Stage Door Reviews
The Master Plan

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by Michael Healey, directed by Chris Abraham
Crow’s Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto
September 13-October 19, 2023
Eric Schmidt: “Just give us a city and put us in charge”
There’s something very Canadian...
The Waltz

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by Marie Beath Badian, directed by Nina Lee Aquino
Factory Theatre, Toronto
September 6-17, 2023;
Prairie Theatre Exchange, Winnipeg
November 14-29, 2023;
Great Canadian Theatre Company, Ottawa
February 13-23, 2024
Romeo:...
Queen Maeve

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by Judith Thompson, directed by Murdoch Schon
Here For Now Theatre, Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford
September 8-23, 2023
Maeve: “Roots are sacrosanct”
Here For Now Theatre concludes its summer festival on a high note with the...
Frankenstein Revived

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by Morris Panych, choreographed by Stephen Cota, directed by Morris Panych
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
August 24-October 28, 2023
Frankenstein: “To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death” (Frankenstein,...
Les Belles-Soeurs

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by Michel Tremblay, translated by John Van Burek & Bill Glassco, directed by Esther Jun
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
August 25-October 28, 2023
Chorus: “I hate my life!”
Les Belles-Soeurs (1968) by Michel Tremblay...
The Shadow of a Doubt

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by Edith Wharton, directed by Peter Hinton-Davis
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
August 20-October 15, 2023
Lady Uske: “I don’t think anyone ever really knows another person”
The Shaw Festival has always...
Gypsy

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music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents, directed by Jay Turvey
Shaw Festival, Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 27-October 7, 2023
Rose: “But some people ain’t me!”
The Shaw Festival last...
The Amen Corner

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by James Baldwin, directed by Kimberly Rampersad
Shaw Festival, Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
August 19-October 8, 2023
David: “I’ve got my work to do, something’s happening in the world out there, I got to go!”
The Shaw...
On the Razzle

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by Tom Stoppard, directed by Craig Hall
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 26-October 8, 2023
Zangler: “One false move and we’ll have a farce on our hands”
If you are in the mood for show overflowing with...
The Donnellys: A Trilogy

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by James Reaney, adapted and directed by Gil Garratt
Blyth Festival, Harvest Stage, Blyth
June 22-September 3, 2023
James, Sr.: “The Donnellys don’t kneel”
Over the years the Blyth Festival has presented various plays about the...
Village Wooing

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by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Selma Dimitrijevic
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 8-October 7, 2023
A: “We must take the world as we find it. It's we that are not rightly arranged”
This season’s...
The Playboy of the Western World

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by John Millington Synge, directed by Jackie Maxwell
Shaw Festival, Studio Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 7-October 7, 2023
Jimmy: “Bravery’s a treasure in a lonesome place”
Widely considered the epitome of Irish drama The Playboy...
The Apple Cart

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by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Eda Holmes
Shaw Festival, Studio Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 9-October 7, 2023
King Magnus: “Ministers come and ministers go; but I go on for ever”
The Shaw Festival last presented Shaw’s...
Wedding Band

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by Alice Childress, directed by Sam White
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
July 14-October 1, 2023
Julia: “I want to rise higher than the dirt around me”
The Stratford Festival is presenting the Canadian premiere...
Much Ado About Nothing
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by William Shakespeare, directed by Chris Abraham
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
June 16-October 27, 2023
Friar Francis: “What we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack’d and lost,
Why,...
Prince Caspian

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by Damien Atkins, directed by Molly Atkinson
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 28-October 8, 2023
Doctor: “There is magic all around us”
The Shaw Festival continues its traversal of C.S. Lewis’s heptalogy,...
A Wrinkle in Time

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written and directed by Thomas Morgan Jones
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
June 16-October 29, 2023
“A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points”
The children’s show at the Stratford Festival this...
Richard II
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by William Shakespeare, adapted by Brad Fraser, directed by Jillian Keiley
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
June 17-September 28, 2023
Richard: “What must the king do now?”
The last time the Stratford Festival...
Rent

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music, book & lyrics by Jonathan Larson, directed by Thom Allison
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
June 2-October 28, 2023
Mark: “How do you document real life / When real life’s getting more / Like fiction each day?”
The...
Grand Magic

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by Eduardo de Filippo, translated by John Murrell & Donato Santeramo, directed by Antoni Cimolino
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
June 3-September 29, 2023
Calogero: “Al giorno d’oggi la gente vive nei giuochi...
Monty Python’s Spamalot

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music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle, book & Lyrics by Eric Idle, directed by Lezlie Wade
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
May 31-November 12, 2023
Lady of the Lake: “Life is really up to you”
If you are in the mood for...
King Lear
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by William Shakespeare, directed by Kimberley Rampersad
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
May 30-October 29, 2023
Fool: “Then shall the realm of Albion / Come to great confusion”
Unless you happen to be a particularly...