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.
Toronto: Taking audiences on an engaging yet bizarre journey, The Melancholy Play, produced by project undertow as part of the ongoing SummerWorks Festival, demands that viewers be willing to accept an absurdist, stylized approach. Sarah Ruhl's script offers a tale of deep transformation and its effect on others. With its outlandish, stranger-than-life characters, it must be what a Christopher Durang play is like.
Toronto: Beauty isn’t talent, says Amelia (Maev Beaty) to Margaret (Erin Shields), in Montparnasse an exploration of physical form, creation, perception and still-life and part of this year's SummerWorks Festival.
Toronto: What a fabulous, fun, outrageous idea! Take three extraordinarily talented improv actors and have them perform a long-form improvisation in the style of a certain playwright. Throughout their six shows at the SummerWorks festival, this cast of three who make up Impromptu Splendor will perform in styles as diverse as George F. Walker to Judith Thompson.
Toronto: Red Machine (Part Two), presented as part of this year's SummerWorks Festival, is the second part of an experiment. Seven writers were given the same idea – mysterious writer checks into strange hotel – and asked to explore it from the point-of-view of a particular part of the brain. Part two deals with language (Section Four), light and vision (Section Five) and the pleasure centre (Section Six).
This is the photograph which accompanies the review which is of a show that Allyson saw.
Toronto: XXX Live Nude Girls is a ‘Doll Opera’ by Jennifer Walshe and is part of this year's SummrerWorks Festival. It stars a collection of well used Barbie Dolls and features two vocal performers, a quartet of musicians, two camera operators, and two real-time video projections. It is bound to be one of the most unique if also convoluted shows at this year’s festival.
Charm is a rare commodity in the theatre. With entertainment dominated by violence and special effects, it is difficult to engage an audience long enough to have them care about two very ordinary people.
Under the light of the salt water moon are Jacob (Joel Grinke) and Mary (Abby Creek)
