Forty years after its first appearance Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Shakespeare mystery comedy, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is back at CanStage in a production directed by Alisa Palmer and starring the playwright as Constance Ledbelly. It’s a strange but rewarding and very funny play. It takes two iconic Shakespeare heroines and tells their stories as they might have wanted to see them told. It’s part academic/literary mystery story with elements of panto including an impressive number of double entendres. It also mixes actual Shakespeare text, pseudo Shakespeare and something much more demotic to great effect. There’s been some mild updating since the 1980s but it’s not intrusive.
The season starts to ramp up a bit…
Musically August is pretty quiet in Toronto. Opéra Queens have a PWYC concert; Sisters in Arms, at the Tranzac on the 1st (5-7pm). Confluence Concerts emerging artists programme has a concert called Side-by-Side at Heliconian Hall on the 20th and that’s about it. There’s a bit more happening in the theatre world. 
Not much sign of spring as we move into the second half of the month but there are some things musical to enjoy while we await the return of the sun. On March 18th at 2pm in Mazzoleni Hall there is You’re Welcome Rossini with the glamorous duo of Allyson McHardy and, the not seen often enough in Toronto, Lucia Cesaroni. This one is officially sold out but there may be rushes. Ten bucks says they do the Cat duet.
