Victoria: 8 1/2 sketches. Begin with written cards that render a good laugh. Chris then launches into a monologue, script in hand, a good old southern boy saying goodbye to his grandpa Peter rocking on the front porch. There's a disagreement on the location of the fourth wall. Segue to a job interview, and it's established we're in the throes of two young performers who have nailed the manic, precision mastery of meta comedy improv.
Vancouver: I got to the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island a little tipsy on white wine and with meat still stuck between my teeth from dinner. Somehow, it seemed a fitting state to take in a burlesque musical.
Toronto: This sentence is the first sentence. This is the second sentence and it informs you, the reader, that this is a review for Red Machine Part 2, the second part of a theatrical experiment presented as part of this year’s SummerWorks Festival.
Toronto: I didn’t read the program notes before seeing Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry by Daniel Barrow (and part of this year’s SummerWorks Festival). So my initial impressions were quite far off base.
Toronto: Toronto Noir, a Cheeky Magpie production and part of this year’s SummerWorks Festival, is a smart evocation of film noir cast into the landscape of cotemporary Toronto. It tells three interwoven stories – kind of like Robert Altman’s Short Cuts for the stage. These stories were sourced from a collection of stories of the same name.
Vancouver: Powered by ecstatic dance, saturated with colour, and exquisitely staged, Bollywood Wedding is a unique midsummer spectacle. Featuring twenty-four dancers, thirteen actors, a full band, and three individual musicians, it was not only colourful but also a busy affair.
Toronto: Rabbit Rabbit, part of the ongoing SummerWorks Festival real-time two hander could have been dull and contrived, but a grungy premise and a appetite for verbosity on the part of playwright Amy Lee Lavoie keeps it attention grabbing the whole way through.
Toronto: When I was a small boy I asked my mother why we didn’t go to church like people on television. She answered that she stopped going to church when she discovered that the Bible contradicted itself on practically every other page. After a brief pause, I answered “okay” and went back to watching Star Trek reruns as my Sunday devotion.
Toronto: Playwright / performer Dave Deveau became obsessed with the story of Larry King – a 15 year-old gay boy who asked 14 year-old classmate Brandon McInerney to be his valentine. Two days later in first period computer lab, Brandon shot Larry in the head with a .22 calibre revolver. My Funny Valentine, part of the ongoing SummerWorks Festival, is Deveau's response to that tragedy.