Ilana Lucas - Page 4

Rapp’s play, about a Yale creative writing professor facing down a terrible illness, and her relationship with a challenging student of whom she asks an impossible favour, has lived in my mind since I saw it. It’s a familiar story that goes in new directions; it’s mesmerizingly told, and acted with chemistry and grace by its cast of two.

What did our critic think of BOOM X at Streetcar Crowsnest? Born at the end of 1984, I'm a 'geriatric millennial,' only able to admire the sarcastic, too-cool-for-school slacker aesthetic of my slightly older peers from beyond the confines of artificial generational divides as I toil away at my side hustle.

VACHES is a moo-sical that will have you moo-ving enthusiastically to its zany beat…even if the plot has more holes than Swiss cheese.

JUNIOR, the International Children’s Festival, takes centre stage at Harbourfront this holiday weekend. Children are invited to choose their own adventure from a large menu of artistic work from around the globe. BroadwayWorld spoke with co-curator Lisa Marie DiLiberto to find out what people can expect from the festival.

Watching THE CHINESE LADY, you get the distinct impression that you are, in fact, trapped in a box, as much an exhibit to the woman watching your gaze as she is to you. She stands on a small, white square platform with a rim that suggests Chinese carvings, the postage stamp that marks the confines of her life.

Though her style may not be for everyone, Woolley is clearly a talent to watch, displaying a range of abilities in her twisty, complex script. PAINT ME THIS HOUSE OF LOVE gives us a compelling situation, strong characters, and one truly blazing performance, but also the frustration of a conversation that never fully gets started.

The show’s thematic identity crisis notwithstanding, Campbell’s return to the stage is cause for celebration. He knows how to spin a tale that will keep you at the edge of your seat…and how to snatch that seat out from under you while you’re sitting there.

The comedy complex at the bottom of a soaring condo tower has declared that this SKYLINE’S THE LIMIT, and in its new revue directed by Kirsten Rasmussen, it’s as satisfying as a Leafs playoff series win in overtime.

It’s hard to imagine two paired dance shows more different than helix by Atri Nundy and GIVE ME ONE by Danah Rosales, the double bill that makes up Toronto Dance Theatre’s CONVERGENT DIVERGENCY, now playing at the Winchester Street Theatre. They form an intriguing counterpoint that investigates the form of dance and what it can be.

What did our critic think of PRODIGAL at Streetcar Crowsnest? PRODIGAL, written and directed by The Howland Company's Paolo Santalucia and now playing at Crow's Theatre, takes place entirely in the kitchen of the wealthy Clark family over a weekend where the past comes home to roost. Patriarch Rowan Clark (Rick Roberts) finds out that he is about to come into a powerful political position, as his son Henry (Cameron Laurie) and daughter-in-law to be Sadie (Veronica Hortiguela) celebrate their engagement in the other room. Unfortunately for him, his prodigal son chooses that evening to return, mostly because he finds he's been cut off from the family funding to preserve their clean image under the added scrutiny politics will require.

What did our critic think of REDBONE COONHOUND at Tarragon Theatre? That's the hotly debated question in Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton's new play at Tarragon Theatre, co-produced with Montreal's Imago Theatre. In REDBONE COONHOUND, interracial couple Mike and Marissa (Christopher Allen and Chala Hunter) find the delicate power balance that comes from living in the world with vastly different experiences can be upset by a small incident that carries the weight of history.

What did our critic think of ARE WE NOT DRAWN ONWARD TO NEW ERA at Bluma Appel Theatre? The symbolism is pretty clear: if a single red apple hangs tantalizingly from a lone onstage tree next to a sleeping woman, the fruit will be plucked, innocence will be lost, and Eve and Adam will have to leave the garden. However, in the story of humanity's hand in its own destruction, what's often left unexplored is the question: What if we could put the apple back?

THE MAGIC OF ASSEMBLY, a vibrant dance show, thrives on making invisible threads visible. With a blend of contemporary and street dance and live music by duo LAL, it’s sometimes bewildering, but mostly, the experience is wild, wacky, and wonderful.

Marius von Mayenburg’s MARTYR tells the story of a radicalized Christian teenager and his crusade of extremism that damages everyone around him. ARC’s production's sharp, slick direction and assured cast expose some flaws in the idea-heavy script. However, it ultimately succeeds in showing theatre’s great power to ask big, unsettling questions.

Inspired by Martha Baillie’s novel The Incident Report, multi-media artist Naomi Jaye has brought MIRIAM’S WORLD to Passe Muraille. In this approximately 20-minute video installation, the theatre is transformed into a library, where interactions between projections of a librarian and patrons make us think about the dwindling nature of public space.

Ronnie Burkett's LITTLE DICKENS, a partially-improvised puppet homage to A Christmas Carol set in the bawdy and naughty world of show business, is a metatheatrical, in-joke-filled wonderland that pulls all the right strings.

In Kanika Ambrose’s OUR PLACE at Theatre Passe Muraille, Andrea (Virgilia Griffith) and Niesha (Sophia Walker), immigrants without papers, dream of better lives for themselves and their children back home. Due to the pandemic, the show was postponed twice; now, like a dream deferred, it explodes onto the stage with verve and pathos.

Moscovitch’s POST-DEMOCRACY, a new, tight one-hour drama at Tarragon Theatre, bares the seedy, nepotistic underbelly of the glistening penthouse. The bleak hour is gleefully biting in its criticism of a class invulnerable to consequence. However, it bites off a little more than it can chew in addressing the issues implied by its portentous title.

Renowned Toronto dance company Kaeja d’Dance, winner of the 2019 Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, brings the premiere of two new works to Harbourfront Centre from November 11-13. The company, now in its 31st year, presents 31: TOUCHX and I AM THE CHILD OF as part of Harbourfront’s Torque series.

John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt claims that doubt may be as enduring a force as certainty. Though I’ll never know if the Broadway production would have been life-changing, I can say that the intimate, intense production by new company B&E, set within The Church of the Holy Trinity, certainly makes a convincing argument.