Torontoist » Theatre

A Speed Round with Dan and Jeff from Potted Potter

Daniel Clarkson and Jeff Turner can tell the entire story of Harry Potter in 70 minutes, but can they keep all the details straight? We put them to the test.

Potted Potter: The Unauthorised Harry Experience—A Parody by Dan and Jeff Panasonic Theatre (651 Yonge Street) February 11 to March 25 $29.95 to $99.75 Much like heart attack–inducing burgers and pounds of poutine, there’s something about a seven-part epic of magic, destiny, and good vs. evil that just begs to be ingested in a fast-paced, [...]

What to Catch at the 33rd Annual Rhubarb Festival

The Rhubarb Festival, which opens tomorrow, continues its reign as Canada's oldest celebration of new and experimental theatre, spanning two weeks, with more than 40 performances and over 100 artists.

The Rhubarb Festival Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street) February 8 to 19 Wednesday to Sunday evening passes $20, Sunday afternoons PWYC For quite some time now, artists have said that this isn’t the most friendly time to be a theatrical risk-taker. For example, there was the SummerWorks funding crisis last summer, which [...]

Egoyan Gets Cruel and Unusual

Cruel and Tender marks Atom Egoyan's highly anticipated return to theatre after an absence of more than 20 years. But Martin Crimp's unusual play is bound to leave some audience members perplexed.

Cruel and Tender Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front Street East) January 21–February 18, 2012 Monday–Saturday 8 p.m.; Wednesdays 1:30 p.m.; Saturdays 2 p.m. $20–$99 These days, Greek is chic. At least, it is in the theatres of Toronto. At SummerWorks last year, we had two different takes on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, as well [...]

Plainly Stunning

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

Penny Plain Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street) January 20 to February 26 PWYC to $55 Canadian theatre magician Ronnie Burkett has spent the last 25 years creating stunningly lifelike marionettes with his company, Theatre of Marionettes, while honing techniques that transform the puppets from inanimate objects to emotive beings right before our eyes. But beware [...]

Ten Questions With: Atom Egoyan

At Torontoist we love Q&As and profiles, but sometimes asking a whole bunch of people the same set of questions can be even more revealing. So that’s what we decided to do. Atom Egoyan is a renaissance man. He has already proven himself a master of the moving picture, with titles like The Sweet Hereafter, [...]

Hell is Other People (You Met in School)

Emerging theatre company Arts & Lies is producing Sartre's No Exit. They've also tarted it up a bit—which, considering three of the actors are former students of their fourth co-star, makes for some interesting power dynamics.

No Exit Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue) Running until February 4, Tuesday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m. $19.95 students, $24.95 general (PWYC January 29, 2 p.m. matinee) “Three people find themselves in a parlour room—in Hell. They have conflicting personalities, and discover the tortures of Hell, for them, is being stuck with these other people.” That’s [...]

Change is Good

In its Canadian premiere, the 1960s-era musical Caroline, or Change is a big, bold, belting delight.

Caroline, or Change The Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street) January 21 to February 12, various times $18 to $45 2011 was a year of great change: political uprisings, world-altering deaths, and technological progress all made the world we know today a vastly different place than the one of only a few years ago. And [...]

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.

Other People Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 Mill Street) January 18 to 28 Monday to Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. $15 to $22 At one point during Christopher Shinn’s Other People, on now at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, one character recounts how a former lover said [...]

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.

Kim’s Convenience Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 Mill Street) January 19 to February 11 Monday to Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees at 2 p.m. $32 to $68 The term “game changer” is thrown around a lot, usually referring to the latest app that lets you flick things at other things, or a tiny [...]

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.

The Golden Dragon Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue) January 18 to February 19 Tuesday to Saturday at 8 p.m., weekend matinee at 2:30 p.m. $23 to $43 The Golden Dragon is a mouthful, and we’re not only talking about its playwright, Germany’s Roland Schimmelpfennig. Centred around a Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese fast-food restaurant in an unnamed city (it [...]

The Penelopiad is Hilarious, Thoughtful, and Deeply Upsetting

The play, written by Margaret Atwood and now on stage at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, is hilarious and heart-wrenching.

The Penelopiad Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street) Jan. 10 to Jan. 29 PWYC–$46 (20% discount for patrons assisting patrons with disabilities) Male theatregoers beware: Nightwood Theatre’s Penelopiad makes your gender the butt of a significant number of jokes—but if you’re man enough to take it, you’ll be thankful you did. Being staged [...]

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.

The Blue Dragon Royal Alexandra Theatre (260 King Street West) Jan. 10 to Feb. 19 $25-$99 2012 is the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar, but in the hands of Canadian theatre mastermind Robert LePage, the place where dragons really shine is on one of Toronto’s biggest stages. The Blue Dragon opened last [...]