(Nestruck and Baby, credit: Gillian Goerz, www.gilliang.com)
Canadian revivals on the rise.
Starting from Soulpepper's White Biting Dog...
by J. Kelly Nestruck
Judith Thompson's White Biting Dog won a Governor General's Award for drama in 1984, but does that actually mean it's any good? A new revival at Soulpepper Theatre Company has allowed Toronto critics to argue the question.
In his review of Nancy Palk's production for the website Stage Door, critic Christopher Hoile - who lost his mainstream regular outlet when Toronto weekly Eye recently morphed into critic-less The Grid - wondered how such an "absolute mess" could have ever won the G-G. "It was certainly not Soulpepper’s intention, but this revival of Thompson’s play with a cast who give it their all only demonstrates that it really is not 'the great Toronto play' that people have claimed it is," he wrote.
