In Spend Your Kids’ Inheritance (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival), a group of spry seniors, fed up with being warehoused in a pleasant-but-soulless old folks’ home, come up with a plan to escape. But first, they need to overcome obstacles: imperious staff, domineering adult children, and — worst of all — bean loaf Thursdays.
This could very well be the next Summerland, and I’ll tell you why.
Continue reading Spend Your Kids’ Inheritance (Watercourse Theatre) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
Reefer Madness is one of the worst films ever made: a depression-era exploitation jaunt which depicted marijuana fiends as barely human, driven to murder, and always puffing away like a factory smokestack.
Reefer Madness: Origins (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival) re-imagines the film’s creation as a parable about the follies of prohibition, and the lives and communities destroyed in the wake of the anti-reefer movement.
Continue reading Reefer Madness: Origins (D & M Creative) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
Hey, have you ever dropped acid then watched Star Trek? And I don’t mean regular Star Trek, I mean the weird, surreal, peak-sci-fi stuff.
That’s where you’ll find Unbridled Futurism (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival), equal parts concept album, character comedy, and hour-long Trek trip. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re inclined to (boldly) go, co-creator and star Nick di Gaetano will take you where no man has gone before.
Continue reading Unbridled Futurism (makesndoes) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
In Off the Island (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival), a young Dominican man lands in Toronto for university and begins to discover himself and his sexuality. This musical is a reminder that, while we think of Canada as a city of immigrants, not everything gets left behind in the old country — and not everyone knows what they’re in for when they land at Billy Bishop.
Continue reading Off the Island (Gazebo Productions) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review
You’re very lucky, you know. You’ve been in a frightful accident. But you’ll be all right. Eusha‘s here, the night nurse, the best night nurse you could ask for. She lives to help: she’s got a gift for it. As time passes, you’ll come to understand each other very well. You’ll get better. She’ll make you better. It’s what she does.
As the title suggests, Eusha (playing at the Toronto Fringe Festival) is a character study, a one-hander set in a hospital ward. And don’t we all want to be healed?
Continue reading Eusha (Shortgirl Productions) 2019 Toronto Fringe Review