by Colin Thomas | Oct 31, 2021 | Review
The short review is that it doesn’t work. But at least it doesn’t work for interesting reasons. Encore Productions, the same folks who brought us Imagine Van Gogh, which has now closed in Vancouver, are offering Imagine Picasso. Like Imagine Van Gogh, Imagine Picasso...
by Colin Thomas | Oct 9, 2021 | Review
There’s skill on display here, but I don’t know what it’s in service of. In Spinning You Home, playwright Sally Stubbs freely embellishes the true story of John “Cariboo” Cameron, a nineteenth-century prospector who struck it rich in the Cariboo Gold Rush, but is more...
by Colin Thomas | Oct 2, 2021 | Review
I’ve never been more alert to shimmering life than in the weeks preceding my friend Len’s assisted death. Presence was the gift of their passing. That’s also the substance of Will Eno’s Wakey, Wakey, which is seamlessly well realized in Pacific Theatre’s production....
by Colin Thomas | Sep 18, 2021 | Review
For a long time, there is virtually nothing entertaining in this production of the comedy Amphitruo by the ancient Roman writer Plautus (254-184 BC). Then, in a kind of miracle, it gets very funny — and more or less stays that way. In the script, the god Jupiter lusts...
by Colin Thomas | Sep 13, 2021 | Review
I watched this show online but, when it ended, I clapped anyway. Stephanie Morin Robert’s autobiographical solo is about growing up with a glass eye — and turning that perceived vulnerability into a superpower. Formally, Blindside is taut and inventive. Directing her...
by Colin Thomas | Sep 13, 2021 | Review
Yay trans identity! Yay queer idenity! Yay polymorphous perversity! Yay … squid sex? Sure! Yay squid sex! In this playful solo show, which they wrote and perform, S.E. Grummett explores gender through a clown character named Grumms. Grumms uses Barbie and Ken as props...
