Love & Prejudice on a Tropical Island South Pacific is a big musical: in true Rodgers and Hammerstein style it has everything. There’s comedy, tragedy, war story suspense, unrequited love, and a lesson in the evils of racism. The production, now on stage at Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend, does justice to this old […]
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I saw five shows during opening week at Stratford, and I am impressed by how they all fit in to Stratford’s theme of madness. King Lear is a study of dementia, where he slips in and out of reality. It’s disturbing and depressing. Man of La Mancha is also an examination of dementia, but he is happily
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A Wedding Day Party The first hint that this was going to be a different sort of Midsummer Night’s Dream was obvious when we entered the theatre. Puffy white bows adorn some aisle seats – we are guests at a wedding. On the stage are the wedding guests, tipping back beer bottles, sipping from wine
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An Alternate World Yes, Alice, there is another world on the other side of that mirror…and it’s made for kids! In an effort to reach out to families and little children, Stratford is offering something to keep the attention of the 12 and under crowd. Big colourful costumes, zany situations and audience participation will make
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The Burden of Sanity In keeping with the theme of madness, Stratford Festival is offering two shows where the main character has dementia. King Lear is about the dark side of dementia, where the sufferer slips in and out of reality, frustrated, angry and hopeless. The polar opposite, Don Quixote is quite happy in his
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Nice Work – and they got it! If you like musicals with amazing dancing, powerful singing and farcical comedy – and who doesn’t? – get your tickets now for Crazy for You, on Stratford’s Festival stage, as this show will sell out this summer. Crazy for You is an interesting invention. George and Ira Gershwin’s
When Unconditional Love has Conditions Extended to Oct. 25. This production of Lear is now joining the ranks of Christopher Plummer’s Tempest in 2010, and William Hutt’s farewell Tempest in 2005 as the most popular Shakespearean plays of all time at Stratford Festival. Love between parents and their offspring should be unconditional. As soon as King Lear puts conditions
Laughter of Recognition The laughter echoed throughout the sold-out house as Victoria Playhouse Petrolia marked its 2014 season opener with Church Basement Ladies. And it is laughter of recognition, whether the audience has memories of cooking in a church basement in the sixties, or feels the discomfort of hot flashes today. The Church Basement Ladies
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Altruism to the Extreme The laughs are many as the Shaw Festival stages The Charity that Began at Home: A Comedy for Philanthropists. An early 1900 comedy, it has retained its humour, thanks to this superior cast. Lady Dennison and her daughter, Margery, are just too nice. When a self-styled reverend tells them that they
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Maybe This Time… Deborah Hay as Sally Bowles is a brilliant light shining in this otherwise very dark production of Cabaret, on stage this season at the Shaw Festival. Hayes has captured Sally completely, and in doing so, captivated the audience. Her rendition of “Maybe This Time” is so convincing that you believe she really
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