Torontoist » Megan Follows

The Royal Ontario Museum Takes a Modern Approach to the Cradle of Civilization

Jamie Bradburn — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:00:32 +0000

The ROM's new exhibit offers a glimpse into ancient Mesopotamia, the birthplace of urban civilization.

The name “Mesopotamia” derives from a Greek term meaning “land between the rivers.” The Royal Ontario Museum’s latest major exhibit, which opens on June 22, takes this literally, as visitors flow between painted representations of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the floor.

Presented by the British Museum and rounded out with pieces from institutions in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia, Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World covers 3,000 years of human development in the cradle of urban civilization. Most of the 170 artifacts on display have never been shown in Canada.

Passion Play‘s Journey Through Time

Steve Fisher — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:30:39 +0000

At four hours long, this sprawling, religious epic makes demands of its audiences—but it's worth the trouble.

There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen for the Canadian premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, a triptych set in three time periods that tells the stories of amateur actors (played by real actors) involved in staging performances of the story of Christ. Three different Toronto independent theatre companies, all with reputations for innovative staging and creation in their past work, each tackle one of the three acts. Ordinarily, such a complicated arrangement would be to a show’s detriment, but not in this case. While you need to be prepared for a marathon of theatre (the show runs four hours, incluing two intermissions), you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth.

Luminato 2013: A Literary Picnic

Peter Goffin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:00:02 +0000

Sixty acclaimed authors will gather in Trinity Bellwoods Park to read from their work and talk with fans.

“A cross between Woodstock and the Algonquin Round Table,” is what Michael Redhill called it. Dorothy Parker grinding out an electric cover of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Well, not quite. Rather, Redhill, the literary curator for Luminato 2013, was describing A Literary Picnic, the annual festival’s celebration of storytelling, creativity, and the written word.

A Guide to the 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival

Tracey Nolan — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:45:41 +0000

The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival features international legends and local favourites. Plus, the first night is free.

The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival descends on the city this Friday with a huge “free for all” event. That means all of Friday’s programming at every Jazz Festival venue is, yes, completely free of charge. There will be concerts from local favourites Molly Johnson and Mary Margaret O’Hara, plus a show by Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves, who will be launching the fest from its epicentre, Nathan Phillips Square.

Here’s a rundown of some of the shows worth checking out on Friday—and during the rest of the festival, when you’ll actually have to pay.

Urban Planner: January 8, 2013

Jessica Buck — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:00:14 +0000

Today: Cinema Politica profiles the Doctors of the Dark Side, Megan Follows stars in The Penelopiad, and Nick Flanagan performs at The Joke Club.

The Penelopiad starring Megan Follows opens tonight at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Photo by Robert Popkin.

FILM: This month’s Cinema Politica focuses on U.S. military torture with a screening of Doctors of the Dark Side. The documentary profiles four detainees and the psychologists and physicians who designed, facilitated, and covered up the torture program to which they were subjected. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 6:45 p.m., suggested donation $2–$10.

THEATRE: Tonight, Megan Follows stars in Nightwood Theatre’s The Penelopiad, Margaret Attwood’s witty and provocative response to Homer’s The Odyssey. Forced to spend eternity in Hades, Penelope recounts her life story and the murder of her 12 handmaidens by her husband Odysseus. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street), 8 p.m., $38.

COMEDY: In preparation for a big taping, Nick Flanagan is putting on a one-night-only Joke Club. Expect plenty of material about the YMCA (whatever that means), from both him and Canadian Comedy Award winner Tom Henry. The night will be hosted by Sarah Ford, a Laugh Sabbath regular. The Garrison, Front Room (1197 Dundas Street West), 9 p.m., PWYC.

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.

Cloud 9 is a 10

Johnnie Walker — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:15:00 +0000

Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

A couple of seasons back, Soulpepper put on a production of well-respected (if notably unusual) British playwright Caryl Churchill‘s Top Girls, helmed by talented director Alisa Palmer, and everyone thought it was the bee’s knees. So much so, in fact, that it won Palmer that year’s Dora Award for Outstanding Direction, and was remounted the following season. Now, a new production of Churchill’s surreal sex farce Cloud 9 has opened at the Panasonic Theatre, reuniting Palmer’s direction with Churchill’s words, and featuring a fantastic cast, including Top Girls alums Megan Follows and Ann-Marie MacDonald. If you enjoyed Top Girls, do yourself a big favour and book a ticket to Cloud 9, which is as smart, funny, and just plain strange as the Soulpepper hit. If you’re completely unfamiliar with Churchill’s work, it’s also definitely worth picking up a ticket, but we feel you should be warned that some aspects of the show might seem jarringly unnatural if you’re used to more traditional theatre fare.

How’s this for a plot summary: Act One is set in Africa in 1880, focusing on a colonial British family (husband Clive, wife Betty, children Edward and Victoria, grandmother Maud, nanny Ellen, African “boy” servant Joshua, and adventurous neighbours Harry and Mrs. Saunders). Act Two is set in England in 1980, yet features the same family, aged only twenty-five years. Further complicating matters is the casting: in Act One, Betty is played by a man, Edward is played by a woman, Joshua is played by a white actor, Maud by a black one, and Victoria, by a doll. And in Act Two, they all switch. Yet, if you think any of that sounds terribly high concept, perhaps even snobbishly inaccessible, you’d be 100% wrong. Churchill’s script is very smart, but it’s also very, very funny, and its broad humour is the perfect antidote to any potential inaccessibility. And the casting forces the audience to take a long, hard look at the various inequities that existed in both time periods. Clandestine homosexual encounters are enacted by opposite sex actors. Heterosexual marriage is represented by two men. A woman who needs to “stay in her place” is played by a man in a dress (and Judith Bowden’s revealing costume design never allows us to forget that we are, in fact, watching a man in a dress).
This is a wonderful play for actors, and each member of the cast gets to be hilarious in at least two separate roles. Evan Buliung is terribly sympathetic both as matriarch Betty in Act One, and her gay son Edward in Act Two. David Jansen is a riot as domineering father Clive in Act One, and deranged preschooler Cathy in Act Two. But perhaps the most memorable performance comes from Ann-Marie MacDonald, so spry and youthful as Act One’s younger Edward, and then so hilarious as Act Two’s grandmother Betty, who finally seems to be on the road to self-actualization.
It’s rare to see a piece of theatre so brilliantly conceived and perfectly realized. If you can open your mind up to the idea of seeing something that’s just a little bit different, you’re in for a real treat!
Cloud 9 runs at the Panasonic Theatre until February 21.

Middle-Aged Suicide (Don’t Do It!)

Johnnie Walker — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Soulpepper continues its year-round season with Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning drama ‘Night, Mother. Written after the suicide of one of Norman’s close friends, this quiet, personal drama tells the story of a mother and daughter’s strained relationship in a single scene, at the beginning of which the daughter informs the mother that she will be killing herself that night. The play not only consists of the events that take place between this revelation and the act itself, which involves the mother, Thelma, pleading for the daughter, Jessie, to change her mind, but also the simple, mundane events of a typical night in. The mother-daughter dynamic owes more than a little to Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, and the play can almost be read as a the further adventures of Laura and Amanda Wingfield.
Alisa Palmer directs a very straightforward production of the play: the scripts every bag of Ho Hos, jar of licorice allsorts, and sofa slipcover remain intact and in detail. The choice works, and it’s actually somewhat refreshing to see a production of an established play that doesn’t involve a director forcing and obnoxious and ill-fitting concept onto the work. The performances are also very compelling. Dawn Greenhalgh’s Thelma is clueless, a little goofy, and entirely believable, while Megan Follows’s Jessie is a woman who is entirely convinced she has made the right decision, and the two play off each other beautifully. The strange thing about ‘Night, Mother is that while the dialogue is all highly realistic and credible, the situation itself is somewhat questionable. Who would inform their mother of their impending suicide and expect her to be okay with it? If you can suspend your disbelief on that one detail, you’re in for an affecting, beautiful night of theatre.
‘Night, Mother runs at the Young Centre until June 21.
Photo by Sandy Nicolson.