Lynn

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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Live and in person at Morning Parade Coffee Bar, Toronto, Ont. Presented by Outside the March. Plays until March 30, 2025.

www.outsidethemarch.ca

Created and performed by Rosmund Small

Directed by Mitchell Cushman

Production designer, Anahita Dehbonehie

Sound designer and composer, Heidi Chan

A deceptively charming recapping of the many jobs Rosamund Small has had navigating work life with bosses, customers and men who come on to her. Small handles it all with a smile and a bit of a worried look. Beautifully acted and directed.

The Story. Rosamund Small, a gifted playwright/writer, tells the audience the various jobs she’s had, from barista at Second Cup to working for a theatre company with a confident artistic director who is much too familiar, to a show runner in on a TV show in Los Angeles. Each has its wonderful points and some not so wonderful points. Each example is described with perception, humour and an almost innocence.

The Production and Comment. In true Outside the March style, artistic director, Mitchell Cushman sets this ‘confessional’ in a coffee bar on Dundas Street at Crawford. The piece is site-specific and immersive. The audience can order their coffee and snacks before the show begins. The audience sits at tables with a book on each table—the book represents a tome that is of importance to playwright-performer, Rosamund Small.

Anahita Dehbonehie, the brilliant designer for Outside the March, adds her subtle but unmistakable flourishes to the site, with props for the show fitting in perfectly with the paraphernalia of the actual coffee bar. A prop is there among the glassed by the water dispenser. Glass domes containing something pertaining to the show are on a shelf behind the bar. Anahita Dehbonehie makes you look harder at her design and one is always rewarded when one discovers something hiding in sight that is perfect for a scene.

Rosamund Small holds up her resumé from when she was 18 years old. She lists her many accomplishments in sports, the student council, what she does well, and her gift of easily engaging with customers. She has a winning smile through it all.

Because she was too slow in doing the paperwork to be admitted to university, she decides to work and save her money. She gets a job at a Second Cup. Staff and customers love her. One customer in particular that she has bonded with keeps leaving her larger and larger tips ($100? $150?). Rosamund is generous and shares them with her colleagues. The supervisor wonders if she is doing anything extra for the tips. Initially Rosamund Small looks confused at the suggestion of her hard-nosed female supervisor. When the Second Cup location closes, Rosamund Small has to find another job.

What follows are jobs involving Small’s real profession—playwright/writer: a residency at a celebrated theatre company with a very accomplished artistic director. There are jobs in Los Angeles in television. She is invited to England by another artistic director there.

In each job Small indicates how old she was when she got the job. She flashes her winning smile, showing her innocence and wonder at it all, but underneath her charming ways, there is a sense of danger to which she is not aware. Men ‘come on to her’ when she least expects it, putting their hands where they shouldn’t; compromising her.  When it happens, she is shocked and manages to either say ‘no’ or subtly move away from the hand down her pants. She makes no editorial comment. She just indicates the behaviour of the men, and the world that many have to maneuver through. Her last job is as an ‘administrative assistant.’ She gets one wondering, ‘does one stop being a writer if one isn’t earning a living as a writer’? If it’s Rosamund Small suggesting the question, the answer is decidedly ‘no.’

Performance Review is directed with subtlety and sensitivity by Mitchell Cushman. He has Rosamund Small negotiate the many tables, chairs and bar area with ease and humour. At times she sits on the bar and it seems as natural as breathing. She is not judgmental about her bosses, customers, supervisors, or the people involved. She leaves that to the audience to figure out. Through it all her smile hides a jumble of feelings and about a bundle of experiences. Rosamund Small is a gifted writer, a charming actor, and has a talent for not only being amusing, but also being subtly unsettling. She deserves a sterling performance review.    

Outside the March presents:

Playing until March 30, 2025.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.outsidethemarch.ca

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Short reviews of plays that have closed, all worthy of comment.

A Doctor’s Visit

Produced by The Chekhov Collective, the Page to Stage Theatrical Reading series. Played at VideoCabaret, 10 Busy Street, from Feb. 26-March 2, 2025.

www.thechekhovcollective.com

By Anton Chekhov

Written by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Rena Polley
Cast: Susan Coyne

 Rena Polley

 Brenda Robins

 David Storch

It’s always a rich adventure in stage-craft, acting and Chekhov to see one of the Chekhov Collective’s readings.

A Doctor’s Visit tells the story of a physician apprentice who travels outside Moscow to treat the daughter of a wealthy factory owner. Nothing appears to be the matter, until the family convinces him to stay the night. The doctor (a wonderful David Storch) is judgmental of the people in the house—from their looks to their attitudes to the fact that he feels the patient (an equally compelling Susan Coyne) should be married (she’s single). Attitudes change when the doctor and the patient kneel on the floor, look at each other, and quietly talk to each other.  

Rena Polley has directed with great sensitivity. This is more than a staged reading—the cast has mainly memorized the text. The space is used as are props. Wonderful. Be on the lookout for their next show by going to www.thechekhovcollective.com.

Big Ticket

At Theatre Kingston, Kingston, Ont. Played from Feb. 6-23, 2025.

www.kingstongrand.ca

Written by Jim Garrard

Directed and set by Rosemary Doyle

Lighting by Will Smith-Blyth

Sound and music by Richard Feren

Cast: Susan Del Mei

Reece Presley.

A world premiere. I went because Jim Garrard, a theatre pioneer, wrote it, and Rosemary Doyle directed it and invited me. Fine acting; space well used; but the script could use another pass because it’s confusing and contradictory.

David Morrison (Reece Presley) owns a towing company. He meets Annie Polito and brings her to his office—he seems to live there—to get ‘to know her better.’ She seems willing. He shows her around the small office including ‘the cage’, an enclosure made of chain link fencing. There is a desk inside the cage and a combination lock on the door of the cage.

Annie shows how willing she is to get intimate with David when she seductively takes off his clothes to his briefs then pushes him into the cage and locks the combination lock. Annie had ulterior motives for ‘coming on to David.’ It seems she has 100 parking tickets because the signage regarding the hours one can park is confusing. She has been towed four times, by David. And she’s going to get even with him. She sets fire to his beloved truck. She wants publicity for her cause. The police and fire department arrive.  She wants to speak to the mayor and the media.  

The story is confusing, murky and thin. Annie is in real estate.  She either wants to bring attention to the unfairness of parking laws or she wants people to be kind to each other. She fluctuates. At two hours with an intermission the story is thin and so is one’s patience to source the truth. While Rosemary Doyle uses the space well, there are too many obvious moments of eye-brow-knitting. When Annie is out of the room (bathroom) David climbs on the desk perhaps to try and escape but changes his mind. Why? There is no fenced in top to the cage. He can climb over easily and overpower her. He frantically works the combination lock almost to opening it, when Annie comes in the room and he stops. Yet he doesn’t continue to unlock it when she isn’t looking and there were plenty of times. Both Susan Del Mei as Annie and Reece Presley as David Morrison have a lovely rapport and acquit themselves well. Disappointing play though.

MONKS

Played live at the Theatre Centre, Toronto, Ont. that ran from Feb. 26-March 2, 2025.

Co-created and co-directed by Veronica Hortigűela and Annie Luján

MONKS was a hit at the Toronto Fringe and the Theatre Centre brought this irreverent clown show back to cheer us up during the dreary winter.

Veronica Hortigűela and Annie Luján play monks in a monastery. Both are named “Brother.”

Veronica Hortigűela has a uni-brow and Annie Luján has a droopy moustache that at one point takes on a life of its own. It’s an old gag—a moustache that becomes unglued. But Annie Luján is ingenious in working this ‘planned mistake’ by running her tongue over the unhinged part of the moustache to try and reconnect it.

The other monks have gone off for the day leaving these two to fend for themselves and watch the donkey grazing in the field. But first they engage with the willing audience; give out precious ‘bundles’ of dried lentils; asking a member of the audience to volunteer to participate in various endeavors, one of which is to re-attach the tail on the back of the donkey (Luján).

MONKS was silly, irreverent, deliberately rough in places, as a fringe show is, very funny and illuminates the beautiful chemistry between Veronica Hortigűela and Annie Luján. They are accomplished clowns and  improvisors, quick witted, poignant and a delight.

The programme didn’t include a link to any website for the duo, so just be diligent in seeking them out whenever they next play.

Fly Me To The Moon

Played at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, February 19 to March 2, 2025. Produced by Shillelagh Theatre Company.

Written by Marie Jones

Directed by Wayne Ward

Designed by Leslie Wright

Sound by Joe Taylor

Lighting by Mike Slater

Cast: Sarah Evans

Melee Hutton

Smart. Funny and a wild Irish story set in Belfast Northern Ireland. 2012.

Loretta (Sarah Evans) and Francis (Melee Hutton), are professional caregivers in Belfast. They both chatter in the bedroom of their client, while he’s in the bathroom. Both women dream of going on vacation to Barcelona but money is tight. Loretta’s husband is out of work. It’s tough. And the patient is still in the bathroom. He’s really quiet and doesn’t answer when Loretta yells through the door. She checks to see if he’s ok. He’s not. He’s dead. Panic. What to do? Call the police? Fire department? But his pension cheque is expected that day, and they deposit it in the account cause the patient is house-bound. And there is his winnings from the bookies. Who would know if they took the money for themselves?

Marie Jones has written a comedy that ratchets up the tension, complications and the laughs. Both Sarah Evans as Loretta and Melee Hutton as Francis bring a sparkling chemistry, an easy wiliness, and an irreverence to the story. These are two characters who just want to catch a break and the two fine actresses, easily win over the audience and make the play pop.  

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Live and in person at Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw Ave. Toronto, Ont. Produced by Crow’s Theatre. Playing until March 30, 2025.

www.crowstheate.com

Written by Anusree Roy

Directed by Nina Lee Aquino

Set and Props by Jawon Kang

Costumes by Ming Wong

Lighting by Michelle Ramsay

Sound and composer, by Romeo Candido

Cast: Sahiba Arora

Afroza Banu

Sehar Bhojani

Michelle Mohammed

Muhaddisah

Prerna Nehta

Imali Perera

Anusree Roy

Zorana Sadiq

Mirza Sarhan

A gripping, provocative play about the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. A play and a production that will leave you breathless with its artistry, vision and fearlessness.

The Story. Playwright Anusree Roy writes what she knows. As a woman of South Asian descent, born in Calcutta, she knows about life in South Asia. She has written about that life in such plays as Pyassa, Letters to My Grandma, Brothel #9, Little Pretty & The Exceptional and Sultans of the Street, to name but a few.

She has written about the caste system; women duped into thinking they were offered work as a servant only to realize they were sold into a life in a brothel; and about the stigma of mental health issues in the South Asian community. All these plays are bracing, compassionate, and vivid.  With each play Anusree Roy has grown as a playwright, a thinker and a weaver of stories.

Trident Moon is a play that shows Anusree Roy at the top of her writing powers. It is astonishing. It takes place in 1947. The British partitioned British India by drawing a line on a map, creating the two independent countries of India, that was mainly Hindu and Pakistan, that was mainly Muslim. The results were tensions along religious and ethnic lines; violence and the displacement of millions of people. Trident Moon distills these huge political issues and places them in the back of a truck, initially holding three Hindu women and three Muslim women. The truck is being driven toward Hindu India.

The Hindu women are Alo (Anusree Roy), her sister Bani (Sehar Bhojani) and Bani’s developmentally delayed daughter Arun (Sahiba Arora).  She has initiated the kidnapping of the three Muslim women, Rabia (Imali Perera), Pari (Muhaddisah) and Heera (Prerna Nehta) tied their hands behind them and declared revenge because Pari’s husband was responsible for the death of Alo’s husband and two sons. In the pandemonium Bani was shot and is in severe pain.  Alo worked for the Muslim family as a servant. They looked down on her and her family as inferior and lower class. Because of the fraught political times three other women are taken into the truck: Sonali (Zorana Sadiq) a pregnant Sikh woman, Sumaiya (Afroza Banu), who has secrets about her nationality, and a young woman, Munni (Michelle Mohammed), who Sumaiya says is her granddaughter.

The Production. Jawon Kang has created a stark yet beautiful set. Floating down from the flies are curving swaths of elegant fabric, evocative of the material for saris or other national clothing from South Asia. On stage level is a floor leading up to the door at the back of the truck. Michelle Ramsay’s lighting creates a shaft of yellow light that bisects the space. The Hindu women, dressed in pale yellow, are on the stage right of the truck. The Muslim women in pale green are on the stage left of the truck.

For the first part of the play invective is hurled to the Muslim women on the other side of the yellow line, usually by Alo, played with fierce conviction by Anusree Roy. The Muslims return their own invective, usually by Pari, played with imperious disdain by Muhaddisah. A quibble here, I initially found Romeo Candido’s soundscape at the beginning of the production intrusive and overpowered the dialogue. There are a lot of characters on stage. It’s imperative we hear each clearly. The volume should be turned down a notch. It was fine and evocative for the rest of the production.  

As the play progresses, the invective hurled and returned, the focus of the ‘sides’ begins to blur. At times the wounded Bani lays across the yellow line. The tension in the truck increases in a steady pace as more and more credible complications arise. At one point all the women are confronted by a gun-wielding rebel named “Lovely” played with hair-trigger intensity by Mirza Sarhan who breaks into the truck to steal any money or jewels. He has to prove himself to his fellow marauders. The women subtly band together to thwart him. The fault lines shift.  

The production is beautifully directed by Nina Lee Aquino. Her attention to the slow and relentless building of tension keeps the audience engaged, holding their breath and gripping the arm-rest. There is an ebb and flow of the tension to give the play some breathing room. And through all the high drama of the confined situations, there is humour. It’s not easy and cheap. It’s earned and true. Playwright Anusree Roy captures the particular turns of phrases of her characters quirky speech patterns. Sumaiya, wonderfully acted by Afroza Banu, is a woman who thinks on her feet. She pleads to enter the truck on the journey dressed as one religious faction, but is really of the another. She has to win over both the Hindu and Muslim women in the truck. Her banter is quick-witted, irreverent but not insulting.  She is jokey, hilarious and always compelling. Afroza Banu as Sumaiya gives one fine performance. All the performances are dandy. The cast is a true ensemble.    

Trident Moon is a bristling, evocative play that encapsulates the rancor and cost of hatred, religious, ethnic and political intolerance all placed in the back of the truck with nine woman and one man representing the many and various sides of this explosive situation. Playwright Anusree Roy creates many twists and turns in her multi-faceted story, and not one of them are facile or sentimental. They are all earned.  Her characters are fully drawn and all have their own absorbing story. She has taken the huge, complex political division of two countries, and distilled it down to the human face of the partition.   

Comment. A symbol for India is the trident. A symbol for Pakistan is a crescent moon. Playwright Anusree Roy combined the two symbols to create the title of the play. Fitting and brilliant.

I saw a workshop of Trident Moon about 13 years ago. It was stunning then. I have waited impatiently as the play had its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre, in London, England in 2016 and a workshop at the Stratford Festival a few years ago, before an artistic director had the vision to program it here. Kudos to Crow’s artistic director, Chris Abraham for programing Trident Moon for his present season. It was so worth the wait. How lucky we are to have a playwright as gifted as Anusree Roy, who goes from strength to strength telling her stories with conviction, truth and profound artistry.  

Crow’s Theatre Presents:

Runs until March 30, 2025.

Running time: 90 minutes. (No intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Canadian Stage Company. Playing until March 16, 2025.

www.canadianstage.com

Written by James Ijames

Directed by Philip Akin

Choreographer, Jaz Fairy J

Set by Brandon Kleiman

Costumes by Ming Wong

Lighting by Andre du Toit

Projection design by Laura Warren

Sound by Jacob Lin

Cast: David Alan Anderson

Raven Dauda

Nehassaiu deGannes

Peter Fernandes

Virgilia Griffith

Tawiah M’Carthy

Tony Ofori

The Story.  James Ijames’ 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning play is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set in the United States. It concerns a Black family. Juicy is in mourning for his dead father, Pap. He was murdered while he was in prison. Juicy is also reluctantly pulled into blowing up balloons for decorations for his mother Tedra’s second marriage to his uncle Rev. While Juicy is alone in the family’s backyard, he is visited by his father’s ghost who wants revenge. Pap tells Juicy that Rev was the one who arranged for Pap to be murdered in prison. Pap expects Juicy to revenge the murder. Juicy has other ideas. Expectations are one of the themes of the play.

The Production. The whole physical design of the backyard of this family home is eye-popping. Andre du Toit’s lighting is blazing bright suggesting it’s an eye-squinting sunny day. Brandon Kleiman’s has designed the colourful backyard with the modest back of the house. The balloons that are suspended over the green grass are almost neon in colour. There is a large table that will accommodate the family and friends for the dinner that will celebrate Tedra’s (Raven Dauda) and Rev’s (David Alan Anderson) marriage. A monster bar-b-q is off to the left of that. Rev will do the cooking on that machine.

Costume designer, Ming Wong, has dressed almost everybody in casual colourful clothes for this ‘happy’ occasion. Tedra, an exuberant performance by Raven Dauda, is dressed provocatively. This is a woman that is sexually charged and raring to go on her second marriage. David Alan Anderson as Rev is equally as game. The tactile, seductive body language is clear. Tedra and Rev were getting it on while Pap was in prison. David Alan Anderson as Rev is imposing, confident, intimidating and take charge.  Together Tedra and Rev give new meaning to the word ‘selfish’. They intend to pay for their celebrations and the renovations of the bathroom (Rev hates that it’s all pink), by using the money meant for Juicy’s tuition.

While playwright James Ijames has used Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a framework for Fat Ham, Ijames’ play goes in its own direction. Rather than being a play about seeking revenge by a brooding man, Fat Ham is a play about people hiding their true selves to conform to the expectations of others. In their more private moments various characters quietly confess their inner hopes to those they trust.  

Juicy, beautifully played by Peter Fernandes, is still the play’s center. He is the one in mourning—dressed in black: long black baggy shorts, black t-shirt and black shirt. He blows up balloons as a duty. He stands off from the action, observing the others. When the ghost of his father appears to him Juicy is not cowed by the command to seek revenge. He tells his father he is/was not a nice man. Pap didn’t treat Juicy well; always denigrating him for being ‘soft.’ So Juicy is faced with two dilemmas: to revenge his father’s murder and to reveal his true self.

Other characters struggle under the yoke of expectations. It’s expected that Opal (Virgilia Griffith), Juicy’s childhood friend, will be demure, dress in dresses and naturally marry Juicy. In reality Opal likes wearing pants and practicing martial arts. Virgilia Griffith plays Opal with a gentle sadness and a muscularity when kicking and punching her way through a martial arts routine. Larry (Tawiah M’Carthy) is Opal’s brother. He is in the military and looks strapping in his form-fitting uniform. He is the ideal, dutiful son, the pride of his mother. And he too has secrets. Tawiah M’Carthy observes the goings on with a contained grace and a hint of distain for the raucous activity. Some characters are allowed to flaunt their sensuality and behaviour while others have to keep parts of themselves a secret. With his sensitive, careful direction, Philip Akin gradually peels off the layers hiding in the characters and the play. Akin realizes the obvious humour but balances it with the more somber aspects of the characters. And there is danger lurking too, so the audience is often caught off balance.

Comment. Playwright James Ijames has created a bracing, inventive play that uses Hamlet as a framework, but is not affixed to it. He uses stereotypes that are bold; language that is irreverent and particular and humour that makes one laugh out loud. The play is both familiar and startling. Do you need to know the play Hamlet to appreciate Fat Ham? Not really, but knowing Hamlet adds a layer of knowledge that deepens the pleasure of Fat Ham.

A Canadian Stage Production

Plays until March 16, 2025.

Running time: 100 minutes (no intermission)

www.canadianstage.com

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Was live and in person at the Alumnae Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Produced  by Thousand Miles of Bricks Productions.  Closed Feb. 9^th.

Originally co-created by Cassel Miles and Charles Robertson.

Originally written by Charles Robertson.

Directed by Jim Garrard.

Starring Cassel Miles.

NOTE: Alas, time again got away from me. But I’m writing a comment long after the show closed at the Alumnae Theatre, because the story is important and I think the play should have another chance at production, but with a considerable re-write.

Josiah Henson (June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1830.

Josiah Henson had an incredible life. He was born a slave; suffered terrible abuse; was initially separated from his mother when he was young when she was bought by Issac Riley. Through a circuitous route Josiah’s mother’s convinced Issac Riley to also buy Josiah so the mother and young son were not separated, as long as the young son would work in the fields.

He did and proved to be good worker, an astute administrator, and rose to oversea Issac Riley’s farms. When Issac Riley had financial problems, he asked Josiah to take 18 slaves to Riley’s brother’s farm in Kentucky. Josiah and the other slaves walked the 700 miles from Maryland to Kentucky. Josiah was made aware that he could buy his freedom. He saved his money, but his owner was a creep and duped him. Then Josiah took matters into his own hands.

Cassel Miles is the co-creator of Josiah with Charles Robertson. Cassel Miles is also the co-producer with his partner Sandy McFadden; and Cassel Mile is also the star of this one person show. Cassel Miles has been fascinated with Josiah Henson’s story for years and this is his first opportunity to bring this important story to the stage.

I’ve been lucky to have seen a lot of Cassel Miles work as an actor. He was a fastidious, proud yet humble Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy for Drayton entertainment; a dignified Richard Pierpoint in the wonderful show Spaciousness at Fort York; an erudite, arrogant art expert in Bakersfield Mist in Kingston, and an engaging performer in Darktown Strutter’s Ball at Theatre Orangeville, that chronicled the involvement and artistry of Black performers in musicals/vaudeville/theatre etc.  Cassel Miles imbues his characters with an elegance, a courtliness and a gentle pride. This is especially true of Josiah Henson.

I was grateful to hear the story of such a fascinating character, but the play by Charles Robertson and the production need strengthening and tightening. At almost two hours with an intermission, Josiah seems slight. There are enactments of conversations that do not reveal anything or move the story along, making the piece seem padded. There is an intermission that stops any momentum. It should be cut. I feel the piece needs a re-write and with another playwright. Playwright Leslie McCurdy is more attuned to Black stories as she has shown in Darktown Strutter’s Ball and Things My Fore-sisters Saw. She knows how to tell an important story with efficiency, economy and emotional power.

In the play Josiah Henson was given tremendous responsibility when still a slave by Issac Riley, because Josiah was trustworthy and responsible. Issac Riley trusted Josiah Henson to take 18 slaves from Maryland to Kentucky. And Josiah did and didn’t escape. He delivered the slaves and then returned to the farm in Maryland when he continued being a slave.

The text has to clarify exactly what that means. We have a vision of a slave as confined, perhaps shackled, certainly mistreated. That does not seem to be the case with Josiah. The audience has to know what being a slave means to Josiah. Why didn’t he escape? The audience has to know. When Josiah learned he could buy his freedom, he was enlivened and was eager to buy freedom. Again, because of Josiah’s particular situation, we have to know what he thinks he is buying. Josiah’s idea of freedom is not clear. The last scene of the play is tremendously moving, but the whole play has to earn that scene and it doesn’t in this form.

Director Jim Garrard keeps the action moving on that bare set, with Cassel Miles gracefully navigating the stage suggesting the passage of time and distance. There is the frequent sound of a whip cracking the air. Early in the play when we hear that whip tear into a person, Cassel Miles as Josiah cringes and bows in pain as he is the victim of such abuse. We often hear that cracking sound later in the play without the character cringing. Why the change? True the character has a lot of latitude to move freely on that farm it seems, then why are we hearing the crack of a whip as often as we do, if it’s not applied to Josiah?

As Josiah moves around the space, Cassel Miles adds a tap-dancing movement to the jaunty walk. I thought that was wonderfully creating (one of Cassel Miles’s talents is that he is a dancer as well as an actor).

Very often Josiah wears a malleable hat or takes it off and puts it in his pocket. Other times he takes a large soft square of material out of his other pocket, folds it in various configurations to represent a deed, or an important paper, or a neckerchief or all manner of things. That square was also going into and out of his pocket. Both actions are too fussy. Cut both the hat and the square of material. Or just keep the hat on Josiah’s head throughout. Otherwise it’s endless business and distracts from the story.

Josiah Hanson’s story is inspirational, moving, unusual it seems and a study in tenacity. It is worthy of the strongest play and production to tell it. I hope the play is re-written and remounted in a stronger version. I would look forward to that.

Thousand Miles of Bricks Productions presented.

Production closed Feb. 9, 2025.

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Live and in person at Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, Ont. A co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Playing until March 8, 2025.

www.theatreaquarius.org

Written by Nick Green

Directed by Andrew Kushnir

Set and costumes designed by Joshua Quinlan

Sound design and composition by Ashley Au

Lighting design by Logan Raju Cracknell

Cast: Sharon Bajer

Noah Beemer

Alicia Johnston

Gloria Mampuya

Gregory Prest

Catherine Wreford

A deeply moving, cathartic play about living and hoping with AIDS. As the patients in a hospice wait impatiently for a visit from Princess Diana, in seven days.

The Story.  The play takes place in Casey House, a specialty hospice in Toronto caring for people with Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV AIDS). This was before the cocktail of drugs was discovered that could control AIDS and prologue the life of those infected with AIDS. At that point there was nothing to be done but make the patient feel comfortable until they inevitably died.

One such patient is Thomas. He has been at Casey House for five months and he is nearing the end. But the patients have been told of an upcoming event that changes their lives—a royal visit from Princess Diana. Thomas is buoyed by the prospect of the visit. He is ready to meet her.  

The Production. We are told at the end of the production there is a comfort room/quiet room should a person need it.

Joshua Quinlan has designed a comfortable looking room with two beds. There is a vibrant coloured bed covering (quilt?) on each bed. There is a window up center that can be opened or closed behind one of the beds. This is Thomas’s (Gregory Prest) bed.

The other bed is by the stage right wall, perpendicular to it. There are two chairs in the room.

At the top of the production, Thomas (Gregory Prest) is lying in bed. There is a lesion on the side of his head. A woman in a pink suit (skirt and jacket) stands downstage, her back to us, looking up stage at Thomas. The tilt of the head conveys unmistakably that it’s Princess Diana (Catherine Wreford).  She is formally introduced to Thomas by a nurse, Vera (Gloria Mampuya).

As Thomas, Gregory Prest sits up in his bed, delighted to see this icon he has revered since she came on the scene to marry into the royal family. He puts out his hand but it’s not clear if he means to shake her hand, from the position of it, or if he wants to touch her.  He realizes this might be too forward. He says with a hint of hope, “I heard you touch people.” The point is of course that people hesitated to touch a person with HIV AIDS. Diana goes towards him without hesitation and shakes his hand firmly and holds it. She bends down at the knees, beside his bed.  It’s a moment of stunning kindness and humanity. She then sits on the bed, beside him, not facing him—the audience won’t see her face, otherwise.

Thomas breathlessly tells her about her wedding day, in great detail. It’s a speech filled with the joy of the event and the recall of the details of the dress, the crowds, her poise. It’s a speech that goes on and on, to the point that I wonder if she will get a word in edgewise. But of course, patience is needed for playwright Nick Green to lay out the play; to recollect memories; to wonder if this is real or imagined. While Gregory Prest conveys Thomas’ joy at meeting Diana, the prevailing sense of this performance is anger and intensity that this is happening. The proximity of Thomas’ sister Pauline is reason enough, but add to that, that he is sick and not getting better.

For the recollection, Catherine Wreford as Diana, calmly listens to Thomas’ memory. She says little but when she does, it’s with a gentle English accent, total concentration of what he is saying and tremendous care.

The play moves back and forth during that time when the news that Diana is set to visit Casey House. I love the subtle use of language here. Someone says that Diana will be there in a week and will visit the rooms of each patient. Vera corrects the person and says she will be there in seven days. The distinction is subtle but profound.  The number of days gives the patients something to hold on to; to tick off on a calendar as the days go by; to note they lived one more day until they could meet her. The impending visit had a great effect on the patients of Casey House. They rallied; took care to shave and be clean; to move; to hope. Stunning.

Sharing Thomas’ room is Andre (Noah Beemer) an angry, unsettled young man who has just arrived and is fearful his mother will find out. Noah Beemer gives a nuanced, multi-layered performance as Andre.   Vera is a matter-of-fact nurse and is beautifully played by Gloria Mampuya. She is all business but is compassionate. She has been at this job for a long time and knows how fragile emotionally the patients are. We know about a character by what they say, what they do, and by what people say about them. We see how controlled and caring Vera is. Later Thomas says that Vera is the best nurse there. We have to see that in Gloria Mampuya’s performance, and we do.

Contrasting her is Marjorie (Sharon Bajer) a cheerful volunteer who blurs the lines between being helpful and breaking the rules to be compassionate. One gets the sense that Marjorie is also needy to be wanted. Rounding out the cast is Alicia Johnston as Pauline, Thomas’ estranged sister. She said hateful things to him as a gay man. For much of the play she won’t touch him. She asks the questions one might ask today: why is her brother still in Casey House five months after moving in? Why can’t he come and live with her and have her take care of him? (a horrible thought). What Pauline doesn’t understand is that at the time there was no cocktail of drugs to prolong an HIV patient’s life. If one went into Casey House they generally were not coming out. As Pauline, Alicia Johnston frustrated and angry in her own right. She is being shunned by her brother and doesn’t quite get it. Alicia Johnston creates a sense that Pauline is wounded in her own right. She is blinkered, often homophobic and clueless about what her brother is going through.

In a moving scene the personas of the compassionate Princess Diana and Pauline who finds her own compassion, meld and comfort Thomas, holding his hand.  

Director Andrew Kushnir has used the space of this small stage beautifully. He has ensured that every person in that audience sees every moment without obstruction. There are chairs located in the room, but they are rarely used, because the visitors sit on the bed or stand close to it, indicating that the visitors care deeply for these patients.

Comment.  When I first saw another production of Casey and Diana at the Stratford festival two years ago, I wondered why the play was written 33 years after this event. I recall the sound of sobbing during that production. The play gives those who were touched by that event (and we all were to some extent), closure. Thirty-three years after this event playwright Nick Green has written a play that celebrates the patients who just wanted a little dignity as they came to the end of their lives; the nurses who tended them as best they could and the volunteers who brought their own reasons for being there to help. It’s cathartic for people who lost loved ones.

I heard sniffling on the opening night at Theatre Aquarius as well. Be prepared and bring Kleenex.

Theatre Aquarius in a co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre present:

Plays until March 8, 2025

Running time: 2 hours, approx. (1 intermission)

www.theatreaquarius.org

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Live and in person at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ont. A Nightwood Theatre Production in association with The Howland Company.  Playing until March 8, 2025.

www.factorytheate.ca

Written and performed by Rachel Cairns

Directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster

Production, Lighting and Projection Design by Julia Howman

Sound and composition by Cossette “Ettie” Pin

A deeply personal one-person show,  with a minutely rigorous exploration of the many issues surrounding the choice of actor Rachel Cairns to have an abortion, when she finds she’s pregnant, and is not emotionally or financially ready to be a parent.  

NOTE: I first saw this production at the Tarragon Theatre Extra-Space in 2023 when The Howland Company produced it. At the time when I reviewed it, I was struck by all the prodigious research writer-performer, Rachel Cairns did for the show. She had a sense of humour and what I thought was a disarming quality to draw the audience in. I thought positively about the production and considered the deep-thinking Rachel Cairns invested in the show.

Now, in 2025, the show is being remounted with Nightwood Theatre Company in association with The Howland Company. And in the second viewing, my observations and assessment of the show are not as accommodating. What changed? Well, the world for one. And so did I.

The Story. In 2019, just before Christmas, actor Rachel Cairns learned she was pregnant. She was careful but the IUD device she wore slipped and that compromised her protection. She wanted a baby eventually but not now. Her reasons were many: not the right time; she didn’t make enough money as an actor to bring a child into the world; what kind of a world would that be; what about the issues of climate change, etc. Her boyfriend of five years did not voice a strong opinion. It was her choice. Cairns was in Toronto when she got the news. She was going to Vancouver to see her mother over Christmas and needed to arrange the abortion to be done immediately in Vancouver.

The Production. The set (no credit-no programme to check) is a raised platform with a screen hanging down at the back, onto which will be projections (no credit there either) of facts, figures, graphs etc.  What follows is Cairns doing copious Google searches about the various questions about giving birth, abortions, etc. that bothered her. At times the bombardment of facts, figures, graphs and computer screen information projected on the screen, felt like information overload. The statistics of the number of women who have abortions; how some women can’t afford to raise a child; how some ethnicities do not have the choice.  Is that the point of Cairns and Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster, her director, to put the audience right in the middle of Cairns’ fact-laden experience? Rather than forcing the audience to deal with all this information, perhaps a re-think on why they need to know all this information at all? It was important to Cairns, but being bombarded with all this information, alienates an audience.

In Vancouver, Cairns went to the doctor’s office with her mother as support. Cairns wondered why the room had to be so small and claustrophobic. She wondered why the pills she was given that would start the abortion process were so expensive. She wondered why she had to answer so many questions. She was upset that not once did her boyfriend call to see how she was or how the process was going.

I note in this second viewing how judgmental Cairns was about so many things and how so many things were questioned. Cairns was given some pills that would begin the abortion process. Cairns’ mother said that in fact she, Cairns, would go into labour because of the pills. We learn later in the show why her mother would know such details. True to the information Cairns doubles over in pain at the cramps (her word). Cramps are one thing—labour pains are something else. I wonder why Cairns doesn’t use the more accurate descriptor?

While Cairns began her solo show by focusing on the personal, she then broadened the scope of her observations by noting how lucky she was to have health-care and the means to make the decision while others: Indigenous women, disadvantaged women; women from other countries not as prosperous as Canada, do not have that advantage.

That said, Cairns notes an evening she and her boyfriend had when they went out with a Pakistani couple who were friends of her boyfriend. Cairns didn’t seem to check her privilege at the door. The couple had children. Cairns, taking on the voice of the Pakistani wife, calmly yet pointedly explained how culture and societal dictates present an entirely different situation for women. They don’t have a choice about having children; are under the thumb of their husbands, or might be abused. The speech was chilling because Cairns wasn’t aware of this inequity in this case.

Cairns explored the question of when life begins by having a kind of imagined debate with an on-line guru on abortion. It was extended, thought-provoking and even had the guru question Cairns about why she gave this person so much credence. The opening-night audience was roaring with laughter. I was aware of how stony-faced I was this time.

Again, what’s changed from the first viewing to this one? We have a huge neighbour to the south of us in which it’s illegal for any woman, it seems, to have an abortion. If a doctor in the States gives a woman an abortion, the doctor can go to jail if found out.

I saw a play in London, Eng. in August called The Years by Annie Ernaux. She is one of Frances’s most celebrated writers and won the Nobel Prize in 2022. The Years is a chronicle of a woman’s life (Ernaux) through the years, as played by five actresses of different ages; from her sexual awakening as a teenager, to marrying, having children, divorce etc. In one of those years she has an abortion. She is given pills and three days later she is crippled with labour pains. She is writhing and there is blood. The actress playing the one with the abortion stands up at the end of the scene, covered in blood, and the other actresses wash dry her off, almost like a ceremony. The scene is stunning. People faint.

I’m not comparing The Years and Hypothetical Baby, but The Years and any other play I’ve seen is at the back of my memory, hauled up for consideration. That’s the nature of experience and memory. This second viewing of Hypothetical Baby,  more than a year after I saw it the first time, left me underwhelmed. I can appreciate that Rachel Cairns and her director Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster chose to have Cairns race through the facts, figures and personal musings. I just don’t know why you would do that, unless to overwhelm the audience. This leaves few chances to let the play, the performer and the audience to breathe.

And Hypothetical Baby also made me think of Universal Child Care also produced a year or so ago by Nightwood Theatre Company, a show of facts, figures and statistics on child care around the globe. While both shows have a personal aspect to them, both shows seem more like lectures, perhaps even hectoring lectures, than theatrical endeavors.

Rachel Cairns is an accomplished Indie actress. Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster is also a gifted director who have done good work before. Rachel Cairns’s abortion has obviously been a huge point in her life. She has been working on Hypothetical Baby for five years….she keeps on adding statistics etc. it seems. What she doesn’t seem to have worked on is a viable ending to her show. Time to find that ending and move on.

Comment: There was no program. We could take a picture of the QR Code and that would get us to a digital program. I don’t bring my cell phone because we have to turn it off, so why bring it. I would like the company (who ever is producing) to provide a program. It can be one sheet of paper with the pertinent information. It can be a link somewhere on the website to the digital program (nothing was available like that). I was told by the theatre “we’re saving the planet.” HUH? Not providing a program saves the planet? Have you seen the state of the world lately? Providing a program will not doom us. It will inform your audience. Get a donor to underwrite the cost of the program. Thank you.

A Nightwood Theatre production in association with The Howland Company

Playing until March 8, 2025

Running Time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.factorytheate.ca

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