Fables warning against the dangers of greed and temptation are nearly as old as humanity itself; yet there’s perhaps no story better known that relays this lesson than Christopher Marlowe’s 1592 play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. Plan B Productions’ #Faustus, directed by Graham Price, is an ambitious attempt to make this story more readily applicable to the present day, in that the powers given to the title character by Lucifer allow him to wreak havoc primarily through the dark web (the criminal underground of the internet, for those unaware). As an adaptation of a 400-year old plus play, #Faustus is fairly successful.

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When an actor is making jokes about the people who came in late and lets the audience know that they will be attending a “circus of life and love”, one knows that they’re in for an amusing time. From the colourful and cutesy setting to the outlandish costume Rachelle Elie wears for her initial role of Susan, everything about MAL signals a show that is meant to be taken light-heartedly and not too seriously. The overall tone of the show is in contrast to its title, which as Susan informs us, means such things as “dark” and “bad” in French. Susan states that she is here to make the audience forget about “mal” (with a few digs at unpopular political figures such as Doug Ford and Trump); Elie is able to do just that throughout the course of the show, with a combination of old-fashioned gags and tricks and dirty humour about peoples’ sex lives. …

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Clocking in at only 20 minutes, Erum Khan’s self-created show Becoming seemingly starts, reaches its climax, and ends in the blink of an eye. Which is a shame, since the basic elements of this production are all intriguing and could benefit by being fleshed out more. The play centers around a single character (Khan) trapped in purgatory, who is trying to retrieve memories of herself and her girlfriend. A striking film projection (from avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren) is used to illustrate a memory of being by the beach, with Khan perfectly mimicking the movements to the actress onscreen. Upon her retrieval of these memories, the woman then jumps into presenting a bunch of philosophical questions to the audience: the nature of purgatory for one, as well as whether it is right to abandon one’s faith if it hasn’t done anything for them. …

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In our current moment, a play about the struggles of unemployment and being unable to pay one’s rent would seem to be quite a relatable one (especially for millennials).   Beginning with three roommates who fail to make the monthly payment to the landlord, the story spirals into occasions of utter chaos and extremity (including when the group accidentally murders a bird in an odd game of ‘bird-beer’ pong). The roommates, the hard-working but dissatisfied Mark (Andy Kellie), the flighty Xan (Carley Richards) and the deadbeat Haydn (Jon Dickey) are drawn into conflict with each other as the rent remains unpaid and their illicit trips to the roof continue. …

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Dead Unicorn Ink, by Patrice Forbes

With the advent of blockbuster superhero films and the MeToo movement, the place of women in these films and their original source material (comic books) is receiving ever greater scrutiny. A Girl in the Fridge, created and directed by Patrice Forbes and produced by Dead Unicorn Ink, attempts to investigate this very concern and bring awareness to how the media we consume influences our attitudes in real life. Centering around Eve (Forbes), a PhD student who is doing her dissertation on the treatment of women in comic books, the show is able to make its case without being overly preachy. While the show sometimes has Eve recounting statistics about the fates that various female characters face (her observation that comics offer a way for people to live out violent fantasies is particularly astute), it also lets these facts be played out in the story onstage rather simply stating them. …

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