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REVIEW: Mirvish’s The Woman in Black conjures chills in the shadows

If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and let your imagination run loose, The Woman in Black will reward you with a genuine jolt or two.

REVIEW: The Storyville Mosquito buzzes brilliantly at NAC English Theatre

Although The Storyville Mosquito is about being happy with what you’ve got, I left the theatre itching to see it again.

REVIEW: Tom Rooney dazzles in world premiere of Michael Healey’s Rogers v. Rogers

Rooney and Healey skewer the Rogers family with a disarmingly relaxed virtuosity that the surrounding Crow's Theatre production sometimes supports, and sometimes lets down.

REVIEW: National Ballet’s scrumptious Nutcracker will melt every last Grinch-heart in town

James Kudelka’s Nutcracker treats children as imaginative equals and adults as worthy of a sprinkling of magic, too. It’s an unwavering, saturated dream of joy you never want to wake up from.

REVIEW: Family tensions run high in TIFT’s intimate Twelve Dinners

In the now-closed Twelve Dinners, an autobiographical play written and directed by Steve Ross, audiences received intimate access to an unvarnished version of a younger Ross through 12 evening meals with his parents.

REVIEW: Bad Hats’ Narnia is a joyful, heartwarming escape

The spirit of openness and the joy of discovery rule over this Narnia. Open the wardrobe and see.

REVIEW: Tom Rooney dazzles in world premiere of Michael Healey’s Rogers v. Rogers

Rooney and Healey skewer the Rogers family with a disarmingly relaxed virtuosity that the surrounding Crow's Theatre production sometimes supports, and sometimes lets down.

REVIEW: Lester Trips’ stylish Public Consumption captures the internet’s profound emptiness

Rather than directly representing online life, Public Consumption speculates — with virtuosity — about how the digital world affects our bodies. And the show's findings are by no means comfortable.

REVIEW: Icarus Theatre’s DNA paints a disturbing mural of teenage rebellion

While director Erik Richards’ tendency toward snappy, thriller-esque pacing doesn’t suit all of DNA’s more intimate moments, it adds electricity to the drama’s group scenes, bringing playwright Dennis Kelly’s reflections on groupthink and collective grief into clear view.

REVIEW: Lepage’s ethereal The Far Side of the Moon is insomniac theatre

The Far Side of the Moon begins and ends with a large mirror on stage, and the show extracts enigmatic power from the tantalizing question of whether its protagonist is losing himself in his reflection, or moving toward self-discovery.

REVIEW: During this year’s TIFF, two films depicted theatre as a vessel for transcendence

Of the several performing arts-adjacent selections I took in, most affecting were two dramas: Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. In both period pieces, theatre creation serves as an emotional outlet for an artist navigating devastating loss.

REVIEW: Talk is Free Theatre’s Blackbird offers a close-up look at two detailed performances

Emerging director Dean Deffett has concocted a tight, straightforward production, primarily of interest as an intimate character study.