyright ©2025 Colin Thomas. All rights reserved.