Results tagged “georgefwalker”

Well, the snow has melted, which means it must be about time for Factory to remount another George F. Walker show. This year, it's 1974's Beyond Mozambique, which hasn't been performed by Factory in thirty years. As the title implies, this early piece by the seminal Canadian playwright is many miles away from more popular, recent Walker plays, such as the Suburban Motel and East End Plays cycles, which typically focus on working-class Torontonians inhabiting a gritty and realistic, if darkly funny, theatrical world. But don't be fooled into expecting a didactic political work exploring a foreign tragedy.

Photo of the Montreal edition of Mille Femmes from Galerie [sas]'s Picasa album. Consider the first editions of Toronto's two major multidisciplinary arts festivals: Nuit Blanche 2006 was a stunning success, a magical playground that revived the spirit of the blackout and provided a moving conclusion to Let's All Hate Toronto; Luminato 2007 was a mixed bag of highfalutin performances not attended by anyone you know (with the exception of the George F. Walker...

As the Luminato Fest continues, two more George F. Walker plays open at the Factory. Escape from Happiness is the sequel to already-opened Better Living, while Tough! is another one of Walker's East End Plays, focusing on a different group of characters. The entire play, which is only about an hour and twenty minutes long, is composed of a single scene: a confrontation between three young people in a park. Tina knows Bobby cheated on her at a party, which makes her especially mad because she's pregnant with his child, something Bobby is about to discover. Tina brings her friend Jill along for back-up, who has a long-standing grudge against Bobby and could happily "kick him to death".

George F. Walker, one of the country's most prolific and most produced playwrights, not to mention the creator of the sadly defunct CBC drama This is Wonderland, hasn't written a play since 2000's controversial Heaven, and he claims he may never write one again. But that doesn't stop him from getting produced at Factory about every year. This year, as a part of the innaugural Luminato Festival, Factory will be producing three of his East End Plays—Better Living, a remount of last year's Escape from Happiness, its sequel, and a workshop production of Tough! with a cast of 12 multi-racial young actors.

The big news this week in theatre (well, other than that) was the announcement of the newly revamped New World Stage International Performance line-up for 2007. World Stage disappeared from the radar for a while when Ontario decided DuMaurier wasn't allowed to sponsor it anymore - the last time it was here it existed on a much smaller scale, consisting of solo shows. But now, it's back and bigger than ever with 17 full productions taking over the Premiere Dance Theatre and the newly re-named Enwave Theatre (formerly the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, formerly the DuMaurier Centre Theatre...) as well as various other locations in and around Harbourfront Centre. Here's a rundown of the most exciting-sounding shows on the bill:

When it comes down to it, we should all be glad Niagara Falls exists. Yes, it’s a gash in the landscape surrounded by tack, but on the other hand, it’s a guaranteed day you don’t have to look after your friends or relatives when they come to visit. Just put them on a bus and forget about them. The George F. Walker penned film, Niagara Motel could probably do some damage to this tourist trafficking, featuring Glaswegian (and Drew Carey renegade) Craig Ferguson as a drunken janitor, lamenting the death of his wife, who fell off the Maid in the Mist. Intriguingly, the film faces direct competition from Escape from Happiness, the George F. Walker penned play starting on Saturday at the Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst) that has far better reviews.