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Pamela Mala Sinha, Ellora Patniak, and Zorana Sadiq record 'New.' iPhoto caption: Pamela Mala Sinha, Ellora Patniak, and Zorana Sadiq record 'New.' Photo by Nirris Nagendrarajah.

A look inside the flourishing creative life of playwright-actor Pamela Mala Sinha (part one)

When I learned that the acclaimed artist would be having an action-packed start to 2026, I decided to document this busy period in a trilogy of articles.

Written and photographed by Nirris Nagendrarajah / Feb 4, 2026
Kate Martin in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Photo by Kyle Purcell. iPhoto caption: Kate Martin in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Photo by Kyle Purcell.

REVIEW: Shakespeare BASH’d brings focus to the mystifying Troilus and Cressida

This spare, thoughtful staging prioritizes a clarity of text that comes through even when the script’s overall trajectory is less than clear.

By Ilana Lucas / Feb 4, 2026
Pamela Mala Sinha, Ellora Patniak, and Zorana Sadiq record 'New.' iPhoto caption: Pamela Mala Sinha, Ellora Patniak, and Zorana Sadiq record 'New.' Photo by Nirris Nagendrarajah.

A look inside the flourishing creative life of playwright-actor Pamela Mala Sinha (part one)

When I learned that the acclaimed artist would be having an action-packed start to 2026, I decided to document this busy period in a trilogy of articles.

Written and photographed by Nirris Nagendrarajah / Feb 4, 2026
Kate Martin in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Photo by Kyle Purcell. iPhoto caption: Kate Martin in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Photo by Kyle Purcell.

REVIEW: Shakespeare BASH’d brings focus to the mystifying Troilus and Cressida

This spare, thoughtful staging prioritizes a clarity of text that comes through even when the script’s overall trajectory is less than clear.

By Ilana Lucas / Feb 4, 2026
Members of the company of 'Rigoletto.' Photo by Michael Cooper. iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Rigoletto.' Photo by Michael Cooper.

REVIEW: COC’s elegantly bleak Rigoletto is no laughing matter

As Rigoletto wept, I became distracted by a lone petal belatedly descending from above. An accident, certainly, but one that offered a reminder of opera’s unpredictable magic: that, even among the grandest of designs, a performance’s final form depends upon these ephemeral moments one calls fate.

By Nirris Nagendrarajah / Feb 2, 2026
text that says iPhoto caption: Lester Trips duo headshot Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton. Photo by Helen Yung.

Lester Trips wants Toronto theatre creators to ‘make it nasty’

"It doesn’t matter how many reels of a hamster falling out of its cage set to the Requiem I see: The music still hits," says Lauren Gillis. "We joke that the logline for Honey I’m Home is 'normie drone has menty-b from VR Zoom with her own living room.'"

By Nathaniel Hanula-James / Feb 1, 2026

Reviews

Kate Martin in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Photo by Kyle Purcell. iPhoto caption: Kate Martin in 'Troilus and Cressida.' Photo by Kyle Purcell.

REVIEW: Shakespeare BASH’d brings focus to the mystifying Troilus and Cressida

This spare, thoughtful staging prioritizes a clarity of text that comes through even when the script’s overall trajectory is less than clear.

By Ilana Lucas
Members of the company of 'Rigoletto.' Photo by Michael Cooper. iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Rigoletto.' Photo by Michael Cooper.

REVIEW: COC’s elegantly bleak Rigoletto is no laughing matter

As Rigoletto wept, I became distracted by a lone petal belatedly descending from above. An accident, certainly, but one that offered a reminder of opera’s unpredictable magic: that, even among the grandest of designs, a performance’s final form depends upon these ephemeral moments one calls fate.

By Nirris Nagendrarajah
Durae McFarlane in 'Primary Trust.' Photo by Dahlia Katz. iPhoto caption: Durae McFarlane in 'Primary Trust.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Primary Trust harnesses anxiety for good at London’s Grand Theatre

Eboni Booth's Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust invites its audience to visualize hopeful futures rather than disasters. This tender production, directed by Cherissa Richards, proposes that imagining such a future is the first step to achieving it.

By Izzy Siebert
Hailey Gillis and Gray Powell in 'A Doll's House.' Photo by Dahlia Katz. iPhoto caption: Hailey Gillis and Gray Powell in 'A Doll's House.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Canadian Stage’s A Doll’s House weighs the burden of our inherited roles

Hailey Gillis' Nora is not so much a doll as she is a gifted actor, reeling through daffy comedy, seductive calculation, and suicidal ideation with ease.

By Naomi Skwarna
Lisa Nasson and Nicole Joy-Fraser in 'Mischief.' Photo by Jae Yang. iPhoto caption: Lisa Nasson and Nicole Joy-Fraser in 'Mischief.' Photo by Jae Yang.

REVIEW: In Tarragon and Native Earth’s Mischief, the jokes aren’t the point

Mischief may not fully cohere into a singular statement, but it leaves behind something quieter and more human: the feeling of having spent time inside a community, listening to its jokes, its arguments, and its silences. It is a play full of questions — some answered, many not — and it trusts the audience enough to live with that uncertainty.

By Hunter Weaymouth
Aidan deSalaiz and the cast of 'Company.' Photo by Dahlia Katz. iPhoto caption: Aidan deSalaiz and the cast of 'Company.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Talk Is Free’s Company is valiant but imperfect

Playing at The Theatre Centre, it’s an entertaining staging that, like its central character, is still waiting to completely connect.

By Ilana Lucas

Spotlight

iPhoto caption: Photo by V. Tony Hauser.

Spotlight: Robert Lepage

“If theatre’s done well, it’s an event. And for the audience it’s very mobilizing,” says Lepage. “Whatever the subject matter is, the people go and they’re stimulated, interested, and they feel intelligent... The most beautiful spectacle is always the spectacle of intelligence.”

By Adam Paolozza
Marie Farsi for Intermission Magazine. iPhoto caption: Marie Farsi for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Spotlight: Marie Farsi

“I’ve learned how truth is revealed in translation, and I feel like that’s my job as a director,” says Farsi. “I have to translate the piece from the page to the stage, and all the meanings that can be derived from that process of translation.”

Written by Naomi Skwarna, Photography by Dahlia Katz
Alanis King. iPhoto caption: Photo by Blaire Russell.

Spotlight: Alanis King

The 40-year career of Alanis King began much the same way that so many careers in theatre do: in front of very small audiences. “The show must go on if you have the same amount of audience members as in the cast,” was King’s motto in the early days. But today, the multihyphenate Odawa artist has no difficulty finding people interested in her work.

Written by Frances Koncan, Photography by Blaire Russell
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Artist Perspectives

iPhoto caption: Photo of Jordan Laffrenier by Sandro Pehar.

Preparing to direct Slave Play: A travel guide to Richmond, Virginia

Since reading Slave Play, I’ve asked every romantic partner whether or not they experience a racial dynamic between us in the bedroom. No one has given the same answer. What is it that I am asking them to acknowledge in these scenarios? Who is it that I am asking them to hold? What does it mean to hold someone’s history?

By Jordan Laffrenier
'Delirious Night' at the Festival d'Avignon. iPhoto caption: 'Delirious Night' at the Festival d'Avignon. Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage.

At the 2025 Festival d’Avignon, politics were never far off

I’d performed and directed for festivals in Canada and elsewhere, but it wasn’t at all the same as being on the bum-in-seat side. There I was, in Avignon, rubbing shoulders with the umpteen visitors hungry for a good show. I came away feeling that here, theatre mattered. A lot. In the stony fields of Toronto, that can be easy to forget.

By Baņuta Rubess
iPhoto caption: Set design by Camellia Koo, Costume design by Judith Bowden, Lighting design by Leigh Ann Vardy, and photo by Dahlia Katz. Features Samantha Hill and Amaka Umeh.

A story with no expiry date: Adapting Fall On Your Knees

At this critical political juncture, as so many forces in the world try to mute and silence women, our Canadian stories merit our advocacy and fervent attention.

By Alisa Palmer

Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine

When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.

By Aisling Murphy
national ballet of canada iPhoto caption: Production still from The Nutcracker courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.

Why should you go to the ballet?

My childhood memories of learning to dance were front and centre for me when I attended opening night of The Nutcracker, performed by the National Ballet of Canada at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

By Martin Austin
iPhoto caption: Photo by Grace Mysak.

Want to see a magic show about race? Wait, what?

You’d be forgiven for the double-take. It’s a fairly common reaction when I tell folks about my work as a magician.

By Shawn DeSouza-Coelho