All posts by S. Bear Bergman

S. Bear Bergman has great faith in the power of theatre to make change, and has been putting his money where his mouth is on that one for some time. A writer, performer, and lecturer, Bear works full time as an artist and cultural worker and loves to see as much live performance as possible – making this a fantastic gig for him.

Morro and Jasp: Go Bake Yourself (U.N.I.T Productions) 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival Review

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In the wide and wonderful world of Fringe, we all know there are hits and misses. I was keen to start myself off with a hit – to set the tone, so to speak – and picked Morro & Jasp: Go Bake Yourself as my first Fringe show. As ever, these Fringe-favorite clowns are delightful as they scrap and scheme.

Morro, the mischievous younger sister, and Jasp the older and-also-wiser-just-ask-her, have cooking show aspirations  but vastly different visions of how this cooking show will manifest. Morro imagines a Kitchen Stadium, BBQ Battle, Who Cooked It Better type of situation, and gears up accordingly in her kitchen armour for the fight. Jasp, a more mature young lady, sees a refined, classy cookery programme as befits her grand (self-)image. Hijinks, as you can doubtless imagine, ensue.

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Shakespeare, M.D. (Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective) 2013 Toronto Fringe Review

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If it weren’t for the smell of jambalaya, I could have been in any doctor’s office – handed a bewildering form and a mostly-expired pen and sent to sit and wait my turn with nothing but a two-year-old issue of Canadian Living for company. The form at Shakespeare, M.D., however, requested a distinctly odd set of details about my astrological sign, personality, and favored snack foods.

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Review: Truth/Dare: A Satire (With Dance)

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Buddies in Bad Times Theatre hosts Madonna-homage royalty in Toronto

If you can imagine anything more perfectly frothy, more utterly camp, than a Madonna sing-and-dance-along retelling of her infamous 1991 film Madonna: Truth or Dare then I would like to know about it. Until then, I will be crowning Salvatore Antonio and Adamo Ruggiero’s royal (as in: queeny) homage to Madonna in Truth/Dare: A Satire (With Dance) at Buddies In Bad Times as the actual, non-euphemistic tits of this Pride season.

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Review: Gavin Crawford: Sh**ing Rainbows! (Buddies In Bad Times Theatre)

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 Gavin Crawford’s Razor-Sharp Satire Stretches His Range And Delights Toronto Audiences

Coming home from Gavin Crawford: Sh**ing Rainbows at Buddies last night, our babysitter asked: is it a drag show? Well, no. I mean, he dresses in drag but, no, not a drag show. Is it a concert? Well, no. I mean, he sings, but no.

This of course begs the question: well, then, what kind of a show is it? It’s a truly hilarious, flagrantly nerdy, relentlessly pointed, extravagantly f**king queer show, that’s what kind it is. It’s what Pride should be: political and fabulous and campy and self-aware and fearless. Not corporate, not blunted by the “family friendliness” imperative, and yet still sharply satirical of institutions of power and cultural memes. 

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Review: Chamber Magic (Luminato)

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Steve Cohen Sparkles with Chamber Magic at Toronto’s George Brown House

I straightened my bowtie and tucked in my pocket square this evening to see Steve Cohen perform his show Chamber Magic at George Brown House for Luminato, where the dress code is as fancy as the attendees (let’s just say that for this evening anyhow, his sobriquet The Millionaires’ Magician was well deserved). The show, a classic parlour magic display designed for close audiences, sent me running home to the interwebs to try to figure out how some of his tricks had been performed. I’ll say only this: even online, magicians are pretty tight-lipped.

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