Playwrights You Should Know

So….the other morning I read a list of “30 female playwrights you should know”. I was really excited to click the link. And while I really do appreciate the work of the women listed there, the list felt painfully incomplete. My first instinct was to tweet it, along with “Lets’ list 30 more”. So i’ve decided to create my own list. Look these fabulous playwrights up - links to their public info are included where applicable.

1. Tara Beagan - ntlakapamux and irish “canadian” theatre artist, author of (among others) Reckoning, free as injuns, and In Spirit

2. Hannah Moscovitch - Canadian playwright, author of (among others) Bunny, Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story, and Secret Life of a Mother

3. Falen Johnson - pissed off Mohawk playwright and writer (as per her twitter), author of Salt Baby, Ipperwash, and more…and co-host of the amazing Secret Life of Canada podcast.

4. Kate Hennig. Kate has been writing in one way or another for most of her life. Her writing includes plays, poetry, stories, articles for industry publications, a dissertation, two blogs, and a research paper. Writer of The Virgin Trial, The Last Wife, and more.

5. Yolanda Bonnell - Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer emerging performer and playwright of Anishinaabe/Ojibwe and South Asian descent, author of bug, White Girls in Moccasins, and more.

6. Debbie Patterson - Winnipeg playwright, director and actor, author of Candy from a Baby, Molotov Circus, Sargent & Victor & Me, and countless more, and creator of Sick + Twisted Theatre.

7. d’bi young - Jamaican-Canadian dub poet, monodramatist, and educator, as well as a 3 time Dora Award-winning actor and playwright, writer of The Orisha Trilogy, The Ibeyi Trilogy, and more.

8. Susanna Fournier - writer, actor, and the artistic producer of PARADIGM productions. Writer of Antigone Lives, Vincent, ALL THE WAYS YOU SCARE ME, and more.

9. Columpa Bobb - Canadian photographer, actress, playwright, poet and teacher of Coastal Salish descent, and writer of Singing Shards, Jumping Mouse, The Race, and more.

10. Trey Anthony - playwright, actor, and producer. Creator of Da Kink in My Hair, How Black Mothers Say I Love You, and more.

11. Yvette Nolan - Canadian playwright, director, actor, and educator. Writer of Annie Mae’s Movement, BLADE, The Unplugging, and more.

12. Alix Sobler - writer of theatre, television, and film, including The Glass Piano, The Secret Annex, Sheltered, and more.

13. Pamela Sinha - writer, actor. Writer of Happy Place, Crash, New, and more.

14. Djanet Sears - playwright, actor and director, nationally recognized for her work in African-Canadian Theatre. Afrika Solo, Harlem Duet…the list goes on.

15. Marjorie Chan - multi-disciplinary theatre artist working as playwright, librettist, director and dramaturge. Writer of Women of the Ward, Ocean Child, and more.

16. Audrey Dwyer - multi-disciplinary artist with over twenty years of experience working as an Actor, Director, Playwright, Teacher, Facilitator and Mentor…writer of Calpurnia & more.

17. Anusree Roy - Playwright, actor, librettist. Writer of Pyaasa, Brothel #9, and more (including operas!)

I’ve put together 17. All from this Northern land, mostly off the top of my head or with a quick google search refresher. Who would you add?

EDIT: Adding a few more.

18. Carolyn Gray - Canadian Playwright. My favourite of Carolyn’s plays is The Elmwood Visitation, and her North End Gothic is a delightful script you should all read.

19. Kat Sandler - Canadian playwright, dramaturg & actor. Kat has an array of plays including Mustard and Bang Bang.

review. Unsafe by Sook-Yin Lee @ Canadian Stage

The funny thing is, I never felt unsafe. I felt that this discussion, this demand for interrogation of censorship, of what censorship even means, was and is so urgently necessary. Who gets the commissions? Whose voice is heard? Whose perspective is excluded.

Sook-Yin Lee’s Unsafe is an exploration of these topics, using her skills and notoriety as a journalist and provocateur to delve into a series of interviews. The interviews are clearly edited; we see the cuts, the fast forwards in the video. She speaks of things that happen that she can’t share the details of, because permission was taken away, or never granted in the first place. The meta-journey through the creation of the piece, through the relationship of these two artists to the work and to each other, is familiar. Initially set up as a quiz show or ted talk, the play worked best, when it veered from that format of a staged discussion and into a representative world, one where theatricality was the most important, and if drama happened, so be it.

The ingenious staging from Sarah Garton Stanley served to amplify the right moments, and to highlight for us that the performance was self-aware. The images and movement about the stage were delightful, using the space in the Berkeley Street Theatre to its utmost potential to shape-shift into different worlds that were all a part of Lee’s intellect.

The conversation about censorship has moved underground, so to speak; it isn’t overt, in shutting down shows, but rather in the very funding models and commissioning models and support models that exist in this country for making new work. Lee’s interrogation really underscored (for me, anyway) the frustration that the topic, although a worthy one, was first offered to one White Guy, and then to Another. I’m grateful that the second one accepted, and brought in a new perspective…and then stepped back at just the right moment to let this work shine in the way it needed to. No offence to Zack Russell, but this isn’t a topic for a traditional play.

It was certainly interesting to watch this highly theatrical interpretation, right on the heels of watching the Forced Entertainment “Speak Bitterness” livestream, which was on the very opposite end of the theatricality spectrum, vehemently and insistently un-theatrical.

Again, I didn’t feel unsafe, perhaps because I’m the very generation of artist who grew up watching Sook-Yin Lee on Much Music. Exploring, provoking, experimenting…and just existing as a wonderfully quirky and unapologetic artist in space, with a lot of questions. Who, at least in some part, was inspired (or provoked) by Lee’s edgy and demanding nature, to make the work I do. Unsafe just reminded me that the teen in someone’s basement in suburban Winnipeg, watching Much Music with her friends, isn’t too far away. And she hopes that the people who needed to see this, and needed to think about these things, did. And will continue to do so.

review. A Blow in the Face - Bald Ego & Nightwood @ Theatre Centre

Postpartum depression is a challenging topic to talk about in a truly theatrical manner. How do you represent an experience that most women experience in some manner, but which differs for each experience of it, in a manner that will be sufficiently specific while simultaneously relatable? Lisa Ryder’s script is one of the best efforts at this I have seen. It begins in a fairly normal-looking home; a couple are dealing with a new baby, husband needs to leave for a couple weeks for work, there are household things to do on top of the all-consuming baby care. Quickly we spin into a weird and zany world where two aliens are representative of the weird, sometimes funny, sometimes dangerous ideas that creep around in a new mother’s brain.

Monica Dottor’s direction is beautifully choreographed; the three lead performers are deft in their physicalization, so deeply rooted in their bodies that the strange and highly stylized movements seem completely natural, allowing the audience to slip into the mind and world of Alice, the new mother. It is weird. It is funny. It is wonderful. At a snappy 70 minutes, it leaves you satisfied, rarely with a moment to stop and breathe with its frenetic pace. Rather like motherhood itself…

A Blow In The Face runs to April 14, do catch it if you can.

Upcoming: Workshop Reading - Sweet Mama and the Salty Muffins @ Red Sandcastle Theatre

I am completely filled with gratitude over this project. I first encountered Sweet Mama and the Salty Muffins through the “director-playwright speed dating” that the producers at Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival put their teams through to match up directors and playwrights. I read a lot of plays. I talked to a lot of playwrights. But something clicked when I read this play, and then when I spoke with playwright Ciaran Myers. It was like we had been collaborators for years already, despite literally a 10 minute phone call. Sometimes you just know.

We put up the first monologue of the play, Mama’s monologue, in the 2018 festival. It got some great feedback. And so often, that’s where new work ends. But again…sometimes you just know. We revived it at the D’Arcy Symposium in that form. Got more amazing feedback. Kept talking. Kept thinking. Then Ciaran approached me about a new collective launching a New Works Festival, Whiskey Ginger Collective. Did we think Sweet Mama could continue to develop?

We were going to do one more monologue for this Spring. An actor was lined up, a plan was in place. And then, suddenly, after a late night of writing… he had a whole play. 60 minutes, four characters, five songs, beautiful snapshots of our relationship to parenthood and loss. So, we found three more (amazing) actors who could workshop a script while also helping to write the songs for this play with music. We dramaturged. We cut. We debated. We wrote songs. . and here we are.

The current version has existed for about a week. We shared it with a preview audience Tuesday night, and invite audiences tonight (Wednesday March 20) through Sunday March 24th. It is a reading of the script in development, and it might even keep changing as the week goes on. We’ll see. You can get tickets here. There are PWYC shows, and artist rate shows, etc etc. We’re joined by two other works that are further along in their development, and hope that you’ll join us to see something new and fresh, and help give new writing the room to breathe in the ether. These four magnificent women represent some of the most versatile, generous, and talented performers you’ll encounter, which is worth the price of admission in itself. And, I think, there is something really special about this script.

Massive thanks go out to my collaborators:
Ara Glenn-Johanson - Mama
Liz Whitbread - Singer
Michelle Jedrzejewski - Bassist
Renee Strasfeld - Caroline

And to those who have supported the creation of this music: Liz, Ara, and Renee, along with John Norman and Sierra Noble, as well as to Lisa Lenihan and Emma Miziolek, who worked so diligently on the first production that helped make this all possible.

review. Hamlet - Theatre WhyNot @ Canadian Stage Company

Ravi Jain’s re-imagined production of Hamlet was most recently in Toronto at Canadian Stage Company as part of the 2019 remount that is touring Canada,. I missed the 2018 production, so am not certain how the move to the high ceiling, raw space of the Berkeley Street Theatre informed the show, however I did find that for the most part, the production seemed “at home” in this space, making use of unconventional entrances and highlighting the gorgeous exposed brick.

For me, the production was strongest in the moments when it employed ASL, with Horatio speaking entirely in ASL, and characters, notably Hamlet, communicating at times using ASL as well. The dramaturgical choices of when to have sound, and when to have silent language only were highly informed — they highlighted Hamlet’s struggle to be understood, and that Horatio was the only person truly listening and engaging with Hamlet, while everyone else writes Hamlet off as childish.

I have thought for some time about the value of swapping gender roles in this script. Given the role mental illness plays in the relationships to the characters, and the difference in the way Hamlet is managed (“buck up” and “get over it” so to speak) versus Ophelia, who is pitied and mourned, there is much to learn from swapping the genders. That said, this production opted to make Hamlet played by a female, but otherwise quite androgynous, while Ophelia’s movements and gestures were quite stereotypically feminine. I wonder whether different choices may have opened up more about these two characters.

Other parts of the production felt uneven in the performance; everything to look at was beautiful, including the detailed choreography and pictures on the stage, however the spoken text was not uniform…some actors shouted too much while others mumbled too much. In a production where the language (verbal or otherwise) is the main focal point, this was challenging for me. I struggled to reconcile how it may have been a specific choice, but have been unable to do so.

That said, Karen Robinson (Gertrude) and Barbara Gordon (Polonius) in particular were SUBLIME. There was a moment where I had managed to forget Polonius dies so early in the play, and then was deeply saddened that Gordon’s time on the stage was going to be cut short. Such was the strength of her performance!

What i found really interesting was the similarity of images to other productions of Hamlet I’ve seen, notably Ostermeier’s Schaubühne production from a few years back — from the piles of mud, to the audience reflection (mirrors here, video screens for Ostermeier), to the graphic depiction of sexual acts and the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius. It was a stunning reminder of the images and questions that exist deep within the play, and our larger cultural relationship to these characters and this story...and a humbling reminder to me that as a director, any new idea you think of is probably not new.

This is, in many ways, some of the most exciting Shakespeare I’ve seen in Canada. While I have some quibbles, this is of course in reference to the work I’ve seen and the (rather absurd) amount of time I spend thinking about these things. In no way does that detract from the overall excellent quality of the interpretation and production as a whole.

review. Salt by Selina Thompson @ Progress Festival (Theatre Centre)

Selina Thompson’s Salt strikes you (and some Salt) from the first moment of the piece. It is a play, yes, and a performance — simultaneously highly theatrical through its representative nature, and anti-theatrical in its lack of performative qualities (don’t worry — this is a good thing). Thompson speaks to the audience as if there were only two people in the room, but also fills the space with her power and thoughts, with enough energy to pack an arena.

The piece is a re-telling of her journey by sea to re-claim the routes and places associated with the transatlantic slave trade; the colonial power exertion that built and maintains the structures of power in place today. This sounds heavy, and at times it was, but there was an overwhelming sense of lightness, too. Thompson is an expert storyteller, weaving the dark and rightfully angry with the light; some of my favourite moments were the contrasts between her painful struggle with history and her often funny, completely relatable struggle with explaining her present journey to her father, and ensuring he knows she is safe (when at times she really is not).

The direction (Dawn Walton) and sound design (Sleepdogs) were superb, and complimented Thompson’s script & performance perfectly. She has been touring this show for a couple years now, and I strongly recommend you see it if you can. It has now been over 2 weeks since I saw it, and certain images and moments continue to creep into my memory day to day. That’s evidence of a truly remarkable piece of art.

review. Top Girls by Caryl Churchill @ Alumnae Theatre

Full disclosure, I was offered a comp to this show by the luminescent Lisa Lenihan who played Isabella Bird / Mrs Kidd.

I remember the first time I read Top Girls. Admittedly, at that point I had not read many plays that weren’t Shakespeare or a musical, so something that played with form and reality and lucidity so actively was a shock to my system. In fact, if I am totally honest, I seem to recall not really liking it. Mostly because on the surface, I just didn’t GET it. University being what it is, I had to keep reading and thinking and working on it and as I dove into unearthing just what the heck was going on in this play, the more it grew on me and I came to recognize the images in the play as manifestations of things I had felt or experienced.

The Alumnae production began with some interesting directorial choices. Doors that had cut outs of powerful female shapes in the design, which were re-built into various set pieces; showing women as the literal building blocks of this world, but passively so. A young female dancer moving through the space off the top, and also between scenes provided lovely imagery, but it did feel peripheral to the storytelling for me.

The performances were at times strong, but at times it felt uneven…one of the challenging aspects of Churchill’s text is the overlap of talking. How does one achieve this feeling of natural female conversation, but without having the actors competing and shouty at one another? For a director this is a huge challenge, and one that only at times was conquered in this production.

The overall interpretation of the play felt quite literal, which is likely the source of the challenges I felt the production faced. Each actor did well enough with the work, it just failed to come together as a cohesive whole for me.

review. Iphigenia and the Furies (on Taurian Land) by Ho Ka Hei @ Saga Collectif

I’m always here for a great adaptation or re-think of the ancient Greeks; the plays deal with such fundamental questions of family and legacy, and our relationship to a place, that it is impossible not to see the relevance to current times. Saga Collectif present the World Premiere of this new adaptation by Ho Ka Hei (Jeff Ho), which slims the myth down to 4 actors, including a chorus represented by one actor.

The update to the text is delightfully wry, with brilliant steps in and out of an ancient sounding heightened language, cut with a more modern contemporary heightened language of our own, as if sub-tweeting the text. Ho’s adaptation underscores the challenges of our relationship to and feelings of ownership of a place. We are invited (encouraged even!) to empathize with Iphigenia and Orestes in their re-unification, to the point where we forget that in order for them to succeed, those whose land they are on (and property they attempt to steal) will be victims, and the ritual neglected in favour of self interest. I could go on for quite awhile on the symbolic role of the pharmakos and the elimination (or displacement) of this scapegoat in contemporary thought…

I thought the script was brilliant and insightful, and best captured by Virgillia Griffith’s Iphigenia, who embodied the perfect blend of regal ancient Princess/Priestess and Instagram celebrity. The production was well served by the live sound design provided by Heidi Chan, creating a hyper-real world for the characters to inhabit. While I enjoyed each of the performances individually, I did feel as though there was a disjointedness from a style perspective; as if each character was representing their own style of performance. It is tough to say whether this was intentional, but for me, it didn’t quite feel overt enough to really work as an addition to the production (so much to say that if it is intended….REALLY underscore it — like in the moments where Orestes re-tells his instructions from Apollo).

That quibble aside, I found the production to be thought provoking and intelligent. We could do with far more of this kind of theatre around here.

review. What I Call Her by Ellie Moon @ Crow's Theatre

Full Disclosure: I saw this show in the first preview, so aspects of the performances and staging may have changed since I saw it.

Ellie Moon follows up her verbatim play from 2017 Asking For It stepping out of the #metoo and Ghomeshi moment, and into a complex story of a family dealing with their history. The play centres on two sisters and their dying mother who we never see, navigating their relationships with one another, with her, and with the men in their lives. The only man we see is Kate (the older sister’s) boyfriend, though we also hear about their father, and their mom’s new husband.

I felt as though the first part of the play, setting up the relationship between Kate and Kyle, was sluggish and lacking in urgency. It lasted an extraordinarily long time and felt like it was trying to fit too many ideas in (I won’t give spoilers here…). It is when Kate’s sister, Ruby, arrives uninvited, that the play begins to sing. In my opinion, it could do with dramaturgical work that helps it cut to the chase sooner, because the complex tension between the sisters is what gets really interesting to watch, how their behaviour to one another and in the presence of one another is so clearly different than it is with others. Ellie Elwand sparkles with fiery intensity, and Michael Ayres is extremely likeable as the boyfriend stuck in the middle of the sibling hellstorm.

Director Sarah Kitz does well helping the actors navigate the density of the material and creating some nice relationships. The choice to use a thrust setup didn’t quite work for me; I could sense what she was going for…a voyeuristic sense that the walls have just fallen off this apartment, but with audience on 3 sides (though predominantly on 2) the actors had to serve too many angles, causing the blocking to come off as stilted. I think it could have benefitted instead from an alley, perhaps, giving the actors more freedom.

Overall I think there is a seed of an extremely interesting play in here, and I hope it will be uncovered through further development of the script.

review. Secret Life of a Mother by Hannah Moscovitch @ Theatre Centre

Hannah Moscovitch has teamed up with Maev Beatty and Ann-Marie Kerr to share an immensely personal, highly theatrical and yet viscerally real story of motherhood. The trials of becoming a mother, and then the intense, challenging, terrifying world of being a mother.

While the story is intriguing, it does not, of course, reflect everyone’s personal experiences. It couldn’t. Motherhood is a myriad of experiences, all slightly different than the other. But a good story doesn’t necessarily reflect one’s own experiences exactly; rather it triggers memories and thoughts about your own experiences. Things you had forgotten, or pushed away. Recognition of a sentiment. In this, Moscovitch is immensely successful.

Maev Beatty is a force. Her performances are known to be filled with emotional truth, and this is no different. What is truly fantastic here is the sheer range she displays in matters of minutes; jumping in and out of the character of Hannah to the character of Maev, performing performance, rehearsal, the reality of shifting focus in motherhood beautifully mirrored in the shape of the play and its performance.

Director Ann-Marie Kerr creates beautiful images; dangerous and vulnerable, while also incredibly strong. The inventive use of water and projection and audio/video recording, coupled with stunning lighting design by Leigh Ann Vardy created spaces out of nothing, evocative images and pictures in every moment. It created tension without being tense, and a specific feeling of community, amplified by the plexiglass reflection where the audience could somewhat, at times, see themselves on the stage, too.

My only dislike, would be the final few moments. While the images were beautiful, evocative of a womb, and then of reflection of the self, I felt that it lacked the same energy and purpose as the earlier moments…the urgency faded too quickly.

On the whole, I appreciated the informality of the structure, the work that felt inherently female. This work has a momentum, an urgency, and an intensity. As the artists say in their notes, and in the script itself; there isn’t real work about motherhood. People don’t talk about miscarriage, or the reality of childbirth and its many permutations enough. They don’t talk about the anxiety of carrying first in the womb, and then in your arms. The struggle to continue to be a person and not just a mom, but at the same time, being shaped by motherhood every day. And if we consider how many audience members and theatre makers are women, that just doesn’t make sense. I applaud the artists for their courage in making and sharing this intensely personal and vulnerable story. It encourages me to share mine.

review. The Assembly: Episode 1 @ Crow's Theatre & Porte Parole

The Crow’s Theatre and Porte Parole have come together again for a new piece of politically charged verbatim theatre, The Assembly. The premise is to take 4 people with opposing viewpoints and experiences, who on the internet would rage at one another, bring them into a room and have them discuss some of the most polarizing subjects of our day. Being verbatim theatre, this is then edited, spliced, and sewn together into a narrative. I’m speaking vaguely in the below, to avoid spoilers for anyone who might see it in the coming days (it runs to Nov 3)

Among verbatim pieces, I feel this works quite well; the premise and the conversations themselves facilitate the editing, which I often find so problematic in this sort of writing. The style, snapping through different times, rewinding at times, is like a live on stage manifestation of scrolling through your Facebook news feed.

The actors shared polished performances, and director Chris Abraham’s choices to juxtapose the hyper-real with the non-naturalistic (at times) movement helped amplify this feeling of a disjointed digital world. The use of cameras to zoom in or out underlined, at times, the responses (or lack thereof) of the other 3 participants. One touch I really enjoyed was that the curtains were open to the street on some windows, so when we heard a bus or truck drive by (impossible to avoid in this space), we could also see them not only in the changing light, but also in the camera picking them up behind actors….an ever-present reminder of the real world that this play is situated in.

All of that said, I couldn’t help but wonder about what was missing; there was only one person of colour represented (the character Hope), which meant that during in-depth discussions of “Muslim immigration”, the voice of Muslims in North America was starkly absent. Similarly, there was no reference to indigenous issues (notably, there was no land acknowledgement in advance of the show) and although positioned with Canadians, the discussion was highly US-Centric (perhaps a bit tellingly truthful of our own lives and thoughts). But most importantly, I worry that despite efforts to remind us that theatre does not exist in a vaccuum (through the open window, etc) the play, at least in the audience I saw it with, did actually; the audience felt inherently against the Alt-Right character Valerie, laughing at her responses in a manner that they did not laugh at other characters. I think that efforts to show Valerie and Shayne (the self-identifying queer, Jewish, anarchist) as foils to one another fell down in the presence of an audience who (based on their responses at least) seemed quite liberal. I would love to see this play amongst an audience who wouldn’t normally see this kind of play; people like Valerie, or even James, who as the other conservative character gets lots in the scuffle between Valerie and Shayne.

A lot to keep thinking about here, for sure, and in many ways some of the most effective use of verbatim theatre I have seen…however if we keep telling these stories into an echo chamber, are we really changing anything?

review. Ghostbusters! The Movie Experience

The Secret Sessions have put together a fun evening for Ghostbusters enthusiasts, merging fandom, live performance, and the movie into an experience that enables visitors to interact and enjoy. Using the great brick-walled open space of The Redwood Theatre, they create a world that goes beyond simply watching the movie. In the pre-show interaction time, audience members can fill out their own paranormal activity reports, or interact with the performers, or just relax back and have a drink or snack. I would have liked to see a stronger device to make the interactions and navigation of the space a bit more clear for the un-initiated. . . attending on my own I observed some actors just talking (in character) amongst themselves while I lingered looking on.

For the performance itself, director Mandy Roveda did an excellent job with the cast, blending scenes from the film and live action perfectly, with just the right amount of adventurous theatricality. My only complaint was that in the cavernous space, sometimes actors’ diction was lost.

This is a super fun way to enjoy your annual Ghostbusters viewing!

review. The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe @ Howland Company & Crow's Theatre

The Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre have put together an exciting young cast to share Sarah DeLappe’s Pulitzer shortlisted firecracker of a play, The Wolves, with Toronto audiences for the first time. Centred on a girls’ soccer team, DeLappe’s play gives us what pretty much no other play has; young girls, in their own element, speaking as they do, overlapping, multiple conversations at once, simultaneously ultra-serious and completely silly. This play is an important landmark in playwriting. Reading it the first time, the structure and language reminded me of first encounters with Caryl Churchill….fiery, searing, powerful, and undeniably female.

This production, directed by Courtney Ching-Lancaster, makes use of a thrust setup and minimalist turf setting, showcasing the all female cast and giving them nowhere to hide. Off the top the energy is a bit over-the-top, but within a few minutes, as the overlapping chatter begins, the actors settle in and we start to see the girls as they are. There are lots of reasons to be nervy as a performer, with a lot of ball manipulation required throughout, and extremely challenging dialogue. A standout is Amakah Umeh as 00, the perfectionist goalkeeper, who simply radiates, despite the fact that we hear very little from her.

The scenes are divided by movement scenes set to abstract electronic music; I hoped for a bit more in these sequences, ultimately they felt like filler rather than urgent and necessary….they detracted from the forward momentum of the script. On the whole, I craved more movement that was representative of soccer bodies in space. While the performers did move a lot, it somehow felt static, and not necessarily linked to the pace of the play. The most compelling moment was 00’s fierce repetition of man-makers, until you feel like she might vomit; an honest portrayal of the fierce determination of these young women to succeed. The overall pace was decent, however I felt it lacking a musicality in the build-up and release of tension as the voices and conversations move over one another, then disperse, from density to sparsity so easily. As a result, some of the tension building in final moments was, for me, a bit lacking.

All that, however, does not detract from the overall necessity and importance of this show. I saw the production with my 14 year old, who herself is among the elite soccer players her age in the province. She has seen a lot of theatre, so has some high expectations; it has been a long time since I have seen her as captivated and engaged in a story. It is such a telling demonstration of what representing experiences on stage can do for someone. Please, please; if you can take a young woman in your life to this play, do.

Upcoming: #DAMNFINEPARTY with Lost & Gone Saturday October 27th

I’m extremely excited to be supporting Lost & Gone’s Halloween Event #DAMNFINEPARTY.

Saturday October 27
1214 Queen Street West
Tickets at www.lostandgone.ca

review. I Call Myself Princess @ Cahoots Theatre w/ Native Earth Performing Arts

I caught this on the closing weekend, and was quite looking forward to what was described as a “play with opera”. I love merging and blending forms of performance that might not normally mingle.

Director Marjorie Chen helps the cast elicit beautiful performances, both in the singing and acting, however the overall direction felt muddled. The staging, which required often overlapping time periods evocative of Stoppard’s Arcadia, felt clunky, and the set was indecisively between surrealist and naturalist. The costume design, however, was stunning; with such clear costuming, the stage design could have benefitted from a touch of minimalism, I think.

The story Jani Lauzon mines the script from is intriguing, following a young indigenous opera student attending the RCM, and his exploration of a turn-of-the-century opera about an indigenous woman. The play unveiled some of the beautiful tension that occurs when we view historical work with a contemporary lens, offering the historical characters an opportunity to talk a bit about their intentions, helping the contemporary viewpoint come even more clearly into focus. That said, the script unfortunately came across as heavily education-focused; it could have benefitted from some revision to make the message clearer through less exposition.

I think that in its current form it might make a very fascinating TYA script. Which, to clarify, is not necessarily a bad thing…I just did not get the impression that was the intention.

review. Bikeface @ Toronto Fringe Best of Fringe

I saw this quite some time ago, and it has taken me some time to sit down and write about it. Playwright Natalie Frija weaves an intriguing tale of adventure and feminism, drawing parallels between turn-of-the-twentieth century anti-cycling messages and contemporary experiences of female cyclists. I think that the script is definitely a niche; if you never cycle, you might miss pieces of the story, and definitely jokes. Overall, however, a strong feminist message stands out, as she highlights the differences in how we position adventure to young boys versus young girls.

Director Mandy Roveda handles the staging challenges well. How do you block a show that primarily takes place on a bike?! She does a great job managing a relatively stationary stage setup, using additional spaces well to create the many locations we visit. Performer Clare Blackwood is engaging, and really makes the material sing.

Overall, I think that dramaturgically this could have had a few edits to tighten up the message while simultaneously making it a little less didactic. That said, it is a great fringe show, and one I hope gets to some more audiences.

review. Women of the Fur Trade @ Toronto Fringe

I preface these thoughts with an apology for the extreme delay in getting them posted.....I had to bolt out of town the next morning and haven't really stopped since. 

Frances Koncan's new play, Women of the Fur Trade, was shared in an early-ish form as part of Toronto Fringe, ahead of what I understand to be a subsequent full length version coming to Native Earth. The simplicity of the fringe production was enjoyable; 3 rocking chairs, 3 action figures, and a simple bunting of envelopes clipped to a string created a space for the 3 women to interact, allowing their similarities to shine, while their differing circumstances became increasingly apparent. 

What I loved about the script was the anachronism, with contemporary pop culture references interwoven with historical fact and circumstance. By positioning the 3 women in between history, it served to illustrate their absence from recorded history and the decisions that affect their lives historically, and through to today. By objectifying the male characters both intellectually, and literally with the use of the 3 action figures, the women begin to regain some power. 

The 3 performers (Liz Whitbread, Haley Vincent, and Joelle Peters) were delightful in their performances, clearly distinguishing the hierarchical relationship amongst the women. The pacing could have been tighter and more dynamic to provide a sense of movement in the piece, which grew a bit stationary at times (both verbally and physically). 

I'm very intrigued to see the full production, and can't wait to bring my Louis Riel obsessed Manitoba-born daughter. It seems the perfect vehicle and context for young women to relate to and learn about a historical event which still affects us today. 

review. #kanderandebb by Ryan G. Hinds @ Toronto Fringe

Ryan G. Hinds is an absolute delight. His one-man homage to iconic musical theatre writers Kander and Ebb (of Chicago, Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman...you know, all the good musicals) is a 60 minute tour de force. Hinds is magnetic as he shares personal stories of a life obsessed with and then living the dream of performing musical theatre. The show is fun and silly while also being serious musical theatre performance. Hinds really showed his skill, when after noticing in the first song the mic wasn't working, he adapted quickly, vamping with jokes while the tech team ran a corded mic cable, then picked up as if NOTHING had happened. You would have sworn the show was always performed mic-in-hand.

The show has been to a few festivals now. If it comes to your city, I can guarantee there isn't a better way to spend an hour. 

review. Everyone Wants a T-Shirt by Madeleine Brown @ Toronto Fringe

This smart, funny, and unpretentious comedy about the perils of chasing success is just what we need. The 4 performers deftly navigate a multitude of unique characters in space and time, aided by some smart choreography in the direction. This is a world sort of like our own, but stretched from reality, and all aspects of the production are smartly guided to this logical imperative by director Aaron Jan. 

The pace is spot on, and the play carries a message without being preachy. Kudos to this young team for fine work! The production is perfectly fringe-y. 

review. The Mating Game by Dennie Theodore @ Toronto Fringe

I'll be honest; I am not the intended audience for this show, as a millennial in a long-term (15+ year) relationship, dating, new relationships, and middle age are foreign to me. Dennie Theodore's The Mating Game is an exploration of returning to and navigating the "dating scene" after some time away. This two-hander is well performed by Luc Nogna and Nawa Nicole Simon (who is utterly charming) however the material and the staging leave something to be desired. 

There are a few scenes that are directed clunkily with slow changes in space, and a stilted attempt at a few intervals for audience participation. Each actor plays a plethora of roles, but it is challenging to glean a perspective on any of them. There are some bizarre lighting choices (including one scene where one actor is in the dark for almost the entire scene...) and some awkward voice overs, all of which combines to make it difficult to connect to the characters and material. 

The idea is great, but I think more a fruitful and engaging script could come from mining the material we just got to at the end of the play.