Mary

Keeping Secrets Never Works, Except… Reviewed by Mary Alderson Many problems in dysfunctional families are rooted in secrets. Or at least that is what some plays tell us. Sometimes it’s deep dark secrets that cause pain when they are uncovered. But sometimes it’s secrets that are better told and everyone feels a little better once […]

The Beautiful Version of Pygmalion Reviewed by Mary Alderson Eliza Doolittle has returned to the stage at the Shaw Festival, just where she belongs. Based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady is a glorious treatment of Shaw’s 1912 play. It will be running until the Christmas season at the Shaw

Whimsy and Delight Temper a Harsh Dose of Victorian Reality Reviewed by Mary Alderson The Secret Garden is set at the end of the Victorian era, as the Edwardian era was beginning. It was a time when the saying “Children should be seen and not heard” was widely used. Parents felt no responsibility in raising

Thank you. Thank You Very Much. Reviewed by Debbie McClure Playwright Gil Garratt brings a family and a serious subject to life through wit, quick one-liners, and deep reflection in Saving Graceland. Not only is it a tribute to the one and only great Elvis Presley, but the cast leads the audience through the story

 This Show is NOT For The Birds Reviewed by Sookie Mei It was a lively crowd at the Port Stanley Festival Theatre for opening night of They’re Found In Trees, written by “Canada’s most-produced playwright,” Norm Foster.  The audience was ready to be entertained, even cheering during the pre-show announcements by Artistic Director Liz Gilroy,

The Perfect Pride Play Reviewed by Mary Alderson NOTE:  This production of Bed and Breakfast moves to Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange this fall, running September 24 to October 6.  Pride events took over Port Hope this weekend and the Capitol Theatre did its part with a production of Bed and Breakfast, a hilarious, yet touching

The First Farm Show (and Origins of the Blyth Festival) Reviewed by Lauren daSilva The Farm Show: Then & Now, is a love-letter to rural Ontario. This adaptation of one of the most influential plays in Canadian theatre, The Farm Show, is a beautiful reimagining that sheds light on the process of creating The Farm

Family Tradition Reviewed by Vicki Stokes A sign of a great theatrical production is its sticking power: revisiting it in your mind the next day, the following week, or even years later. Some performances will never be forgotten. So where does Fiddler on the Roof stand? I know this one will stick for a long

A Lite Musical, Heavy on Talent Reviewed by Vicki Stokes How do you finally emerge from your nagging mother’s basement without getting a job? You enter a talent contest and rehearse your heart out! Having a run at the Drayton Festival Theatre last year, Drayton Entertainment has brought Sh-Boom! to the South Huron Stage at

Kicking off the Summer Side of Life in Petrolia Reviewed by Adam Hobbs Lake Superior is no lake at all. It is an inland sea and it has seen wrecks of several ships throughout the centuries, including the Edmund Fitzgerald. The sea of sound and emotion took me through a journey of Canadian legend, Gordon