Live and in person at the Barrie by the Bay Commercial Complex, Barrie, Ont. Playing until March 29, 2025.

www.tift.ca

Written by David Harrower

Directed by Dean Deffett

Costumes designed by Sequoia Erickson

Sound design by Nolan Moberly

Set and prop co-ordination Lauren Cully

Cast: Lucy Janisse

Cyrus Lane

Kirstyn Russelle

A gripping, explosive production of an unsettling play that is about love and obsession. Beautifully acted by the cast. Director Dean Deffett is one to watch. He’s a sensitive, bold director.

The Story. Blackbird by David Harrower is about an affair that ended badly. Una and Peter had an affair fifteen years before. It was passionate, consensual and lasted about three months before Peter broke it off. Now 15 years later Una tracks him down to find out why it ended. Una is now 27 and Peter is now 55. That is correct. At the time of the affair, Una was 12 and Peter was 40.

It’s very easy to think the play is about pedophilia. Playwright David Harrower never makes things easy in this play. It’s so nuanced. He calls the play a “love story.” I don’t doubt him.

Society sure thought it was pedophilia and sent Peter to prison. He served his time; changed his name to Ray—the text lists him as Ray and Una now refers to him as Ray; got a job and went about his life. Una was also in a prison of her own. She remained in her small town with her parents and endured strange looks from people. All her relationships failed. She loved only one person and that was the man she knew as Peter. She saw his photo in a magazine as part of a team in a business and tracked him down.

The Production and comment. It’s explosive. As with many Talk Is Free Theatre productions, Blackbird is played in a site-specific place in an office complex in Barrie. There is a ‘mountain’ of garbage to the side of the small space where the audience sits, that offers atmosphere for the production. The acting space is a small, garbage-strewn lunch-room of some industrial building.  It’s filthy. Garbage overflows the garbage can.

When the play begins in darkness, we hear a door open and some kind of forceful activity. Ray (Cyrus Lane) is on one side of the room, tense, frightened, anxious, and Una (Kirstyn Russelle) is on the other side, combative, challenging. He is in a suit and tie with cell phone on his belt. She is in a fall coat underneath is a sleeveless summer dress and heels. Sequoia Erickson has designed the clothes and deserves kudos. As the production progresses, it appears there is s slit up the middle of the dress that offers some alure to the ‘look.’

Una is now a confident woman who has single-mindedly come looking for Ray to not only find out what happened when he left her without explanation, but also to continue (one imagines) the relationship, this time as a young, mature woman.

He is mortified to see her. They dredge up the past. They met at a family BBQ. Una’s father invited Ray—he was a neighbour. He went but didn’t know anyone. Una was there and was scowling and unhappy. So he went up to talk to her. She liked him and pursued him. He thought of her often after that. The relationship went from there, meeting, being obsessed with the other, discovering love, having consensual sex until he ended it, sort of with a little help from being arrested and sent to trial.

Ray seems to have some custodial job there although he is reluctant to admit it. He is skittish about being in the presence of this woman. As Ray, Cyrus Lane is a mixture of being timid, desperate at being found and forcing himself to be in control. Ray has tried valiantly to hide his former ‘self’ and here he is being discovered.  As Una, Kirstyn Russelle is compelling. It seems she is almost toying with Ray. She has all this pent-up rage that has been seething for 15 years. She also plays up Una’s womanly wiles. She knows how to play a man—in this case Ray—and put him on the defensive. But this isn’t about a calculating woman. It’s about a person who was abandoned and never knew why; who had to endure being ostracized with no place to hide.

Director Dean Deffett has maneuvered his cast around the small space with dexterity, sensitivity and keen imagination.  He has initially staged Ray as far away from Una as possible. She sinks into a corner. He has a table between them and he doesn’t want to get close.  They circle each other but keep their distance until later in the play when their emotions erupt. I love the immediacy, urgency, passion and danger of this production. And the tenderness and love—that is clear. Director Dean Deffett, illuminates the vulnerability of both characters. Both Ray and Una are fragile, damaged, confident and yearning for the other. He has a gifted cast, but this young man’s creative brain is impressive. Dean Deffett—remember his name. I’ll certainly be looking out for his productions.

The play and production leave us with a lot to chew over and think hard about.

Talk Is Free Theatre Presents:

Plays until March 29, 2025.

Running time: 90 minutes.

www.tift.ca

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Live and in person at VideoCabaret, the Deanne Taylor Theatre, 10 Busy St. Toronto, Ont. Plays until March 30, 2025.

https://videocabaret.yapsody.com/event/index/838871/SMART

Created and performed by Nicky Guadagni

Drawing from Smart’s writing, Rosemary Sullivan’s (“By Heart”) Biography of Elizabeth Smart and Carolyn Smart’s (“Ardent”) poetic portrait of Smart.

Directed and dramaturged by Sandra Balcovske

Music and sound by Greg Morrison

Lighting by Andrew Dollar

Canadian poet/novelist, Elizabeth Smart (1913-1986) lived a life that was emotionally huge, fraught with incident, passionate and fiercely unconventional.

She was born into privilege in Ottawa, Ontario. She began writing poetry when she was 10 years old. As soon as she could she left Ottawa for England to get away from the restrictive privilege. She discovered the poems of George Barker and fell in love with them and him (even before she actually met him). She was single-minded about meeting him and when she did she and he began a torrid affair. They had four children together. Never mind that he was already married and never left his wife.  Matters got messy. She wrote of the relationship in “By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept,” which was described as “One of the most passionate accounts of romantic love in modern English literature.”

In one short hour Nicky Guadagni beautifully reveals what has been described as “A compelling personal exploration of the romantic legend, passionate mother and transcendent Canadian writer Elizabeth Smart.”

Guadagni created the script drawing on “By Heart” Rosemary Sullivan’s biography of Elizabeth Smart and “Ardent” Carolyn Smart’s poetic portrait of Elizabeth Smart. The writing is spare, smart and vivid. At one point Elizabeth Smart is described as “Twenty-three and terrified of missing her life.” Elizabeth Smart’s world is wrapped up in that simple sentence.

The lights go up on Nicky Guadagni sitting on a white wicker-backed bench. She is dressed in what looks like a white nightgown and loose socks.  The look is quirky and careless. When you are that gifted a writer as Elizabeth Smart was, you don’t care about such frivolous  things as ‘appearance.’

I first saw Smart performed in Barrie, Ont. in 2020, when Talk Is Free Theatre presented a series of plays in private backyards, because of COVID. There Nicky Guadagni’s performance was expansive as she puttered in the backyard gardens. For this iteration, in the intimate Deanne Taylor Theatre of VideoCabaret, Nicki Guadagni is more self-contained, although director Sandra Balcovske maneuvers Guadagni around the space to some extent. Nicki Guadagni’s performance has grown since I last saw the production. It’s vivid, compelling and absolutely captures the passion and drive of Elizabeth Smart whether talking about her children, her writing or George Barker.  

Guadagni’s delivery as Smart is quiet (but perhaps gentle microphoning would be a help to hear when her voice drops low).

Guadagni offers a characterization of Elizabeth Smart, so full of conviction and loyalty to Barker (even when he didn’t return it in the same way), that we are not quick to be judgmental. It’s a performance full of nuance, sensitivity, detail and passion. It’s a life obsessed with the love of Barker, her children and the compelling need to write and Guadagni reveals it all masterfully. Most important, she makes us want to find out more.

VideoCabaret presents:

Plays until March 30, 2025.

Running time: 60 minutes (no intermission)

https://videocabaret.yapsody.com/event/index/838871/SMART

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Live and in person at the CAA Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Mirvish Productions present the Harmony House production. Playing until March 30, 2025.

www.mirvish.com

Created by Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson

Music director and arranger, Mike Ross

Set by Lorenzo Savoini

Lighting by Simon Rossiter

Sound by Sergey Varlamov

Cast: Brielle Ansems

Greg Gale

Mike Ross

Alicia Toner

Kirk White

Creator/performer Mike Ross is a treasure. His production of INSIDE AMERICAN PIE is a gift to the audience.

Mike Ross is a musician, composer, arranger, producer and archaeologist. Along with Sarah Wilson they have created Inside American Pie, a deep dive into the mysteries and meanings of the song “American Pie” by Don McLean. Mike Ross calls the resulting presentation, a ‘docu-concert’. Mike Ross has been doing this kind of musical ‘archaeological’ work for his whole creative life. When he was the music supervisor at Soulpepper, for example,  he conceived of the idea of the Golden Record, that examined a record and its contents that was sent into space on the Voyager Spaceship. That docu-concert was astonishing. Mike Ross has continued this work with Inside American Pie.

Background. In 2020, Mike Ross and his wife Nicole Bellamy and their two children went home, to Prince Edward Island. They had been living in Toronto for years (he was working at Soulpepper) and they decided they would go home. It was the pandemic. For pure folly they bought a small music hall of 140 seats called Harmony House, in Hunter River. There they presented concerts. Inside American Pie was the first effort and it sold out over the three years it has been presented there. The Mirvishes found out about it and booked it for a winter stint in Toronto—Harmony House takes a break during the winter, so the timing for Toronto was perfect.

While Mike Ross is a great collaborator with his creative colleagues, one senses he is the driving force behind these docu-concerts.

In Inside American Pie Mike Ross and his co-creator Sarah Wilson delve into the eye-popping complexity of Don McLean’s song “American Pie” that references ‘the day the music died’, ‘good-old boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye’, ‘drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry….’ to try and discover what it all means.

Mike Ross has created the show about Don McLean’s iconic song, by referencing other singers and their works and how the works are connected. Ross talks about the musicians and music of the time and what was going on in the United States and the world. He has created the world from where “American Pie” came.

In the digging Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson start with Don McLean as a kid delivering newspapers, when he reads that Buddy Holly (a huge musical influence in the late 1950s) died in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959. He was 22. With him on the plane were The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson) and Ritchie Valens who also died. For Don McLean this was ‘the day the music died.’

Inside American Pie lists 13 songs, such as “Come on, Let’s Go” by Ritchie Valens, “Every Day” by Buddy Holly, and American Pie, the last song on the list.

Mike Ross and his terrific band of Prince Edward Island singers and musicians dress casual and play and sing with flair. The back drop seems innocuous at first—an arrangement of faded stars and stripes—and then you realize you’re looking at an American flag. It’s to the credit of this show and it’s gifted ‘cast’ that we are not overwhelmed by it because of what is going on with our neighbour to the south.

Mike Ross starts the concert with a wink and a smile. He begins to sing “American Pie” even though it’s listed as the last song. When he comes to the chorus, he looks out to the audience with a look that suggests it’s our cue to start singing, which we do. After a bit he says we are getting ahead of ourselves and he will come back to the song later.

Mike Ross is an engaging, enthusiastic narrator. He parses through the various aspects of the song, stanza by stanza, explaining what phrases mean or refer to. He notes sections that stumped him. “Good old boys are drinking whiskey n rye” makes no sense because they are really the same kind of drink. But then he offers, what if the line meant “Good old boys are drinking whiskey in Rye” meaning they were drinking in the town of Rye in upstate New York, where one of the ‘good old boys’ lived.  It’s stuff like this that makes Inside American Pie such a rich, provocative, entertaining time in the theatre. Mike Ross has also created startling, compelling arrangements of every one of the 13 songs.

With every reference in the song Mike Ross found a connection to what was going on the world at the time; or how it influenced other singers. Works of some of the other singers referenced are sung during the concert. And after Mike Ross ‘excavated’ the gems of information from each of Don McLean’s stanzas, Mike Ross and his wonderful band sang the whole song. And again, all it took was one look from Mike Ross to the audience to get them singing again, with gusto. Wonderful.

Mirvish  Productions Presents the Harmony House Production.

Plays until March 30, 2025.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.mirvish.com

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Call for Submissions

The Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition recognizes the most outstanding, unproduced, Canadian plays with a Jewish focus.  

Originally a program run by an independent group of dedicated volunteers, The Toronto Jewish Theatre Committee, the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition was founded in 1989 and operated out of the Bathurst JCC in North Toronto. 

In 1999, the MNjcc adopted this program and ran it with a group of jurors from the professional theatre community. Before 2006 there was an average of six plays submitted each year. With more publicity and exposure, up to 40 plays are submitted from six Canadian provinces, the United States and Israel each contest year. The competition is now a bi-annual program.

The winning playwright will receive $1,000 (CDN) and an 8-hour CAEA workshop with a director and up to six actors. This workshop concludes with a public reading. Generously supported by the Asper Foundation. 

The 2025 competition is co-presented by Bema Productions (British Columbia), The Winnipeg Jewish Theatre (Manitoba), The Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company (Ontario), and The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts (Quebec). 

The submission deadline is May 25, 2025. Guidelines and submission form can be found here

www.mnjcc.org/theatre

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Live and in person at the Tarragon Extra Space, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Red Snow Collective. Playing until March 23, 2025.

www.tarragontheatre.com

Playwright, Diana Tso

Director/choreographer, William Yong

Composer Alice Ping Yee Ho

Lighting designed by Andre du Toit

Scenic and costume designer, Ting-Huan, Christine Urquhart

Cast: Shiong-En Chan

Tai Wei Foo

Brenda Kamino

Honey Pham

Michelle Wang

With Carried By The River playwright Diana Tso has written a play honouring absent mothers, myths, memories, cultural traditions and finding the truth about one’s identity.

Kai is a young Asian woman raised in Canada. She is grieving her late mother as she goes through her papers. Kai is startled to realize that she was adopted from China, when there was the “One-Child Policy” in China, when a family in China could only have one child. If they had more, then the child had to be put up for adoption or other drastic options. Kai felt she had to go to China to find her routes. Kai is ‘guided’ by the spirit of her late mother. She is also ‘visited’ by mythic animals that carry their own wisdom in guiding her: a deer, a tiger, a bear. The metaphor of the river as another guide is a thread through this poetic play.

When Kai lands in China she meets a friendly, chatty street vendor named Ting Ting who very quickly suggests they go into business together. The two young women bond and as they traded information about themselves, Kai reveals she is gay. Ting Ting is horrified because to reveal one is gay in China is dangerous—being gay is not accepted. Ting Ting proves a good friend and  Kai is invited to meet Ting Ting’s family. We also learn that Ting Ting’s mother had to put a child up for adoption years ago, because of the “One-Child Policy.”

It seemed to me, and I’m sure I’m not alone, that Kai would naturally pursue this bit of information by trying to see if her adoption from China might have something to do with Ting Ting’s mother having to give up a child for adoption, but playwright, Diana Tso does not pursue that, which I found odd. It’s clear later in the play, why this was not questioned, but I feel another pass around this issue is needed to stop the audience from thinking there was something wrong with not pursuing it earlier.  While the play is very poetic, I think it would be stronger with judicious editing to make the work flow easier.

William Yong is both the director and the choreographer. He certainly has a vivid imagistic sense. The production is stunning, with swaths of material as a backdrop and stunning costumes for the animals (kudos to Ting-Huan and Christine Urquhart), but often I sensed that William Yong’s concept and images for the production overpowered the play. At the beginning there is a tableau of three people in silhouette who do a dance. We have no idea what this signifies since the play has not started. This might tend to confuse the audience. Not a good thing to start.  We do get a sense what it means at the end when we can put that dance in context. The dance would work better if placed at the end, as a kind of closure, rather than at the beginning as confusion.

At the beginning Kai is talking to her iPad as if writing a letter to her mother. She sits stage right. Willam Yong has a video of Kai reading from her iPad projected on one of the stage left panels of material. Why? It seems fussy and unnecessary. William Yong has also created a lot of dance sequences, all lovely and vivid. It’s just that I found the dance interrupted the flow of the play unfolding.

The acting is well intentioned and committed, with Honey Pham as Kai and Brenda Kamino as Lao Lao, a no-nonsense presence, doing strong work. But too often I found the other actors too hesitant and insecure. The pace was too slow.

Carried by the River is an honourable attempt to pay homage to memory, lost mothers and our true identities. It would be stronger with another pass of writing and more directorial diligence  to the play rather than the concept.

Red Snow Collective presents:

Plays until March 23, 2025.

Running time: 95 minutes (no intermission)

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Live and in person at the Factory Studio Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Playing until March 16, 2025.

www.factorytheatre.ca

Written and performed by Kelly Clipperton

Directed by Naomi Campbell

Designed by Naomi Campbell and Kelly Clipperon

Musical direction and piano, Janet Whiteway

Lighting design by Christian Horoszczak

Choreography by Shane MacKinnon

Live sound design by Robin Easton

Set renderings by Ariel Clipperton

Band: Janet Whiteway

Tak Arikushi-Guitar

Oriana Barbato-Bass

Carrie Chestnutt-Sax and flute

Karl Anderson-drums

Don’t let the title fool you. Kelly Clipperton knows plenty about living in the world; coping with its bullies; finding his true self and celebrating it in irreverent humourand song; and bursting with the capacity to love and care especially for his father as he lived with dementia.

I can’t remember the last time the Factory Studio stage looked so stylish or the place so packed. Naomi Campbell and Kelly Clipperton have created a shiny set of the stage at the top and a runway flowing into the audience. Some audience sit at tables on either side of the runway.

Kelly Clipperton enters in a spotlight singing, dressed in a khaki army hat, khaki army shirt and a khaki skirt down to the group. Clipperton looks like a cross between a soldier and an Andrews Sister.

His style is cheeky, suggestive and full of double entendres. When you least expect it he talks about his father, who was a professional football player, later a geography high school teacher, and Kelly Clipperton’s constant champion.

Let’s Assume I Know Nothing and Move Forward From There tells the ‘typical’ story of a young boy who is gay, trying to fit in, being invisible, but being physically bullied on his way home from school. But of course, there is nothing typical about a kid being bullied because he is different. Each story is particular, individual, and just makes one suck air at the difficulty of a kid just trying to get through the day. Kelly Clipperton tells his story with humour and honesty. There is his cigarette-smoking grandmother who doesn’t seem sympathetic. There is the pack of bullies, unnamed but present as he tries to cross the bridge to get home, but having to endure the taunts and punched to do it—it always seems to be a pack of bullies that prey on one defenseless kid.

Kelly Clipperton grows up, thrives and succeeds working in a hair salon for black customer (Clipperton is not Black), then a model and then onward. At every job, he excelled. Nothing held him back. He sings about it in a strong baritone. He performs in a carefree, confident manner. But it’s his father who holds his heart. He references his father throughout the show as a person always on his mind—Clipperton took care of him during his father’s dementia. There is such tenderness in his recollections.

I saw this late in the short run. It closes today. It’s well worth a visit.

Performed at the Factory Studio Theatre

Plays until March 16, 2025.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission).

www.factorytheatre.ca   

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The war in Ukraine continues after three years. There are new horrors in Syria. There is slaughter in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is chaos with our neighbour to the south, as the President of the United States seems to be at war with everybody. There is a tenuous cease fire between Israel and Gaza, but where are the hostages after more than a year and a half?  And globally, antisemitism is at an all-time high.

The theatre brings us together as a community, bridging our differences, connecting us with our similarities, to hear stories from our world from various points of view. We may agree with one side over the other side or even agree with both sides. There are three sides to every story: one side, the other side and the truth. We need to hear both sides to find the third side. Without that willingness to listen to things we don’t want to hear we have blinkered ignorance.

What then to make of these two articles that note that 18 publicly funded performing arts organizations in Canada, nine from Toronto, are supporting the cultural and academic boycott of Israel?

https://www.torontotoday.ca/local/arts-culture/nine-toronto-performing-arts-organizations-endorse-cultural-academic-boycott-israel-10328512

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/buddies-in-bad-times-theatre-endorses-cultural-boycott-of-israel-joining-17-other-canadian-performing/article_84526908-f864-11ef-b2be-a72c12ac178b.html

The 18 organizations collectively called Theatre Artists for Palestinian Voices (TAPV) endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the cultural arm of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee, which leads corporate, academic and cultural boycotts of organizations affiliated with Israel.  

Boycotting a voice/culture is censorship. It is racist and despicable.

In a statement: “TAPV is a coalition of Palestinian, Indigenous, Jewish and allied artists and arts workers committed to bringing a diversity of Palestinian voices to our stages…..”

What are you waiting for? Start programming those Palestinian voices!

You might consider The Arab-Israeli Cookbook by Robin Soans. The play presents many sides of a horrible situation, all true. You might also consider The Runner by Christopher Morris, which will be presented by The Harold Green Jewish Theatre and Koffler Arts, April 26-May 4–lots of angst about this play. I’m glad someone has the guts to present it.

To repeat: boycotting a voice/culture is censorship. It is racist and despicable. Let’s do better.

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Measure for Measure

Live and in person at the Studio Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw at Dundas, in Toronto, Ont. House & Body in association with Crow’s Theatre. Running until March 16, 2025.

www.crowstheatre.com

Adapted by Christopher Manousos, after William Shakespeare

Directed by Christopher Manousos

Lighting designer, Chris Malkowski

Sound by Riel Reddick-Stevens

Cast: Jamie Cavanagh

Katherine Gauthier

Sébastien Heins

Beck Lloyd

Danté Prince

Let’s put Christopher Manousos on our radar as a creative, inventive theatre creator. His work as a director and adaptor of Measure for Measure is eye-popping. His gift for theatrical invention makes you sit up and lean into the production. He has adapted Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure to a brisk two hours and 20 minutes with an intermission without losing any of the drive, emotion or detail of the story.

Briefly, the play is about lust, trust, betrayal and trying to live by one’s convictions. The Duke of Vienna has managed to let all rule of law slide and to fix it he puts his deputy Angelo in charge, while he, the Duke, leaves the city. Angelo is a strict-by-the-book man. He sentences a man named Claudio to death for getting his fiancé pregnant. For this act, Claudio must die. Claudio’s sister, Isabella, about to become a nun, goes to Angelo to plead for her bother. Angelo is firm, but is so taken with her looks and eloquence that he offers her a solution: If Isabella sleeps with him, Angelo will spare Claudio. Exhale.

Chrisopher Manousos has adapted Measure for Measure as a play within a play. It takes place in a sound studio and a group of actors and technicians gather to present the play as a radio play complete with foley sounds that the actors etc. will create.

Two white tables, full of microphones, a pair of shoes, chains and other paraphernalia for making noise, are center stage. There is a narrator (Danté Prince) who will call out the act and scene of each selection. A husband and wife (Katherine Gauthier and Sébastien Heins) connected with the sound studio are also actors in the show. Another actor (Beck Lloyd) is hired at the last minute when someone drops out.

The acting is robust, assured and compelling when they are playing Measure for Measure. Sébastien Heins as Angelo and Beck Lloyd as Isabella are particularly fine. The others are dandy as well.  When they are doing scenes outside the play the actors are flirty, contemporary and nuanced.

Some directorial choices seem contradictory. This is a radio show of Measure for Measure so initially the cast reads their scripts and speaks in front of microphones. But as the play progresses the actors negotiate the space reciting the text as memorized as if presenting a stage play for an audience. I’m sure Christopher Manousos has his reasons for this decision. I don’t know what it is, but the man is so inventive in his staging and so efficient in his adapting of the text, I didn’t mind. I’m looking forward to whatever he plans in the future.

House & Body in association with Crow’s Theatre Present:

Playing until March 16, 2025

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes (1 intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Live and in person at the AKI Studio, Daniels Spectrum, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Shifting Ground Collective. Playing until March 15, 2025.

www.shiftinggroundcollective.com

Music and lyrics by William Finn

Book by Rachel Sheinkin

Conceived  by Rebecca Feldman

Directed by Jennifer Walls

Choreographed by Nicholas Rocque

Music directed by Michael Ippolito

Production designed by Jason Dauvin

Lighting designed by Niall Durcan

Sound designed by Al Starkey

Cast: Olivia Daniels

Nam Nguyen

Diana Del Rosario

Berkley Silverman

Jameson Mosher

Lauren Taylor Scott

Zoe Virola

Ben Ridd

Misha Sharivker

Band:

Conductor and keys by Mr. Mike “Uncle” Ippolito

Madie Lawrence on synth

Emily Morse on reeds

Dante Alaimo on cello

Amiel Ang on percussion

Delightful and tender.

The future of musical theatre in Toronto is bright if Shifting Ground Collective has anything to do with it. This is a collective of eager, musically enthusiastic, creative, tenacious young people who love musical theatre, the more challenging the better. They formed in 2022 and produced Ordinary Days followed by a nearly sold out run of Merrily We Roll Along. And now we have the quirky, heartwarming show, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

From the website: “At the 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a group of passionate middle schoolers compete for the chance to prove to the world (and themselves) that the things that make them different are the things that make them winners—and maybe learn a little more about themselves along the way.”

There are six regular contestants, perhaps considered misfits by others, but each has their own angst and tenacity. The adenoidal William Barfée (Jameson Mosher) had a special way of spelling and the frustration of having to keep correcting the pronunciation of his last name. Rona Lisa Peretti (Olivia Daniels) fretted because both her parents weren’t there. Logainne SchwartzandGrubenniere fretted because both her fathers were so smothering and demanding. The others were hampered by a sense they were or should be perfect, or were terribly insecure and not perfect, etc.  

There are ‘adults’: the kindly Olive Ostrovsky (Berkley Silverman) who is a former  spelling bee winner, and Douglas Plance (Nam Nguyen), a cynical, perhaps bored supplier of the words and other information. Mitch Mahoney (Diana Del Rosario) is the imposing, stern soul who escorts the losers off the stage with a hint of a hug and a juice box.

There are also three volunteer spellers from the audience who bring their own fun. At my performance one young man noted as a special mention that he had been to the Taylor Swift concert twice—once in Toronto, once in Vancouver—now that is devotion!

The cast, including the volunteers, are wonderful to a person. They have a sense of the humour of the piece and know how to think on their feet. The professionals know how to sing and sell a song.

Jeniffer Walls is the inventive smart director. The pace is fast; the timing perfect; the charm and the humour is beautifully expressed. Wonderful work.  

Shifting Ground Collective presents:

Playing until March 15, 2025

Running time: 100 minutes.

www.shiftinggroundcollective.com  

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Cliff Cardinal has been invited to bring his provocative play, “As You Like It, Or The Land Acknowledgement”, to the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival this August. This isn’t the jam-packed, hustle-bustling Fringe Festival, which has its own cachet. This is the highly respected International Festival in which one has to be invited by the Artistic Director to perform.

Cliff Cardinal has just returned from Australia when he performed the play. He has taken “As You Like It, or the Land Acknowledgement” across the country and to England, New York, and now Edinburgh. He goes from strength to strength.

https://info.eif.co.uk/cr/AQiHyxMQ3PZRGN2zwwQ1Ar6_BRe2eGHG9w0gjVWTldTd28vSW2oMKHfF5mAs_g

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