Results tagged “blumaappeltheatre”

Gossip no longer, culture vultures. We've finally got confirmation on CanStage's upcoming season. Like it or not, it looks like the rumours are true. As we reported before, the Bluma Appel Theatre's rather commercial lineup is entirely free of any Canadian-written shows, which has some folks in quite a tizzy. And as we suspected, CanStage is getting its CanCon through co-pros at the Berkeley Street Theatre. They're calling it The Berkeley Street Project, and it seems intended to supplement the Bluma's playing-it-safe season with "edgier, more provocative works." The first show, Wild Dogs (a co-production with Nightwood Theatre), is a stage adaptation of Helen Humphreys' eponymous novel. Up next, Studio 180 co-produces the Canadian premiere of Blackbird, a West End and off-Broadway hit by British (and consequently not Canadian) playwright David Harrower. The final co-production (with Necessary Angel) is the Toronto premiere of HARDSELL, a new work by Bigger Than Jesus team Daniel Brooks and Rick Miller. (Although, the only reason CanStage can claim "Toronto premiere" status is that the workshop presentation Brooks and Miller were going to present at Passe Muraille a month ago was cancelled due to illness.)

Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but it's certainly disheartening to finally see the company do something really, really right while knowing what's in store for the future. The abrupt departure of new Artistic Director David Storch a few weeks ago was enough of an unpleasant surprise. But further news reported in The Toronto Star was even more alarming. A total of 10 CanStage staff members have apparently been laid off, including dramaturge Iris Turcott, who, like Storch, will henceforth bear the dubious title of "consultant."

Some biggish news announced this week in regards to two of this city's major theatres: Passe Muraille and CanStage (oh, I'm sorry, I mean "The Canadian Stage Company"—more on that later). Let's start with Passe Muraille, the plucky underdog.

, CanStage's first production of 2006. The title refers to the thousands of children who were sent from Scotland to work on Canadian farms between 1868 and 1930 - they were known as "home children", and it is thought that a good tenth of today's Canadian population is made up of their descendents. But MacLeod's play isn't a sweeping historical overview - on the contrary, the action is set in the present day (or five years ago at most - it's a little unclear), and follows the usual tropes of Canadian drama. Lorna (Brenda Robins) returns to the family farm in Cornwall, Ontario for the first time in years (she's been living in Toronto, of course - semiotically the city of soulless single mothers who have betrayed their heritage). Her father Alistair (the excellent Eric Peterson), was a home child, and has always refused to talk about his miserable childhood. He suffers a stroke during Lorna's visit, and she learns from his stroke-induced rantings that he had a younger sister, Katie, back in Scotland. Lorna, thrilled by this accidental revelation from her normally taciturn father, determines to track down her long lost aunt.

is full of doctors who feel up their patients, and vicars who look up girls' skirts. Booby-grabbing is frequently substituted for an actual punchline, and there is a running joke about the "permissive society" that flew right over our head. The older members of the audience (who were all tuxed up for the opening, which TOist loves to see) all seemed to have a good chuckle, so our nonplussed reaction may have been more of a generation gap problem than anything else. It's not that this production has nothing to recommend it; the inexplicable dance sequences are a lark, the lighting is beautiful, and Shiela McCarthy is always a joy to watch. And we certainly don't begrudge Panych his ribald whims, but we can't really help but wonder what CanStage, whose mandate is ostensibly to promote Canadian theatre, is doing with a dated (and misogynistic) British farce, no matter how shiny they've made it.