by Colin Thomas | May 24, 2025 | Review
The pay-off is great. A solo show — and memoir — written and performed by Michelle Thrush, who’s Cree, Inner Elder is about the artist’s journey towards self-realization as an Indigenous woman. Raised mostly by her dad, Thrush felt an absence where she wanted her...
by Colin Thomas | May 17, 2025 | Review
It’s very well intentioned, maybe even moderately helpful — and a total wank. In Meeting, playwright Katherine Gauthier invites us to observe a meeting of Co-Dependents and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, but what she shows us is completely unrealistic — more about...
by Colin Thomas | May 16, 2025 | Review
If you don’t have a Tony and Maria, you don’t have a West Side Story. This CTORA production has both — in spades. And a lot more. Although it’s semi-professional, under the direction of Chris Adams, this is a startlingly strong mounting of one of the most breathtaking...
by Colin Thomas | May 12, 2025 | Review
Here we go. Where to start? I watched this production three times over a 25-hour period. Here We Go is a short one-act (in three parts) by British playwright Caryl Churchill — about 45 minutes in total. Churchill is one of the smartest playwrights I’ve encountered,...
by Colin Thomas | May 3, 2025 | Review
In Act 1 of The Frontliners, playwright Zahida Rahemtulla’s storytelling is so unfocused it feels like nothing happens. Against all odds, Act 2 improves. The Frontliners is about an office force of three. Working for the fictional Canadian Newcomer Agency, their job...
by Colin Thomas | May 2, 2025 | Review
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...
