Dana Ewachow is too shy to order a pizza over the phone, but has no problem writing on the internet. She keeps herself busy and artistically poor by writing news articles, rants, and fiction for the internet. As you may have noticed, she also writes theatre reviews. She enjoys sketch comedies, dark comedies, light comedies, and burlesque. When she isn’t writing, her odd hobbies include: martial arts, throwing hatchets, and trying to cook food that won’t send her to the hospital. Armed with questionable diplomas and a second degree blackbelt, she will surely take over the world.
A spooky brew of Winnie-the-Pooh and Edgar Allan Poe haunts Toronto theatre audiences
I chose to attend The House at Poe Corner by Eldritch Theatre playing at the Red Sandcastle Theatre because I absolutely love Halloween. I haven’t read all of Edgar Allan Poe’s or H.P Lovecraft’s work, but I know that any play associated with their names was guaranteed to be dark and/or dreary. What better time is there to think of ghosts and your impending doom than Halloween?
The House at Poe Corner is a creative mixture of the works Edgar Allan Poe, H.P Lovecraft, and A.A. Milne. One of those writers is unlike the other! In case you don’t want to click the link, A.A. Milne is the creator of the children’s tales of Winnie-the-Pooh. Playwrights Eric Woolfe and Michael O’Brien managed to combine these works together into a shocking entertaining show. Although, I would not recommend bringing young children to see this. This Winnie-the-Pooh is not as cuddly as you’d expect. Continue reading Review: The House at Poe Corner (Eldritch Theatre)→
Stage Centre Productions presents the thriller Gaslight at Fairview Library in Toronto
The stage at Fairview Library Theatre is adorned with luxuries of a Victorian home in London. Portraits line the walls, a grand piano sits by the window, and gaslights are in every corner of the room. It’s a peaceful scene, but I know the peace won’t last long. This production of Gaslight is an adaptation by David Jacklin of the dark thriller written by Patrick Hamilton. I sit in my row, and wait for the peace to be broken.
Three Women Mourn the Apocalypse, a play by Hannah Rittner is now playing at Toronto’s Theatre Centre
Three Women Mourn the Apocalypse by Old Norman Productions opened in the ever-versatile Theatre Centre at 1115 Queen St. West. The set was a large brick room with sparse furniture. There were chalk lines on the wall, marking the days the two inhabitants have been there. In the background, I could hear the persistent sound of whirring, like a generator. At that moment, I wondered if the room was a bunker or a prison. Were they there for protection, or for punishment? Continue reading Review: Three Women Mourn the Apocalypse (Old Norman Productions)→
Theatre la Tangente presents Claude Guilmain’s play Americandream.ca in Toronto
Americandream.ca by Theatre la Tangente begins on an empty stage at the Glendon Theatre at the York University campus. The stage is surrounded by three white walls. Music begins and panels of the walls open up like doors. Actors walk from the darkness and onto the stage, their shadows plastered on the white panels. Their entrances are mysterious, giving the audience the work to figure out the context of the scene through images and videos rippling against the walls. It’s a confusing start, but it kept me waiting to find the other pieces to the puzzle. Continue reading Review: Americandream.ca (Theatre la Tangente)→
Toronto’s Loose Tea Music Theatre Dissociative Me is an updated take on Gounod’s opera Faust
Dissociative Me by Loose Tea Music Theatre opened at the luxurious RED nightclub. My guest and I opted for a leather couch bathed in red light. Everything around us was dark and dripping with drama. It may not have been a grand theatre, but this location was striking enough for an opera. Especially for a show that describes itself as “not your grandfather’s opera”.
The show is based off of Gounod’s Faust, in which a scholar makes a deal with the devil for success and pays a heavy price for it. A more modern understanding of this tale would be in The Little Mermaid, when Ariel signs a contract with the seawitch Ursula. Whether you prefer Gounod or Disney, the cautionary tale is universally understood: don’t make a deal that you can’t pay for.
The stage at 
