'Art'

2010/03/19

The all-white painting at the centre of Yasmina Reza’s 'Art' tests friendships and aesthetic tastes in this must-see Canadian Stage production.

Oh What a Lovely War

2010/03/18

Oh What a Lovely War is vintage anti-war agitprop meant to be savage and unsentimental, yet very little of this comes through in this Soulpepper production.

Tony Romano: “a fist full of flies”

2010/03/17

Getting what Tony Romano does isn’t so much a matter of effort as a matter of caring. Romano, who also runs local art-magazine Hunter and Cook with painter Jay Isaac, has a new show at Diaz Contemporary that, like so much work by young hip white male urbanites, recalls Rodney Graham.

When hecklers have lawyers

2010/03/17

Call it cold comfort, but when Guy Earle appears before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal later this month he will at least be able to imagine that Lenny Bruce and George Carlin are standing next to him. Because if there's an upside to the Toronto comic's legal woes — stemming from a 2007 incident at a Vancouver comedy spot — it's that they put him in the rare company of comics who have gone to court (or something like it) over their material.

Sex, Bombs and Burgers

2010/03/17

Our society is the product of its technology. And our technology is largely the product of war, porn and fast food, as shown by award-winning tech journalist Peter Nowak in his new book.

As close as it gets

2010/03/17

I’m So Close It’s Not Even Funny brings a taste of Stephen Hawking to the Free Fall Festival

The M-word

2010/03/15

Pop Fiction debates magic realism and Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible

The Overwhelming

2010/03/12

American playwright J.T. Rogers has structured his 2006 play The Overwhelming as a thriller. The action is swift and the atmosphere tense, especially under Joel Greenberg’s taut direction. Yet, the play’s subject matter — the Rwandan genocide of 1994 when an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered — is so incomprehensibly horrific, it evades Rogers’ attempts to convey even its prelude.

Monkey King

2010/03/11

If you go to Monkey King because it claims to be “The First Chinese Rock-Musical,” you will be bitterly disappointed. Zhou Jiaojiao’s music may include the occasional electric guitar, but mostly it sounds like a mélange of sci-fi soundtracks from the original Godzilla to Revenge of the Sith.

Wangechi Mutu: "This You Call Civilization?"

2010/03/10

How do you solve a problem like Wangechi Mutu? The Kenyan-born, New York–based artist, whose “This You Call Civilization?” is currently at the AGO, makes collages, videos and sculptures that tend to combine in a type of installation wherever she shows.

Hello, Cleveland

2010/03/10

Last Call Cleveland, the Ohio-based winners of the last Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, come back for their victory lap. Plus: it's your last chance to catch live, improvised talk show Monkey Toast — on this continent, at least.

Who’s funny now?

2010/03/10

The subject matter of Yasmina Reza’s Art is just that: art. Well, that and the fragility of friendship.

God is my co-writer

2010/03/08

And on the second week, the Pop Fiction book club gave its opinion of Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible.

Talk

2010/03/05

Can a single word spoken by a third party break up an 18-year friendship between two men? Oddly enough, the answer seems to be “yes” in Winnipegger Michael Nathanson’s 2007 play Talk, now receiving its Toronto premiere by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. Nathanson gives the old story of the dubious woman who destroys the innocent idyll of male bonding a twist, in that one friend is Jewish and the other is not.

Communion

2010/03/04

Communion, now having its world premiere at the Tarragon Theatre, is a fascinating but very different Daniel MacIvor play. Gone are the horror, violence and convolutions of time. Where previous MacIvor characters have been only too able to create images of themselves through storytelling, in Communion characters struggle to find the story that explains who they are.

Dan Perjovschi: Late News

2010/03/03

Bucharest-based artist does what any of us could, but none of us are allowed to

High heels and hard luck

2010/03/03

Paul Dooley keeps his camera six inches from the ground for the World of Comedy Film Festival.

Shake free from the devil

2010/03/03

J.T. Rogers’ The Overwhelming explores pre-Dallaire Rwanda

Better than the Good Book?

2010/03/01

The Pop Fiction book club previews its March selection: Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible.

Blind Date

2010/02/26

Originally staged as part of a “burlesque clown” performance at Harbourfront’s Spigel Show in 2007, Loose Moose-improv veteran Rebecca Northan has created a phenomenal show that illustrates most of love’s theatrics.

Misery loves comedy

2010/02/25

So, you’ve got the Seasonal Affective Disorder, do ya? The three hours of daylight and thundering blizzards of slush are getting you down? Well, at least you’re in good company, which this week includes stand-up Jeremy Hotz, who brings his aptly named “It’s The Most Miserable Time Of The Year” tour to Massey Hall tonight.

The Infinities

2010/02/24

John Banville's latest novel asks, "If mankind is just a plaything for capricious gods, why should it matter what happens to these tormented bipedal sacks of flesh?"

Trixx no treat

2010/02/24

Local comic and Video on Trial regular self-releases an overlong and unfunny DVD

Will Gorlitz: Nowhere If Not Here and Always Ready

2010/02/24

How nice to see an exhibit on a painter’s 20-year-long career and to know that he has, more or less, gotten better with time.

School’s Out

2010/02/22

Wrapping up its February discussion, the Pop Fiction book club gives the gears to John McNally, who answers our questions about his novel After The Workshop