All posts by Sam Mooney

Always a theatre lover Sam realized in middle age that there's more to Toronto theatre than just mainstream and is now in love with one person shows, adores festivals, and quirky venues make her day.

Let’s Try This Standing (Keep Good (Theatre) Company) 2017 SummerWorks Review

Gillian Clark Gillian Clark in Let's Try This Standing

Let’s Try This Standing brings new meaning to the expression “caught between a rock and a hard place.” When she was 19, Gillian Clark was hit by an out of control SUV and trapped between it and a brick wall.

Her solo show that tells the story of her accident, hospitalization, and recovery opened on Friday at Factory Theatre, part of the 2017 SummerWorks Performance Festival.  It’s a lot more cheerful than it sounds. Continue reading Let’s Try This Standing (Keep Good (Theatre) Company) 2017 SummerWorks Review

Divine (Red One Theatre Collective/Storefront Arts Initiative) 2017 SummerWorks Review

Photo of Amanda Cordner in Divine photo by John GundyIf you had asked me yesterday how I felt about seeing a play set in the post-apocalyptic wild west of Ontario, I doubt that I would have been very excited.

Then I saw Divine, and it’s marvellous. I am definitely excited! Everything about it is wonderful, the cast,  the performances, the script, the set, everything. It opened on Friday at Factory Theatre as part of the 2017 SummerWorks Performance FestivalContinue reading Divine (Red One Theatre Collective/Storefront Arts Initiative) 2017 SummerWorks Review

What Linda Said (Dr. Up Productions) 2017 SummerWorks Review

Tracey Hoyt and Kimwun Perehinec in What Linda Said

The world premiere of What Linda Said, part of the 2017 SummerWorks Performance Festival, opened on Thursday at Factory Theatre to a full house. The play, by writer Priscilla Uppal, is based on imagined conversations she had with her friend Linda Griffiths after Griffiths died and while Uppal was having chemotherapy. Sound like a downer? Not at all! Continue reading What Linda Said (Dr. Up Productions) 2017 SummerWorks Review

Review: The Drowsy Chaperone (No Strings Theatre)

The Drowsy Chaperone takes to the Toronto stage at the Tarragon Theatre!

Can a group of 12 to 21 year old students enrolled in a four week intensive musical theatre program learn their parts and put on The Drowsy Chaperone in three weeks? Yes! They can! No Strings Theatre’s production, which opened at the Tarragon Theatre on Friday evening, proves it.

I hadn’t seen The Drowsy Chaperone before. It’s a show-within-a-show parody of 1920s fluffy musical comedies; just enough plot to justify a lot of singing, dancing, and a couple of big production numbers. Continue reading Review: The Drowsy Chaperone (No Strings Theatre)