A Halloween Haunting Like a few other theatre companies, Tweed & Co. has decided to reach out to its audience with an audio play during these Covid-19 times. What better time than Halloween to make a ghostly audio play available? Trish Black, a member of Tweed & Co. plays herself in this production.  The story […]

Making Sense of the Past: An Atypical World War II-Era Drama Yellow Bellies is a compelling three-part audio drama set during World War II featuring the experiences of Mennonite conscientious objectors and reactions from the community.  It is currently available online through Theatre of the Beat. We’ve all heard stories of war heroes who died […]

The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow at the Grand Theatre The evening of October 23, 2020, would have been the grand opening of the 20-21 season, their fiftieth, at the Grand Theatre, London. Due to COVID-19, they’ve had to rebrand it as their intermission year. To celebrate this milestone, they’ve put their Grand Un-Opening Night online, […]

Getting to Know You The Orillia Opera House’s Professional Theatre company will go down in history as the first theatre to reopen in Ontario after closing for the pandemic.  But lest you think the pandemic is over in Orillia and everything’s back to normal, you have another think coming. We followed all the face mask […]

Masterful Handling of the Truth Last summer, Drayton Entertainment brought us 12 Angry Men, a 1957 drama where jury members are trying to determine the truth.  This year, Drayton is presenting A Few Good Men, a 1986 courtroom drama, also seeking truth.    With 12 Angry Men, I said that director Marti Maraden deserved credit […]

Indigenous Story of Life and Death Honour Beat, currently on the Spriet Stage at London’s Grand Theatre, shows some of the cultural differences between Indigenous people and settlers (and descendants) in Canada.  But more importantly, it shows how similar families are. Those who have held a vigil at the bedside of a dying parent will […]

Rebecca Northan Shines with Audience Interaction In a one-woman show, improv expert Rebecca Northan shares the stage with a dozen or so audience members she conscripts to complete the cast.  Apparently, no one can say no to Northan as she gets full cooperation from the audience members, some with surprisingly good acting skills. Northan wowed […]

Brilliant Acting while on an Actor’s Journey Gavin Crawford as Sam, an underemployed actor, goes from despair to revenge and on to hope in Fully Committed on the Spriet Stage at the Grand Theatre in London.  He manages to do what every actor wants to do – he takes his character on a complete and […]

Magic and Delight Having seen the Disney version of Mary Poppins many times over the years, I was pleased to have this opportunity to see the Disney and Cameron MacKintosh’s stage musical.  The movie was a magical escape, and that magic is wonderfully recreated at the Grand Theatre in London. This play is perfectly staged, with flying, […]

A Hilarious, Modern Adaptation Sleeping Beauty – The Panto, currently at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse, is as much for the adults as for the children.  In true panto style, the audience becomes part of the performance. The wonderful thing about fairy tales is that they are continually adapted to the times.  Sleeping Beauty has been traced […]