Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Burn This

(Photo by Angela Besharah) 

Intimate take on Wilson’s play is busy, noisy, and kind of numbing.
by Christian Baines

Anna (Ashleigh Rains) has been living for three years with her Gay (uncoupled) roommates Robbie and Larry (Jason Stroud). When Robbie is killed in a boating accident, his brother Pale (Kyle Labine) arrives on Anna’s doorstep. Pale is angry and unpredictable, but with her friend and longtime collaborator gone, could he be just what Anna needs?

This intriguing setup leads to what’s ultimately a very safe, straightforward play masquerading as a dangerous one. Burn This is full of shouting (Pale), angsty-hand-wringing (Anna), and familiar Gay tropes (Larry). Some of those tropes would have been ground-breaking when Lanford Wilson’s play debuted in 1987, but they now come across as something of a ‘Queer Eye’ era museum piece – undoubtedly beyond their original era, but never quite contemporary either.

Review: (Toronto) Mrs. Warren's Profession

                                                                                     Photo by Artjom Gilz
Is the Lady a Tramp?
by Lucy Wells
@lwellsto

Sterling Studio Theatre is presenting one of the lesser-known plays of George Bernard Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession. This four-act play runs about two hours in the company’s very intimate and informal theatre on (surprise!) Sterling Road. The setting is laid back, with front of house staff serving concessions in a cozy lobby filled with odds and ends; the theatre itself is an oblong room with a collection of risers forming a simple, multi-level set fronting a longer brick wall; mismatched chairs and benches form two rows of seating opposite. This arrangement blurs the lines between actors and audience when the action spreads across the stage. Impossible to track everything without turning back and forth between actors, it’s an interesting way of eliciting a physical response from an audience, and one of the reasons why I enjoy shows in non-traditional theatres.

Sunday Feature: Director Robert Tsonos on Mrs. Warren's Profession

The Supreme Court, GBS, The Lady and Perfection
by Robert Tsonos

Robert Tsonos has directed, or acted in, over 50 productions across Canada, Japan, England, Venezuela, and Hong Kong during his long career. He has been the Artistic Director of Sometimes Y Theatre for the past 15 years and was the resident director at the Canadian Embassy Theatre in Tokyo from 2003-2006. Robert Tsonos's directing credits include “Shakespeare’s Will” and “Old Times” at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, “Elisa’s Skin” for TEATRELA in Caracas, “The Goat” at the Hong Kong Fringe Club, “La Ronde” for Temple University Japan,  “Night, Mother” at The Etcetera Theatre in London and the Dancehall Theatre in Manchester;  “Vigil”, “The Drawer Boy”, and “For The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again” at the Canadian Embassy Theatre; and “A Doll’s House” and “Proof” for Tokyo International Theatre. Mr Tsonos's theatre acting credits include  “Macbeth” (Shouson Theatre Hong Kong), “The Domino Heart” and “Problem Child” (Canadian Embassy Theatre, Tokyo), “True West” (Akasaka Playbox, Tokyo), “The Qualities of Zero”, “Ines de Castro”, “Total Body Washout”, and “Romeo & Rosaline” (Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space), “Othello” (Persephone Theatre), and “Three Days of Rain” (Sudbury Theatre Centre). As a playwright, Robert Tsonos recently completed a Playwright Residency at Globus Theatre; his newest play “It’s Time” recently won the Uprising National Playwright’s Award and was a finalist for The Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition; his play “The Hum” was produced in Hong Kong, received readings at NAAA in London, Dezart Performs in Palm Springs, CA; and was published by Level 4 Press in “Regional Best 2012”. His play “William & James” has been produced in Toronto (Theatre Passe Muraille), New York, Montreal and Ottawa with staged readings in Melbourne and Washington. 

I’ve wanted to direct “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw for many years now and was thrilled when Sterling Studio Theatre programmed it into their season and selected me to direct. I believe it to be Shaw’s most accessible play and one that remains extremely relevant today. 

The play was originally banned in England for its frank discussion, sympathetic views and defence of prostitution. Shaw said he wrote the play "to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together." Quite the statement in 1898.

Sunday Feature: Director Brett Haynes on The Lover

The Lover's Acute Accent
by Brett Haynes

Brett Haynes is a producer, director, playwright, and founder of Triangle Pi Productions. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, having majored in Drama while apprenticing as a set designer. He then went on to graduate from George Brown Theatre School in 2008. In 2010, Mr. Haynes started Triangle Pi Productions with a drive to produce new Canadian work by emerging artists. Triangle Pi Productions first show, Breaking News, was showcased at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival and went on to win Critic’s Pick and Patron’s Pick. Triangle Pi Productions went on to produce Vacant by the emerging playwright Fraser Elsdon and Hatched by Claire Burns. He has directed several shows in Toronto and throughout Ontario, including the new play It All Leads to the Lemon Scene which debuted at the New Ideas Festival in Toronto and then went on to be produced in New York City.

Through my studies, I have had the opportunity to work on some of the greatest texts to have ever been presented on the English stage but one thing always bothered me. Why was I instructed to present each of these plays with a British dialect? Why weren’t we encouraged to take a risk and try something new or different? Why is there so much resistance to taking plays, such as any of Oscar Wilde’s work or Pinter’s and present them in a modern day, Canadian setting without adding accents? I have seen a few productions, since leaving school, who have taken such a risk but I can honestly say that I have rarely seen a Pinter or Wilde play presented outside of its original period and without a British dialect. Why are there not more companies taking risks? If Oscar Wilde, for example, were with us today, would he have had a problem with his work spoken with a Canadian accent? He is quoted for saying “I aim not at doing good or evil, but at making a thing that will have some quality of beauty.”

Review: (Toronto) The Foursome

(photo by Angela Besharah Inside Light Studio)

MUCH TO ADMIRE IN THIS MERRY BAND OF TENNIS PLAYERS 
by joel fishbane

There’s a lot to admire in The Foursome, the dark comedy by Jane Ford that’s being produced by Toronto’s Sterling Studio Theatre Collective: it’s a new Canadian work penned by a woman and featuring an all-female cast. This alone is such an exciting combination that one is tempted to be a lot kinder to the text which is, sadly, not quite ready for prime time. This isn’t to say Jane Ford isn’t talented; merely that audiences are being treated to what is clearly a second draft.

The plot revolves around the impact that peppy Dylan (Caitlin Driscoll) has on a trio of tennis players who need a fourth player. Dylan’s influence leads Tanda (Kirsten Johnson) to gain new self-esteem while Jaz (Kathryn Greenwood) and Kris (playwright Jane Ford) are made to confront dark secrets they’ve been hiding for years. All the ingredients are in place for a comedy that offers opportunities for new and unique glimpses into the modern women….yet, while the play is often funny, the plot meanders and skirts the chance for true drama.