Peter Fernandes
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: In Canadian Stage’s Fat Ham, revenge is a dish best served smoked
Fat Ham is self-aware of its nature as an adaptation, twisting the audience’s familiarity with both Hamlet and Blackness to disrupt their assumptions of who these characters are as people.
iPhoto caption: Photo of Peter Fernandes by Lorne Bridgman; photos of Qasim Khan and the Berkeley Street Theatre by Dahlia Katz.
Khan starred in Canadian Stage’s recent High Park Hamlet. Now, Fernandes is leading Fat Ham, a contemporary adaptation set at a cookout.
iPhoto caption: Production still from The Secret Garden by Michael Cooper; production still from One Man, Two Guvnors by David Cooper.
Shaw Festival review: A fabulous physical comedy and moody garden show off the festival’s extremes
If all is fair in this world, One Man, Two Guvnors will be a smash for the Shaw Festival. The Secret Garden is a more mixed affair, but Gabriella Sundar Singh shines in the title role.
iPhoto caption: From top left: The Seagull (Soulpepper), Hypothetical Baby (The Howland Company), As You Like It, a radical retelling (Crow's/Mirvish), Letters from Max (Necessary Angel), Maanomaa, My Brother (Canadian Stage/Blue Bird), Monster (Factory), Maggie (Theatre Aquarius), Casey and Diana (Stratford Festival), The Master Plan (Crow's). All photos except Casey and Diana by Dahlia Katz; Casey and Diana photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.
Our favourite theatre productions of 2023, in Toronto and beyond
These shows have stood the test of at least a few weeks, if not several months. Their pleasures are not transitory, but mature and long-lasting. We think of them often.