Everything to do with the Next Stage Festival which happens in January in Toronto
Timely. Tragic. Powerful.
With the Iranian plane crash in the headlines and tense US-Iran relations in the news, I knew it was going to be a tough night with a timely work.
Winter of 88, presented by Nowadays Theatre and part of the Next Stage 2020 festival, follows the faces and families behind the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq from 1980 to 1988.
Continue reading Winter of 88 (Nowadays Theatre) 2020 Next Stage Review
Drowning in big ideas and hard truths could be a real downer. Luckily, Luxury Goods’ Consumption Patterns – playing at the Factory Theatre as part of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival -delivers a social deep-dive into despair with a sharp sense of humour and a welcome sprinkling of hope.
Continue reading Consumption Patterns (Luxury Goods) 2020 Next Stage Review
Pearle Harbour’s Agit-Pop! is playing as part of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival. The show features a cabaret-style evening of music and storytelling with a political and often dark edge. She aptly describes it as “musical meditations on the pre-post-apocalypse.”
Underneath a warm and glamourous persona, Pearle Harbour delivers social commentary that is incisive, biting, and a little melancholy.
Continue reading Pearle Harbour’s Agit-Pop! (Justin Miller) 2020 Next Stage Review
Described as “salty as it is sweet,” Tease has a burlesque heart beating under the “traditional theatre” trappings of the 2020 Next Stage Theatre Festival, and when the show stays true to its internal rhythm, it’s a textured and interestingly nuanced pleasure.
Continue reading Tease (Theatre Lab and Big City Kitties) 2020 Next Stage Festival Review
Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain, having garnered great interest in a shorter form during Soulpepper’s collection Welcome To My Underworld last spring, is a wild journey into a difficult and gripping story that emerges, slowly, under pressure. While still shaking out a few last hiccups, the show has an undeniable theatrical power.