By Nisean Lorde
Valentine’s Day is next week Friday — no worries if you haven’t yet figured out what to do for a perfect date night, there are tons of shows, events and activities that you and your loved one can check out on Feb. 14! From music at twilight to sultry comedy plays about modern-day dating, here are … Continued
By Ron Johnson
Welcome to The Play’s the Thing, your go-to column for a comprehensive rundown of the vibrant and dynamic theatre scene currently unfolding in Toronto. In this column, we’ll spotlight the latest and greatest productions gracing stages across the city. Let’s find out what’s happening now. Les Miserables, Fantastique There is always something about Les Miserables. … Continued
By lindsaylow
Hamilton After premiering off-Broadway in 2015, becoming the hottest ticket in New York City and garnering a slew of awards along the way, the song-and-rap musical Hamilton is set to make its Toronto debut on Feb. 11, 2020. Hamilton is a musical about Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America. The production drew … Continued
By Ron Johnson
A Streetcar Named Desire is a powerhouse of a play. To tackle such demanding work requires boatloads of ambition and skill. Soulpepper’s latest production, which runs until Oct. 27, has both. The result is a stunning effort featuring some of the best acting performances of the year. The Tennessee Williams play premiered on Broadway in … Continued
Toronto theatre-goers have a lot to look forward to this fall. From Mirvish mega-musicals to silly scenes from The Second City, we’ve got a busy theatre season ahead of us. Here are our top picks.
I know a film critic who not only refuses to watch the trailers of the movies he’s assigned to review, but he doesn’t even IMDB them beforehand. It’s a strange notion in our age, when one can basically know everything about a movie (or a play) without even bothering to watch it. Since I haven’t read Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane, I thought Soulpepper’s latest production was the perfect choice to attend “blind.”
Truth be told, when I was asked to review Soulpepper’s latest production, The Barber of Seville, based on Pierre Beaumarchais’ 1775 French farce and Rossini’s 1816 opera, I initially balked. Soulpepper, I adore. French farce? Je t’aime. But opera? No grazie.
There are very good reasons why Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead has been revered as a modern classic since it first saw light of day onstage in 1966. And Stoppard has gone on to become one of the most respected playwrights in the world, for the legitimate reason that he is one of the most gifted in wit, craft, characterization and plot.
What a thrill it was — and is — to see Samuel Beckett’s hilarious and depressing (there’s a post-apocalyptic linking of two adjectives, eh?) Endgame, playing at Soulpepper until Nov. 17. I have long preferred it to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and to every other “absurdist” play of the second half of the last century for that matter.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible became one of my favourite plays after reading it for the first time in grade 12 English. No doubt, my curiosity of Wiccan culture at the time attributed to my admiration of the American classic (I was a pretty superstitious teenager). So, 10-plus years later, as I waited for the Soulpepper production to start, I wondered if my fondness for the play would remain the same or diminish.
For those of you who have not had a chance to take in the often-hysterical, usually profane, but always interesting plays of Chicago’s David Mamet, I would urge you to see a production of Glengarry Glen Ross (whether on stage or on film). Soulpepper, this country’s finest theatre company, knew enough to put on a superb Glengarry several seasons ago.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night centres on the Tyrone family, and is a thinly disguised study of American playwright Eugene O’Neill’s own parents and sibling in the early decades of the 20th century. The Tyrones are a family of Irish heritage that is filled with hurt, rage, anger and deep love. Sadly, they’re also filled with endless liquor and, in the case of the mother Mary, with morphine.
