ARABELLA – REVIEW OF 2025 LIVE IN HD FROM THE MET PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

For the current production of Richard Strauss’s Arabella, the Metropolitan Opera reached back to Otto Schenk’s 1983 opulent staging. It was a wise decision and it is a production worth seeing on a movie theatre screen. Most of us will never know how much better it may be to see it at Lincoln Cener but that’s life.

This revival features a stunning cast led by soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen in the title role, soprano Louise Alder as Zdenka, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny as Mandryka, bass Brindley Sherratt as Count Waldner, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill as Countess Adelaide and soprano Julie Roset as Fiakermilli. I give all these names because Strauss composed some beautiful and intricate melodies for all of them including for the relatively minor role of Fiakermilli. More about this later,

The opera is set in Vienna in 1860 but the libretto was written by Hugo von Hoffmasnthal in the 1920’s and left unfinished. Strauss dealt with the unedited libretto and its creaky plot and finished the opera. It premiered in Dresden in 1933. There are ironies in all those dates but I will mention the fate of the Austrian Empire between 1860 and the late 1920’s which is very striking when you look at the marvelous set and the social order in the opera and the reality of Austria when it was composed and eventually produced in Nazi Germany.

The plot is about the beautiful Arabella looking for a husband as she is courted by handsome officers. That is understating her case. Her family is broke and a rich husband for Arabella is their ticket to solvency. Count Waldner is a committed gambler and consistent loser who has written to an old and very rich army buddy in Slavonia trying to entice him to marry his daughter. He enclosed a fetching picture of his daughter to help the rich man decide.

The old man is dead but his nephew and sole heir to his fortune, Mandryka, has seen the picture of Arabella and fallen in love with her (I told you the plot is slightly creaky). In the throes of love, he went searching for the girl in the picture. He stands on the street where she lives and Arabella sees him from her window and she falls in love with him. End of opera? Certainly not. We have two more hours before we are finished.

A scene from Arabella. Photo: Jonathan Tichler, Met Opera

Let us praise the singers. Rachel Willis-Sorensen sings the role of Arabella for the first time and gives a superb performance. She has a beautiful voice and can soar to the high notes and handle her low notes with beauty and aplomb. Strauss has crafted arias for her that test her musical and vocal  talents and she is outstanding.

I won’t bore you with the details of the passionate expression of love between the two as soon as they find out their names. Take my word for it and listen to their duet and Strauss’s music.

Arabella has a sibling called Zdenka, a girl, but family finances are not enough to raise two female children so she is dressed in men’s attire and becomes Zdenko. Strauss is equally generous with the vocal parts for her (whatever she is wearing) and Adler proves adept at handling the high demands placed on her. Zdenko/a becomes a plot catalyst by making it seem that Arabella is unfaithful to Mandryka by giving a key to Arabella’s suitor Matteo (Pavol Breslik, a superb tenor) and endangering the Arabella/Mandryka betrothal.   

Strauss takes care of Arabella’s parents who are good for some comedy but much better for the music and singing opportunities that he provides. Her father goes from depression because he is broke, to elation because he has money to gamble, and to being an upstanding paterfamilias when the family honor is endangered. Her mother relies on a fortune teller for predictions about the family’s pending bankruptcy but all of that is alleviated by Strauss’s beautiful music sung superbly by Cargill and Sherratt.

Julie Roset has the minor role of Fiakermilli but she approaches it with vocal and physical exuberance and Strauss gives her some serious climbs up and down scales and some yodeling for good measure. Fiakermilli is the mascot of the cabbies and we are attending their annual ball.

The opera is set in the suite of a posh hotel where the Waldners live, a ballroom and the lobby of the same hotel. The set presents a vision of wealth, spaciousness and luxury. It is an image of old Vienna that we accept together with the fancy attire of the officers and the men and the gorgeous costumes of the women and the high manners of everyone.

Regardless of the occasionally creaky plot that could seem straight out of an operetta, Strauss’s complex, intricate and superb music takes it out of that milieu. As I said, most of the characters that sing are given superb arias or duets.  

The revival by director Dylan Evans uses the 1983 sets designed by Gunther Schneider-Siemssen and the costumes of designer Milena Canonero and the lighting of Gil Wechsler.

Nicholas Carter conducted the Met Opera Orchestra and Chorus briskly and superbly.

The production is a delight to the ear, the eye and everything that we hope to find in an opera production.
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Arabella by Richard Strauss was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on November 22, 2025. There will be an encore showing on January 7, 2026. For more information including dates for reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events

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

a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun) – REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION AT TARRAGON THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun) is the long and pretentiously uncapitalized title of debbie tucker green’s play now showing at Tarragon Theatre in a coproduction with Obsidian Theatre. It is about domestic squabbles and specifically about three couples that we see separately talking, arguing, quarreling and rarely communicating. All of that struck a chord with many audience members on opening night.

The author is a British playwright with a commendable number of plays, many of which have been produced at the redoubtable Royal Court Theatre in London. a profoundly premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 2017. This is her first play that I have seen.

The characters are not given names and the first couple is A (Virgilia Griffith) and B (Dwain Murphy). They are arguing and set the standard for bickering and lack of communication that we will see many times during the 90-minute performance. Each person attempts to say something and is interrupted with a reply or a retort in midsentence, sometimes within several words. The second speaker’s reply is cut short by the first speaker and all we get is that these two people may have a point to make but interruptions and counter-interruptions are what we hear.

Initially the woman seems to have the upper hand but the stakes are equalized and we cannot choose a side except to scream SHUT UP to both of them and allow each other to finish a sentence and engage in a meaningful quarrel. Their squabbling goes through a number of scenes as the years of their marriage or cohabitation pass. They have a daughter and their discussion takes a calmer tone as they look at their child and try to figure out whom she resembles. In the end, they reach an impasse and we want to believe that they have found peace and may be able to speak in full sentences and may express full thoughts. The problem is we did not understand what they were bickering about except generalities. We need firmer ground and information to understand these people and not cardboard arguers.

Dwain Murphy and Virgilia Griffith. Photo: Jae Yang

The second couple consists of a middle-aged Woman (Warona Setshwaelo) and a Man (Andrew Moodie). She has motormouth without brakes as she launches her tirade against him. He tries to say something but has few chances to say anything. The scene with the two of them ends in an impasse that we would like think it will lead to peace. Again, we do not get the fundamental grounds for the squabble except the paper-thin exchanges.  

The last couple consists of a Young Woman (Jasmine Case) and a much older Man played by Andew Moody again. We see A walk across the stage and assume that the Young Woman is the daughter of A and B. The Man, played by the same actor as the Man of the second couple may be the same person, many years later, in a relationship with a much younger woman. In this May-December relationship, the Man is old enough to be the Young Woman’s father. They have the same problem with communication because neither allows the other to complete a sentence, let alone a thought. The same routine of you don’t listen, you don’t understand, and on and on and on and on.

The title, a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone may be a dictionary definition of love and the author may want us to believe that these couples’ relationships fall within that description. We hope that is true and their quarrels are realistic but, in the theatre, we want some more information about what gives substance to their love. Do they reach a revelation or a development in their relationship and see that they love each other or are they just exhausted and call a truce only to resume that fight later? It is not clear and the plot development is unsatisfactory.

Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu runs a tight ship and has disciplined the five actors in carrying on under tight rules. They do very well at it and deserve a great deal of credit.

Jawon Kang has designed an unrealistic set consisting of large triangular ramps and some small boxes, all in grey. Lighting Designer Raha Javanfar indicates the scene changes by subtle light changes. 
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a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun) by debbie tucker green, a Tarragon Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company co-production,  continues until December 7, 2015, at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com

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

WHITE CHRISTMAS - REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Shaw Festival continues with its laudable holiday season. This year it is again mounting the perennial favorites, A Christmas Carol, and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Yes, the one based on the 1954 movie with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

White Christmas gets a wonderful production and what follows is a rave review. It is justified by the delightful performances, the production values, the gorgeous costumes and, yes, the great idea of giving us an old-style Christmas musical that is fearlessly sentimental, funny and a throwback to a different world.

Bob Wallace (Jeff Irving) and Phil Davis (Kevin McLachlan), the song-and-dance duo, were in the U.S. army in Germany in December 1944 under the command of  the very popular General Waverly (David Keeley). Ten years later they meet the two-sister act of Betty (Camille Eanga-Selenge) and Judy Haynes (Mary Antonini). They are the sisters of an army buddy who asked them to have a look at their act. Phil and Betty are seriously attracted to each other and Davis decides to follow the two of them  to a gig in Vermont. He bamboozles Bob into going to Vermont unknowingly. The soldiers find their general running an inn and on the verge of bankruptcy.

They decide to call up their 151^st regiment to the general’s inn in Vermont to help him out.The whole thing works out and we get a happy ending. I told you it is sentimental.

Berlin wrote some wonderful songs for the movie and plenty of them. White Christmas starts with “Happy Holiday” in 1944 and continues with the signature carol “White Christmas”: that sets the tone for the season and the musical. Betty and Judy sing the melodic “Sisters” and we hear and agree with the sentiment that “The Best Things Happen While You Are Dancing” sung by Phil, Judy and the ensemble, and the beautiful “Snow” sung by all. 

Jeff Irving as Bob Wallace with the cast of White Christmas. 
Photo by Michael Cooper.

We hear from Martha (Jenni Burke), the nosey, boisterous, stentorian and hilarious  manager of the hotel who thinks she is Ethel Merman and Kate Smith rolled into one. Pure comic relief. And there is the young Susan Waverly (Celine Jung) who sings and steals scenes. Tap dancing went out of style a long time ago, but in this production, it is a center piece of talented dancers and entertainment. Allison Plamondon is the choreographer.

Judith Bowden is the sets and costumes designer and she delivers superb sets and an array of costumes that are not only beautiful but also striking in their number and frequency of changes. I found the numerous sets and almost innumerable costumes dazzling.

I counted almost thirty people on stage, many taking several roles, singing, dancing and providing comic acting. That is a lot of people but not as many as necessary in some scenes. When General Waverly greets the men of the  151^st regiment there are only three men on stage. He speaks to the audience as if the entire regiment showed up.  

Paul Sportelli conducted the orchestra and Kate Hennig directed the production without missing a beat and Allison Plamondon did the choreography. One should not underestimate their contribution. With the amount of activity demanded by the production, from acting, to singing, to tapdancing, it is a complex undertaking that we may take for granted. It is an extremely difficult undertaking and these artists deserve and get a standing ovation.

But watching an entertaining, sentimental and wonderful musical at this time of the years is terrific and if all is not enough, remember the title of the final song: “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.”
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White Christmas  by Irving Berlin (words and music), David Ives and Paul Blake (book)  continues until December 21, 2025, at the Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com

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

AVA: THE SECRET CONVERSATIONS - REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION AT CAA THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

In 1986 English writer Peter Evans received a phone call from Ava Gardner – at 3:00 a.m., she invited him to ghostwrite her autobiography and told him she was seeking an Exit. In other words, she was looking to end her life.

Evans proceeded to have numerous telephone and in-person conversations with Gardner that he dutifully recorded. Their relationship cooled off and the book was not published during her lifetime. It was eventually published after his death and Elizabeth McGovern (of Downton Abby fame), has fashioned a splendid play based on it.

McGovern stars in this production with Aaron Costa Ganis as Evans and Michael Bakkensen as Ed Victor, Evans’ agent. McGovern has structured the play around three actors with Ganis taking roles from her life such as Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra. They were Gardner’s three husbands. Bakkensen is Victor’s voice when he talks with Evans.

It is a marvelous play that tells the dramatic, amusing and revelatory life of a great actress and a woman with a voracious appetite for sex. She was beautiful (Elizabeth Taylor was only pretty, she tells us) and every man dreamt of her as a sexual partner. She had a long friendship with Howard Hughes and there is no reason to believe that she did not have sex with him and, we suspect, many others. 

Aaron Costa Ganis and Elizabeth McGovern. Photo: Jeff Lorch

The play begins after Gardner has had a stroke and is living in a well-appointed apartment in London. Kudos to Scenic Designer David Meyer. When she tells the story of her marriage to Mickey Rooney, she emphasizes his sexual voracity and prowess which she obviously matched. At the time she was new to Hollywood and he was a star who begged her to marry him.

Her next husband was the jazz musician Artie Shaw and that marriage, like the one with Rooney, did not last long. She then married  Frank Sinantra, a domineering figure, who was connected to the Mafia. He was the love of her life, she tells us, and their friendship outlasted their marriage.

Aaron Costa Ganis takes on the roles of Gardner’s husbands seamlessly giving the play the needed variety and movement. The play uses salty language liberally and sexual references abound reflecting a central interest in her life.  Sinatra is described as one who comes in at 119 lbs. of which a hundred pounds is his weight and the rest is his penis.

Evans is an English journalist or writer who worked for the BBC. At the beginning he is nervous about meeting Gardner to the point of overacting, but he settles down and if you ignore his attempt at an English accent, he does a fine job. We concentrate on Gardner, in any event.

McGovern as Ava Gardner is superb. We hear Ava’s voice at different times in her life and she is commanding, high class, low class and in between with wonderful effects. McGovern gives a star performance like the woman she is representing.

 The production directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel uses projected clips that are mostly unhelpful, not to say awful. They are blurry or unclear and add nothing to the production. There are a few slides at the end that show us how beautiful Gardner was.  

At about 85 minutes, the show gives us an interesting portrait of a great star that is informative, thoroughly entertaining and worth seeing.
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AVA: The Secret Conversations by Elizabeth McGovern based on the book The Secret Conversations by Peter Evans and Ava Gardner continues until November 30, 2025, at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com/

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

LA BOHEME – REVIEW OF 2025 LIVE FROM THE MET IN HD TRANSMISSION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Puccini’s La Bohème is back on a theatre screen near you. If you do not see it, it is your loss. It is a gorgeous production and streamed for us who do not live in New York and probably could not afford the hefty ticket prices.

A few numbers. The performance on Saturday, November 8, 2025, was the 1415^th at the Metropolitan opera. That makes it the most produced opera at the Met. Franco Zeffirelli’s production has been performed more than 500 times since its first performance in 1981. The most of any production.  And it has been played in all but nine of the Met’s seasons since  its first production at the Met in 1900.                         

How is that for stats?

The current production has the same sets designed by Zeffirelli, costumes by Peter J. Hall, lighting by Gil Wechsler and is done by revival director Mirabelle Ordinaire.

Our beloved Mimi is sung by soprano Juliana Grigoryan and she has all the attributes of a superb heroine. She appears petite, innocent, virginal and lovable. She has a lovely voice and holds those notes with ease and beauty. Of course, she is clever enough to blow out her candle when she sees in Rodolfo someone that she likes and pretends that she lost her key. She may be a flirt and may have some shortcomings but we don’t care. We love her and are with her all along. 

Heidi Stober as Musetta (centre) and the crowd in La Boheme. 
Photo: Karen Almond / Met Opera

Tenor Freddie De Tommaso has a beautiful, light, Pavarottiesque voice ideal for Rodolfo. He hits the high notes right at his entry on stage and maintains gorgeous tones throughout. When he cries at Mini’s death there is not a dry eye in the house.

Baritone Lucas Meacham is a virile and sympathetic Marcello who must endure and enjoy the tempestuous Musetta. But he sings with beautiful sonority and is a he-man who can take care of himself.

Soprano Heidi Stober’s Musetta is of course tempestuous, enjoys teasing and perhaps making Marcello’s life hell at times but she is also extremely decent when she sells her jewel to buy medication for Mimi. She does Musetta’s Waltz superbly as becomes a teaser of the male organ.

Women conductors have become highly desirable (it’s about time) and the Met Orchestra was conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson. Excellent work.

Zeffirelli’s sets with the garret on the top floor of a tenement in the Latin Quarter, a snow-covered area near the toll-gate on the outskirts of Paris and a terrific scene for  the parade that includes a donkey and a horse are splendid and spectacular as needs be. Peter J. Hall’s costumes are perfect and Gil Wechslet’s lighting adds feature to this superb production.   

Seeing a performance at the Met is wonderful but catching a performance on a large screen has its benefits. You can examine faces and reactions in detail and see things that you may not witness if you sat in the best seats in Lincoln Center. 

This was the sixth time that I saw the Zeffirelli production and I confess to enjoying it thoroughly. Go see it.
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La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini was transmitted Live in HD from New York’s Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on November 8, 2025. There will be an encore showing on December 6, 2025. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events.

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

DISSONANT SPECIES – REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION BY THEATRE GARGANTUA AT FACTORY THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

The title Dissonant Species may have the benefit of honesty, assuming it refers to humankind, and much of the music that we hear during the performance. It ends with the five performers screaming at the audience as loudly and harshly as they could for an inordinately long time.  I have no idea why.

In a program note, Theatre Gargantua states that “our productions explore compelling subjects and meld compelling physicality with striking designs underpinned by live original music.”

The musical begins with a soundwave floating in the air at the back of the playing area. There are numerous instruments on the walls and we are treated to a technical Music 101 lecture, talk of musical experiments and information about the beneficial effects of music. The lecture is technical and mostly incomprehensible. The talk of the structure of music is either technical, or difficult to follow, again, except perhaps to students of music.

We are told that exposing your fetus to music during pregnancy may help him/her with language learning. Music can be useful in retarding the effects of dementia. Indeed, the mother of one of the performers who is suffering from dementia responds to music and in her case, it is to the song “Over the Rainbow.” It was also the only recognizable piece that I heard. They mention Bach but do not play even a few bars of his music. They ignore classical music entirely and I am not sure what type of music they have in mind. But it is all original. 

The ensemble of Dissonant Species.Photo: Michael Cooper

The ensemble consists of Heather Marie Annis, Nicholas Eddie, Malia Rogers, Michael Gordon Spence and Hannah Sunley-Paisley.

In one segment. Michael Gordon Spence, the senior musician of the ensemble, we see him address the students in a disastrous lecture. Then we see hum having a nightmare where he is attacked by his students.

One of the  students/players is pregnant and there are two young women and in one segment we Nicholas Eddie as an obnoxious young man.

The cast engaged in some gymnastics and it may have been intended as some kind of dance routine. They wore white lab coats for the Experiment scenes and I got very little of the jargon that they were using.

The play is written by Heather Marie Annis and Michael Gordon Spence, no doubt for knowledgeable musicians, and they want to show us their musical learning and talent. Spence also designed the set. The sound designers and original compositions are by Christopher-Elizabeth and Richard Lam with additional original compositions by The Ensemble and Heidi Chan.   

The play is directed by Jacquie P.A. Thomas, the founder and artistic director of Theatre Gargantua.

Music majors will no doubt get a lot more out of the show than I did. For hoi polloi like me, it is not a very good night at the theatre.
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DISSONANT SPECIES by Heather Marie Annis and Michael Gordon Spence, in a production by Theatre Gargantua, opened on November 7 and will run until November 23, 2025, at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.factorytheatre.ca.

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

THE COMEUPPANCE – REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION BY SOULPEPPER

Reviewed by James Karas

The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is about four high school friends, classmates gathered for a pre-reunion event twenty years after graduation. As may be expected there is a great deal of emotional turmoil, revelations and anguish, as they recall experiences from the past and actions in the present as they meet in the house of a classmate in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

The five characters are Ursula (Ghazal Azarbad), a woman who is diabetic and as a result  has lost the sight of one eye and wears a patch. The play is set  in front of her small and unprepossessing house. Emilio (Mazin Elsadig), apparently a successful artist who is living in Europe. He has a child in Berlin. Kristina (Bahia Watson) is an anesthetist with a drinking problem and is coming to the reunion with Francisco (Carlos Gonzales-Vio) who is not part of the high school friends. Kristina dated Emilio in high school.  Francisco (also called Paco) has serious PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. Catlin (Nicole Power) is a motormouth who peppers her sentences with “like”. (Many of them do with liberal use of the f word.) She has no children but has had five miscarriages as opposed to Kristina who has children.

The most important character is probably Death. It opens the play with many names that meant nothing to me. Death speaks through the other characters. The lights dim and we see the skull of a character and hear Death speak through him or her. The facts about Caitlin’s miscarriages, for example, are related by Death whereas she wants us to believe  that she simply did not have any children.

(L to R): Bahia Watson, Mazin Elsadig, Nicole Power, 
Ghazal Azarbad, Carlos Gonzalez-Vio. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Death speaks through Ursula and describes her birth and how her mother died shortly after she was born. She fell and hit her head on a radiator and bled profusely. Her husband left her fearing he may never be able to look after his daughter. As a result, Ursula was raised by her grandmother who suffered a horrible death from cancer.

Simon is a character that is often mentioned and anticipated to show up but never does. He answers his phone near the end of the play and speaks with the confrontational Emilio (who does not go to the reunion) but his conversation is interrupted.

The play is densely written, almost too densely as we go through memories and recollections of the past. Some recollections are false and there are so many happenings that I found it difficult to keep track of them. They all have lived through the traumatic and dramatic events of the last twenty years,  2002-2022. 9/11, the Columbine massacre, abortion, reversal of Roe v.Wade. Covid-19, Trump and war, war, war. These were terrible events but they applied to everyone. The friends are all fundamentally failures and that is the result of the choices that they made in their lives and not the historical events that they lived through.

The set by Shannon Lea Doyle shows the porch and front of Ursula’s house with an American flag displayed prominently. The lighting by Jason Hand deals with the tricky changes from individual characters to Death who emerges to speak with changes in lighting. Very well done.

Director Frank Cox-O’Connell has to deal with a complex and dense play with complex relationships and long speeches. He directs an experienced cast with superb results.

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The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, in a production by Soulpepper, continues until November 23, 2025, in the Michael Young Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane. Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca

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

CHILD-ish – REVIEW OF 2025 TARRAGON THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

CHILD-ish is an interesting method of theatre making. Sunny Drake as the writer and creator of the play tells us in a note in the program that she interviewed 41 children between the ages of 5 and 12 and used the materials collected to form it into a play. You can see it at the Tarragon Theatre, Toronto.

There are five actors on stage (Karl Ang, Jannelle Cooper, Monique Mojica, Jordan Pettle and Asher Rose). Rose takes on the role of the interviewer (i.e. Drake) of the children. He and the other actors perform the words of the children without pretending to imitate them. They do jump up and down like chickens but it is an exception to the rule.

The actors take us thematically through the experiences of children as gleaned by Drake. They go from love to mental health and desire to commit suicide. Some of the comments are mundane, others are moving  and many are interesting. 

Jordan Pettle, Janelle Cooper, Karl Ang, Asher Rose 

and Monique Mojica. Photo: Jae Yang 

Near the end of the 65-minute show we are asked to speak to our neighbor and become a questioner and an interviewee. Using questions posted for us on a screen, a young lady on my right asked me about my favorite stuffy and I had to reply that I don’t know what a stuffy is. What are they anyway? Then she asked me about dragons (I am not sure if I had to identify my favorite dragons) and again I had to reply that I knew nothing specific about dragons to give an answer.

At the end of the show about half a dozen youngsters, apparently from the 41 who were interviewed, streamed onto the stage making some happy noises and playing with stuffed pillows and furniture. I could not make out what they were saying but they seemed like rambunctious and happy children. 

Jordan Pettle, Janelle Cooper and Monica Mojica. Photo: Jae Yang

A long time ago Art Linkletter interviewed children on television with hilarious results. He spoke with children, who spoke like children and gave spontaneous replies that were frequently unexpected and funny. Example: What did your mother tell you not to say? Children speak differently from adults and vice versa and we did not get the intonation, hesitation or exuberance of children answering questions. The adult actors provided none of the pleasures of listening to kids.

Putting the play together obviously took a lot of work and the production has the full panoply of behind-the-scenes people. Amanda Wong is the set designer, Ming Wong is the costume designer, Andre du Toit is the lighting designer, Brian Quirt is the dramaturg, Laura Warren is the projection designer, Jessica Greenberg is the Director of Child and Youth Engagement. Unfortunately, the production left me cold. You may enjoy it far more than I did.

CHILD-ish by Sunny Drake, writer and creator, directed by Andrea Donaldson runs November 16, 2025 at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Geek Press, Toronto

THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON – REVIEW OF 2025 ROBERT LEPAGE PLAY AT BLUMA APPEL THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

When you hear about a play written and directed by Robert Lepage, you tighten your belt, snap at attention and prepare for some inventive, original and perhaps out of the world theatrical experience. Like me, you may not get everything but you may get a great deal of the art of a genius at work. The Far Side of the Moon has all these factors in its production by Lepage’s company Ex Machina at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto.

The Far Side works on several levels, with generous use of projections, slides and stage effects that dazzle. On one level it is the story of the space race between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. during the heady days after World War II. The communist Russians and the capitalist Americans were racing to outdo each other with rockets and the competition to explore space and land a man on the moon.

The other story is about two Quebecois brothers who do no get along. Phillippe and Andre are both played by Olivier Normand as are all the other characters in the play.

The following program note is worth quoting as a guide to the play: “Set against the Cold War's fierce U.S.-Soviet rivalry, this gripping story explores the personal and political turmoil of an era defined by global tension with a uniquely Canadian perspective. Through the tale of two Quebec City brothers, Lepage's stunning use of multimedia and visual storytelling draws the audience into a world on the brink of change and portrays the impact of global conflict on the individual.”

First task is to give recognition, kudos and admiration to Olivier Normand for his bravura acting. He plays Philippe and Andre, the two brothers, who are very different and do not get along. Philippe seems to be getting nowhere with his life. He is hesitant, uncertain of himself and slow of speech. He is interested in extra-terrestrial life but has also tried teaching and telemarketing. He is working on a doctorate and trying to make a video of life on our planet to be sent in orbit in the hopes of beings of another part of the universe  may be able to see life on earth. Andre is a brash, self-assured TV personality.    

Scene from The Far Side of the Moon. Photo: Li Wang,

courtesy of Shanghai Jing_an Theatre Festival

The only other player on stage is a puppet handled by Eric LeBlanc and we hear Normand Bissonette and Martine Rochon as the voices of the Host. There are more than half a dozen people behind the scenes assisting with the performance. We see them taking a bow at the end of the play. You will see the tiny cosmonaut puppy several time including a scene where it is led by the mother of our two protagonists.

The far side of the moon is of particular interest because the Russians explore it first and it now carries the names of Russian cosmonauts along with those of other historical figures. It is not American.

The opening scene features the inside of a washer and dryer. In the imagination of Lepage, they are metamorphosed into numerous machines such as a space capsule, the inside of an airplane and other mind-bending objects. A simple ironing board is transformed into a bicycle, a motorcycle, and various exercise machines in a sheer display of Lepage’s brilliant imagination. And The Far Side of the Moon never fails to display that.

The play does move towards reconciliation of the brothers and cooperation between the Americans and the Russians in saving a problematic space mission. But that tells you almost nothing about  the complex, poetic, multi-disciplinary theatre that Lepage creates. I admit to being confused at times and I am probably not doing justice to the production. The only solution is to see it yourself.   
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THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON, written and directed by Robert Lepage, produced by Ex Machina, and presented by Canadian Stage, continues until November 16, 2925, at the Bluma Appel Theatre. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com