Described as “salty as it is sweet,” Tease has a burlesque heart beating under the “traditional theatre” trappings of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival, and when the show stays true to its internal rhythm, it’s a textured and interestingly nuanced pleasure.
Continue reading Tease (Theatre Lab and Big City Kitties) 2020 Next Stage Festival Review
Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain, having garnered great interest in a shorter form during Soulpepper’s collection Welcome To My Underworld last spring, is a wild journey into a difficult and gripping story that emerges, slowly, under pressure. While still shaking out a few last hiccups, the show has an undeniable theatrical power.
The heartwarming story of soccer and family tradition takes stage in TorontoSomehow, I was just the wrong age for the movie Bend It Like Beckham when it came out — too old to enjoy it as a young person, not old enough to be comfortable going to movies marketed to families. For me, Bend It Like Beckham: The Musical was a completely fresh story and experience, and generally quite an enjoyable one.
Continue reading Review: Bend It Like Beckham: The Musical (Starvox/Kintop)
If there was a performance version of an all-star game (and that’s an amusing idea) then the North team would clearly be anchored by Laakuluk Williamson Bathory, Christine Tootoo, Jamie Griffiths, and Cris Derksen. There isn’t, but don’t despair – the quartet is already working as though there were, and has created Ikumagialiit (“those that need fire”) to show you how it’s done. The improvisational, elastic piece showed for one night at Harbourfront’s Festival of Cool: Arctic to a sold-out crowd.
Every Day She Rose is compelling and complex, now playing in TorontoThree years ago, Black Lives Matter Toronto was the Grand Marshall group of Toronto Pride, and used the opportunity to stop the parade and present to then-ED of Pride Toronto Mathieu Chantelois a list of demands relating to Black inclusion and centering in Pride. The surrounding controversy, which still feels fresh and difficult, is the subject of Nick Green and Andrea Scott’s new play, Every Day She Rose (a Nightwood production playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre).
Continue reading Review: Every Day She Rose (Nightwood Theatre)