Michael Healey’s Rogers v. Rogers directed by Chris Abraham opened at Crow’s Theatre on Wednesday night. It’s a sort of follow up to The Master Plan in that it’s Toronto based and deals with corporate greed and incompetence coupled to governmental ineptitude and general inability to keep up with the corporate world. It’s different in that it’s two related stories mashed together and, more notably, in that Tom Rooney plays all the characters.
‘Tis the season of family holiday shows and Messiahs. Not that I’m planning to do much of either but here are some shows that you might be interested in…
Kanika Ambrose’s The Christmas Market opened on Wednesday in the Studio at Crow’s Theatre in a production directed by Philip Akin. At one level it’s a much needed critique/exposé of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program and at another it’s basically a very funny comedy of manners. The two are extremely well integrated so that the horror of the TFWP is a bit of a slow reveal.
Here’s what’s coming up next month as best I know.
Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin is a rarity. It’s a serious play with an overwhelmingly female ensemble cast that looks at issues of class, gender, power and authority almost entirely through a female lens. It’s hard hitting, sometimes violent and often shocking which makes for compelling theatre. It opened on Thursday evening in the Baillie Theatre at Soulpepper in a co-pro by Soulpepper, Crow’s and the Howland Company, directed by Weyni Mengesha.
Life slowly returns to some version of normal.. Here’s what I’m seeing so far for Sptember.
Here are my top picks for May.
Candrice Jones’ play FLEX got its Canadian premiere on Wednesday at Crow’s Theatre in a co-production with Obsidian Theatre. It’s the late 1990s in small town Arkansas. The creation of the WNBA has provided another reason for young women (especially African American women) to try for one of the few escape routes from life in a town where the main employer is a prison. In the prison-industrial complex it’s a sports scholarship or the military.
HOUSE + BODY’s production of Measure for Measure currently playing in the Studio Theatre at Crow’s is Shakespeare with a twist. It’s an adaptation written and directed by Christopher Manousos. The schtick is that it’s part of a radio series of live Shakespeare and we are watching the goings on in the studio where five actors play all twenty characters with commercials, sponsor messages and the rest of the baggage of radio broadcasts. There are also some “off stage” shenanigans involving the actors; principally the two women who engage in wistful glances and then have an almost steamy scene in the “interval”. I’m going to speculate that this is a sort of nod to Isabella’s ambiguous nature in the actual play.
Here’s what’s coming down for the holiday season, as best I know:
operaramblings 