Category Archives: Performance review – Theatre

Quiltro

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Quiltro-Art by Tyra Hayward

Yasmine Agocs’ Quiltro, being presented by Basil Page Productions at Soulpepper as part of the Fringe is rather more than it seems.  Here’s the blurb:

“What would you do if you could experience the memories of your ancestors?  Following her parents’ divorce, 13-year-old Nina runs away to join a group of stray dogs in her town. On her journey of self-actualization and acceptance, the looming, ominous presence of a dangerous cryptic creature stalks her, preying on the fear within her deep, dark memories.”

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Me and You and the Highland Coo

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Sara Masciotra-Milstein’s Me and You and the Highland Coo presented by Happy as a Clam Productions presented in the TD Finance Studio at Soulpepper as part of the fringe sounds light hearted enough.  Jackie and Charlie, a couple of Canadians who have just got their Masters at Aberdeen plan a road trip in search of a highland cow plushie while waiting for their visa applications to clear.  But there is trouble at home.  Jackie’s father is in the last throes of cancer and Charlie’s brother hasd serious mental health problems.  They decide to ignore text messages because if something important happens “they” will call (no they won’t says my personal experience).

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Chimping

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Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl is a one woman show written and performed by Rebecca Perry.  It’s currently running at the Alumnae Theatre as part of the Fringe.  Perry plays Joanie Little, a recent anthropology graduate with a Jane Goodall fixation and a job in a coffeeshop.  Applying her anthropological skills to the shop’s customers she takes us. on a tour of her urban jungle.  There’s her silverback boss, the “large black coffee” penguin, her promiscuous peacock ex and Sue the wild turkey jogger; among others.

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Divine Monster

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Divine Monster, by Elena Kaufman, directed by Mary Dwyer, is currently playing in the RBC Finance Studio at Soulpepper as part of the Fringe.  Martha, a young, lesbian Canadian rock singer has just split up with her girlfriend on the Paris leg of a backpacking trip.  She finds herself in Père Lachaise, chez Sarah Bernhardt, late at night.  It’s one of the rare nights when an ancient ritual might free Bernhardt from her incorporeal existence if the right “victim” can be found.  Martha, who has basically decided that she is a failure with no future might be the ideal candidate.  At least she can see and talk to Sarah though not the other ghosts who lurk around.

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Hoody

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Hoody is a tongue in cheek reworking of Little Red Riding Hood.  The schtick is that the characters have all fallen out of a copy of Perreault’s Once Upon A Time and ended up in Toronto.  In the process they have changed form so that LRRH is now a very large man (Graham Knox) and the Wolf is now a woman called Lu (Lu, loup geddit?) with an unfortunate addiction to human flesh.  It’s written by Dawna Wightman (who also plays Lu) and presented by Hoody Ink in the Solo Room at Tarragon as part of the Fringe.

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Regarding Antigone

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My first venture to the Fringe this year was a very good one. The Sky Is The Limit Theatre’s Regarding Antigone playing in the Solo Room at Tarragon is one of the best fringe shows I’ve seen.  It’s a one woman show written and performed by Banafsheh Hassani and directed by Art Babayants dealing with all the ways one can die tragically in a brutal, authoritarian state; beaten up by cops, stray bullet, “disappeared”, driven to suicide etc.

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Leaving Home

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Leaving Home is a 1972 play by David French set in Toronto in the 1950s and centring on a Newfoundland family that migrated to Toronto at the end of the war.  It originally played at Tarragon Theatre and it’s now playing at Coal Mine Theatre in a production by Halifax’ Matchstick Theatre.

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Red Like Fruit explores the stories we don’t tell and why we don’t tell them.

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“…it’s weirder and less funny and less charming than the plays I like to write, and also I’ve taken out a lot of the conventions, conventions that I like, the ones that make us want to watch plays.”  So writes Hannah Moscovitch about her 2024 play Red Like Fruit which opened at Soulpepper on Thursday night as part of Luminato in a production directed by Christian Barry.

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Tales of an Urban Indian

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I’ve heard a lot of good things about Barrie’s Talk is Free Theatre so I was very happy to be able to catch one of their shows on tour in Toronto.  The show is Tales of an Urban Indian and it’s playing in the basement of Hope United Church on the Danforth.  I think the show originally toured on a converted bus which would explain the set up; which is a narrow space with a row of chairs either side (actually two rows on one side) so the space seats about thirty five.  It’s been around since 2009 and has toured across Canada, the US and overseas nad, despite the things that have happened on the “Reconciliation” agenda since then it still feels fresh and timely.

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