At the Shaw: Maria Severa

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #5
The new musical from Jay Turvey and Paul Sportelli brings something very new to the Shaw, even if the plot is nothing new for musical theatre. Essentially a mashup of Carmen’s tropes and Aida’s plot, Maria Severa tells the story of a young Portugese prostitute (the titular Maria) who falls for a man above her station (the handsome bull fighter Armando De Vimioso), who is, in turn, being forced to marry a woman he doesn’t love for her money (Clara da Silva). Maria’s beautiful and groundbreaking music, fado, makes her an important advocate for her people in the poverty-stricken Mouraria, but her love of Armando forces her to choose between love and loyalty. Most of the songs are as derivative as the plot, but as played by an exceptional cast, Maria Severa’s sultry tones are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dreary Shaw season full of period English living rooms and parlors.

The Huntington Delights and Inspires with A New Candide

photos by T Charles Erickson

by Brian Balduzzi

The rarely-produced Candide is a literary torment to stage; not only does the musical feature an impressive and daunting score, but there is a large ensemble of characters, numerous set changes through magical worlds, and a distinct comedic style that borders on the macabre. I can think of few companies other than the Huntington Theatre Company with the talent, resources and ambition to accomplish such a stunning production of this glorious musical. With the broad strokes of her delightful new adaptation of the classic Voltaire satire, Mary Zimmerman adds an artful eye to the minutiae in her staging and directing of the musical numbers, fluid scene changes, and ingenious relationships between the many featured characters and ensemble members.

At the Shaw: Heartbreak House

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #6
There are a few recurring themes at Shaw this year; the first is conventional staging, the second is excellent design, the third is strong supporting players, the fourth is obnoxiously long productions and the fifth is, well, Shaw I guess. What I mean by that is strong scripts with fantastically clever dialogue and well-drawn characters with obnoxious and preachy social themes. Those are the inescapable features of a Shaw play. And by “inescapable” I mean “the festival’s reverence for the playwright blinds them to the necessity of underplaying such things for a modern audience”. Heartbreak House is a perfect embodiment of everything the Shaw Festival is doing both right and wrong this season (hence it’s sturdy position in the dead centre of our rankings: 6/11).

At the Shaw: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #7
The first thing that stands out about The Shaw Festival’s current production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is Sue LePage’s perfect set. Tennessee Williams is notoriously detailed in his stage directions; he describes the feel of the place just as much as the look- the sounds, the smells, the generally intangible. With her detailed bedroom design, LePage captures all that with great power. Both beautiful and rundown, spacious but claustrophobic, the room the audience finds themselves spying on seems to steam with heat from the oppressive southern sun and repressed sexual frustration. Director Eda Holmes then fills that space with a compelling saga well-acted and staged if in desperate need of a more time-conscious cut.

At the Shaw: Candida

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #8
Candida is a play that is both fascinating and a little dull at the same time. It’s an inconsequential marital squabble that goes on a bit too long and contains perhaps a bit too much philosophizing on the meaning of love and marriage. It’s also revealing and engaging as a social study and a question of spousal selflessness. The production at The Shaw Festival this year is also all these things: predictable and dull some times, thoughtful and endearing at others. It features a middling performance or two but also a star turn from its youngest player.

At the Shaw: My Fair Lady

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #9
My notes on The Shaw Festival’s production of My Fair Lady contain only one word: “Birds!!!”. The reason for this is that there is very little to director Molly Smith and set designer Ken MacDonald’s interpretation apart from the far-from-novel metaphor of birds and bird-related things (various "spread my wings" themes and such- get it?!) Lerner and Loewe’s classic musical gets an energetic staging that is as entertaining as it is uncreative but even in its deepest moments I couldn’t help but laugh at those damn birds. They fly through the scenes along the animated backdrop, they chirp their way through the soundscape, they feature in set-dressings, props and hair pieces, their cages even descend from the ceiling to indicate that we may now be in Mrs. Higgins’ house but the metaphor isn’t to be forgotten (if that were at all possible).

At the Shaw: Drama at the Inish

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #10
Drama at the Inish, a comedy written by Lennox Robinson and directed by Shaw Festival Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell, does nothing in particular wrong. The dialogue is clever, the plotting concise, the staging effective, the set well dressed. The talented cast aptly juggles their quick comic material with excellent Irish accents. But the whole thing is somehow remarkably dull.

At the Shaw: On The Rocks

by Kelly Bedard

Ranking: #11 
At 2 hours and 15 minutes, The Shaw Festival’s weakest production of the year drags unforgivably. The story of a weak-willed Prime Minister whose sudden socialist enlightenment causes great tumult, On The Rocks has within it some great themes of idealism in government and the importance of standing for something, but it falls to George Bernard Shaw’s most obnoxious tendencies.

The Ingenues are Growing Up

by Kelly Bedard

This was the year that the Stratford Shakespeare Festival finally saw their ingénues grow up.

Sara Topham, now in older and sturdier roles, is still smattering her characters with a think layer of affected fairy dust, but for the most part the young women of this year’s company are bringing intelligence and guts to their varied and demanding roles.

Dion Johnstone on Aaron

photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

by Kelly Bedard

One of the best productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival this year is the gruesome early revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus. Director Darko Tresnjak's enthralling production features strong performances from the likes of Amanda Lisman, John Vickery and Bruce Godfrey. But much of the play's success rests on the shoulders of one of my favourite actors, a friend of My Theatre and a My Theatre Award winner last year- Dion Johnstone. In the crucial role of villainous Aaron, Johnstone steals the show with a performance that's both frightening and unsettlingly charming.

After his great interview in the 2010 Nominee Series, I asked him if he would take some time out during the run of Titus to talk about his experience in the complex role. The gracious actor generously obliged, rushing over after a matinee to meet me for coffee and wax poetic about one of my favourite characters in the canon.

Read on for my candid (and spoilery- just a warning if you haven't seen the show) conversation with Dion Johnstone.

Company at the Cineplex

Company, is a masterpiece in Sondheim's body of work. The simple story is so nuanced and steeped in human reality that it is actually one of the composer's most complex works. So when the NY Philharmonic announced that they'd be assembling an all-star cast to take on all the "Sorry/Grateful" contradictions of the piece, I couldn't have been more thrilled at the prospect of seeing the play tackled by the best of the best (even if it was streamed to a movie theatre instead of live in concert).

Soulpepper's White Biting Dog

by Kelly Bedard 

The final show of Soulpepper's summer season baffled me a little bit.

Judith Thompson's White Biting Dog was effectively executed by first time director Nancy Palk and Soulpepper's stellar acting company, but the point somewhat eluded me. It had its moments of poignancy, some of them very pronounced, but overall left me some mixture of confused and impressed more than moved or inspired.

Summerworks 2011: the top 5

by Kelly Bedard

In our first year covering Toronto's Summerworks Festival we saw a total of 10 vastly different productions. From the beloved to the despised; from uber professional to pathetically amateur; pretentious to earnest; new works, established favourites, ensemble projects, two person vignettes, musicals, absurdist parables, dance pieces, hits, bombs, comedies, dramas and every possible thing in between. Our week at Summerworks had it all.

We've already detailed the 5 productions about which we were maybe a little less than enthused, so without further ado, here's the lowdown on the 5 that we absolutely loved.

Summerworks 2011: the bottom 5

by Kelly Bedard

In our first year covering Toronto's Summerworks Festival we saw a total of 10 vastly different productions. From the beloved to the despised; from uber professional to pathetically amateur; pretentious to earnest; new works, established favourites, ensemble projects, two person vignettes, musicals, absurdist parables, dance pieces, hits, bombs, comedies, dramas and every possible thing in between.

Our week at Summerworks had it all.

With so much to talk about, we've divided our coverage into 2 parts: the best and the worst. For the sake of ending on a high note, we thought we'd start with our disappointments first.

So here's the lowdown on our 5 least favourite shows from Summerworks (from worst to best).

Soulpepper Navigates the Delicate Menagerie

by Kelly Bedard

As the background notes in Soulpepper’s Glass Menagerie playbill remind us, Tennessee Williams had a preoccupation with delicate people. He loved them. Himself being a fairly delicate person, he found them the most sympathetic, the most relatable. I, who greatly admire Williams’ poetic language and unrelenting dedication to emotional complexity, really struggle with the plight of the delicate. I’m a rare harsh creature vastly more interested in those who can help themselves than those who will break if the world moves naturally around them. So, while over the years I have found that The Glass Menagerie is my favourite of Williams’ creations, I’ve come to see its literal and metaphorical preoccupations with delicacy as hurdles a strong company has to clear on its way to a great production.

Soulpepper’s recent take on the great play cleared the issues effectively, with only the occasional stumble over some of Williams’ more unavoidable insecurities.

Living in Arcadia with Bad Habit Productions

by Kelly Bedard

Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is one of the most interesting theatrical pieces written in the 20th century. It’s quick-witted and academic, funny and touching, thought-provoking, heart-breaking and wildly entertaining. With heavy parallelism linking the superb characters between two eras in a single household (1809 and 2011- the studied and the studying), Arcadia becomes a sort of puzzle for the audience, putting the pieces together as Hannah and Bernard try to, discovering the missing links and the importance of the character connections. It’s one of those pieces that when directed and acted competently can be a lightning-fast night at the theatre that’s memorably rewarding for the audience.

Boston’s Bad Habit Productions was far more than competent in their handling of such precious material this August. Director Daniel Morris both designed the beautiful and functional open-concept set and used it perfectly, negotiating his actors around a tricky four-sided audience setup. The work of lighting designer Michael Clark Wonson and sound designer J Jumbelic added wonderfully to the tone of the piece and Barbara Crowther’s costumes were wonderful.

But it was the altogether very strong cast that really brought Stoppard’s largely character-driven piece to life.

Introducing Argos Productions

by Kelly Bedard

I’m a little bit in love with Argos Productions. With a charismatic artistic director and a mandate to perform original works with the writer involved in the development, Argos is the latest company after my heart. Their inaugural production, however, is a little shaky.

Billy Bishop Went to War a Long Time Ago

by Kelly Bedard

I saw Billy Bishop Goes to War years ago. The version I saw featured a middle-aged Billy boastfully recounting his historical triumphs and the antics of his charismatic younger self. It was light and full of energy, clear but reflective, a really enjoyable and engrossing piece of theatre.

At the Fringe: The Best of Fringe Uptown

by Kelly Bedard

There were a couple shows that we just couldn't get to (but really wanted to) during Fringe this year. Luckily, there's The Best of Fringe Uptown where the best of the best productions are remounted for a handful of performances each. This year the selections included some of our favourites from our week at the Fringe (Mickey and Judy, Living with Henry, Pitch Blond and Love,Virtually) but also afforded us the opportunity to see three of the shows we tragically missed. Here's the skinny on those shows which proved the very definition of "Best of".

Soulpepper's Summer: The Kreutzer Sonata

by Kelly Bedard

Ted Dykstra’s solo interpretation of Tolstoy’s novella was a fascinating and engrossing work. A dynamic and surprising performer, Dykstra captivated an audience for the entire run time by doing nothing more or less than telling a story. Within the profound piece that framed artistic collaboration as the ultimate intimacy, Dykstra faced the impossibly lonely task of doing it all on his own- adapting, directing, memorizing, performing- it was just him.

The Secret Garden

by Brian Balduzzi

We are often surprised to find the world is not what we first expected; brothers can betray us, wives can die unexpectedly, and the world can be a more beautiful place than how we’re accustomed to seeing it.

The MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players presented a captivating and surprisingly talented interpretation of Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden. The musical tells the classic story of Mary Lennox, a sullen and obstinate child, whose parents are unexpectedly killed by cholera in India. She is sent away to live with her hunchbacked Uncle Archibald in England where Misselthwaite Manor houses more than simply the inhabitants, but also the ghosts and memories of loved ones past. Here, Lennox learns to love again with the help of a pair of brother-sister servants and a forbidden garden that houses its own secrets and magic.

At the Fringe: Part Three

by Kelly Bedard

We were working hard this Toronto Fringe, taking in a total of 16 plays ranging from dance to drag to one-man displays or neurosis. There were companies of one, companies of ten, staged readings, fully-mounted musicals, lots of laughs, a couple of tears and grades ranging from A to D. Read on for our absolute favourite productions of this year's Fringe.

Newton Country Players' "Into the Woods" Isn’t Your Average Fairy Tale

by Brian Balduzzi

I’ve argued with many friends about the purpose of theater; some people believe that theater is meant to tell a story and entertain, while others maintain that a performance is not complete without leaving the audience with some message or question to ponder later that night. I can think of no finer work to satisfy either group’s desires than Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods. In the hands of the Newton Country Players, the ambitious production featured an especially strong supporting cast, but lacked magic in its execution.

At the Fringe: Part Two

by Kelly Bedard

We were working hard this Toronto Fringe, taking in a total of 16 plays ranging from dance to drag to one-man displays or neurosis. There were companies of one, companies of ten, staged readings, fully-mounted musicals, lots of laughs, a couple of tears and grades ranging from A to D. Read on for all the productions that scored within the ever-popular B-range, from the so-so to the pretty darn close to fantastic.

FUDGE Theatre Company Does Carousel

by Brian Balduzzi

I was raised on Rodgers and Hammerstein; in fact, I didn’t think there was any musical that I hadn’t seen by this famous musical writing team. And then I remembered Carousel. Richard Rodgers is cited as saying that it was his favorite of all his musicals, quite a compliment given that Oklahoma! preceded it by just two years.

Carousel is a timeless story of carousel barker Billy Bigelow and his intense romantic relationship with the local factory girl Julie Jordan. Most audience members know how it ends, if only because of the very famous and incredibly moving “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. However, Friends United Developing Genuine Entertainment (F.U.D.G.E.) Theatre Company prove that this show is more than a simple love story about two ill-fated lovers. FUDGE’s production is passionate and moving- pulsing with vibrancy- and the production features exceptional performances from, most notably, the secondary characters.

From the Desk of an Irrational Dreamer, a Much Ado Dream Cast

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has already announced their 2012 lineup, but other than Christopher Plummer’s return in A Word or Two, the casting still remains largely a mystery. So, before my dreams are dashed by the inevitability of some of my favourites not returning, I thought I’d speculate about what would be my ideal casting.

Flat Earth’s "Bug" Surprises and Excites

by Brian Balduzzi

I think I'm infected, but that’s not always a bad thing.

Flat Earth Theatre’s production of the problematic Bug infected me with inspiration and awe. I wasn't a fan of the play before seeing this version. I thought that it was an actor’s journey into internalized storytelling, but Flat Earth rose to any challenges in the script with gusto and skill. Let’s explore why I’ve been bitten by Flat Earth Theatre’s Bug’s brilliance.

The story, a mere hour-and-forty-five minute suspenseful thriller, begins with Agnes White, a thirty-something cocktail waitress, leaving her abusive husband Jerry Goss to live alone in a seedy motel room. Agnes’ lesbian friend R.C. introduces Agnes to Peter Evans, a young Gulf War vet who's gone AWOL. From there the paranoia, intensity and conspiracy theories build within the tiny confines of the motel room.

Evan Buliung, leading man

I’ve seen Evan Buliung a couple times during his eight years at the Stratford Festival. I’ve always liked him well enough but never really noticed him. I mean, I remember seeing and liking his Mercutio, but was so taken with Gareth Potter’s Romeo that I couldn’t tell you what I liked about the more challenging role. Last season, my first full year covering the festival, Buliung was wasted on the underwhelming original play King of Thieves, leaving the heavy leading man lifting to the likes of Potter and his fellow Gentleman of Verona Dion Johnstone.

But this past week, my second trip to the festival this year turned out to be a bit of a Buliung-fest. I had tickets to three shows and just so happened to be scheduled to see The Little Years and The Grapes of Wrath back-to-back.

"2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical" Not a Totally Hideous Dystopia

by Brian Balduzzi

On my latest adventure into the Boston fringe theatre scene, I discovered what may be the longest, most eccentric title yet; the production bursts with the same energy. 2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical!, a Near-Futuristic Dystopian Cyperpunk Musical Comedy, flashes and pulses with a punk rock score and “hip” cyber jokes. I will admit that I was/am a cyber geek and I suppose the show could be renamed “a musical comedy for cybergeeks”. The audience was split between patrons who dropped into Club Oberon after a long day in the office (really, what did they expect? Carousel?) and the cult crowd that 2010: Our Hideous Future has been generating since its debut at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in August 2010. This show speaks to a generation of young theatregoers who tweet on the T, Facebook a break-up (yes, I used it as a verb), and use Foursquare to update Mom and Dad about when they’ll be home.

The Unfortunate Unfortunate

by Brian Balduzzi

Vagabond Theatre Group was very ambitious in their staging of The Unfortunate Cutthroats, an original play written by Zach Winston and directed by James Peter Sotis. The Unfortunate Cutthroats portrays life at sea for what else but cutthroat pirates. The production bobs like a boat out at sea and staggers under the weight of an unfortunately long script, but shines with some able actors and a strong director.

The show opened with perhaps its most compelling scene: Marcus, a young pirate played by Peter Murphy, examines a tied-up Claude Amos, played with particular skill by an unmoving David Max Gibbons. Unfortunately, the production went off-course from there.

Sugar Cereal Productions is "snap, crackle, and pop"-ping Fresh

by Brian Balduzzi

The Boston theatre scene is small and, with each new production reviewed, I notice more and more overlap among companies; there are directors who perform as actors, costume designers dressing as patrons, and actors who mask as critics. Recently, I was delighted to be invited to a galas for the opening of a new company by one of my favourite multi-hyphenates, Mark Sickler.

Next to Normal at the Opera House

Next to Normal is one of those pieces that, no matter what you do with it, ultimately comes down to the actors. You can place it on a cool, versatile and modern set, you can dress it up with colour-coded costumes and loud rock music, you can place it in the biggest venue available. Ultimately it's a small story in the hands of 6 people.

In the touring production currently playing at the Four Seasons Centre, those 6 people achieve varied amounts of success for the uneven but entertaining Dancap production.

Mmm, Mmm, Good: A Bold Production of "MilkMilkLemonade"

by Brian Balduzzi

Heart and Dagger Productions presents a challenge with verve; its newest production of MilkMilkLemonade is not for the faint-hearted.

Set in a fictitious town, young Emory (played by "Bad Boy of Theatre" Joey C. Pelletier) dreams of a life outside his Nanna (played excellently in drag by Mikey DiLoreto)’s farm. He is just a regular eleven-year-old boy who choreographs dances to “Anything Goes” with his human-sized chicken friend, Linda (played with subtle and finely-tailored movements by Erin Rae Zalaski) and dreams of performing on Star Search. Everything is perfectly choreographed in young Emory’s life until he meets Elliot, the boy down the road (played in convincing drag by Melanie Garber). Elliot is exactly what you would expect from an eleven-year-old boy- an angry pyromaniac with a twin growing out of his leg.

If this short description has not sold you on the premise, maybe the production’s wide range of themes and topics from homosexuality to corporations to vegetarianism to friendship will convince you that MilkMilkLemonade is one cool drink to swallow.

The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade

Soup Can Theatre's production of Marat/Sade is packed full of great ideas, but they're not always perfectly realized. Sarah Thorpe's eloquent director's note reveals the brilliant intellectual backbones of her interpretation- how she's modernized the text to explore the themes in ways that are both nationally historic and hauntingly current. But her setting of 1957 Montreal gets lost in the play's multi-layered frame. One chilling moment that would drive home the atrocities of the psychological experiments going on at McGill at that time is the only clear reference to the chosen time period, the rest of the frame understandably getting confused with the original setting of the world of the Marquis de Sade- a reality I'm not sure the text allows for the escape from.

Luckily, the terrifying 19th century world of the original setting does allow for vague modernization to explore Thorpe's chosen themes, even if the specifics of her Canadian history expose don't survive the translation. Those shiny white-tiled walls painted with opaque, un-washable blood stains could be anywhere, anytime when the mistreatment of the mentally ill taints history. With the limitations of the frame, Thorpe succeeds in stripping Marat/Sade from its time period but doesn't quite succeed in adding her own.

At the Fringe: Part One

We were working hard this Toronto Fringe, taking in a total of 16 plays ranging from dance to drag to one-man displays or neurosis. There were companies of one, companies of ten, staged readings, fully-mounted musicals, lots of laughs, a couple of tears and grades ranging from A to D. Read on for the skinny on our least favourite productions of the jam-packed week.

My Theatre Recommends: Sweeney Todd

Our favourite youth company is back for their 7th season this year with the incredibly ambitious Sweeney Todd. The teenagers and instructors at No Strings Theatre have been working since July 4th with masterclasses in drama, voice and dance to prepare for next weekend's production at the Al Green Theatre (750 Spadina Ave). Tickets are on sale now to see this remarkable group of young performers attack Sondheim's darkest creation. Visit www.nostringstheatre.com for more information.

Show times:

Wednesday July 27th - 7:30pm - Cast A
Thursday July 28th - 7:30pm - Cast B
Friday July 29th - 1:30pm - Cast B
Friday July 29th - 7:30pm - Cast A
Saturday July 30th - 1:30pm - Cast A
Saturday July 30th - 7:30pm - Cast B

Fun with Shakespeare

Even if you're not a bard lover, this video by impressionist Jim Meskimen, featuring Clarence's speech from Richard III, is a load of laughs and crazy impressive. Check it out.

A Fond Farewell to IDS

by Brian Balduzzi

The Independent Drama Society (IDS) closes its final season in good health with Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor at the Factory Theater. Director Christine Toohey guides the production alongside a surprisingly large and diverse fleet of assistant directors, setting the tone for the collaborative piece. The Good Doctor is a collaboration in every sense- not only are multiple directors working with an ensemble of varied actors, but the piece is a showcase for not one but two famed writers, Neil Simon and Anton Chekhov. Simon weaves an evening of Chekhov’s hilarious and poignant stories of Russian life, which Toohey directs with sensitivity and an eye for detail. While the vignettes are met with varying degrees of success, the cast, crew and design team meet the challenge of each story with vibrant energy and passion worthy of IDS’s final production.

Theatre@First Intimately Stages “Equus” in Somerville

by Brian Balduzzi

Peter Shaffer's Equus has seen many notable productions since it was written in 1973, including a 1976 Broadway production featuring Anthony Hopkins and Peter Firth playing Dr. Martin Dysart and Alan Strang, respectively. Most recently, I saw the 2009 Broadway revival with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe tackling the same roles. While appreciating the production and loving the script, I was not impressed with the theatricality and storytelling of the play until I saw Theatre@First’s innovative production.

Toronto Welcomes "The Railway Children" with Awe and Ennui

The stage adaptation of E. Nesbit's story The Railway Children (onstage now with Mirvish Productions) is all bells and train whistles with very little to sustain it. The relatively small story feels like it takes hours to tell as the cramped audience waits patiently for the inevitable conclusion, or at the very least for the storied real working train to make its appearance.

"9 to 5" brought to you, inescapably, by Dolly Parton

9 to 5 is a rousing new musical, an adaptation of the 1980 film and the recipient of multiple Tony nominations last year. The Dancap production, which premiered last night and runs until July 10th at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, features a truly remarkable cast in full energetic array against sets and costumes every bit as bright as their plastered smiles and the relentlessly uptempo score.

Dreaming Downtown

My love for Urban Bard Productions has been well documented on this site. So, naturally, I was incredibly excited to see what director Scott Moyle has come up with for the uber popular and oft-insane comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The first thing to note when going to see Urban Bard's Dream is that you have to walk through Dundee Place at 1 Adelaide St. E to get there. This is not something my friends or I knew, so we almost missed the show looking for signs pointing us to the courtyard. But once we found it, what was waiting for us was a fairly typical if slightly unpolished (and sometimes silly) Urban Bard production.

My Theatre's Guide to Shows

It's hard to stay on top of the hundreds of theatre companies in and around Toronto. Add in the Shaw and Stratford festivals and there's so much going on on any given day that it's impossible not to miss something. So, to help you out, we at My Theatre have made you a comprehensive (and remarkably time-consuming) guide to Toronto's best companies (and a couple round Ontario too). From June 2011 to February 2012, we've got you covered with this colour-coded guide to all things theatrical. Be sure to check the legend at the bottom for clarification on what's what. Click on the images for a clearer view. 

Can’t Wait Productions presents its first piece, "Oleanna"

by Brian Balduzzi

I love new theatre companies, their first productions always pulse with a brilliant first-time energy. Can’t Wait Productions’ Oleanna by David Mamet opened with this same raw verve. Upon arriving at the First Church Somerville venue, the audience was ushered not into a proper theatre but into a small office with the name John displayed charmingly on the door, as though we were intruding right onto the character's territory. Though the audience was seated uncomfortably on cramped folding chairs in the tiny room, the set was innovative and the use of the office really clever. Dull lighting and expertly placed set dressings set the mood perfectly, including details like the display of The Privilege of Education, an integral book to the plot. The delayed performance time and questionable soundtrack put me off immediately, but director Tasia Jones' passionate opening remarks more than made up for any wasted time. As the play began, the two-person cast carried that passion through their performances, but they never quite rose to their director's level.

The Boston Conservatory Workshops "Factory Girls"

The Boston Conservatory Theater Ensemble has never failed to impress me, and its recent workshop production of Factory Girls proved no exception. The level of effortless performance delivered time and again by their students always seems to come as a surprise. Guided by an excellent faculty who recognizes the importance of the theatrical process, the Masters candidates at the Boston Conservatory always come through with a successful product. Factory Girls seemed like a logical choice for a strong class of women working towards their M.M (Masters of Music); with roles that ranged from demure to brazen, the female ensemble was tasked with the daunting challenge of representing the dreams, background and real lives of the girls who worked the Lowell Mills.

Based on "The Lowell Offering" and "The Voices of Industry" (periodicals written by women working in these local mills in the early 1840s), The Factory Girls tells the fictionalized story of one representative textile mill- an homage to the real women who lived the compelling tale. Composer/playwrights Creighton Irons and Sean Mahoney use the powerful pop/rock score as a vehicle to showcase the hope and angst of their characters. With a limited book, the lyrics propel the story forward.

...la ronde...

The Red Light District's most recent production appeared daring. Staged at Toronto's notorious Club Wicked, it featured a brave ensemble caught in various compromising positions as they navigated what was supposed to be a boundary pushing mashup of turn of the century Vienna and modern Toronto nightlife. Going in, I knew I'd be very out of place at Club Wicked, and squeamish about the many many many different ways I knew director Ted Witzel had invented to simulate onstage sex. But I was also familiar with Witzel's work and knew that he'd never once staged anything that even remotely interested me on paper or failed to enthrall me in person. The company also featured a couple of last year's My Theatre Award nominees (Eve Wylden and Michael David Blostein). So I steeled myself for the awkwardness I'd have to bear in order to enjoy the depth that the RLD always brings to their work.

Propeller's oldschool/newschool Shakespeare

Propeller Shakespeare Company, performing through June 19th at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, is a damn cool company. This UK group's respect for the text, their return to basic themes and their bold all-male casting make them somewhat traditional in their approach to Shakespeare. But then there's masks and shiny suits and sombreros and heads floating in jars and a supremely physical, modern sensibility to their productions. Their current stagings of Comedy of Errors and Richard III are bursting with bold choices- they're daring and strange, sometimes haunting, sometimes silly, sometimes exactly what the doctor ordered to make a tough scene finally work. But amidst innovation and insanity, there's a real anchoring in the history of the text that makes Propeller a fascinating mix of the old and the new.

Hedda Gabler (sort of)

Boston University had a lot of faith in Ellie Heyman's surrealist interpretation of Hedda Gabler, mounting it on the BU main stage instead of in a standard CFA space like any other masters thesis project. As such, Ibsen's remarkable text about a caged, trapped woman appeared on an enormous proscenium, played out to hundreds of seats. Everything became big- the performances, the sound design, the direction, even the costumes. Big. When the only thing that should be big about Hedda Gabler is Hedda's presence in her limited space. A hugely ambitious production, CFA's Hedda Gabler was an interesting interpretation of something, but it wasn't Hedda Gabler.

The Learned Ladies

This spring I had the privileged of seeing many of Boston University's School of Theatre productions. If you read this blog regularly you'll have read my accounts of the all-female Julius Caesar, the award-winning original play Fallujah, the student/professional collaboration Walking the Volcano and the fascinating thesis projects from the senior Theatre Arts majors. Still to come is a review of one of the CFA season's biggest ventures: Hedda Gabler at the Huntington Theatre.

In general, the work coming out of CFA is remarkable- notably and appropriately stronger than the work of BU's extra-curricular theatre ensembles. These are the kids who are doing it, throwing themselves head first into the painful, thankless and draining life of a theatre professional. And none of them seems to mind that reality one little bit, because they clearly love the work. Nothing made this clearer than my favourite CFA production of the year, the clever, vibrant and satirically wonderful romp that was Moliere's Learned Ladies.

STAMP- Judas Iscariot & HAMLT/AGMMMNN 2.wtvr

In the early weeks of May, as school came to an end for Boston University's senior Theatre Arts majors, the performance spaces at the College of Fine Arts were filled with thesis projects. This year's STAMP (senior theatre arts thesis productions) entries included Steven Adly Guirgis' raucous Judas Iscariot, Phillip Berman's The Last Confession of the Virgin Maria and a double bill set of adaptations called HMLT/AGMMNN 2.wtvr. The line for the final show of Virgin Maria was out the door so I unfortunately missed out on that one, but read on for my thoughts on the other two projects: