Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer: Finding the groove
At first, I was not in the groove of Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer — and I was content to think, “Okay, maybe this wasn’t written for me.” Other people were laughing up a storm, including the row of Indigenous folks in front of me — so maybe I just wasn’t...
Redbone Coonhound: FIRE! (and misfires)
Written by married couple Omari Newton and Amy Lee Lavoie, Redbone Coonhound isn't always subtle or precisely focused, but it’s got force! It’s about Michael, who’s married to Marissa. As in the Newton/Lavoie marriage, he’s Black, she’s white, and they live in...
The Cull: Focus!
What world are we in? The Cull, which was written by Michele Riml and Michael St. John Smith, and which is being presented as an audio play, starts off as a bougie sitcom. Nicole and her husband Paul are hosting a dinner party — in their 12,000-square-foot house — to...
I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me: Where’s the centre?
I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made me is full of pleasing textures but, unfortunately, little else. Catherine Hernandez wrote the script that director Fay Nass has adapted for the frank theatre into a 53-minute audio play with music. It’s about a woman who leaves an...
Snowflake: Let it snow!
It always amazes me when a show manages to save itself in Act 2. This production of Snowflake does that — splendidly. In playwright Mike Bartlett’s Snowflake, the first act is a monologue delivered by a guy named Andy. As he waits in a church hall in his hometown of...
The Power of the Dog: Saddle Horny
If you listen to the first two lines of The Power of the Dog, you will know exactly where this movie is going, so do yourself a favour: listen and save yourself from two (mostly) tedious hours. I say “mostly” because, thanks to cinematographer Ari Wegner, The Power of...
Lights — but not much action
On opening night, several people told me that they enjoyed Touchstone Theatre's production of Adam Grant Warren's new play Lights. I did not. I’m going to lay out my reasons, not because I’m trying to suck the pleasure out of anybody’s experience, but because I have...
Everybody: Yes, including you
I love this show about as much as I’ve loved anything in two years. Early on in Everybody, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s adaptation of the fifth-century morality play Everyman, Death, who kickstarts the action, says, “You’re all dying, starting now.” Of course, we’re all...
Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol: Happy slappy
Act 1 is weird. Technically, it’s slick, but it’s so aggressively entertaining and relentlessly uplifting that, watching it, I started to feel like I was on a ride in Disneyland — or maybe Dollywood. Are those real people on the stage or are they robots? In Charles...
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