The great pity is that this high-energy rock musical is largely unintelligible. From flashing lights and the smoke of dry ice to booming sound, all the accoutrements of a rock concert are in place, but only rarely are the song lyrics or even the dialogue distinguishable. …
Written and Composed by Jason Robert Brown
Originally Produced for the New York stage by Arielle Tepper and Marty Bell, Orpheus Musical Theatre Society. Directed by Kodi Cannon
From the joy of meeting to the unravelling of love and back again, The Last Five Years is a poignantly told tale of a failed marriage.
As always with broken relationships, communication breaks down. And in his semi-autobiographical chamber musical — inspired by his failed marriage — author Jason Robert Brown emphasizes the inability to connect by its unusual structure. …
Don’t Dress for Dinner By Robin Hawdon
Adapted from Marc Camoletti’s French farce Kanata Theatre
Directed by Peter Williams
The kindest comment about Don’t Dress for Dinner is that it makes Marc Camoletti’s better known sex farce Boeing-Boeing look good. Although playwright Robin Hawdon’s adaptation/translation of Camoletti’s 1991 formulaic repeat was a West End success in its early years, it is very much a poor sibling. It’s also a reminder that without superb performances and first-class timing the sexual fling fantasies of yesteryear belong in the past. They are just not particularly funny in 2018. …
Anie Richer and Lydia Riding in a scene from The Virgin Trial. Photo: Andrew Alexander. Posted on Artsfile.ca
Kate Hennig’s The Virgin Trial is a must-see gritty political crime drama that upends expectations of innocence and victimhood
The Great Canadian Theatre Company’s production of The Virgin Trial by Canadian playwright Kate Hennig is a stunning gritty political crime drama that centers on a treason scandal in the young Queen Elizabeth I’s life that forces the audience to grapple with ideas of innocence and victimhood in a nuanced way. …
The Virgin Trial By Kate Hennig. GCTC Directed by Eric Coates
Violence, political and religious intrigue and power seizures were the norm through much of the Tudor era. From peasant to prince, marriages were economic unions focused on increasing land holdings and influence.
Rumours swirled around those in power, those who sought power and those about to be imprisoned in the Tower of London for interrogation and torture. Perhaps they were guilty. Perhaps, they had merely chosen the wrong side at the moment. …
Sylvia By A.R. Gurney, Ottawa Little Theatre
Directed by Chantale Plante
Full disclosure first: The bookcase by my window has a full row of dog books with a day-by-day dog calendar on top. My dog is sitting on a chair beside me as I write and, of course, I talk to her (and to my cat – fairness in all things) all the time.
So, I have no trouble accepting A.R. Gurney’s premise in his 1995 play Sylvia that the other woman in Greg’s life has four legs. …
The thing to remember about the late A.R. Gurney’s charming comedy, Sylvia, is that it’s a love story — admittedly an unorthodox one, but a love story nonetheless.
On the one hand we have Greg, a Wall Street financier heading for a mid-life crisis. On the other hand hand we have Sylvia, the irrepressible pooch he has encountered in the park. In rescuing her from the threatening embrace of the Animal Control brigade and bringing her back to his apartment, he earns Sylvia’s unconditional love. …
Kate Hennig’s The Virgin Trial is a stunner of a play. Hennig’s whip cracking dialogue, laced with tart humour, is delivered with precision by a uniformly excellent cast taking the audience on a perilous journey through the fecund hedge maze of sexual desire and political intrigue. Based on the pre-Queen adolescent life of Elizabeth the First, or Bess, played with vibrating intelligence by Lydia Riding, The Virgin Trial mines history for its known facts, and takes flight;
By Thom Fitzgerald, TotoToo Theatre. Directed by Sarah Hearn
My colleagues have already expressed their admiration for this production and I can only agree with their opinions. Not that this was a surprise because Toto Too is in the habit of giving us excellent performances under the steady hand of inspired and creative directors and Cloudburst was no exception. …