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.
I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting SICK! from The SICK Collective to be wonderful. Probably because most of the teen shows about teens that I’ve seen just aren’t that interesting. Or they take place in the bleakest future imaginable. Shows what I know. Sick is a fabulous show. Partly because of the people whose stories these are and partly because Judith Thompson listened to all the stories and then dramatized them. Continue reading Review: The Grace Project: SICK! – Next Stage Theatre Festival→
Last night two friends and I saw The Silicone Diaries – created and performed by Nina Arsenault – at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. I’ve been thinking about the show all day and am still not really sure what to say. Both my friends loved it. Judith said that it was a theatre piece that she would remember forever. Bredgeen identified with the idea of fitting in and being accepted.
The Silicone Diaries is Arsenault’s narrative about her journey from being a gawky young man to being a beautiful young woman. The piece goes far beyond the idea of a woman inside a man’s body. It’s about achieving a perceived ideal beauty and the lengths that one person was willing to go in order to be beautiful.
And she is beautiful. I was surprised at just how beautiful.
A most enjoyable morning in Toronto with hundreds of Grade 2 students and A Year With Frog And Toad
Today is the first time I’ve ever gone to see a play at 10.30 in the morning. The truth is, once you’re inside the theatre it could be 10.30 at night. Not for this production of A Year With Frog And Toad at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People though: it would have been past bedtime for most of the audience – 4 bus loads of Grade 2 students.
Off the top, A Year With Frog And Toad is marvellous. Great performances from a terrific cast, gently funny dialogue, and lots of singing and dancing add up to a very entertaining show.
Admirable indeed is the performance of The Admirable Crichton playing at the Young Centre in Toronto
By Sam Mooney
This is the first production I’ve seen by the the George Brown Theatre School and it certainly won’t be the last. Pat, my companion for the show, and I both thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
The Admirable Crichton is the story of an earl who believes in equality – when it suits him. His butler finds these views horrifying – believing that everyone has a place and should follow the rules of society. The family and servants are shipwrecked and the butler becomes the leader for the time they are stranded on an island. There is nothing subtle about the social commentary but enjoyable anyway.
Toronto’s Opera Atelier launches their 25th Anniversary Season with Acis and Galatea
This is Opera Atelier’s 25th Anniversary Season. It opened Saturday night with with Handel’s Acis and Galatea at the Elgin Theatre. My friend Elaine came with me. Neither of us are particularly opera fans (or particularly not opera fans). My experience with Opera before last night was limited to seeing The Marriage of Figaro about 30 years ago. Elaine’s wasn’t a lot broader. I wanted to go because my mother discovered opera at the age of 82 and loves it so it seemed like a good idea.
And it was a good idea. This is the kind of opera that anyone could see and enjoy.
