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iPhoto caption: Kaylee Harwood with members of the 'Bright Star' ensemble. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Garner Theatre Productions’ Bright Star coasts on charm and likability
Bright Star covers it all: thwarted love, coming of age, family drama, the power of art, the importance of remaining true to oneself. Yet co-writer Steve Martin’s wit, which blazes in plays like Picasso at the Lapin Agile, merely twinkles here.
iPhoto caption: Sleman Aldib and an audience member in 'The Opposite.' Still from a trailer by Spectrum Associates.
REVIEW: Kitchener’s biennial IMPACT Festival crackled with urgency
Most of the six works I viewed tackled urgent topics, from the convoluted Canadian immigration system to the Palestinian experience of displacement: explorations that line up with artistic director Pam Patel’s curatorial statement, which discusses how IMPACT ‘25 “unpacks what it means to survive, to resist, and to seek refuge” through a global, Indigenous-focused lens.
iPhoto caption: Kaylee Harwood with members of the 'Bright Star' ensemble. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Garner Theatre Productions’ Bright Star coasts on charm and likability
Bright Star covers it all: thwarted love, coming of age, family drama, the power of art, the importance of remaining true to oneself. Yet co-writer Steve Martin’s wit, which blazes in plays like Picasso at the Lapin Agile, merely twinkles here.
iPhoto caption: Sleman Aldib and an audience member in 'The Opposite.' Still from a trailer by Spectrum Associates.
REVIEW: Kitchener’s biennial IMPACT Festival crackled with urgency
Most of the six works I viewed tackled urgent topics, from the convoluted Canadian immigration system to the Palestinian experience of displacement: explorations that line up with artistic director Pam Patel’s curatorial statement, which discusses how IMPACT ‘25 “unpacks what it means to survive, to resist, and to seek refuge” through a global, Indigenous-focused lens.
iPhoto caption: Found Fest 2021. Photo by Mat Simpson.
Although Walker conceived and workshopped This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear just prior to COVID-19 lockdown, it’s perhaps best understood and appreciated as a pandemic project. Its festival appearances began in 2021, at which time the “I’m alone in the world”-ness of it all must have felt cathartic, and reciting lines together in person would have been nothing short of a spiritual experience.
iPhoto caption: Richard Alan Campbell and Mary Long in 'The Time Capsule.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Theatre Aquarius’ The Time Capsule pays lighthearted tribute to Hamilton, Ontario
As the evening progresses and the characters begin open up and butt heads, the play becomes a comedic yet heartfelt reflection on memory. We learn that the past is never as far away as we might think, that a moment forgettable for one person could be life-changing for another, and that it takes more than just a Hamilton Ticats pin or a Tim Hortons cup to memorialize a city and its people.
Reviews
iPhoto caption: Kaylee Harwood with members of the 'Bright Star' ensemble. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Garner Theatre Productions’ Bright Star coasts on charm and likability
Bright Star covers it all: thwarted love, coming of age, family drama, the power of art, the importance of remaining true to oneself. Yet co-writer Steve Martin’s wit, which blazes in plays like Picasso at the Lapin Agile, merely twinkles here.
iPhoto caption: Sleman Aldib and an audience member in 'The Opposite.' Still from a trailer by Spectrum Associates.
REVIEW: Kitchener’s biennial IMPACT Festival crackled with urgency
Most of the six works I viewed tackled urgent topics, from the convoluted Canadian immigration system to the Palestinian experience of displacement: explorations that line up with artistic director Pam Patel’s curatorial statement, which discusses how IMPACT ‘25 “unpacks what it means to survive, to resist, and to seek refuge” through a global, Indigenous-focused lens.
iPhoto caption: Found Fest 2021. Photo by Mat Simpson.
Although Walker conceived and workshopped This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear just prior to COVID-19 lockdown, it’s perhaps best understood and appreciated as a pandemic project. Its festival appearances began in 2021, at which time the “I’m alone in the world”-ness of it all must have felt cathartic, and reciting lines together in person would have been nothing short of a spiritual experience.
iPhoto caption: Richard Alan Campbell and Mary Long in 'The Time Capsule.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Theatre Aquarius’ The Time Capsule pays lighthearted tribute to Hamilton, Ontario
As the evening progresses and the characters begin open up and butt heads, the play becomes a comedic yet heartfelt reflection on memory. We learn that the past is never as far away as we might think, that a moment forgettable for one person could be life-changing for another, and that it takes more than just a Hamilton Ticats pin or a Tim Hortons cup to memorialize a city and its people.
iPhoto caption: Sophia Walker and Gord Rand in 'Slave Play.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Slave Play sparks debate — so we reviewed it twice
To mark the Canadian premiere of this influential satire, Intermission is honouring the play’s divisive reputation by presenting a pair of reviews written independently of one another.
iPhoto caption: Stephen Costello and Kseniia Proshina in 'Roméo et Juliette.' Photo by Michael Cooper.
REVIEW: Amy Lane’s campy Roméo et Juliette wears its heart on its sleeve at the COC
The opera is so grand, and Gounod’s music so august, that, at the start of Act Four, I was surprised to find an image as simple as the pair peacefully spooning in bed struck a sympathetic chord with me.
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: Photo of Jordan Laffrenier by Sandro Pehar.
Preparing to direct Slave Play: A travel guide to Richmond, Virginia
Since reading Slave Play, I’ve asked every romantic partner whether or not they experience a racial dynamic between us in the bedroom. No one has given the same answer. What is it that I am asking them to acknowledge in these scenarios? Who is it that I am asking them to hold? What does it mean to hold someone’s history?
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.