MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL - REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT THE CAA ED MIRVISH THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL by John Logan is back at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre about seventeen months after its last opening at the same venue. I guess you can’t put a good thing down. It has an almost  different cast and the same boisterous performance that audiences expect.

The formula for success seems simple. Give them glitz, glitter, loud music, louder music and louder still. Never let quiet moments last long but bring on the dancers, send in the ensemble, turn on the lights and sound show and keep the audience enthralled. Hoots and howls, please. Show beautiful women dancing the cancan, the one where they throw their skirts to the face and reveal what men want women to reveal. Add beautiful dresses and a love story. Make sure the audience expresses its approval with screams at the end of the major numbers. Now you have a spectacle and a hit.

The Moulin Rouge club in 1890 has a spectacular show starring the gorgeous Satine (Gabriela Carrillo). The ebullient Harold Zidler (Robert Petkoff) is the master of ceremonies and the club has singers, dancers and acts  to please all the upper crust and others of Paris. Unfortunately, it lacks money. The unscrupulous Duke of Monroth (Aaron C. Finley) has lots of it and he is prepared to buy it and the people that work there. He is more specifically interested in Satine, including and perhaps especially her body.

Robert Petkoff and the Company of the 2025 touring production of 
MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL. 
Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

Toulouse-Lautrec (Alex Nicholson)  and Santiago (Danny Birgos) want to put on a show and they meet Christian (sung by understudy Luke Monday in the place of Ryan Vasquez), an innocent-abroad American, who is a singer and composer and wants to make it in Paris. They arrange for him to sing/audition for Satine. She is expecting  the Duke and thinks that Christan is the randy Duke who wants her body. A series of double-entendres follow as when she asks Christian to sit and he says he prefers to stand. She bends over expecting coitus. He wants to sing standing. Hilarious scene. 

The love between Christian and Satine will continue until the end of the musical with the usual zigzags of passion, separation, betrayal and eternal love. The disgusting Duke will persist in his lechery. Santiago and Toulouse-Lautrec as well as Harold will experience the ups and downs of running a club but the plot will never interfere with the ingredients of a spectacular musical outlined above.

The songs that decorate the show are all borrowed from other composers and for many people they have the benefit of familiarity. The voices are at least adequate and at the orchestral volumes and other shenanigans of the show you are not allowed much time (nor are the singers) to display vocal beauty but we do get some vocal prowess in an uphill battle with the instrumentalists.

The acrobatic and erotic dances with the rich display of gorgeous bodies dressed to show it are a major component of the spectacle. Choreographer Sonya Tayeh does stunning work in the dance routines.

Derek McLane scenic design is (I have to use the same word) spectacular.

Catherine Zuber’s costumes from the dancers to the samples of haute couture are marvelous. Lighting and sound, the number of behind-the-scenes creative people is breathtaking and with the finely coordinated spectacle at hand, there is no surprise in that.

Director Alex Timbers has a huge and complex show to put together and pass on to others to manage and the number of people involved is awesome. So is the result.      
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Moulin Rouge! The Musical  by John Logan (book) opened on April 23 and  continues until May 10, 2026, at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE – REVIEW OF 2026 OPERA ATELIER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

I consider Opera Atelier a beacon of civilization on Toronto’s horizon. It has produced baroque operas since 1985 and it has taken its productions around the world. Versailles, Seoul, Glimmerglass, Houston, Potsdam, Tours, Japan are some of the places where they have been invited.  

This  year it is producing Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande, a twentieth century opera that they had to reengineer to fit the venue, style and demands of the work. You will see a twentieth century opera that maintains a connection with the Baroque era.

How? you may well ask. Opera Atelier provides the text of a lecture by Dr. Christopher Bagan that is thoroughly informative. Dr. Began takes a twentieth-century opera and looks at it “through the eyes of the Couperin, Charpentier, and Rameau” all good French composers of the Baroque era. He wants to make the opera suitable for Koerner Hall’s specific acoustics and aesthetics. And to make sure that happens he “seamlessly interweaves short instrumental works by Charpentier and Rameau directly into the Debussy score.” In other words, Opera Atelier retains its connection with Baroque opera with a twentieth century item on the menu. That may be classified as having your cake and eating it too.

The venue for this production is the elegant Koerner Hall which is suitable for smaller works and a smaller orchestra. An orchestra of about sixty is too big for the hall but fourteen players fit simply fine. The opera calls for scenes by a spring in a park, scenes in a palace as well as a visit to the palace vault. Director Marshall Pynkoski and Set Designer Gerard Gauci leave much to the imagination with a minimalist, brilliant production. Gauci produces beautiful sketches that are projected on the stage.

That is not all. With Jeanette Lajeunesse Zingg on the Artistic team and the Artists of the Atelier Ballet, we are treated to gorgeous ballet sequences. The twelve members of the troupe, the women dressed gorgeously, perform magnificently. The dancer playing Eros is spectacular but is not specifically credited in the program. Kudos to the dancers and Costume Designer Michael Gianfrancesco.

Meghan Lindsay and Antonin Rondepierre. Photo: Bruce Zinger

Soprano Meghan Lindsay, a veteran of Opera Atelier productions, gives a stunning performance as the mysterious Melisande. Hers is the toughest role in the opera and she sings with beautiful intonations and vocal flourishes. Tenor Antonin Rondepierre, a rising star in early music, sang with poise, control and vocal beauty. There is a scene where Mélisande sings from a tower window with Pelleas outside reminiscent of the  balcony scene in Romeo and Juliette. The two also spend part of a night together. These are scenes of surpassing beauty and sensuality.

Soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee as Genevieve displayed her lush voice and stage presence again, albeit in a relatively small role. We want more.

Bass-baritone Douglas Williams sang the heavy Golaud who loses Melisande to his brother Pelleas. He is presented as unlikeable but that is no reflection on Williams’ singing and stage presence. It was fine.

Bass-baritone Philippe Sly made his debut with Opera Atelier as King Arkel, the old and tolerant ruler facing tough decisions and baritone Parker Clements made his debut with Opera Atelier as the doctor.     

Claude Debussy tells us that his only opera is “A Lyric Drama in five acts and twelve scenes” and from its premiere in 1902, it has been a challenging work to stage and appreciate. Its complex symbolism, impressionistic music and lack of any memorable melodies were not a good recipe for a runaway hit. Opera Atelier, with the help of Dr. Began, has found the formula for a successful production.

Opera Atelier Founding Co-artistic Directors Marshall Pinkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse  Zingg have been enriching Toronto with their productions for forty one years. May I repeat that Toronto would be a culturally poorer city without them.
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Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy was performed from April 15 to 19, 2026 at Koerner Hall, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto. https://www.operaatelier.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

CLYDE’S – REVIEW OF 2026 CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Playwright Lynn Nottage’s interest and affinity with the downtrodden of the earth continues with her play Clyde’s which is now playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto.

In Intimate Apparel she dealt with life in New York’s garment district at the turn of the 20^th century. In Sweat she turned to the tragic lives of factory workers when their boss closes the plant where they work. In Ruined she addressed the fate of an African women who is abducted by solders and the held chained for five months and raped by them. When she is released, she is considered ruined and shunned by all including her husband. She turns to prostitution.

In Clyde’s, Nottage presents the lives of four people working in a decrepit sandwich shop serving as a truck stop. It is a dump operated by a remorseless and cruel owner called Clyde (Sophia Walker). The kitchen workers are considered losers (they are not) because they have all served time in prison. But there is one big difference. These workers have a taste for and the ability to make extraordinary sandwiches. Clyde couldn’t care less about superior sandwiches and she treats her workers like garbage.

Letitia (Jasmine Case) is a young, single mother with a criminal record trying to survive. Rafael (Augusto Bitter) is a recovering drug addict with a romantic bent. He tries to take Letitia on a date but she does not show up and hurts him. There is a realization of their humanity for both. Jason (Jonathan Sousa) is a newcomer to the kitchen and he is hot-headed and in danger of committing an act of violence.

Montrellous (Sterling Jarvis) is a gentle soul, a peace maker and above all a master sandwich artist. He can create a masterpiece between two pieces of bread and he describes it with passion. His enthusiastic description of the ingredients and process of making a great sandwich are so beautiful and infectious he may well be describing a renaissance painting by a great artist. Jarvis’s performance is stunning.

                                       The cast of Clyde's at Bluma Appel Theatre. Photo: Dahlia Katz
 Making marvelous sandwiches for a creepy employer in a dump in rural Pennsylvania may seem like an unusual and limited subject for a play. Not so in the hands of Lynn Nottage.

The plot develops organically with drama and humour as we  discover the background of the characters and the possibilities of creating sandwiches to kill for. The “losers” are human with aspirations, maybe ambitions, but certainly hopes. Clyde’s sandwiches receive a glowing review in a local newspaper and Montrellous sees an opportunity for growing the business but Clyde is too blind and nasty to see the prospect of growth.  

We quickly realize that the perfect sandwich is a metaphor for hope, for freedom, for redemption as we follow the lives of Nottage’s characters. It is a paean for the downtrodden who find strength and perhaps a way out in their joint humanity, splendid work.

Walker delivers a superb performance as the sadistic Clyde who, in the end, cannot defeat the common humanity of the workers that she is abusing, Bitter, Case and Sousa are superb in their roles.

The set designed by Rachel Forbes shows a dumpy kitchen behind the serving window where the orders are placed. There are some magic flares designed by Michael Kras that I took to be the sparks of hope and maybe rebelliousness that were within the workers or may have been inspired by Montrellous.

Director Philip Akin’s highly experienced hand in dealing with quality theatre, does so with attention to detail and care for the text. Superb work.  
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Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage opened on April 15 and will run until April 26, 2026, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.canstage.com

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE – REVIEW OF 2026 LIVE FROM THE MET PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

New York’s Met Opera has a new production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and it transmitted it to hoi polloi in local theatres around the world. It is an extraordinary production and a rich  collection of superlatives will accompany my review.

Wagner had doubts about Tristan und Isolde being produced and opined that “supremely talented performers are the only ones equal to the task”. The first company that agreed to stage it, dropped after rehearsals began because the singers and the orchestra agreed that it was much too difficult to perform. The second company that took it up, saw its leading tenor become terrified of his role and back out. The opera was judged unsingable after dozens of rehearsals and dropped; there were other disasters but you can look them up yourself.

The new Met production by Yuval Sharon shows his brilliant imagination that together with the work of Set Designer Es Devlin, and superior creative team delivers a Tristan und Isolde that will blow your mind.

Lisa Davidsen as Isolde and Michael Spyres as Tristan in "Tristan und Isolde." 
Photo: Karen Almond / Met Opera

The plot is straightforward but what Wagner did with it is anything but straight or simple.  The hero Tristan (Michael Spyres) is taking the beautiful Irish Princess Isolde (Lise Davidsen) to Cornwall to marry his uncle King Marke (Ryan Speedo Green). Tristan was injured when he killed Morold, Isolde’s betrothed. She used her magical powers to heal Tristan’s wound without knowing his identity and because he looked in her eyes and she fell in love with him. There is a bit more to it than that but listen to the orchestra and it will all make sense.

Without going into detail, the love between the two develops in depth and passion that can only be experienced and expressed by Wagnerian heroes and mere mortals like us can only imagine. The use of a love potion helps.         

Wagner’s prescription that only supremely talented singers can perform his opera is met by dramatic soprano Lise Davidsen as Isolde, tenor Michael Spyres as Tristan with mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Brangäne, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny as Kurwenal and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as King Marke.     

Michael Spyres as Tristan in Act III of "Tristan und Isolde." 
Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

The demands on the major singers are enormous. What most composers can do in five or ten minutes, Wagner holds the feet of the singers to the fire twice or three times longer. Davidsen has vocal prowess, control, tonal beauty and range that can only be summarized as extraordinary. She displays her masterful singing in the first act with Brangäne, her love scene with Tristan and of course the signature Liebestod. The number of singers that can ma0tch her can be counted on one hand and you may have a finger or two left untouched.

The demands on tenor Spyres as Tristan are not as onerous as those on Isolde but his performance is stunning both vocally and morally as the troubled faithful servant of the king. He is bringing Isolde to marry King Marke and his passionate love for Isolde forces him to betray his sovereign. He is a knight and such conduct reaches the depth  of treachery. Spyres makes us feel the pain of his treachery and enjoy his first-rate vocal performance.

Gubanova Brangane as the mixer of potions and Isolde’s companion has performed the role of Brangäne numerous times and she reprised it with ability and vocal mastery. The same kudos belong to bass baritone Tomasz Konieczny as Kurwenal and bass-baritone Green as King Marke. The King displays humanity and generosity in the face of a painful offence and fundamental betrayal.

Lisa Davidsen as Isolde, Ekaterina Gubanova (back to camera) as Brangäne, 
Ryan Speedo Green as King Marke, Tomasz Konieczny as Kurwenal, and 
Michael Spyres as Tristan. Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

The bravura singing is matched and enhanced by the production values provided by Sharon and the rest of the creative team. I can only mention a few extraordinary touches. Some of the opera is performed on two screens. We see the characters on the upper screen and at times on the lower screen as well. Some of the action is seen through an eyeball that opens into a tunnel and zeroes in on the performers. There are some amazing scenes with gorgeous colours as well as more naturalistic ones with King Marke. Jason H. Thompson designed intricate projections, Ruth Hogben has designed amazing videos that are often dazzling and unexpected.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the powerful Metropolitan Opera Orchestra fortissimo and thrillingly.
Do not worry about the fate of the lovers, They defeat death with death. All was caused by the love potion. In death there is reconciliation, redemption and apotheosis through the power of love and Wagner’s music.
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Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner was transmitted Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera on March 21 and a reprise on April 13, 2026, at the Cineplex VIP Cinema, Shops at Don Mills, Toronto and other theatres across Canada. For more information: www.cineplex.com/events        

James Karas is the Culture Editor of the Greek Press, Toronto

A NIGHT IN VENICE – REVIEW OF 2026 TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Toronto Operetta Theatre wraps up its current season with a production of Johann Straus II’s A Night In Venice. This is only the second time it has staged this delightful operetta since its founding in 1985 and it was high time.  

The operetta with a libretto by F. Zell and Richard Genée based on Le Château Trompette by Eugène Cormon and Richard Genée premiered in Berlin in 1883 but its silly plot has often been revised or tampered with. For the Toronto Operetta Theatre production General Director Guillermo Silva-Marin has done his own simplified version.

We are in 18^th century Venice during the carnival, not that the costumes and set indicate anything of the sort. The carnival means fun amid the search for love and marriage. The Duke of Urbino (Jeremy Scinocca) is coming for his annual visit and he will select the Queen of the Carnival and have fun and maybe marry her. This is all clean fun so keep your mind out of the gutter.

The pick of the litter (sorry, I meant one of the best matrimonial prospects for the Duke) is the lively Nina (Anna O’Drowsky). There are several other prospects, even wives of Senators, and what if a wife and the Duke decide to swerve off the path of virtue? A question to be asked.

Caramello (the exuberant Ryan Downey) is the Duke’s barber and he has the hots, I mean is attracted and betrothed to Annina (Andrea Nunez), the fisher-girl who looks like a very nice filet. He should be worried.

There is a masked ball, the Duke is given four disguised candidates for Queen of the Carnival, conspiracies abound and we are sitting at the edge of our seats with suspense and tension. OK we are not, because there is comedy, songs and commotion to keep us amused.  Strauss provides lovely, lively and romantic melodies done solo or with the ensemble in classic operetta style to enjoy. The ensemble does well but not all soloists are created equal. No one really falls much below middle class and some reach Forest Hill status, vocally that is.

Pappacoda (Marcus Tranquilli) is another lively Venetian who wants to get married but needs a paying-job. Well, the rich Dule gives him and Caramello positions and the road to the altar is paved for them.

I should mention the spirited ladies, Barbara (Alice Macgregor) Fiordiligi (Amanda Vallejos) and the distinguished Agricola (Meghan Symon) who gives the plot a push forward. The four Senators deserve honorable mention. Led by the Leader of the Senate Delaqua (Sean Curran), they are Barbaruccio (Austin Larusson), Fontana (Everly Conrad-Baldwin) and Testaccio (Connor Glossop).  

This is Johann Strauss and some waltzing is inevitable. I have mentioned this before, but when you waltz you should not spread your legs as if you are jumping across a creek. Small steps are all you  need to take.

As I said, Silva-Marin has tightened the original libretto but he did not add current jokes to it but I may have missed one. He also directs the production and takes care of lighting and set décor.

Kate Carver conducts the small band that is lined up around the apron of the stage and they make fine music.

Silva-Marin and the TOT work with at least one hand tied behind their back. The Jane Mallett Theatre has little to recommend it except that it is there. The sets are Spartan at best and the costumes are adequate as provided by a commercial outfit.

I repeat myself but I think it is necessary. TOT’s position is all a matter of funding and unfortunately the only operetta company in the country survives by what it can get from donors and whatever grants come from the three levels of government. It is a sad situation. They deserve solid funding for more first-rate singers, designers, artistic staff and a bigger orchestra and chorus and we deserve more productions.      
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A Night in Venice by Johann Strauss II is being performed three times on  April 17 to 19 2026, at the Jane Mallett, Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.torontooperetta.com

 James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

STRIFE - REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT TARRAGON THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

Strife represents a welcome voice of Canada’s indigenous people speaking for themselves.

On opening night of the play by Matthew MacKenzie at the Tarragon Theatre, I noticed that everyone involved from the playwright to the entire cast and some of the creative team are listed as belonging to the Cree, Algonquin and Metis indigenous nations.

The impetus of the play is the search by Monique (Teneil Whiskeyjack) for her brother Nathan’s murderers. We learn that he was a university student and a climate activist with a focus on the despoilation caused by Alberta’s Tar Sands. The play proceeds from there to state a long list of issues that the natives have with the treatment they have received at the hands of the colonists that continue to this date.

Monique is an intelligent young woman who works in the oil industry and did not have good relations with her brother. We are not clear about all of  her positions. She does not want her brother’s death to become a rallying point against climate change. She does not want his murder politicized even though his killing was probably a political act.  

The other major character is Eleanor (Valerie Planche), a professor at the local university who gave up her position at Yale University to do research about the treatment of native Canadians, write articles and a book and speak about their issues. Some of the characters in the play object to her presence and I could not figure out the reason for that. Surely someone doing research and writing about the history and conditions of the natives would be considered welcome and essential. 

Jesse Gervais, Teneil Whiskeyjack, Tracey Nepinak and Valerie Planche.

Photo: Jae Yang

Eddy  (Jesse Gervais)  is Monique’s boyfriend. He works in the oil industry as well and is at odds with Monique (and Professor Eleanor) over what is happening and what she is doing. He changes his views     by the end of the play. 

The play includes the character of Great Grey Owl (Tracey Nepinak) and we are told that the owl in native culture is the harbinger of doom or sudden changes and in the play, she is the bringer of wisdom, intelligence and some humour.

Sarah (Grace Lamarche) was Nathan’s girlfriend and Andrea (Michaela Washburn) is Monique’s therapist who is sent by the oil company to help her deal with her grief and decide if she is well enough to return to work.

The play attempts to deal with interpersonal relations among the characters and the state of native people. They are different people with different points of view. It tries to include a great deal in 95 minutes and it is only partially successful. Individual fine performances need time and depth in their interaction with others. The relationship of Monique and Eddy, Eleanor and Sarah and the rest are sketched and the bigger issue of climate activism, the historical and current treatment of and  the condition of native Canadians in the past and present cannot be treated in 95 minutes. There are  no colonists or corporations present and the play ends up being a lengthy editorial or statement against current trends.

The effect of the extraction of oil from the Tar Sands and its terrible effect on the environment, the residential schools and other issues are front and center but they are not focused and no solutions are offered about the ecology or the workers in the oil sands in the limited time available, The author skims over the surface of serious problems that are not susceptible  to easy solutions.

A fascinating and hugely important subject is treated by people who are very close to it. Kudos for the attempt even if it is not entirely successful.
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Strife by Matthew MacKenzie, a Punctuate! Theatre production in association with  Tarragon Theater continues until  April 26, 2026, at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST – REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT THE GRAND THEATRE IN LONDON ONT.

Reviewed by James Karas

If you have not seen Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest recently, you should head for London, Ontario to the beautiful Grand Theatre and enjoy an exceptionally fine production of the “perfect play.” The production has a superb cast, gorgeous sets and costumes, and direction with impeccable attention to detail by Alistair Newton.

And, oh yes, the production features Additional Text “On the language of fans” and an extra character but more about that later.

After the “Additional Text”, the curtain opens and we see a shock of green. Everything is green including the costumes worn by Algernon, John, Gwendolyn and Lady Bracknell, but not the servant Lane. It looks great. The next scene in John’s country garden is mostly monochromatic yellow and the set in the final scene inside John’s house is red. This is a beautiful combination of colors, effective and memorable stage design. Kudos to set designer Michelle Tracey.  

James Daly and Julien Galipeau are Algernon and John Worthing who engage in witty dialogue that in some productions appears static. Director Alistair Newton will have none of that. These young men move around, chase each other and display energy that goes along with the witty lines. It is wonderful.

Claire Julien plays a superb Lady Bracknell. She is imperious, dogmatic and commanding. When she finds out where the lost baby was found, she repeats the word handbag almost soto voce but when she sees Miss Prism and barks her name, the poor woman practically jumps out of her clothes. 

Kaylee Harwood as Gwendolen Fairfax, Julien Galipeauas John Worthing, 
Claire Jullien as Lady Bracknell, and James Daly as Algernon Moncrieff. 
Photo: Dahlia Katz

Gwendolyn (Kaylee Harwood) and Cecily (Mirabella Sundar Singh) are a delight to watch and hear. They display energy and they speak their lines without missing a beat of Wilde’s humour. Cecily, the clever daydreamer, keeps a diary of her reveries, including her engagement to Earnest, her guardian John’s brother, whom she has never met. When she meets him, she reprimands him for not writing to her. She had to write his letters herself.

The two ladies get into a verbal scrape and Cecily states her candor by telling Gwendolen that she calls a spade a spade. Gwendolen replies haughtily that she has never seen a spade! Some elite people are more elite than others.

Rev. Canon Chasuble (Ben Sanders who also plays Lane) is lively and jumps with excitement and of course we see budding love between him and the school marmish Miss Prism (Deena Aziz).

I mentioned the energy that director Newton instils in the first scene, he does not stop there and the entire production shows meticulous attention to detail and a sense of the active and comic eliciting laughter. The Importance looks like it can carry a production with competent actors reading the lines, Newton never settles for that and he makes you feel as if it is the first time you are seeing the play.

Now for the additional text by Newton. Before the play begins Miss Prism and Gwendolyn step in front of the curtain and give a lesson on the use of a fan and the messages the user conveys. There is a different message when you hold the fan on your left cheeks and something else when you touch your right cheek. You can convey love or contempt by placing the fan in different positions. All of this is conveyed with vigorous use of large fans and is highly entertaining.

During the performance many of the characters have fans that they use with vigour, sometimes as if they are shields, sometimes like swords, and all to good effect. It is an ingenious addition by Newton without affecting the text at all.

He does affect the text a bit by adding a character called Lady Stella Clinton (Billy Lake who also plays the butler Merriman) who appears on stage and sings a couple of songs and also joins the people sitting in the boxes and bellows for us. Lake gives a riotous performance.

There is some information about her/him in the program and I crib the following about Lady Stella.

Lady Stella Clinton (née Ernest Boulton) performing in drag during the 19^th century. In addition to her onstage performances, Lady Stella also lived and loved as a woman in her daily life. While she is seen portrayed as a drag performer in the production, the Grand Theatre often references her more broadly as a Queer trailblazer to allow for the breadth of her gender-expression and recognize her historical significance. For the full text, of the note, see the program. 

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The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde will run until April 12, 2026, at the Grand Theatre, London, Ontario. grandtheatre.com/event/importance-of-being-earnest

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto