Weekly Update 289 (Sept. 25th – Oct. 2nd, 2009)
Finally – the first update in a month! I’ve been kept away from the computer due to working pretty much non-stop at the CNE and TIFF, plus time spent out of town. I’ll also admit I was a little burnt out after Summerworks. But my batteries are recharged, and there’s plenty to delve into this week, so let’s just dive right into it, shall we?
Ah, but one note of importance: an earlier edition of the update, since corrected, mistakenly linked “Mimi: Or, a Poisoner’s Comedy” writers Melody Johnson and Rick Roberts as wife and husband, when in fact, Johnson and “Mimi” composer Allen Cole are a pair.)
In Theatre,
The fall season is in full swing; all of the mid size theatres have new work debuting this week or next. Tarragon has a new musical (“Mimi: Or, a Poisoner’s Comedy”); Passe Muraille, a new play about Chilean exiles (“Refugee Hotel“) by Alameda Theatre (many of the artists in the stellar “Nohayquiensepa” at Summerworks this year are involved); and Factory sees the opening of a new play by Brad Fraser, “True Love Lies“, later in the week. CanStage has the Toronto premiere of Tom Stoppard’s “Rock and Roll“, and Soulpepper’s perpetual season continues with fine productions of “Antigone“, “The Guardsman“, and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” But if you’re only going to catch one show this weekend, you should make Volcano Theatre’s “Goodness” at the Theatre Centre your priority, as it’s closing as of this Sunday.
The cast of "Goodness" (L to R, Lili Francks, Tara Hughes, Jack Nicholsen, Amy Rutherford, and Layne Coleman) wrap up their critically acclaimed show at the Theatre Centre this weekend.
Other theatre around town includes an outdoor production of “Twelfth Night” taking place smack dab in the downtown core (College Park), an edition of Tapestry’s “Opera Shorts” this weekend, a Toronto opening for Classical Theatre Project’s touring production of “Oedipus Rex“, and a remount of Fringe hit “Nursery School Musical“, playing to next weekend at the Berkeley St. Theatre.
(For Comedy, Music, Film, and the weekly picks, keep going…)