Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
Toronto:
The following in alphabetical order were the best productions in Toronto in 2011. As usual. I have had to exclude works that have appeared recently on this list (which I used to compile for Eye Weekly when it existed) such as Volcano’s remount at Canadian Stage of Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God.
À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou by Michel Tremblay, Théâtre français de Toronto. Diana Leblanc directed a 40th anniversary production of Tremblay’s play that proved it to be not only one of Tremblay’s best plays but one of the greatest works of Canadian drama.
benu by d’bi.young anitafrika, Tarragon Theatre. For the first time ever charismatic artist d’bi.young anitafrika performed all three parts of her sankofa trilogy together. benu, the second part, emerged as the most poetic and emotionally complex play of a trilogy marked by outstanding vitality and insight.
Billy Elliot by Elton John and Lee Hall, Mirvish Productions. Mirvish brought us a Canadian edition of the first great musical of the 21st century that proved every bit the equal of the British edition and garnered well-deserved mid-show standing ovations. Cesar Corrales as Billy and Kate Hennig as his dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson were unforgettable.
La Clemenza di Tito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Opera Atelier. Toronto baroque opera company completed its “Mozart Six” with the first period production in North America of Mozart’s final opera. Director Marshall Pynkoski brushed away received notions that the portrayal of goodness on stage leads to dull drama with a with a thrilling production in such singers as Kresimir Špicer, Michael Maniaci and Measha Brueggergosman reached new heights as performers.
Eternal Hydra by Anton Piatigorsky, Crow’s Theatre with Factory Theatre. Chris Abraham’s remount of Piatigorsky’s intellectual but very funny play proved to be even stronger than the original and gave the unavoidable impression that the work must be considered part of the canon of great Canadian plays.
The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, Studio 180 with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Studio 180‘s revival of this 1985 play about the dawning of the AIDS crisis in New York City demonstrated that the play has not only not dated but become even more relevant in its passionate depiction of a despised community trying to persuade outsiders to help even as it struggles within with the new realities the disease has created.
One Thousand and One Nights, Pt. 1 by Tim Supple, Dash Arts and Luminato. The first part of Tim Supple’s adaptation of Shahrazad’s famous tales made dazzling theatre on a bare stage with his masterful international cast who depicting so clearly the book’s clever and highly theatrical technique of embedding one story inside another inside another.
Red by John Logan, Canadian Stage. Asking experimental director Kim Collier to direct this Broadway play about the meaning of art was a brainwave since Collier brought to Logan’s intellectual discussion between master artist Mark Rothko and his young assistant a visual component that made palpable the very subject under discussion.
The Ugly One by Marius von Mayenburg, Theatre Smash. Director Ashlie Corcoran gave Mayenburg’s absolutely brilliant comic satire about identity and lookism and stunning smart production that was a model of precision in every detail from acting to design.
When Harry Met Harry by Allan Girod, flaming locomotive productions. On of the thrills of the Toronto Fringe Festival in encountering a play that breaks new theatrical ground. That’s exactly what Australian Allan Girod’s play does. In plot and in performance it features audience participation but, quite remarkably, turned out not to be so much about Harry as about the very experience of audience participation itself.
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Stratford:
At the 2011 Stratford Shakespeare Festival the best three shows were:
Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and TimRice. In what is really a pop music oratorio, director Des McAnuff emphasizes the underlying personal drama and so brought the whole work together in a way never seen as clearly and portrayed as slickly before. It’s no surprise the show is going to Broadway--it already seemed like a Broadway show at Stratford.
The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. Director Jennifer Tarver proved herself yet again a master of difficult modern texts by making the power struggles in this enigmatic play absolutely riveting and by drawing superb performances from the entire cast including Brian Dennehy, Cara Ricketts and newcomer Aaron Krohn.
The Grapes of Wrath by Frank Galati. Director Antoni Cimolino brought Galati’s award-winning adaption of the epic Steinbeck novel to the stage in a passionately executed production that painstakingly demonstrated how the Joad family’s journey to the Promised Land turns into a journey into living hell.
Yet again, Shakespeare did not fare well at the Festival and the “must-miss” show of the year was:
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. This early revenge play by the Bard is often mistaken as just an Elizabethan indulgence in an orgy of mindless violence--and that’s exactly all that director Darko Tresnjak provided: hyped-up violence without any sense of the moral questions that revenge plays are meant to provoke.
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Niagara-on-the-Lake:
The Shaw Festival celebrated its 50th season in style with a slate of productions with an even higher level of over overall quality than the Festival is famous for. The three best shows were:
When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell. This massive yet intricate Australian play about a curse travelling through three generations until it is expunged received all too short a run at the end of the season. Director Peter Hinton made the complex workings of the play with its multitude of interrelated characters both clear and fascinating and its apocalyptic ending truly awe-inspiring. The Festival must stage this extraordinary production again so more people can revel in the Shaw ensemble in peak form.
My Fair Lady by Frederick Loewe and Alan J. Lerner. When will you ever see a production of this musical based on Shaw’s Pygmalion performed by a troupe equally at home in Shaw as in musicals? Probably never unless you saw this production directed with a heightened sense of symbolism by Molly Smith. I simply can’t imagine a finer production of this classic musical.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. Under director Eda Holmes we finally got see what an ensemble production of this Williams masterpiece is like instead of all the star-vehicle productions that distort its effect. The result with painfully intense performances from the entire cast was a revelation.
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The President by Ferenc Molnár, adapted by Morwyn Brebner. The unprecedented fourth five-out-of-five star production at the Shaw was its revival of its lunchtime hit from 2008 that was just as deliriously funny as it was before and showed Lorne Kennedy’s amazing performance has not diminished an iota.
This year the level at the Shaw was so high that there was no “must-miss” show. You really couldn’t go wrong with any of the offerings, all of which were entertaining and bursting with insight.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Peter Millard, Ric Reid (on table) and Jeff Meadows in When the Rain Stops Falling at the Shaw Festival. ©2011 David Cooper.
2012-01-01
Best Productions of 2011