IMPACT 25_BOGOTA_by Only1AndyWright

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: Canadian Stage’s Robin Hood panto is anti-capitalist fun for the whole family

Following Ross Petty’s legacy of scene-stealing, Damien Atkins as the evil Prince John is easily the greatest delight of the show.

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: Necessary Angel’s Moonlight Schooner offers a poetic glimpse into the lives of three Caribbean sailors

Kanika Ambrose’s Moonlight Schooner is animated and visually stunning, but its individual pieces don’t come together as neatly as I would've expected.

In A a | a B : B E N D, choreographer Aszure Barton aims to rebuild dance from the inside out

“It’s so easy to over-intellectualize dance in general, but B E N D is about hearing and moving to cool-ass music together,” says Barton ahead of the show's run at the Bluma Appel Theatre.

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.

REVIEW: Kitchener’s biennial IMPACT Festival crackled with urgency

Most of the six works I viewed tackled urgent topics, from the convoluted Canadian immigration system to the Palestinian experience of displacement: explorations that line up with artistic director Pam Patel’s curatorial statement, which discusses how IMPACT ‘25 “unpacks what it means to survive, to resist, and to seek refuge” through a global, Indigenous-focused lens.