Cylla von Tiedemann News

“What do you do when life disappoints you?” is the question asked in the program of Jake Epstein’s BOY FALLS FROM THE SKY. For Epstein, his life and career have been intertwined since childhood, with his dreams of performing woven into many choices he’s made.

In the opening scene of THIS WAS THE WORLD, on now at Tarragon Theatre, a law professor (R.H. Thomson) meets with his supervisor (Kim Nelson) to discuss a problematic statement he made in class. a?oeI apologised immediatelya??, he insists, but the fact that he's reclining with his feet up on his briefcase suggests he is anything but apologetic. His supervisor (we later learn she is the associate dean) also informs him that the department has gone ahead with the hiring of a new law professor, an Indigenous woman, despite his complaints that she is unintelligent and unimaginative. It's important, the dean argues, Canada's legal system include more Indigenous perspectives.

Following a transfer to the Elgin Theatre that lasted most of 2019, COME FROM AWAY has returned to its original Toronto home, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, in full form. Under director Christopher Ashley, writers and composers' Irene Sankoff and David Hein story of what happened in the town of Gander, Newfoundland, in the days following 9/11 maintains all the charm that it held before moving.

Following a critically acclaimed run at the Old Vic, with a subsequent West End transfer, Conor McPherson's Girl From The North Country has been remounted with an almost completely new cast. It had a short run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, and is now back in London for a limited engagement at the Gielgud Theatre prior to residencies of Upstart Crow and the hotly anticipated transfer of Broadway's To Kill A Mockingbird.

Pinocchio is not a new story by any means, and according to director Sheila McCarthy's program note, it's been translated into 260 languages since it was written in 1881. With such a wealth of imaginings and interpretations already in the world, Brian Hill (book) and Neil Bartram (music and lyrics) wisely decide to let the simplicity of the fairy-tale take centre stage in THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO.

In the world premiere of Anosh Irani's BUFFOON, at Tarragon Theatre, Anand Rajaram plays Felix the clown, a child of the thrilling, vicious world of the circus. On a bare gray stage with nothing but a chair for company, Felix tells his life's story, beginning with his frightening birth, through the first book he read (Moby Dick), his first kiss (a?oeThat's the tree trunk, Felixa??) and many, many moments of loss.

THE JUNGLE is a boldly political new play, argumentative and direct and a bit radical. It is also a touchingly honest drama, brimming with humor and pathos. And it is also another category: a Toronto play, a play that is both of and for our beautiful, challenging city. 

Set in Bob Dylan's hometown of Duluth, Minnesota in 1934, writer and director Conor McPherson's GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY is equal parts bleak and beautiful. The busy story centers on the Laine family and their guest house; stressed father and husband Nick (Donald Sage MacKay) is busy caring for his wife Elizabeth (Katie Brayben), whose dementia has progressed to the point where she's like a rowdy child with a sailor's mouth. His issues double with their children Gene (Colin Bates), an alcoholic, would-be writer and Marianne (Gloria Obianyo), their adopted Black daughter who's several months pregnant.

After critically acclaimed, smash-hit runs at The Old Vic London, in London's West End, and at The Public Theater New York, Girl from the North Country comes to Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre for a strictly limited engagement. Performances are now on stage through Sunday, November 24. Get a first look at the cast in action!

The names Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich still hold weight decades after their glory days, and Mirvish's production of PIAF/DIETRICH (directed by Gordon Greenberg) makes it easy to understand why. The sheer star power of the two titular women, embodied here by a powerhouse cast and set at major points in each one's personal lives is the kind of complicated, beautiful story of female relationships that the world needs now more than ever.

Kat Sandler's new play, YAGA, is breezy and dark; goofy and mournful; bleak, gothic, shadowy, and really damn funny.

Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich were two of the greatest names in international show business during much of the 20th century. At a time when popular culture was still defined by a small handful of artists, these were two of the biggest. Piaf enchanted the world with her singing, her moving life story, and unostentatious appearance; while Dietrich's beauty, elegance, and bewitching stare helped to define the meaning of a Hollywood star. They were both divas without compromise, whose lives were as theatrical as their performances. Yet, these two women, who couldn't be more dissimilar and approached life and art in very different ways, became fast friends and eventually lovers.

For the first time since 1975, the Stratford Festival is putting on a production of Arthur Miller's chilling 1953 play, THE CRUCIBLE. Directed by Jonathan Goad, this production maintains a thrilling level of intensity for its entire duration, keeping audiences in the Avon Theatre utterly captivated while simultaneously squirming at the challenging situation they are seeing on stage and the frightening fact that some of the most outlandish elements of the plot are far too relatable to what is going on in politics and society today.

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, today announced that Principal Character Artist Lorna Geddes will retire from the company at the end of the 201819 season after a remarkable 59-year career with the National Ballet.

After receiving a record 11 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations including Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Musical, ROSE, Soulpepper's first original musical, is getting its own Original Cast Recording!

For the past several seasons, Stratford's Festival Theatre stage has been home to classic musical theatre productions with catchy tunes that audiences might find themselves humming long after the company had taken its final bow. This season, the musical living on that stage is a little different. It is not a classic from the golden age of broadway, the music, while moving, is likely not that familiar ear worm that you will wake up singing, and the story is as gritty and high stakes as many of the Shakespearean productions we have seen on that stage in recent years. BILLY ELLIOT officially opened to a raucous standing ovation on Tuesday evening, making it clear that Stratford audiences are more than happy to branch out to something a little different.

In a new production of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, director Jackie Maxwell guides a 13-person cast through the highs and lows of the Weston family during a family tragedy. In Maxwell and the ensembles' capable hands, Tracy Letts's delicate balance of comedy and cruelty is presented as fully as possible.

THE BROTHERS SIZE, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu and produced by Soulpepper, is a look into the lives of two brothers following the youngest's return home from prison. Tarell Alvin McCraney's 2000 work is an emotional examination of brotherhood and redemption in the deep south.

Young People's Theatre closes their season with the world premiere of Jeff Ho's ANTIGONE, which stands as an impressive contemporary take on Sophocles' classic play. The story begins with the title character's brother Neikes (Jeff Yung) leading a breakout from the re-education facility he's held in alongside his friend Haemon (Simon Gagnon). Before he can escape and lead the demonstration against the facility in the city's sacred square, he is met by the headmistress Tiresia (Soo Garay) who allows him to leave relatively easily, swayed by the memory of his mother who's been left as a "ghost in a shell" after heavy re-education. Yung offers an intense yet endearing depiction of the rebel, and regardless of his placement within the in-the-round theatre commands attention.

The Studio 180 production of OSLO, presented as part of the off-Mirvish season, tells the heavily-dramatized story behind the Oslo Accords. Written by J.T. Rogers and directed here by Joel Greenberg, the play receives a minimalistic interpretation of the 1990s backroom negotiations between Palestine and Israel conceptualized and orchestrated by Norwegian academic Terje Rod-Larsen (Blair Williams).