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Posts Filed Under: Review

Hurt So Good

The Canadian premiere of New York playwright Rajiv Joseph's romcom with a twist. Or, should we say, a sprain.

By Carly Maga

Janet Porter and Peter Mooney love and hurt in Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries. Photo by Guntar Kravis.

A Real Full House

Eric Peterson becomes the grandpa we all wish we had in Soulpepper's You Can't Take It With You.

By Carly Maga

Patricia Fagan, Derek Boyes, Gregory Prest, Nancy Palk, Mike Ross and Eric Peterson make for a twisted family tree. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

These Foolish Games

A brash 17th century farce seems a fitting end to Canadian Stage's 2011/2012 season—which shows just how far Matthew Jocelyn has taken the company.

By Carly Maga

Gemma James-Smith and Gil Garratt are clowns without class in The Game of Love and Chance. Photo by lucetg.com.

A Memoir Too Far

A staged adaptation of Marina Nemat's acclaimed memoir Prisoner of Tehran just can't do justice to the story.

By Carly Maga

Razi Shawadeh and Bahareh Yaraghi resurrect Marina Nemat's loveless marriage in Prisoner of Tehran. Photo by Victoria Scholes.

My Granny the Goldfish Keeps Its Head Above Water

This family comedy straddles morality and cultures, but gets lost in the journey.

By Carly Maga

Don't point your finger at your grandmother-she's sassy and drunk! Kawa Ada as Nico and Yolande Bavan as Granny in My Granny the Goldfish. Photo by Nicola Betts.

Dying Hard is Hard to Watch but Worth the Effort

Mikaela Dyke's acclaimed verbatim play Dying Hard brings touching stories from rural Newfoundland to the big city of Toronto. And it's about time.

By Carly Maga

Mikaela Dyke has made a mainland success out of her coastal Fringe show.

The Happy Woman Leaves Us Feeling Sad

The new play is loaded with well-crafted characters who could be anyone’s mother, grandmother, or friend—which is why it’s so hard exploring the most damaged parts of their psyches.

By Saira Peesker

Maria Vacratsis, Martin Happer, Maev Beaty, Ingrid Rae Doucet, and Barbara Gordon appear in The Happy Woman appears on stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Photo by Guntar Kravis.

Big Questions Inside Small Room

Tarragon Theatre's latest production turns the 15th century Perrault folktale, Bluebeard, into a comment on modern day morality.

By Carly Maga

Sarah Dodd, Nicole Underhay, and Claire Calnan in The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Seeds Shows the Growth of Documentary Theatre

An all-star cast and inventive storytelling combine art and journalism in Crows Theatre's Seeds.

By Carly Maga

Liisa Repo-Martell and Eric Peterson find controversy in canola in Seeds. Photo by Guntar Kravis.

Don’t Fecking miss it

A mash-up of Irish absurdist Samuel Beckett's plays and classical music inspired by his works is pleasantly unpleasant.

By Carly Maga

Laura Condlln, Shannon Mercer and Sofia Tomic in Come and Go. Photo by John Lauener.

pomme is french for awesome

Liza Paul and Bahia Watson's two-woman show combines wordplay and another kind of play in a West Indian girl's world.

By Carly Maga

Liza Paul and Bahia Watson's pomme is french for apple is on now at The Tranzac.

Jeff and Dan and the 70-Minute Harry Potter Experience

For Potter fans, non-Potter fans, kids, adults, witches, wizards, muggles, squibs, even Parselmouths—Potted Potter is worth your hour.

By Carly Maga

Jeff Turner reads from the fourth novel and Daniel Clarkson as a frizzy-haired Ron (in front of the "Forbidden Forest") in Potted Potter. Photo courtesy of Seabright Productions.

Hughie is Brief, but Intense

Eugene O'Neill's rarely produced one-act Hughie is a bite-size piece of a longer, darker story

By Carly Maga

Michael Kash as Erie Smith. Photo courtesy of Alley Theatre Workshop.

Plainly Stunning

In Penny Plain, Ronnie Burkett celebrates 25 years of puppetry with a beautiful performance in an ugly world.

By Carly Maga

Penny Plain and her reliable companion, Geoffrey. Puppets by Ronnie Burkett / Theatre of Marionettes. Photo by Trudy Lee.

Pain, Art, and Other People

The Canadian premiere of Christopher Shinn's Other People is another story about unhappy young people in the 90s that operates on the notion that the better it is, the worse you feel.

By Carly Maga

Petra (Tatiana Maslany) argues about love, art, and pain with an unnamed character (Mike McPhaden). Photo by Mercedes Grundy.
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Thank You, Come Again

Ins Choi's Kim's Convenience makes a graceful move from Fringe favourite to Soulpepper headliner. Now, all the world's a stage.

By Carly Maga

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is funny, scary, and heartbreaking as Appa in Kim's Convenience. Just look at that face. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

A Few Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Toronto gets another serving of playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig in Tarragon Theatre's The Golden Dragon, a story of miscommunication between generations and cultures that's more sour than sweet.

By Carly Maga

David Fox inspects the incisor of Anusree Roy, while David Yee, Tony Nappo, and Lili Francks look on. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

A Dragon Tattoo, and So Much More

Canadian theatremaker Robert LePage takes Toronto audiences on a visual, personal journey through modern-day Shanghai in The Blue Dragon.

By Carly Maga

Marie Michaud and Henri Chassé as Claire and Pierre, two Canadians seeking a new life in China. Photo by Yannick Macdonald

Not a Walk in the Park

Optic Heart's Crush takes audiences into the barren landscape of an Ontario trailer park, with events you wouldn't believe—if they weren't based on real life.

By Carly Maga

Courtney Lyons (Sandra), Julian DeZotti (Martin), and Ryan Kelly (Ronny) turn the four walls of their trailers into one heck of a triangle.

Jesus Chrysler Needs a Sparkplug

Praxis Theatre's latest production tells the important but mostly unknown story of radical theatremakers in the 1930s, but gets lost in romanticism and a unique set design.

By Carly Maga

Nate (Jeffrey Wetsch) gets the spark going for Jim (Margaret Evans) in Jesus Chrysler. Photo by Will O'Hare.