5 quick tips for writing a readable review
Hey. I’m looking for emerging critics who would be interested in helping me to cover the Vancouver Fringe Festival. If you’re interested in this gig—which will involve a little money, although not tons—please submit a sample review of between 200 and 600 words...
Dark Road: don’t feel compelled to go down it
A crime thriller, Dark Road feels much more suited to television than the stage. And, if it were on television, I’d turn it off. (The production is strong, but that’s not my point.) In Dark Road, Isobel McArthur, the first female Chief Constable in Scotland, is about...
The Beauty Queen of Leenane: impressive performances in sensationalistic script
It’s a nasty play well performed. In Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, it’s the early 90s and Maureen is caring for her mother Mag in the claustrophobic Irish village of the title. The two women hate each other. Forty-year-old Maureen is a virgin who has...
This, Here: a good place to visit
In This, Here, the central character struggles with the alienation and egotism of making a living from your feelings, which is one of the downsides of being an artist Alison, who is an actor, has lost her joy in performing. And her partner Maddie is just about...
Oh What a Beautiful Morning! traps itself in an analytical mode
Oh What a Beautiful Morning! feels like the most sophisticated Powerpoint presentation the world has ever known, but it still feels like a Powerpoint presentation. My point is that it’s illustrative. Created and presented by Fight With a Stick, Oh What a Beautiful...
Cinderella couldn’t be better
It’s perfect. I’ve never seen a more seamlessly well-produced show at Theatre Under the Stars. The musical itself isn’t the greatest, although it’s friendly and serviceable. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Cinderella for television in 1957—when it...
42nd Street: in the right neighbourhood, but not at the exact address
Yes, 42ndStreet will give you goosebumps—it gave me goosebumps—but that’s because it’s manipulating the heck out of you. In the book, which was written by Michael Stewart and Michael Bramble, it’s 1933. Peggy Sawyer, who has just stepped off the bus from Allentown,...
The Jessies 2018: three companies take most of the hardware
At the 2018 Jessie Richardson Awards, which took place in the Bard on the Beach mainstage tent for the first time this year, the juries heavily favoured three companies: Rumble, the Arts Club, and Green Thumb. There are three main categories at the Jessie Awards:...
Lysistrata: still funny after thousands of years
Let’s all just agree to see everything that Lois Anderson directs from now on, okay? Two years ago, her reinvention of Pericles for Bard on the Beach was a revelation. And this year she has brought us a Lysistrata that’s so fresh I feel younger after seeing it....
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