Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Sultans of the Street

(photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

To rags from riches and back again: 
An awkward tale of recognition and redemption. 
by Lisa McKeown
@lisammckeown 

Directed by Nina Lee Aquino, Sultans of the Street is a new play commissioned by Young People's Theatre, written by Anusree Roy. This is a story about four children in India, who are being manipulated and coerced into begging for money on the street by their cunning 'Aunty'. Two are a couple of siblings who were orphaned by a train crash; two are rich kids blackmailed into begging. 

The show is undeniably gorgeous to watch. Camillia Koo's set design is both beautiful and functional: there are four rotating walls covered in colourful saris that serve as doorways, street corners, shops, and windows. 

Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Minotaur

(photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

(Re)writing our stories. 
Greek myth meets time travel. 
by Lisa McKeown 
@lisammckeown

What do you want your story to be? 

This is the question (among others) asked in Kevin Dwyer's retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Directed by Alan Dilworth, the show depicts a story about stories: it shows us the dangers of letting someone else write your story for you, and what it takes to push back against that. Freddie wakes up on his 13th birthday to a text from his father - off in battle - asking for help. Freddie then embarks on a journey to save his father, and in so doing shapes his own story. 

The acting was as I remembered from when I visited Young People's Theatre as a child: intense, and slightly larger-than-life: Karen Robinson is a terrifying Persiphae, with commanding vocal intonation that resonates through the theatre. Jakob Ehman is mesmerizing as young Freddie/Theseus. But my favourite was Bahareh Yaraghi as Ariadne and the Gipsy Queen. When she was on stage I was totally captivated by the action. There is just something different about live theatre; it's powerful in a way that film simply cannot be. It's got a kind of magic to it, one that came out watching a hero's journey in an audience of children. There are a couple of elaborate fight scenes, and I found myself remembering what it was like to see theatre as a child. The actors always seemed imposing, and the action so real. I wondered (and hoped) if theatrical fighting carries the same magic for this audience of children as it did for me, given the updates in special effects. 

Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Where the Wild Things Are

Photo by Chris van der Schyf

Guided storytelling at its finest
by Jason Booker

If you don’t leave this show with a grin on your face, you must be dead.

Even people who aren’t particularly fans of Maurice Sendak’s nearly wordless classic picture-book, Where the Wild Things Are, will be touched by the truly wonderful feeling created by this show. Presentation House Theatre of Vancouver brings their production of this guided play experience to the intimate studio space of Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre for the March Break, directed and adapted by Kim Selody for a slightly larger audience than the original British version intended. But it works.

A warning though: be prepared to participate. Shoes and coats are removed at the door. Kids sit on colour-coded tarps acting as islands. The scenery, props and costumes heavily borrow their sketchy aesthetic and colourful leafy style from a Sendak illustration, created by Linda Leon here. But really, this isn’t a show about the stage magic (though a number of kids loved the first noticeable lighting shift to night in my audience) – it’s about the magic of storytelling, imagination and performance.

Sunday Feature: Director Tanisha Taitt on Emotional Creature

The Fascinating Being
It is so important for young girls to understand that there is no shame in being themselves
by Tanisha Taitt

Tanisha Taitt is an actor/director/playwright, singer-songwriter, arts educator and activist. She began directing in 2007 and has helmed 21 productions of 14 plays.  She is Program Director of Acting Up Stage's One Song Glory youth training program, Director of Children's Peace Theatre's summer Peace Camp program, and a former Resident Artist Educator with Young People's Theatre. Recent productions include Shadowpath Productions' The White Rose, bare for Toronto Youth Theatre and The Power Of Harriet T! for YPT. For six of the last seven years she has been Producer of V-Day Toronto, the local campaign in the global movement to end violence against women and girls.  A 2013 Haroldee, Ms Taitt is a two-time YWCA Woman of Distinction Award nominee for her commitment to artistic excellence and social justice.

Emotional Creature is about the fascinating being that is the adolescent female. It is about how that magical being differs and is the same around the planet, and how the ball of emotion that is the teenaged girl lives very much inside of us all. It is based on chats that playwright Eve Ensler had with girls around the globe over a 15-year period. People like to say that they were interviews but there were never any notepads or tape recorders; there were just conversations that left indelible impressions on her. She would talk to girls -- in Bosnia, in Los Angeles, in Nairobi -- and learn who they were and what 'girlhood' meant and looked like where they lived. There were certain stories that stood apart, ripped her soul out or resonated in such a way that she couldn't forget them. So when she sat down to write the book that the play is based on, I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life Of Girls Around The World, it was those stories that surfaced. She drew from those conversations to create fictional stories based on recollections of those girls' realities.

Review: (Toronto) n00b

(photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

n00b: not for newbies

When identities become merged

by Jason Booker

Sitting in my seat, waiting for the show to begin. Yes, the sound of the school-children becomes a little overwhelming. Especially when you hear the pre-show music underneath stop. Abruptly. Why did it do that? Because the loop of about a minute of sound ends on a loud note and begins on another loud note a few seconds late. It makes the underscoring here very obvious, instead of the subtlety that is typically the goal of sound design that leads the audience into the world of the show.

Why start a review with this nit-picky detail? Because it represented much of the work put into n00b: it goes for flashy effects or dramatic moments but it crafts them together so ineptly that it hardly makes sense and usually draws attention to itself. n00b is a touring one-man show written and performed by Christopher Duthie intended for young audiences.

Review: (Toronto) Jabber

(photo by Gabrielle Kellock)

The Choices of Culture
by Jessica Yen

Fatima is just like any other Canadian teenage girl: she likes hanging out with her friends, gets nervous around boys and rebels against her parents. The difference is, Fatima wears a hijab and sometimes that can draw some unwanted attention and misperceptions from her peers. When anti-Muslim graffiti shows up at her school, Fatima’s parents transfer her to a different one. While navigating the new territory of her school, Fatima meets Jorah, a boy with a bad reputation. An unlikely attraction brings these opposites together, testing each of their personal boundaries. Jabber is a polished piece of theatre for young audiences that does an excellent job of creating conversation and asking difficult questions about cross-cultural respect and the choices we make to stay true to ourselves. 

Review: (Toronto) Annie

L-R: Casper as Sandy and Jenny Weisz as Annie (Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Not so Hard-Knock
by Beat Rice

Annie has always had a special place in my heart, as it was a favourite during my childhood. I could not help but feel nostalgic while hearing those familiar tunes at Young People's Theatre (YPT).  I also could not help but feeling a little let down by the production as a whole.

I understand that this production is not aiming to be a Broadway scale show, but I did expect more spirit in the musical performances. Technically, the vocals were great-everybody sang in tune and accurately with the accompaniment. It’s the time of the Great Depression, and these characters are either gritty and desperate, or benefitting from living the high-life. Their circumstances are clear, as it’s written into the show, but how do they feel about it?  Again, it’s written into the lyrics but the delivery of those words with the music is not as clear-cut and convincing. Take the orphaned girls for example. They all looked the part, but lacked the attitude and hardness one would have from living in a decrepit building under the tyranny of a bitter Ms Hannigan. Yet they sang with a pureness, which makes the number "Hard-Knock Life" a little unbelievable. 

Review: (Toronto) A Story Before Time

(photo by Don Lee)

A Fusion of Art
by Keely Kwok

Okay. Cards on the table. When I saw all the kids in the audience I thought, “this is going to be a long 50  minutes”. Well, you know what assuming does. It makes an— never mind, you know it. In truth, A Story Before Time was enjoyable, informative, and performed in such a way that was entertaining for all ages.

A Story Before Time tells the Onkwehonwe (First Nation) Creation Story. It’s a performance of history, culture, and imagination woven together. Though the story is mainly told through dance, there is a Storyteller named Kateri, played by Semiah Smith. Both bright and enthusiastic, Smith guides the audience through the play, involving them, and delivers lines with just enough winks and nudges for the kids in the audience to get the jokes.

Review: (Toronto) La Fugue

L-R: Félix Beaulieu-Duchesneau, Justin Laramée, Philippe Racine. Photo: Jacques Cabana

What is Freedom?
La Fugue grapples a difficult subject with skill and finesse
by Stuart Munro
@StuartMunroTO

Creating theatre for young audiences is, I expect, a somewhat challenging prospect. How do adult theatre makers get into the heads of children they’ve never met in order to create a work that will not simply hold their attention, but give them something to think about and work with long after the lights have come up? It seems that Theatre Qui Va Là, in conjunction with SMCQ Jeunesse, have figured out that answer to these problems with their work La Fugue, now playing at the Young People’s Theatre.

First-Person: Edward Roy on Beyond the Cuckoo's Nest

The Unspoken
Translating the darkness of the teen years to theatre
by Edward Roy


As I write this I’m deep in technical rehearsals for my new play, Beyond the Cuckoo’s Nest, opening on May 9th at Young People’s Theatre. Beyond the Cuckoo’s Nest follows the story of three young people dealing with mental illness and mood disorders. Although the subject matter of mental illness is an underlying issue in the play as a writer I felt it was extremely important to focus on the relationships between the characters and explore the challenges they face as teenagers dealing with each other, their desire for acceptance within their peer groups, and the “outside world”. As the story unfolds we watch how the young characters, under the guidance of their adult group facilitator, struggle to navigate their way through tough life choices and the consequences they face when they deny the realities of being a teenager dealing with mental illness.