Only someone like Mindy Kaling can write something as outrageous and wonderful as Matt and Ben and Radioactive Ladybird’s production of this trying tale on how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck actually wrote Good Will Hunting is exactly the kind of wacked-out comedy I was hoping for.
Continue reading Review: Matt and Ben (Radioactive Ladybird Productions)
The Valley is topical and well-told, now playing on the Toronto stageMental illness can sometimes feel like a runaway train, but The Valley harnesses it’s softer moments into a deeply emotional and touching story. Written by Canadian playwright Joan MacLeod and produced by East Side Players, it explores the misunderstood–and frankly, unexplored–relationship between law enforcement and mental illness. Continue reading Review: The Valley (East Side Players)
Sizzing performances in David French’s play Salt-Water Moon presented in Toronto by MirvishSalt-Water Moon, written by Canadian playwright David French follows two lovers in Mary and Jacob as they fight for one last chance at a relationship set under a blanket of stars in 1920’s Newfoundland.
Factory Theatre‘s version of Salt-Water Moon feels like the type of show you would come across in a small studio space off some alleyway somewhere, yet it manages to work beautifully on the bare, Panasonic stage with nothing but a smoky haze and flickering candles as a back drop. Continue reading Review: Salt-Water Moon (Mirvish)
Tom Shadow is “charming” and “outrageous,” now on the Toronto stageAs I read through the program for Theatre Lab’s recent venture—The Adventures of Tom Shadow—I notice that they chose to title it a “comedy musical” and not a “musical comedy.” Smart move, because the musical theatre geek in me may have been disappointed with the lack of kick lines. No worries though, because The Adventures of Tom Shadow was everything I could have wanted and more in a “comedy musical,” if those are a thing? Are they a thing? Let’s make them a thing now.
Continue reading Review: The Adventures Of Tom Shadow (Theatre Lab)
Robert Fothergill’s play, a prequel to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, is now playing in TorontoLet’s Go: A G_dot Prequel is a play about everything that happens before Estragon and Vladimir of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot start well, waiting for Godot. The concept itself is genius, however; the pieces didn’t come together as nicely as I would have hoped.
Continue reading Review: Let’s Go: A G_dot Prequel (DMT Productions)