Ilana Lucas - Page 3

JOIN CANADA, EH? reminds us to be grateful for Canada's number one export: comedians. With all this geopolitical chaos in our own backyard, laughter is hard to come by, especially at these exchange rates.

BroadwayWorld talked to Harris and Rubinstein about why they created shows where the audience determines the order, how we make emotional connections to objects, and what constitutes “good grief.”

Michael R. Jackson’s A STRANGE LOOP is a striking text and meta-text, calculatedly raw and messy, archly vulnerable, and sacredly profane.

Second City’s Duel Citizens, in the company’s 90th mainstage review, tells our southern neighbour to get off our collective lawn in its usual sprightly and entertaining fashion.

Touching and funny, earnest yet practical, Wong’s play is a small gem with a flowing, well-crafted narrative and crystal clear characterization.

Within the larger space of Buddies in Bad Times’ Chamber, set designer Jung-Hye Kim’s constrained, small box of a playing space looks like it could be either a present or a trap, a Kinder Egg of theatre housing Vanessa Sears’ luminous solo performance.

The god Krishna (a dryly funny Neil D’Souza) asks this of one side of an all-consuming inter-family war, cousins against cousins, in the second half of Why Not Theatre’s two-part production of MAHABHARATA, the Sanskrit epic of fate, death, and cycles of violence, now presented by Canadian Stage after premiering at the Shaw Festival in 2023.

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” This classic line from THE LITTLE PRINCE encapsulates both the achievements and pitfalls of Landon Krentz, Theatre Passe Muraille and Inside Out Theatre’s co-production of a play based on the deceptively simple 1943 novella that’s beguiled children and philosophy majors for more than 80 years.

In Caleigh Crow’s THERE IS VIOLENCE AND THERE IS RIGHTEOUS VIOLENCE AND THERE IS DEATH OR, THE BORN-AGAIN CROW at Buddies in Bad Times, rage is the thing with feathers. The production, a collaboration between Buddies and Native Earth Performing Arts, celebrates the flame of righteous anger when powerful people suppress others, deferring to systems rather than offering even the slightest bit of relief or kindness that is in their power to give.

Rosamund Small’s obsessive refrain as her anxieties take hold provides a jolt as potent as the latte you might be drinking at PERFORMANCE REVIEW, an Outside the March site-specific production at Morning Parade Coffee Bar.

What did our critic think of TRIDENT MOON at Streetcar Crowsnest?

BroadwayWorld spoke with HYPOTHETICAL BABY playwright Rachel Cairns about the goals behind telling her story, finding humour in a seriously complex subject, and the play's uniquely Canadian lens.

The extremely snowy night I saw THE WOLF IN THE VOICE, an exploration by three professional singers into the joys and pitfalls of a life spent nursing the soulful but capricious vocal instrument, I had spent all day rehearsing my trusty soprano for a choral performance of my own, a live-scored film opening downtown the next night for a sold-out crowd of thousands.

Vivian Chong premieres her new solo theatre piece, BLIND DATES, at Theatre Passe Muraille. Directed by TPM artistic director Marjorie Chan, Chong's show invites audiences to experience the highs and lows of love through true stories from her dating life, interspersed with original songs. Chong's THE SUNGLASSES MONOLOGUE, which detailed her experience with a rare skin disorder, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), which led to permanent blindness, was a digital entry in the 2022 Next Stage Festival. Chong's subsequent ensemble dance work, DANCING WITH THE UNIVERSE, was nominated for a Dora for Outstanding performance. Her graphic novel, DANCING AFTER TEN, won the US Library Journal Award and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Chong's advocacy for accessibility and inclusion continues in her work as an audio description consultant and weekly accessible yoga classes. The run of BLIND DATES is Blind Friendly and live-captioned; all shows are Relaxed Performances. 

What did our critic think of WINTER SOLSTICE at Canadian Stage?

What did our critic think of ALLIGATOR PIE at Soulpepper?