This production of Agamemnon by UC Follies was a hard play to find and an odd play to watch, but it definitely showed some promising new talent that might come to benefit the local theatre scene. Continue reading Review: Agamemnon (UC Follies)
Wrecking Ball is a series that presents political theatre about a immediate topic in current events. This means that the pieces presented on any given night are written and rehearsed hastily and with no budget. This has obvious drawbacks in terms of quality, but it also gives artists freer reign to do cutting-edge work and say things that might be otherwise censored for fear of offending funders. At its best, Wrecking Ball gives us short plays that speak vibrant truth and asks relevant questions. Unfortunately, #deadcoonTO was not its best. Continue reading Review: Wrecking Ball #18: #deadcoonTO: Police Brutality (Wrecking Ball)
Produced as part of PANAMANIA, the arts & culture component of the Pan Am/Parapan Games, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea adapts the Jules Verne classic into a meta-theatrical multi-media event with a gesture towards environmental messaging. It’s an ambitious undertaking with such stunning aesthetics that its failings seem more prominent than they otherwise might. Continue reading Review: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (TO2015 PANAMANIA/KDOONS Network/WYRD Productions/The 20K Collective)
Buddies kicks off it’s Pride programming with a double bill, The Love Crimes of Frances Lark + Wand Portal, the former being a queer noir from playwright Hope Thompson and the latter being Dawn Whitwell and Carolyn Taylor’s improvisational docu-comedy.
Double bills can sometimes vary in quality, and I found these two pieces to be vastly different: Love Crimes was an unsatisfying piece of fluff, while Wand Portal was an insightfully searing piece of comedy. Continue reading Review: The Love Crimes of Frances Lark + Wand Portal (Buddies in Bad Times, presented by Heartache Theatre)
Stitch, by Culture Storm Production, presented by Native Earth, is a one-woman show where the protagonist, Kylie Grandview, is a porn performer and mother whose life falls apart.
Georgina Beaty gives a good performance, playing Kylie as well as a vast array of characters she interacts with. The production values are high and the storytelling is strong, but unfortunately the story itself is a tired cliché that only perpetuates the stigmatization of sex work. Continue reading Review: Stitch (Culture Storm presented by Native Earth)