MONDOmagazine

By Kerry Freek

Rufus Wainwright: All Days are Nights / Songs for Lulu
June 15 and 17 @ Elgin Theatre

Act One:

The sombre face in the picture above should give you a pretty fair indication of how the first act of Wainwright’s one-man show went down. Before the curtain opened, an unidentified man came out, greeted us on Rufus’ behalf, and brought tidings of Wainwright’s requests of us for the next half-hour or so, which included refraining from applause until his imminent “song cycle” had come to a complete end. We’d even have to wait until Wainwright left the stage entirely, as we were told even his exit would be “part of the performance.” Read the rest of this entry »

Via luminato.com

The Infernal Comedy
Written and directed by Michael Sturminger
Featuring John Malkovich
June 11-12 @ Massey Hall

By Daina Valiulis

“The first thing I learned was to lie — or, to be economical with the truth.”

One of the first confessions of the notorious Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger, played by John Malkovich, reveals both his charm and duplicity. A bloodthirsty wolf in sheep’s clothing, Unterweger carried out a prison sentence of fifteen years for murder in 1976, Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Jake Ehrenreich’s
A Jew Grows in Brooklyn
Runs until June 13 @ The Panasonic Theatre

By Jeff Maus

A Jew Grows in Brooklyn is easy to enjoy. It tells the story of 54-year-old Jake Ehrenreich, who grew from being a boy to a man, throughout his life surrounded by survivors of the Shoah. He was a moderately successful musician from a young age, working with Richie Havens and auditioning for KISS. He married late in life, and happily his survivor father lived to see his wedding in the mid-1990s. Ehrenreich’s marriage produced a young son and a happy family. Near the end of the play he mentioned in a sentence or two that he didn’t get a lot of joy from booze or drugs, and is a very happy man.

That’s it. I left the theatre thinking, “this is an off-Broadway hit?” Read the rest of this entry »

Mamma’s Boy
Ghostlight Projects
Written by Randie Parliament
Featuring Sky Gilbert, Randie Parliament, Kris Skjellerup and Briana Templeton
Runs until June 12 @ Factory Theatre Studio

By Jeff Maus

Before the house went dark, the songs “To Know You is to Love You” and “You Belong to Me“ played to set the ambiance. They’re songs that sum up a lot of the parent-children dynamic in Mamma’s Boy. The play is full of beautiful details like that, and like a picture slowly developing, you don’t appreciate it all until it is finished. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Jackson Hinton.

Frankenstein
Production conceived by Jonathan Christenson and Bretta Gereke
Directed by Jonathan Christenson
Production design by Bretta Gereke
Featuring Nick Green, Andrew Kushnir, Tim Machin, Sarah Machin Gale, Nancy McAlear, Dov Mickelson, Tracy Penner, George Szilagyi
Runs until May 29th @ the Bluma Appel Theatre

By Daina Valiulis

“Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me; let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!” – Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Based very closely on the classic Shelley tale of isolation, woe and desperate longing for companionship and human connection, Catalyst Theatre’s Frankenstein alternates between achieving great success and falling into common traps of adaptations of literature — presenting some much exposition that the emotional undertones have no time to take root. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Kathleen Finlay

Wingéd
Whetstone Productions
Written and performed by David Tomlinson
Runs until May 8 @ DeLeon White Gallery, 1139 College Street

By Gabrielle Charron-Merritt

Wingéd, a new piece written and performed by David Tomlinson, presents adaptations of the stories of Icarus, Lucifer, and Phoenix. Linked by their (in)ability to fly, all three characters are played by an ever-changing Tomlinson and given their own monologue. The stories are unexpectedly and originally transformed. Through series of anecdotes, David Tomlinson provides witty back-stories and deadly accurate observations about humanity. Read the rest of this entry »

A Fabulous Disaster
Written, directed and performed by Denise Clarke
Runs until April 25 @ Factory Theatre

By Daina Valiulis

The stage lights come up on two booted feet resting on a log between two evergreen trees and a loud groan rumbles through the theatre. Groggily, our paper suit-clad heroine sits up, complaining of dry mouth as she reaches for her canteen. From the minute Denise Clarke stands up to the minute she lays back down, she holds the audience captive with her clownish and wistful musings about migrating rhinos, and the “mean” nature of sneezes to heartbreak and divorce.

A Fabulous Disaster is a one-woman show Read the rest of this entry »

Albert Schultz, Eric Peterson. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Glengarry Glen Ross
Directed by David Stortch
Starring Albert Schultz, Eric Peterson, Kevin Bundy, Peter Donaldson, Stephen Guy-McGrath, Jordan Pettle, William Webster
Runs until June 5 @ Soulpepper

By Jeff Maus

David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is an 80s classic, still relevant and lean and scary. It is also touching and very funny. The best cautionary tales ring true 30 years later. This is the rare one that has gained relevance to the point that it hasn’t aged a day. Soulpepper’s production of it is as good as we’re going to get, and I’m glad to have had the chance to see it.

It involves a group of middle-aged real estate salesmen obsessed with “leads.” Leads are simply index Read the rest of this entry »

Shannon Perrault, Karen Robinson, Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Jung, Daniela Lama. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

If We Were Birds
By Erin Shields
Directed by Alan Dilworth
Featuring Philippa Domville, David Fox, Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Jung, Daniela Lama, Shannon Perrault, Geoffrey Pounsett, Karen Robinson and Tara Rosling
Runs until May 23 @ Tarragon Theatre

By Daina Valiulis

The ever battling Dionysian vs. Apollonian natures of man wage a bloody war in Erin Shields’ If We Were Birds. Based on Ovid’s tale “Tereus, Procne and Philomela” from the Metamorphoses, it tells the tale of two loving sisters — Procne (Phillipa Domville) and Philomela (Tara Rosling) — who are torn apart by the marriage of the former to King Tereus (Geoffrey Pouncett), a brutish soldier with “boiling blood,” taking Procne to a state far away. While she is content with her husband and newborn son, Procne longs to see her little sister and Read the rest of this entry »

(L-R) Billy Merasty, Tom McBeath, Ben Cardinal, and Jason Burnstick. Photo by David Cooper.

Where the Blood Mixes
Part of the CrossCurrents Festival
Written by Ken Loring
Directed by Glynis Leyshon
Featuring Ben Cardinal, Kim Harvey, Margo Kane, Billy Merasty, Tom McBeath and Jason Burnstick
Runs until April 18 @ Factory Theatre

By Kerry Freek

It’s tough to be critical of a play that’s part of a healing process.

Where the Blood Mixes, a touring show that’s currently playing at Factory, is centred on the social aftershocks in a First Nations community caused by a residential school. It’s a difficult topic — even after Harper’s official apology back in 2008, there is still much work to be done to right the wrongs that have affected many generations of an entire people.

But healing can start with expression, and Kevin Loring’s 50-minute piece is a step in the right direction. Read the rest of this entry »

Karin Randoja. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.

Breakfast
Written by Anna Chatterton and Evalyn Parry
Directed by Brendan Healy
Featuring Karin Randoja, Evalyn Parry and Anna Chatterton
Runs until April 4 @ Buddies in Bad Times

By Kerry Freek

Marnie’s goldfish is dead, her fridge is bare, and she’s a timid woman who stays at home on Saturdays. In her muu-muu style nightie, she is an unlikely hero, but by the time her self-help cassette convinces her to put on a pair of high heels, we know something is about to change.

Marnie (played by Karin Randoja) is bumbling through her weekend routine: pudding, coffee, self-help cassette. Licking her spoon, Marnie presses the play button and is surprised to find that it’s speaking to her, and not in that eye-rolling affirmative self-help way. Read the rest of this entry »

Ravi Jain. Photo by Mina Mikhail.

I’m So Close…
Created and performed by Ravi Jain, Katrina Bugaj and Troels Hagen Findsen
Co-written by Nicolas Billion
Runs until April 3 @ The Theatre Centre

By Helen Fylactou

Since the beginning of time, destruction has gone hand-in-hand with pairing — beginning with the pairing of particles, explains one of the show’s writers, Ravi Jain, at the start of I’m So Close…. Jain opens with the story of the Big Bang Theory, and we leap into a story that explores relationships and technological advances, and the effect they have on each other.

Steve (Findsen) is an entrepreneur who has invented an eco-friendly way of charging cell phones, iPods and laptops. Using available light to charge electronics Read the rest of this entry »