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iPhoto caption: Janelle Hanna in 'Heratio.' Photo by Raph Nogal.
REVIEW: Guild Festival Theatre’s ambitious Heratio wanders through a thicket of subplots
Genevieve Adam’s world premiere script plunges into the smouldering wreckage of Hamlet, twisting its narrative with conspiracies, disguises, and a heavy dose of meta-humour.
iPhoto caption: Poster design by Ty Cohen.
Theatre of the Beat announces 2025 MADGEN festival lineup
Now in its second year, the festival showcases new, socially engaged works produced by emerging artists under the mentorship of well-established theatre artists.
iPhoto caption: Janelle Hanna in 'Heratio.' Photo by Raph Nogal.
REVIEW: Guild Festival Theatre’s ambitious Heratio wanders through a thicket of subplots
Genevieve Adam’s world premiere script plunges into the smouldering wreckage of Hamlet, twisting its narrative with conspiracies, disguises, and a heavy dose of meta-humour.
iPhoto caption: Poster design by Ty Cohen.
Theatre of the Beat announces 2025 MADGEN festival lineup
Now in its second year, the festival showcases new, socially engaged works produced by emerging artists under the mentorship of well-established theatre artists.
iPhoto caption: Poster courtesy of Theatre Kingston and Kick & Push Festival.
REVIEW: This summer, Kingston’s TK Fringe is eclectic as ever
The first weekend of TK Fringe has come and gone, and as heat waves and thunderstorms wage a battle over southeastern Ontario, there’s never been a better time to seek solace in a cool, dry theatre. Popping between the festival’s three venues with a pen and mini notebook, I took in an eclectic series of performances by local theatre-makers.
iPhoto caption: Photos of Cale Crow by Sara Tanner.
“Every now and then, I have to remind myself that [Rez Gas] is actually happening,” says Crowe. “If it works in [the rehearsal] room and all these people believe in it, then we can take on the whole world.”
Reviews
iPhoto caption: Janelle Hanna in 'Heratio.' Photo by Raph Nogal.
REVIEW: Guild Festival Theatre’s ambitious Heratio wanders through a thicket of subplots
Genevieve Adam’s world premiere script plunges into the smouldering wreckage of Hamlet, twisting its narrative with conspiracies, disguises, and a heavy dose of meta-humour.
iPhoto caption: Poster courtesy of Theatre Kingston and Kick & Push Festival.
REVIEW: This summer, Kingston’s TK Fringe is eclectic as ever
The first weekend of TK Fringe has come and gone, and as heat waves and thunderstorms wage a battle over southeastern Ontario, there’s never been a better time to seek solace in a cool, dry theatre. Popping between the festival’s three venues with a pen and mini notebook, I took in an eclectic series of performances by local theatre-makers.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'Pinkerton Comes to Prospect.' Photo courtesy of the Lighthouse Festival.
REVIEW: Pinkerton Comes to Prospect offers a trove of entertainment at the Lighthouse Festival
The play is a thoroughly entertaining and well-paced ride, and while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way, it greases the axles of its wagon mighty well.
iPhoto caption: Gabriella Sundar Singh as Anitra and Qasim Khan as Peter in 'Gnit.' Photo by Michael Cooper.
REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s wayward Gnit is an existential riff on Ibsen
Will Eno's Gnit hopscotches between tones, frequently counterpointing detailed, character-driven dialogue with metatheatrical winks to the audience. Curiously, though, Carroll’s production doesn’t make similar swerves.
iPhoto caption: 'Delirious Night' at the Festival d'Avignon. Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage.
At the 2025 Festival d’Avignon, politics were never far off
I’d performed and directed for festivals in Canada and elsewhere, but it wasn’t at all the same as being on the bum-in-seat side. There I was, in Avignon, rubbing shoulders with the umpteen visitors hungry for a good show. I came away feeling that here, theatre mattered. A lot. In the stony fields of Toronto, that can be easy to forget.
iPhoto caption: Heeyun Park 박희윤 in 'The Great Comet.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 dazzles in Mirvish transfer
The upscaled edition is slightly different, but it’s still a rave in multiple ways, with lived-in performances making it seem at times even more immediate than at Crow’s. The show feels more like a vibe than anything cohesive, but what a vibe it is.
Spotlight
iPhoto caption: Marie Farsi for Intermission Magazine. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
“I’ve learned how truth is revealed in translation, and I feel like that’s my job as a director,” says Farsi. “I have to translate the piece from the page to the stage, and all the meanings that can be derived from that process of translation.”
iPhoto caption: Photo by Blaire Russell.
The 40-year career of Alanis King began much the same way that so many careers in theatre do: in front of very small audiences. “The show must go on if you have the same amount of audience members as in the cast,” was King’s motto in the early days. But today, the multihyphenate Odawa artist has no difficulty finding people interested in her work.
iPhoto caption: Steven Gallagher for Intermission. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
A love of theatre runs so deeply through Gallagher’s bones that you’d think it was a path he began to follow as soon as he could walk and talk. But for a boy who came of age on a rustic farm in Quebec and favoured sports venues over stages in high school, an eventual career in theatre was hardly a given.
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Artist Perspectives
iPhoto caption: 'Delirious Night' at the Festival d'Avignon. Photo by Christophe Raynaud de Lage.
At the 2025 Festival d’Avignon, politics were never far off
I’d performed and directed for festivals in Canada and elsewhere, but it wasn’t at all the same as being on the bum-in-seat side. There I was, in Avignon, rubbing shoulders with the umpteen visitors hungry for a good show. I came away feeling that here, theatre mattered. A lot. In the stony fields of Toronto, that can be easy to forget.
iPhoto caption: Set design by Camellia Koo,
Costume design by Judith Bowden,
Lighting design by Leigh Ann Vardy,
and photo by Dahlia Katz. Features Samantha Hill and Amaka Umeh.
A story with no expiry date: Adapting Fall On Your Knees
At this critical political juncture, as so many forces in the world try to mute and silence women, our Canadian stories merit our advocacy and fervent attention.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Production still from The Nutcracker courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.
Why should you go to the ballet?
My childhood memories of learning to dance were front and centre for me when I attended opening night of The Nutcracker, performed by the National Ballet of Canada at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Grace Mysak.
Want to see a magic show about race? Wait, what?
You’d be forgiven for the double-take. It’s a fairly common reaction when I tell folks about my work as a magician.
Why I’m tired of cripface in Toronto theatre
Cripface is when an able-bodied, or able-passing, person performs a disabled experience that isn’t their own. Local theatre companies large and small, indie and established, have engaged in this practice.