Category Archives: Performance review – Theatre

Slug Meal

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Slug Meal by Phil LatourSlug Meal, part of Summerworks, is a one woman show presented by Camille Huang at Theatre Passe Muraille.  It’s a sort of dance X performance art piece inspired by unfortunate childhood memories of her mother’s eggplant dish, Western ideas of immigrant food and the idea of “dirt” as “matter out of place”

The highly athletic Huang performs an hour long routine, occasionally talking to herself in (I guess) Chinese and accompanied by a soundtrack that ranges from body noises to a kind of Chinese muzak.  Along the way she: Continue reading →

Bimbos in Space

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Bimbos in Space from Femmepire Theatre is currently playing at Factory Theatre as part of Summerworks.  It’s the first play I’ve seen where the content warnings included BDSM and cannibalism! It’s billed as a homage to sex workers and trans people and riffs off every cliché of the B sci-fi horror genre.

Bimbos In Space! by Teryn Lawson

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Rougarou

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Rougarou by Emily CooperRougarou is a work in progress written and directed by Damion LeClair for unnecessary mountain theatre.  On Saturday and Sunday it was given in a semi-workshop format in partnership with Native Earth at Aki Studio as part of Summerworks.

The format was basically a reading with one actor playing all the parts and a second person “setting the stage” as there were no sets or props, though the sound design, or at least part of it, was included.  I think the intent at this point is for the finished product to use two (or perhaps more) actors; one playing the main character Renee and another perhaps playing everyone else but I’m not sure of that.

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Hamlet in High Park

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This year’s Dream in High Park production is Hamlet directed by Jessica Carmichael.  Now Hamlet is an interesting choice for this format because it is, notoriously, a really long play and the High Park format demands something that comes in around two hours.   A full blown Hamlet, as in the Branagh film lasts over four hours and even with the usual stage cuts it’s a three hour plus project.  So getting it down to two hours rather meands that it’s almost as much Carmichael’s Hamlet as Shakespeare’s.Qasim Khan as Hamlet (foreground) w Raquel Duffy and Diego Matamoros (BG) in CSHamlet-photobyDahliaKatz-5475

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No mercy

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Serial killers are truly awful people.  They write some of the most excruciating prose, poetry and plays you will ever experience.  They deserve no mercy.  They also kill people.  In Cabaret of Murder; currently touring Canada with a stop at the Toronto Fringe, we are introduced to the lives and works of some of the most evil and excruciating.

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If you see my ass, grab it

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monks1Monks is a two woman clown show.  It’s that one day, every five years, when the abbot isn’t around and the brothers can take a day off from praying and counting lentils.  Unfortunately they have lost their donkey which is a perfect excuse for every possible permutation of ass jokes.

It’s hugely physical and highly interactive with water sprayers, lentils (yes more lentils), musical instruments and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, not to mention writhing on the floor and hiding in lentil barrels.  If you don’t want to engage in the antics sit right at the back and, above all, do not come late.  The full wrath of the Catholic Church awaits the Satanic evil of the tardy. Continue reading →

Koli Kari

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Koli Kari by Ganesh Thava opened at the fringe on Saturday evening.  It’s presented by Pink Banana Theatre and directed by Sungwon Cho.  It’s built around Ravi’s (Thava) attempt to use his mother’s secret Koli Kari (chicken curry) recipe to revitalise his flagging TV cooking show.  The broadcast is invaded by figures from Ravi’s past; girlfriends (more or less), his present (his mother) and a mysterious magical chicken.  At times it’s quite weird and disturbing but too much of the time it turns on the obvious cringeworthy humour in the interaction between a young gay Indian man (from Scarborough natch) and his immigrant mother who is disappointed he hasn’t become a lawyer or a doctor, married a nice Indian girl and produced grandchildren.

kolikari

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Don’t drink the embalming fluid

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I saw Stiff and Sons by Aidan Gouveia for Bare Theatre Collective directed by Daniel Reale at the Al Green Theatre on Saturday evening.  I haven’t laughed so much for all the wrong reasons since I saw Death of Stalin.  The background is a failing family owned funeral parlour.  Darren Stiff is having an affair with his brother David’s wife Pam; an aspiring Hollywood actress.  There is much shagging; mostly in coffins.

stiffandsons

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You, Hamlet

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I started my exploration of the Fringe on Thursday night at East End United Church with You, Hamlet from DopoLavoro Teatrale directed by Daniele Bartolini.  It’s an interactive show in which the three performers take the “Hamlets” (i.e. us, about 20 people) around different spaces in the church in each of which a “scene” takes place.  It gets steadily more interactive as time goes by.

you hamlet

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A Streetcar Named Desire

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Soulpepper opened a run of a revival of their 2019 production of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire at the Young Centre on Tuesday evening.  It’s a terrific production and performance but, as usually happens to me with Mr. Williams’ plays, I found myself admiring it more than enjoying it.  Showcasing dishonest, violent people living lives of noisy despair without any form of redemption, however brilliantly portrayed, leaves me wondering what the point of it all is.

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