By Darryl D’Souza

At the beginning of Soulpepper Theatre Company’s production of The Aleph, playing at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, the house lights were left on to illuminate a “set” that consisted of just a single swivel chair and a large closed curtain. 

A man entered the room, whom I knew to be the star of the play, Diego Matamoros, and started telling what I thought was an anecdote about his experience as an actor.  Diego never approached the stage, but instead, stood in the rafters talking while he handed out a picture of himself taken 30 years ago.  I was impatiently waiting for him to stop wasting my time telling me what I thought was a personal story and to start the play already.  It turns out he had, and relating this anecdote was actually the beginning of the play. 

If you think that making the audience actually forget that they are watching a play is an accomplishment, then The Aleph was certainly successful in this respect.  Reality and fiction were blurred, in the beginning at least.  My issue was I felt that it was ultimately a play without the play.  Continue reading Review: The Aleph – Soulpepper Theatre Company →

By Dana Lacey

My room mates and friends are artists, my neighbours run an art gallery, and I’m around art a lot. But me, well, I’m not an artist, or even a dabbler–call me an appreciative outsider. So when I read the sell lines for The Canadian Stage Company’s production of Art–something about defining “art”–I almost passed on the play. Yet another exploration of the shit-or-art debate? No thanks.

But in the end, I was lured by star power (albeit of the dimly-lit-Canadian variety) of Colin Mochrie, who stars as art connoisseur Serge. In my youth, I spent many an afternoon enjoying the comedian’s Whose Line antics, and I felt like I owed him one.

I’m glad I went. Continue reading Review: Art – Bluma Appel Theatre →

by Sam Mooney

From the first bang of the suitcase to the last note of the encore L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres performing the Music of Tom Waits was fabulous.  They were in Toronto for two nights as part of the Free Fall Festival (presented by the Theatre Centre in partnership with Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage) at The Music Gallery.

It’s not easy to classify the evening.  It’s not a concert, and it’s not a play; it’s a performance of music. As my play partner John said, “It’s Rube Goldberg music”.  It’s music you have to watch because so much depends on the sight gags.

The music of Tom Waits is made and played on whatever is at hand.  A turkey-baster, a saw, teacups, dominoes, frying pans, a step-ladder, a banjo and spaghetti to make a snare drum, bottles as wind instruments, a suitcase as percussion, balloons, kazoos, a golf club…

Continue reading Review: L’ORCHESTRE D’HOMMES-ORCHESTRES Performs the Music of TOM WAITS →

By Leif Conti-Groome

On Valentines Day, I had the pleasure of taking my girlfriend out to see a very entertaining night of burlesque at the Gladstone Hotel. Two of the most popular troupes, Skin Tight Outta Sight and BoylesqueTO, presented Be Mein Valentine, a night full of song and tease inspired by the cabarets of 1920s Germany.

Our three hosts for the evening joked back and forth with their over-the-top German characters and accents and held the show together between performances. Ginger Darling and Bologna Wry, the usual hosts from BoylesqueTO, were joined by Skin Tight’s Sexy Mark Brown. Throughout the night, they proved that three is definitely not a crowd.

Continue reading Review: Burlesque by Skin Tight Outta Sight and BoylesqueTO – Be Mein Valentine →

By Sam Mooney

Is it too early to tell you about a must-see show at the Toronto Fringe Festival in the summer of 2010?  You have to see The Flying Avro Arrow – A Musical at United Steel Workers of America Hall, 25 Cecil Street, south of College, west of St. George.  (Note to my editor – I’m dibsing it now!)

This musical was performed as a staged reading during Week Two of The New Ideas Festival at Alumnae Theatre. Before the reading, I had trouble imagining how anyone could write a musical about the Avro Arrow and make it work.  Playwright Doug Warwick figured it out.  It was terrific – I really enjoyed it.  The music worked, and the show was funny.

You can enjoy the show without knowing the Avro Arrow story, but it’s an important part of Canadian history and something we should all know.

Continue reading Review: The Flying Avro Arrow – A Musical – Staged Reading, The New Ideas Festival, Alumnae Theatre →