Above the Hospital: millennial angst, some promising writing, and one excellent performance
Above the Hospital is kind of like a rummage sale: there are treasures on offer, but you’ve got to sift through some junk to get to them. This new script, which was written and directed by Beau Han Bridge, is about the confusion and despondency some millennials seem...
Hot Brown Honey starts hot then cools
Hot Brown Honey is a spectacularly well designed feminist pep rally. Over a span of 75 minutes, six Australian women of colour take on sexism, racism, and colonialism one vaudevillian act at a time. Tristan Shelly’s set is phenomenal. It’s shaped like a beehive with...
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: children’s theatre can do better
During the holiday season, adults are eager to take the kids in their lives to the theatre. That lovely human impulse should be rewarded with first-rate art. Unfortunately, Carousel Theatre for Young People’s production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is only...
Mom’s the Word 3: Nest 1/2 Empty—Theatre really is the church of love
Theatre is the church of love. Don’t believe me? Head on down to the Granville Island Stage and take in Mom’s the Word 3: Nest 1/2 Empty. As the title makes clear, this is the third installment of the Mom’s the Word series. The first hit the boards way back in 1995...
Not my Christmas Carol
Nobody likes to rain on a parade—especially not a Christmas parade—but the Gateway Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol is so vacant that I have no choice. As Trump’s Republicans ruthlessly exploit the poor to increase their personal wealth, the relevance of...
Onegin is superb
I saw Onegin again last night and, not to put too fine a point on it, it was like falling back into the arms of a favourite lover. Go see it. It’s the best show in town—by a snowy, Slavic country mile. In Onegin, which is a sung-through musical, Veda Hille and Amiel...
Beauty and the Beast: this holiday entertainment could be more generous
You want a big show like Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to be lavish and dazzling but, in crucial ways, the Arts Club’s production is stingy and incomplete. Fortunately, there are also some excellent performances in the mix and the story itself is strong. In Beauty and...
The Realistic Joneses: a comedy about the limitations of language and the beauty of trying to speak
In The Realistic Joneses, playwright Will Eno behaves like a compassionate—and funny—palliative care nurse. In the play, Pony and John Jones have just moved in next door to Jennifer and Bob Jones. Now they all live in the same small town. Bob has a degenerative...
Little Dickens: The Daisy Theatre Presents A Christmas Carol – genius, with limitations
Puppeteer Ronnie Burkett is a genius. He just is. Another blunt truth: Little Dickens isn’t his best show—at least it isn’t yet. As the full title makes clear, Little Dickens: The Daisy Theatre Presents A Christmas Carol is yet another riff on Charles Dickens’s...
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