The kindest thing to say about the Blyth Festival’s world premiere of Jumbo is that the play is not ready for prime time. Yet it should have worked, given the talent behind the project such as accomplished writer Sean Dixon and talented director Gil Garratt. I suspect that a lot of time was spent on […]
Apparently, Cakewalk by Colleen Curran, which premiered at the Blyth Festival in 1984, and was remounted in 1986, has been one of the company’s most requested revivals. I actually saw both those shows and remember them fondly, so Curran’s zany comedy redux was welcome news. Happily, I can report that this 2019 production is right […]
4th Line Theatre’s latest production, Bloom: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fable, is another entertaining evening from this most enterprising of summer festivals. The piece is filled with music and dance as it traces the journey of a small town rock band from nothingness to near greatness to oblivion again. Perhaps the story is a bit […]
The touring production of Lorena Gale’s Angélique (1995) is a class act. Originally presented by Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop and Tableau D’Hôte, the classic play is performed with both earnestness and imagination. It has taken over two decades for this important play to make it to Toronto, but given the excellence of the production, the […]
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Modern Times Stage Company’s production of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is near perfection. Modern Times is one of my favourite companies in the city. I particularly love director Soheil Parsa’s take on the classics. He goes right to the heart of the matter, and you come away from a Modern Times […]
