ON Criticism
iPhoto caption: The company of 'It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken.' 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: Mirabella Sundar Singh as Cecily Cardew and James Daly as Algernon Moncrieff in 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at the Grand Theatre. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Q&A: In London, the Grand’s Importance of Being Earnest highlights the play’s layers of queerness
"The entire physical production has been enacted to get people to try to keep their ears and their eyes open to all the code that Wilde has placed into the play," says director Alistair Newton.
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.
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.