The Only Good Indian wanders (in this incarnation)
You know that expression about shooting fish in a barrel? Reviewing The Only Good Indian is like trying to shoot a fish in the ocean from an airplane. At least in the performance I witnessed, The Only Good Indian is hard to get a bead on. Jivesh Parasram, Tom Arthur...
Geologic Formations: the overly abstract title is a clue
Geologic Formations is a show about embodiment, but it is rarely viscerally embodied. In Geologic Formations, mia susan amir explores the multigenerational psychological and physical effects of trauma. Her saba (grandfather) survived the Bialystok Ghetto in Poland...
Les Filles du Roi: a sumptuous reimagining of our history
Corey Payette and his collaborators are reinventing the story of Canada—in ways that respect First Nations and women. It’s thrilling. In last year’s musical, Children of God, Payette took on the residential school system. He wrote, directed, and composed that piece,...
Mamma Mia! is LOUD (with good bits)
This production of Mamma Mia! is selling the show so hard you’d think it was the last used car on the lot. Mamma Mia! is a ridiculous—but extremely amiable—jukebox musical. Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book, has strung a bunch of hit songs by ABBA into an unlikely...
Wet—is pretty much all wet
This play is vulgar. I’m going to start off with a major spoiler and I’m going to keep dropping spoilers because there’s no way to say what I want to say about Wet without doing so. In Wet, playwright David James Brock tells the story of Burns, a Canadian soldier who...
Tolkien: less than mythic
Tolkien feels like academic Christian fanfiction. If that’s your thing, by all means go for it—all three acts and almost three hours of it. In his new script, playwright Ron Reed explores the friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings) and...
Bears is magical—until it’s not
There’s only so far you can go on style and good intentions. Bears looks fantastic and its political heart is in the right place. But the script is badly built, so it gets boring. Sheldon Elter, who plays Floyd, narrates his character’s journey in the third person....
The Cherry Orchard: the perfect theatrical meditation for Spring
DON'T BE CONFUSED: THIS ISN'T MY REVIEW OF THE ARTS CLUB'S 2019 PRODUCTION OF THE ORCHARD (AFTER CHEKHOV), IT'S A REVIEW OF AN AMATEUR—AND SUPERIOR—PRODUCTION OF THE CHERRY ORCHARD. BUT ENJOY IT. 🙂 Spring aches. So does this delicate production of The Cherry...
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Yesterday, I launched a Patreon campaign. It's all about creating an alternative funding source so that I can keep writing about theatre. The video explains it all. And, when you've been thoroughly convinced by the video, here's where you can join the revolution by...
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