Live theatre shows in Toronto with ticket prices of $25 or less, playing the week of June 27th, 2017. Perfect for the budget-conscious theatre-goer. Birds and babes… err… outdoor shows and burlesque… are the main offerings in Toronto this week! Check them out below the cut:
Continue reading Cheap Theatre in Toronto the Week of June 27th
Oh, Toronto summer! In the city this week we have sizzling temperatures and even hotter burlesque offerings, and delightful outdoor theatre picks. Our publisher Megan is on hand to highlight a few of her most anticipated shows in red. Check them out below the cut:
Continue reading Playlistings in Toronto for the week of June 26th
From the press release:
NEW PLAY AWARD WINNER TAKES KING-SIZED SEAT AT THE FRINGE
“You could go whenever you wanted. I ain’t holding you back.”
TORONTO, May 26, 2017 | In September of 1964, a chance meeting in a public washroom between two men – one white and one black – reveals the bond they share and the ties connecting them to America’s most powerful leaders in Minmar Gaslight ProducIons’ presentation of THE SEAT NEXT TO THE KING, written by Steven Elliot Jackson and playing at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, July 6th to 16th.
Behind the door of a public washroom in a Washington, D.C. park, two lives linked to the country’s most influenial figures collide when a white man seeking a sexual encounter meets a black male stranger. Winner of the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival New Play Contest, this bold, affecting piece tackles race, sex, the meaning of ‘manhood’, and the cost of reconciling each for two disparate human beings with a shared innate need. Featuring blistering performances by Kwaku Okyere and Conor Ling, The Seat Next To The King is directed by Tanisha Taitt, following her extended hit production of Sister Act for the Lower Ossington Theatre and returning to the Toronto Fringe for the first time since 2010’s stirring The Whores.
“I didn’t plan to do the festival again,” Taitt says. “I’d done six shows in three cities and was content with my Fringe experience. This beautiful piece brought me back. Steven’s script is raw, with an external simplicity that belies its internal complexity. The characters are real historical figures, but the story is fact-meets-fiction. It’s an unapologetic, sexy, heartbreaking, relevant work that holds me in its hands.”
Jackson believes it is this relevance that impacted the New Play award jury, and will do the same to audiences. “Plays do not win prizes by separating us from times long ago, but by helping us connect with a time that may be closer to our current world than we realize,” the playwright asserts. “By exploring issues of masculinity, racism and sexuality, this play searches for the connections between us in times when we feel lost, frightened and bewildered – reminding us that we are not alone and will persevere.”
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Photo by Steven Jackson.
Continue reading The Seat Next to the King – Toronto Fringe 2017 Press Release
From the press release:
Still Your Friend Presents
The Life Henri
A Fantastical Trip to Paris and a Bygone Era at the Toronto Fringe
Written and Performed by Adam Bailey
“Adam Bailey’s third play is the art history lesson that you didn’t get in uni, blending those slides with equal parts comedy and existential angst”
★★★★ Vue Weekly
History’s greatest house party and the invention of modern plumbing collide in the unlikely story of Henri Rousseau’s climb from art zero to art hero. Dubbed “Lovely and Entertaining” by Vue Weekly when the show previewed last year at the Edmonton Fringe, The Life Henri, marks Adam Bailey’s third original play since penning The Assassination of Robert Ford and Adam Bailey is On Fire. Once again finding surprising insights and humour in an almost unbelievable true story.
Continue reading The Life Henri – Toronto Fringe 2017 Press Release
From the press release:
Eleven years after they first teamed up for the 2006 show Any Second Now (“Wryly and sometimes brutally funny”, Edmonton Sun), WGC Award-winner Joanne O’Sullivan (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) and Dora Award-winner Chris Earle (Radio:30) are putting the band back together for O’Sullivan’s new play, She Grew Funny. The one-woman show will run at the Factory Theatre Studio as part of Toronto Fringe.
Once again, O’Sullivan knew Earle was the only choice to direct her. Already known for wringing wry comedy from everyday life, with She Grew Funny, O’Sullivan goes deeper and darker than ever.
“This show is the sometimes hard, often funny, true story of how my life changed when my daughter turned 6, the same age I was when my own mother died,” she says. “A pivotal moment that sent me on a journey to try answer the question I see in everyone’s expression the moment they find out about my loss – “What did you become having lost your mother so young?”
Earle, who has a reputation for helming revues at The Second City with the hardest satirical bite (Sixteen Scandals, The Hotline Always Blings Twice) was a perfect fit for She Grew Funny. “Chris has a great eye for finding comedy in truth,” says O’Sullivan, “and he honours the story, rarely leading me towards the cheap laugh.” With Brett McCaig, (Waiting for Trudeau: Return of the King, and Rob Ford: The Musical) as producer, we’re all working towards that same balance of dark and funny.”
Fresh off a stint as a contributing writer for season 3 of the Baroness Von Sketch Show on CBC, O’Sullivan is looking forward to sharing her story, if only to get a chance to let everyone know she’s doing fine. “Every time I tell people my mother died when I was so young, I end up having to reassure them, like ‘I’m okay. Don’t be upset. I’m fine. Are YOU okay?’” But she’s also keen to share a story that can resonate with anyone. “Anyone who’s experienced any kind of loss will see themselves in this journey.”
And while her daughter is too young to see it, O’Sullivan says there’s a message for her in the show. “I want her to know we can come back from tragedy and even find what’s funny in a difficult situation – given enough space and time. People are resilient, we’re strong…which means she’s strong, too.”
Details
Performances
Photo provided by company