Few people head out to a Mennonite homestead in pursuit of riveting drama. Bear this in mind as you watch Petrichor, staged by Kitchenband at Factory Theatre during SummerWorks, and you’ll do just fine. A unique aesthetic experience that’s more about exploring the rhythms of farm life than the intricacies of its characters, Petrichor delivers on Kitchenband’s promise of stories “inspired by the Canadian landscape and history.”
Continue reading Petrichor (Kitchenband) SummerWorks 2012 Review
Should you, for the price of a pint, head over to The Annex Live and check out The Weaker Vessels’ We’ve Only Just Begun? The answer is yes, but for the theatergoer of discerning comedic tastes, a few issues to consider:
Do you enjoy a snifter of fine cognac – Courvoisier, say – and are you insulted when it’s made light of? You might want to think twice. Same goes if you’re offended by horny widows, Nazi beekeepers, or watching a young Winston Churchill try his hand at a few yo’ momma jokes. Continue reading Review: We’ve Only Just Begun (The Weaker Vessels)
If you’re like any other theatre fan in Toronto, you have serious Fringe withdrawal right about now, and wish you’d seen at least one more show. Take heart: Shakespeare BASH’d performs its raucous, inventive take on The Taming of the Shrew three more times over the next few days during the Best of Fringe. Continue reading Best of Fringe Uptown: The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare BASH’d)
Buffering… skewers modern intellectual property laws by “working with the scraps of the public domain: a princess, a witch, and a live audience.” The play, staged at Theatre Passe Muraille, during Toronto Fringe opens in a mythical realm faced with impending financial doom (it’s not the EU). A rhyme-happy “Fool” (AJ Vaage) functions as the accountant for the land, and takes stock of its grim fiscal prospects:
“Since we’re balls-deep in debt, and nothing is free, I hereby beget these austerity measures three.”
Continue reading Buffering… (Jamsammy) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review
Arrive at Fake News Fangirl knowing what to expect, and you’ll walk away impressed. Sharilyn Johnson (Third Beat Productions) puts on one-woman show at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace that’s part memoir, part exposé, and peppered here and there with comedy and the awkward anecdotes of adolescence and early career.
Continue reading Fake News Fangirl (Third Beat Productions) 2012 Toronto Fringe Review