Intermission Magazine Home
iPhoto caption: Ali Momen and Talia
Schlanger. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
In Theatre Aquarius’ new Tragically Hip jukebox musical, emotion comes first
“This show isn’t about the Tragically Hip,” says director Mary Francis Moore. “It’s about Waleed.” Instead of bending the Hip’s music to fit the narrative, the team has looked for thematic threads and moments where the emotional undercurrent of a song aligns with what’s happening on stage, even if the connection isn’t explicit.
iPhoto caption: Amy Keating, Zorana Sadiq, Katherine Cullen, and Jean Yoon in 'Dance Nation.' Photo by Elana Emer.
REVIEW: Coal Mine Theatre’s Dance Nation vaults into the feral, ecstatic mess of girlhood
Played by a cast whose ages range widely, the characters exist in two tenses at once: present-day adolescence and retrospective memory, living these tender years shadowed by the adults they’ll become.
iPhoto caption: Ali Momen and Talia
Schlanger. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
In Theatre Aquarius’ new Tragically Hip jukebox musical, emotion comes first
“This show isn’t about the Tragically Hip,” says director Mary Francis Moore. “It’s about Waleed.” Instead of bending the Hip’s music to fit the narrative, the team has looked for thematic threads and moments where the emotional undercurrent of a song aligns with what’s happening on stage, even if the connection isn’t explicit.
iPhoto caption: Amy Keating, Zorana Sadiq, Katherine Cullen, and Jean Yoon in 'Dance Nation.' Photo by Elana Emer.
REVIEW: Coal Mine Theatre’s Dance Nation vaults into the feral, ecstatic mess of girlhood
Played by a cast whose ages range widely, the characters exist in two tenses at once: present-day adolescence and retrospective memory, living these tender years shadowed by the adults they’ll become.
iPhoto caption: Amaka Umeh, Nancy Palk, Michelle Monteith, Belinda Corpuz, and Sabryn Rock in 'Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Erin Shields’ Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary is brash, funny, and message-forward
At Crow’s Theatre, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary is a sensory feast fit for any house of worship. But with so much material, and only 95 minutes, I’m left feeling that the Marys have more yet to say.
iPhoto caption: Tracey Nepinak and Teneil Whiskeyjack in 'Strife.' Photo by Jae Yang.
REVIEW: Punctuate! Theatre’s Strife opens up perspectives on grief, activism, and the oil industry
Playwright Matthew MacKenzie and director Yvette Nolan have crafted a drama in which every character is worth hearing. What follows is my attempt to listen — perspective by perspective.
Reviews
iPhoto caption: Amy Keating, Zorana Sadiq, Katherine Cullen, and Jean Yoon in 'Dance Nation.' Photo by Elana Emer.
REVIEW: Coal Mine Theatre’s Dance Nation vaults into the feral, ecstatic mess of girlhood
Played by a cast whose ages range widely, the characters exist in two tenses at once: present-day adolescence and retrospective memory, living these tender years shadowed by the adults they’ll become.
iPhoto caption: Amaka Umeh, Nancy Palk, Michelle Monteith, Belinda Corpuz, and Sabryn Rock in 'Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Erin Shields’ Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary is brash, funny, and message-forward
At Crow’s Theatre, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary is a sensory feast fit for any house of worship. But with so much material, and only 95 minutes, I’m left feeling that the Marys have more yet to say.
iPhoto caption: Tracey Nepinak and Teneil Whiskeyjack in 'Strife.' Photo by Jae Yang.
REVIEW: Punctuate! Theatre’s Strife opens up perspectives on grief, activism, and the oil industry
Playwright Matthew MacKenzie and director Yvette Nolan have crafted a drama in which every character is worth hearing. What follows is my attempt to listen — perspective by perspective.
iPhoto caption: Lindsey Middleton and Blessing Adedijo in 'The Moors.' Photo by Juniper Simpson Serrano.
REVIEW: Riot King’s The Moors reaches Gothic heights that more than withstand the wuthering
Playing at The Theatre Centre, The Moors is a deliciously feral, fierce, and funny love letter that Riot King brings to life with exquisite theatrical penmanship.
iPhoto caption: Shira Leuchter in 'The Haunting' at Tarragon's Greenhouse Festival in 2024. Photo by Matt Hertendy.
REVIEW: One-on-one play considers the hidden meanings behind ghost stories
Shira Leuchter’s The Haunting feels less like attending a seance and more like flipping through the encyclopedia of a self.
iPhoto caption: Zaiba Baig in 'The Begging Brown Bitch Plays.' Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.
REVIEW: Truth and performance blur in Zaiba Baig’s The Begging Brown Bitch Plays at Buddies
It’s in the second half of Jhooti that Zaiba Baig’s performance is transcendent. She commands the stage, moving fluidly between humour and fury, bringing the audience through one emotional arc after another.
Spotlight
iPhoto caption: Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Spotlight: Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu
“I always question: ‘How am I going to do it?’ But the moment I get in the room with actors, it becomes clear," says Tindyebwa Otu. "We need to tell stories; we need to be in community. Every show I do, I feel like, ‘This could be the last one.’ I’ve felt like this since I became a mom. And yet, 10 years later, I’ve produced more artistic work than ever.”
iPhoto caption: Nora McLellan for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz. Styled by Sonia Lewis and Dahlia Katz. Hair by Anne May. Makeup by Katelyn O'Neil.
“It’s still always that same technicolour feeling for me," says McLellan. "That little girl and this much older person are pretty much the same. I really do all of my living on stage.”
iPhoto caption: Ma-Anne Dionisio for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
“Art has a very significant healing aspect to it,” says Ma-Anne Dionisio. “The performance aspect, for me, always comes secondary.”
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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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.