Grey with blackened edges. Mark Hughes’ life reads like a modern reboot mashup of Lost Weekend, Reefer Madness, The River’s Edge and Sleepers. Or maybe Breaking Bad with less horrific murder.

Tragedy + Time Served = Comedy was dramaturged by TJ Dawe, whom Hughes considers his mentor in getting this riveting monologue together. From the opening narration that describes the imperfect social construct that is the corrections and criminal justice system, to Hughes’ willingness to work with the reaction of his audience, this is an experience that few will forget or fail to be moved by.

It’s almost hard to...

Pig farmers are proud people. They have to be. Their families shoulder burdens both absurd and poignant. Bennett’s family history, in this second chapter of my experience with the walkabout bard, spinning his tales of family chaos to an intimate room in Granville Island’s Waterfront Theatre, nicely blends the traditional yarn-spinning of the Outback poets with multimedia, audience participation and familiarity. My Dad’s Deaths feels like the annual catch-up at a reunion, a chance to relive the stories of past reunions and expand on our knowledge of quirky families and how they got so quirky in the first place....