For their 2024 season, SummerWorks once again crafted a unique and exciting bill of productions divided amongst their four streams of programming. This year, I checked out two of the staged readings which were part of the SummerWorks Exchange stream: Donovan Hayden’s Suitable Climate and Carolyn Fe’s Aye Caesar. SummerWorks describes their Exchange stream as…
If your child went missing for a year, would you know them if they returned? More importantly, would they know you? Leslie Rhodes faces this unfathomable situation in Tommy Rhodes, a new true crime musical written by Aveleigh Keller and Mateo Chavez Lewis who also directs. Based on a true story from Louisiana in 1913,…
The echo of the courtyard of the Aga Khan Museum allows the call to prayer which signals the beginning of The Caged Bird Sings to reverberate up into the heavens. It draws our eyes upward towards a clear blue sky; though as in the cave, the sun can no longer be seen as the story…
In the lobby outside of the Franco Boni Theatre there’s a quote projected onto the wall: “What you are about to see is not wholly inaccurate. But close.” Rose Napoli, author and star of Mad Madge, sets up our expectations for her play perfectly in two brief sentences. Mad Madge explores the extraordinary life of…
You might think you know about Louis Riel and his place in Canada’s History, but I can guarantee you’ve never heard it told like this! Frances Končan’s Women of the Fur Trade, which is being presented by the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre and Great Canadian Theatre Company, looks at this tumultuous time in Canada’s…
Without human intervention, how do elephants die? Good Old Neon’s new play Dead Elephants ponders this and much more while exploring themes of death and grief. Written and directed by Co-Artistic Directors Alexander Offord and Nicole Wilson, Dead Elephants delves into these difficult themes through the lens of these magnificent creatures who mourn and grieve…
It is said that there are two sides to every story, but rarely do we get to experience both sides in intimate detail. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard’s 3 Fingers Back allows us to do just that. A pairing of two plays, expertly co-directed by Yvette Nolan and Cole Alvis, 3 Fingers Back asks us to bear…
Black history/futures month is off to an impressive start at Young People’s Theatre with their world premiere production of Truth. Written by Kanika Ambrose, based on the award-winning novel “The Gospel Truth” by Caroline Pignat, and directed by Sabryn Rock, Truth explores the difficult life of a young woman on a Virginia plantation in the…
Director Harri Thomas asks at the top of the programme “Who will you be and who will you be with after the end?” This question and more are answered in their remarkable production of Heiner Müller’s Quartet. Presented in association with VideoCabaret Quartet, and the art instillation in which it takes place, has enveloped the…
The spookiest theatre in town is currently being haunted by three women who all “mysteriously” drowned in their bathtubs. Directed by Wren Theatre’s founder Tatum Lee, and produced in association with Rhyno Equity Group, The Drowning Girls is a darkly funny yet tragic true tale brought to life on the Red Sandcastle Theatre’s stage. A…
A View from the Box 