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iPhoto caption: Peter N. Bailey and Durae McFarlane in 'Primary Trust.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
How the Grand Theatre’s Primary Trust makes a tiki bar feel like home
Let’s get one thing straight: Eboni Booth's Pulitzer-winning Primary Trust isn’t about working in bars. But it honours bars as spaces we return to — where we go to feel safe.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Pu Songling: Strange Tales.' Photo by Johnny Hockin.
REVIEW: Wet, weird, and woeful, Pu Songling: Strange Tales is a riotous trip into the mystical
One thing’s for sure — you’ve never seen a show with this much tongue.
iPhoto caption: Peter N. Bailey and Durae McFarlane in 'Primary Trust.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
How the Grand Theatre’s Primary Trust makes a tiki bar feel like home
Let’s get one thing straight: Eboni Booth's Pulitzer-winning Primary Trust isn’t about working in bars. But it honours bars as spaces we return to — where we go to feel safe.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Pu Songling: Strange Tales.' Photo by Johnny Hockin.
REVIEW: Wet, weird, and woeful, Pu Songling: Strange Tales is a riotous trip into the mystical
One thing’s for sure — you’ve never seen a show with this much tongue.
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Minmar Gaslight.
REVIEW: A Question of Character examines the psychology of a filmmaker who created Nazi propaganda
The greatest strength of A Question of Character, now playing at the Aki Studio, is that its fundamental questions manifest as an active process. Rather than conveying a pre-packaged conclusion, the production undertakes a genuine attempt to work through Leni Riefenstahl's contradictions while weighing the payoffs of revenge.
iPhoto caption: Brendan Healy in rehearsal for 'A Doll's House.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Canadian Stage’s A Doll’s House marks the second entry in a trilogy of productions about marriage
“At 50, thinking about marriage and love, and [their] place in my life, I wanted to do an artistic deep-dive into the idea of partnership,” says director Brendan Healy.
Reviews
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Pu Songling: Strange Tales.' Photo by Johnny Hockin.
REVIEW: Wet, weird, and woeful, Pu Songling: Strange Tales is a riotous trip into the mystical
One thing’s for sure — you’ve never seen a show with this much tongue.
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Minmar Gaslight.
REVIEW: A Question of Character examines the psychology of a filmmaker who created Nazi propaganda
The greatest strength of A Question of Character, now playing at the Aki Studio, is that its fundamental questions manifest as an active process. Rather than conveying a pre-packaged conclusion, the production undertakes a genuine attempt to work through Leni Riefenstahl's contradictions while weighing the payoffs of revenge.
iPhoto caption: Louise Pitre in 'Kimberly Akimbo.' Photo by Emelia Hellman.
REVIEW: Mirvish’s well-cast Kimberly Akimbo never stops surprising
The simple and the unconventional meld radiantly throughout Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire's Tony Award-dominating 2021 musical.
iPhoto caption: Natasha Mumba and Kondwani Elliott Zulu in 'Copperbelt.' Photos by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Before heading to Soulpepper, Copperbelt strikes gold at the NAC
Natasha Mumba's debut play successfully navigates generations of personal and international histories and expectations, including an unflinching examination, through nice-guy Peter, of Canada’s own role in resource extraction in developing countries.
iPhoto caption: 'Dream Machine' photo by Blake Brooker.
REVIEWS: High Performance Rodeo 2026
For Calgary theatre-goers, January holds the antidote to frigid post-holiday slumps: One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, the city's biggest performing arts festival. This year marks the 40th iteration of the interdisciplinary event and offers Calgarians a feast of over 30 shows across 12 venues from January 13 to 31.
iPhoto caption: Members of the 'Ophis' company. Photo courtesy of Transcen|Dance Project.
REVIEW: Ophis dunks viewers into a gothic experience of Medusa’s psychic landscape
Transcen|Dance Project’s Ophis is a woozy tragedy that courts both playfulness and eroticism, deliberately dissolving the boundaries of stage and audience with an immersive format that’s sometimes thrilling, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes — if you’re a people-pleaser like me — both simultaneously.
Spotlight
iPhoto caption: Photo by V. Tony Hauser.
“If theatre’s done well, it’s an event. And for the audience it’s very mobilizing,” says Lepage. “Whatever the subject matter is, the people go and they’re stimulated, interested, and they feel intelligent... The most beautiful spectacle is always the spectacle of intelligence.”
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.
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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.