Little Red Riding Hood is the best East Van Panto so far
The East Van Panto is now officially the best holiday tradition in Vancouver—in my Vancouver, anyway. I started loving this year’s panto, Little Red Riding Hood, the minute I entered the theatre. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy being in an audience that has a whole...
Why did Topdog/Underdog win a Pulitzer? This production isn’t telling.
I don’t know if I’ve really seen this play yet. Topdog/Underdog won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Its author, Suzan-Lori Parks, is considered by many to be an important voice in American theatre. But, in this production from Seven Tyrants Theatre, Topdog/Underdog...
This Spelling Bee is a holiday in innocence
If you need a holiday in innocence, check out The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The musical features three eccentric adults, but it’s the vulnerability of its six quirky kid characters that makes the piece so charming. As they compete against one another in...
Brothel #9: exquisite physical production, stellar performances
It’s immersive. There are so many compelling textures in Touchstone Theatre’s production of Brothel #9 that, watching it, you feel like you’re somewhere else. In Toronto playwright Anusree Roy’s script, a young woman named Rekha arrives in a rundown building in...
Fall in love with—and at—Green Lake
Playwright Katey Hoffman continues to be one of the most exciting new voices on the local theatre scene: not everything about Green Lake works, but a lot of it does and the script is as original as all hell. With Cheyenne Mabberley, Hoffman wrote The After After...
Green Lake: the tenderness of girl crushes and absent dads
Playwright Katey Hoffman continues to be one of the most exciting new voices on the local theatre scene: not everything about Green Lake works, but a lot of it does and the script is as original as all hell. With Cheyenne Mabberley, Hoffman wrote The After After...
Trump offended by Hamilton actor’s “harassment” of Pence
Last night, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was met with boos and cheers when he attended a performance of the musical Hamilton on Broadway. After the performance, Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr in the show, read a statement from the company that began,...
Peter Dickinson’s Long Division is trapped in its head
There should be laws—similar to child labour laws—that prevent the overworking of metaphors. Playwright Peter Dickinson buries the heart of his play, Long Division, beneath a series of monologues that declare and develop the metaphor of mathematics so academically...
Tommy: even harder to perform than it looks
The Who’s Tommy is beyond the abilities of this company. And that’s not a big knock on Renegade Arts; this material is ridiculously difficult. In this stage version of the story, which is based on The Who’s concept album from 1969, Tommy’s dad comes home from WWII, in...
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