Friday, March 22, 2024

FATHER TARTUFFE - REVIEW OF ARTS CLUB THEATRE PRODUCTION IN VANCOUVER

Reviewed by James Karas

Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure is a hilarious reimagination/adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe set in Canada during Expo 67. The would-be victims of the religious fraudster are indigenous Canadians who refer to themselves as Indians at the time of our centennial celebrations in Montreal.

Playwright Herbie Barnes is imaginatively faithful to Moliere but also shows inventiveness in setting the play in a middle-class indigenous family whose father falls for Father Tartuffe’s hypocritical holy roller lies.

Orin (Sam Bob) works for Canada’s centennial bash in Montreal and lives in a well-appointed house with his family. He comes under the total control of Father Tartuffe (Aidan Correia), a fervent religious hypocrite who goes after Orin’s money, daughter, and wife.

Orin’s lively daughter Maryanne (Danica Charlie) is in love with the handsome Valant (Frankie Cottrell) and we are momentarily concerned that true love may be thwarted by parental interference and hypocritical lust.

Tartuffe has his eye and other parts of his anatomy on Orin’s wife Elise (Quelemia Sparrow, also co-director) and he makes a valiant attempt to establish contact with her anatomy. 

                            Quelemia Sparrow and Aidan Correia. Photo Moonirider Productions 

Braiden Houle as Orin’s red-bandana-wearing son Dennis showed anger but no humour. Marshall Veille as Granny had an awkward time dealing with his lines at the beginning but was funnier in the end when he was allowed to crack lines about the rhyming couplets.

Cathy (Cheri Maracle), a statuesque friend of the family was effective and funny as was Samantha Alexandra as Darlene. Barnes adds another element to his play by making Cathy a feisty lesbian.

Barnes’ adaptation and his rhyming couplets are good and there are some very funny lines about Canada’s indigenous people. Cathy, a friend of Orin has one of the best lines when she snaps that she has not ceded her body yet. Correia as Tartuffe was energetic and could remove his clothes at great speed. His attempts to seduce Elise were full of enthusiasm.

But the production in general has a few problems. Most of the actors have problems dealing with rhyming couplets. The lines require speed, enunciation, and poetic diction that most of them unfortunately lack. Without the ease of speaking the couplets, the actors looked like they were trying to walk quickly through mud. The rhyming couplets should propel the delivery of the lines and the action. In this production it did not work that way. 

Directors Quelemia Sparrow and Roy Surette have done much well but apparently could not solve the fundamental problem of the delivery of the lines.

The set by Ted Roberts showed a well-appointed middle-class room. The costumes and hairdos were appropriately 1960’s style.

The directors show some admirable inventiveness. One example is the position of Tartuffe and Orin on the couch as they express their religiosity. They twist and turn until they stop looking like God and Adam reaching towards each other in the famous tableau of the creation scene of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.

How do you finish the play? Moliere had no difficulty wrapping up his play. Well, there is a modern and hilarious solution in this production which I will not reveal.
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Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure by Herbie Barnes based on the play by Moliere played until March 24, 2024, at the Granville Island Stage, 1585 Johnston Street, Vancouver B.C.

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

THREE SISTERS – REVIEW OF INUA ELLAMS’ PLAY AT YOUNG CENTRE

 Reviewed by James Karas

Many of us who were around in the late 1960’s may recall a news story that dominated the media and was known as the Nigerian or Biafra Civil War. It raged from 1967 to 1970 leaving between five hundred thousand and three million people dead. The region of Biafra declared its independence from Nigeria and the rebellion was subsequently crushed.

The story of the Biafra Civil War is shown in Three Sisters, a play by Inua Ellams in a coproduction by Soulpepper and Obsidian Theatre companies at the Young Centre in Toronto. The play is subtitled “After Chekhov” and is a brilliant work of originality that echoes its Russian inspiration.

The three sisters of the Onuzo family are Lolo (Akosua Amo-Adem), Nne Chukwu (Virgilia Griffith) and Udo (Makambe K. Simamba), the daughters of a general who died a year ago. They are living in a small provincial town in Biafra, a province of Nigeria that, unlike Chekhov’s town, is seeking independence from Nigeria. The sisters are living with memories of their life and glamour of the capital. They have memories, dreams, hopes and perhaps even illusions about life in the great city of Lagos and it is the central motif of their life. They have fervent hopes and dreams of returning to the almost magical city.  

                                 Akosua Amo-Adem, Virgilia Griffith and Makambe K. Simamba 
                                    The three sisters. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Lolo is a teacher and dreams of changing the curriculum of her school to make it more relevant to their Igbo ethnic background rather than follow what was left by the British and adopted by the central government.

Nne Chukwu is the victim of an arranged marriage and turns unfaithful when she falls in love with Ikemba (Daren A. Herbert), the philosophy-prone army commander.

Their feelings are exacerbated by the memory of their father. Their brother Dimgba (Tony Ofori) is a feckless professor and reckless gambler who is married to Abosede (Oyin Oladeja), a Yoruba woman from a different ethnic group who does not fit with the ethnic group of the three sisters. She is dressed peculiarly and perhaps gaudily and is the butt of jokes. She will develop into a different person during the three years of the civil war and “pay back” the sisters.

The personal lives of the Onuzo family are inextricably affected by the civil war because their house is the hub of activity for the military leaders of the secessionist Biafra. The play takes place on two latitudes, the personal lives of the Onuzo family and the national issue of the civil war.

Army doctor Eze (Sterling Jarvis) is a disillusioned and cynical alcoholic who is ever present in their household.  Nmeri, (Ngabo Nabea) is the idealistic suitor of the youngest sister Udo. Rebellion leaders come and go from the pleasant house of the Onuzo family as matters deteriorate leading to a tragic end.

But hope persists for a while. Lolo the teacher dreams of changing the school curriculum to cover the history of the Igbo nation. But like the hopes and dreams of returning to Lagos all are crushed by reality

Perhaps there is a subterranean third latitude.  It is instructive to recall that Nigeria became an independent nation in 1960 after being a part of the British Empire since 1884. The play and much of Nigerian history reflects the British imperial presence, none of it in complimentary terms to the conqueror.

Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu does superb work in directing an outstanding cast. This is theatre that is historically important and drama at its best.
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Three Sisters by Inua Ellams continues until March 24, 2024, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 3C4. www.soulpepper.ca.

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

Monday, March 18, 2024

NO ONE’S SPECIAL AT THE HOT DOG CART - REVIEW OF NEW PLAY AT THEATRE PASSE MURAILLE

Reviewed by James Karas

No One’s Special At The Hot Dog Cart is an ambitious one-actor play written and performed by Charlie Petch. A big hot dog cart is on stage and we are told it does business at Yonge and Dundas and at Gerard and Church, two well-known corners in Toronto.  

Petch receives a laudable description in the program listing a long catalogue of achievements and is also described as “a disabled/queer/transmasculine multidisciplinary artist who resides in Tkaronto/Toronto.” He is a “poet, playwright, librettist, musician, lighting designer, and host” and has won numerous awards and distinctions all of which are praiseworthy. My concern is the comment that they/he is disabled and I am not sure what if any effect it had on the performance of No One’s Special.

The title of the play may lead one to expect a play about interesting, perhaps humorous and dramatic events while selling hot dogs but there is much, much more than that in a play that lasts about an hour.

Charlie Petch in No One’s Special At The Hot Dog Cart
Photo: Nika Balianina 
 In addition to selling hot dogs, Charlie (they/he) becomes an emergency responder, a social worker able to help a troubled, homeless person  with his family problems and encounters with others in horrible situations by using  de-escalation techniques.

Charlie describes his work as a 911 responder and then as a worker  in a hospital emergency room and a bed allocator in a hospital. That is a long way from the hot dog cart and the play covers a much wider canvas than my summary suggests.

Petch performs several poems and we hear a couple of songs and have fleeting attempts at psychological depths. Unfortunately, it does not work.

Much of the time Petch speaks in an almost  monotonous voice that expresses a limited emotional range. Raising your voice’s volume is not the same as being expressive. The play tries to cover far too much ground in any event and the chances of reaching all the issues are slim. Speaking over a cacophony of voices does not help. Humour is almost non-existent and maybe we have the right to expect some amusing events at the hot dog stand or in Charlie’s other endeavors.

I do not know under what disability Petch is working and I speak of my perceived shortcomings of the play and the performance with trepidation. But my reaction was that of disappointment.  
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No One’s Special At The Hot Dog Cart by Charlie Petch, a Theatre Passe Muraille and Erroneous Theatre coproduction, continues March 23, 2024, at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. www.passemuraille.on.ca

 James Karas is the Senior Editor – Culture of The Greek Press. This review appeared in the newspaper.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD - REVIEW OF PLAY AT CAA THEATRE

 Reviewed by James Karas

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as anyone who has seen Hamlet knows, are two non-entities in Shakespeare’s play and the title of Tom Stoppard’s play is a line from that play. Despite the title, Stoppard has given the two friends more life on the stage and on film than the two fictional characters could ever have imagined.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been invited to Elsinore by King Claudius to figure out why Prince Hamlet is acting strangely. Eventually  they are sent to England with Hamlet to deliver a letter to the English King telling him to kill Hamlet. Hamlet discovers the letter and changes it to read that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are to be executed.

Shakespeare has some fun with the duo but Tom Stoppard has created a funny, complex and wonderful play around the dumb pair. Nova Scotia’s Neptune Theatre has landed two superb actors to play the lead roles and David Mirvish has brought the production to Toronto at the CAA Theatre.

The Neptune production has thirteen actors but it can be done with many more. The main characters of Shakespeare’s play appear but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern dominate the play. In that regard Director Jeremy Webb has the fortune of having Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, two outstanding actors in the lead roles. Webb delivers a superb production that brings out the comedy and the complexity of the play with a light touch.

Photo Credit: @stoometzphoto

The opening scene sets the stage and the comic and intellectual level of the play superbly. Monaghan’s Rosencrantz and Boyd’s Guildenstern are playing what appears to be a mindless game. They flip coins. Rosencrantz calls ‘heads” and he wins consistently. This goes on for some ninety tosses and the coin never lands on “tails.” Have the laws of probability ceased to apply? Guildenstern wonders. They may wonder about philosophical issues but they don’t know where they are nor where they are going. Aha! They received an invitation to go to Elsinore where Hamlet (Pasha Ebrahimi), their university friend in Germany has returned because his father has been killed and his mother Gertrude has married his uncle King Claudius who has usurped the throne.

They meet a troupe of actors known as the Tragedians who are headed for Elsinore. They are headed by one called The Player (a feisty, quick-witted and agile Michael Blake).  

At Elsinore they meet King Claudius (Jonathan Ellul) and Gertrude (Raquel Duffy) who mistake the identity of their guests.  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have to correct her as to who they are and they seem to be so lightheaded at times one wonders if they can tell who between themselves is who. Very funny and well done by Monaghan and Boyd.

Claudius explains to them that they must find out what is wrong with Hamlet and the two engage in a question-and-answer game as a possible approach to Hamlet. They confuse themselves thoroughly and have no way of finding out what is bothering their friend.

Photo Credit: @stoometzphoto

The two are inept at everything and they find out that they have been selected to take Hamlet to England and deliver a letter to the King. They converse about death, suicide and the representation of death (theirs) on stage. In their confused state of mind, they eventually find out who is carrying the letter to the King of England and open it. They don’t know where they are, wonder if they are dead and question how they will deliver it to the king.

As the play ends, the Ambassador (Mallory Amirault) announces that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead and as Horatio (Santiago Guzman) speaks, the lights go down to end the play. But Webb is not prepared to leave matters there. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pop back on stage where they started. Nice touch. 

The play depends on the cleverness and comic talent of Stoppard but its delivery depends on Webb and the cast especially Monaghan and Boyd. They prove that they are masters of repartee and the presentation of the two characters who may be dumb but are also complex. They handle the dialogue with splendid speed, expressiveness and humour as necessary. The rest of the cast do fine work but compared to the leads have relatively smaller roles.    

Set Designer Andrew Cull uses two sets of rows of seats theatre-style that can be turned around and pushed off to the sides. There is an indication of a ship and they serve as the sets for the play. Economical and adequate. This is a verbal play and requires very little in the way of sets.

We get an intelligent and redoubtable production of a marvelous play.

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, in a production by Neptune Theatre, directed by  Jeremy Webb continues until April 6, 2024, at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com/

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


Sunday, February 25, 2024

ALADDIN - REVIEW OF 2024 EXTRAVAGANZA AT THE PRINCESS OF WALES THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

Disney’s Aladdin is musical theatre on a grand scale. It’s in its eighth year on Broadway and there is a touring company going across the United States to venues galore. It’s on tour in the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as Japan and Spain. Disney’s website tells us that more than 15 million people have seen it. Can intergalactic productions be far behind?

It is a popular show and I for one would not argue with the millions of viewers nor the enthusiastic full-house audience at The Princess of Wales theatre last Thursday. They enjoyed a grand show that may not be to everyone’s taste but they would not give  a damn about the opinions of others. Quite right.

Unless you have been living on the outer stretches of civilization you know about the young urchin Aladdin who lived somewhere a long time ago. He meets a Genie who lives in a small oil lamp and Jasmine, a pretty princess and the daughter of the Sultan. He likes her and she likes him but don’t be so impatient.

We have the bad guys too. The meanie Jafa wants to eliminate the Sultan and get the throne. He is accompanied by the silly and very funny Iago. There are ten other characters and an army of singers and dancers in the plot of the musical but I will not hold you in suspense. In a couple of hours (plus intermission) the bad guys are defeated and Aladdin gets Jasmine and we all leave the theatre happy ever after.

Marcus M. Martin (Genie), Adi Roy (Aladdin) and Company 
in the North American Tour of Aladdin. Photo Credit: Deen van Meer

But there is still work to be done so stay tuned. With about 20 musical numbers (some repeats) the evening passes with some nice songs, some loud numbers and almost non-stop singing and dancing. All is intended to generate excitement and give us a colorful show. Colorful is an understatement. Disney has costumes in middle eastern colors, gold and an array of changes that is intended to simply dazzle and bedazzle and overwhelm you. It works.

The show starts with the exuberant Genie of Marus M. Martin. He starts off on a high note and sings “Arabian Nights” with the ensemble and never slows down. We have the evil Jafar (Anand Nagraj) who wants to overthrow the Sultan (Sorab Wadia) and get his filthy hands on the kingdom and Jasmine. He has his sidekick Iago (Aaron Choi), a solid comic character from a different era.

Adi Roy is a handsome and energetic Aladdin and Senzel Ahmady is an alluring and pretty Jasmine and we root for them. They sing the simple melodies of “A Million Miles Away” and “A Whole New World” reasonably well and give us some quieter moments from the boisterous ensemble singing and dancing.

Anand Nagraj (Jafar) and Aaron Choi (Iago) in the North American 
Tour of Aladdin. Photo Credit: Deen van Meer

It is a musical and visual extravaganza and a relentless onslaught on all senses. I could have done with less (a lot less) volume but I suppose it is part of the combined assault that enthralls the audience.

The show is designed by Daniel Brodie and Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. There is a small army of behind-the-scenes personnel including an illusion designer, a hair designer and many others. Nothing is left to chance. And yes, Aladdin and Jasmine do ride on the magic carpet.     

For those interested in looking beyond the extravagant showmanship of the musical, the picking becomes very slim. All the characters are cartoonish. There is no room for development and the plot is threadbare, being largely expressed through song and dance with lyrics that are not always comprehensible.  Very few in the audience may care about that and the 15 million viewers may well be thrilled with the sensual experience. If you are looking for anything else it behooves you to understand that this is a show for younger audiences. It started as a cartoon and it retains much of the flavor of that. So be it. Enjoy it.
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Aladdin by Alan Menken (music), Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin (lyrics) and Chad Beguelin (book) based on the Disney film continues until March 17, 2024, at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

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

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

GUILT (A Love Story) - REVIEW OF NEW PLAY BY DIANE FLACKS AT TARRAGON

Reviewed by James Karas

Guilt (A Love Story) is a new play that is performed by its author Diane Flacks in a solo performance at Tarragon Theatre. Flacks is a spirited storyteller and gives an energetic performance full of humour and drama. According to a note in the program “Guilt (A Love Story) is a story of a mother’s experience dealing with the end of her relationship and its impact on her family, and the re-discovery of her own sense of self-worth. Her experience is compounded by the many intersections she lives, ultimately unpacking the onion-like layers of what encompass that persistence of guilt.”

Flacks starts with the Bible and the murder by Cain of his brother Abel and being Jewish herself gives us the origin of the feeling of guilt and the specialty not to say almost monopoly of it by the Jews. The character that Flacks  portrays is of course fictional but she has some similarities  to the life of the author. The fictional character is  a lesbian who was married and had children with her wife. Alone on the stage with only a chair for a prop, Flacks gives a highly physical and effusive performance, never allowing the audience to stray from the comic and dramatic stories that she tells.

She tells many stories from brief, almost one-liners to extended ones. She tells us about her child being in intensive care for almost a year. She becomes friends with other parents with children in the same unit and is overwhelmed with guilt and anger when one of the other children is arresting and bey all the lights and noise as they try to resuscitate the dying child. But she is angry because the lights and noise of trying to resuscitate the child keep her child from sleeping.

Diane Flacks in "Guilt (A Love Story)" at Tarragon Theatre. 

 Guilt comes from many directions. Her youngest child is upset by the changes brought about by the separation. She tries couples therapy with her wife and it does not work and she would not recommend it.

She and her wife chose an “open” relationship and she meets and is pursued by a much younger woman that she calls a “racehorse”. She tries to resist the overwhelming attraction but succumbs.

Let’s not forget that there are some Jews that would make you ashamed or is it feel guilty of being Jewish. How about Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Woody Allen?

When she and her wife separated, they decided to take turns staying in the house to look after the two children. Her wife did not want her to sleep in the marital bed when it was her turn to look after the children and Flacks’ character ended up sleeping in the basement while the ex-wife slept upstairs in their bed.

Jews don’t celebrate Christmas so birthdays are more important. On birthdays the family made a big fuss waking the birthday person with cake and  singing “Happy Birthday.” On her birthday she was sleeping in the basement and she heard the family moving about upstairs and expected them to come down with a cake. They didn’t and left for the day. Her ex-wife had not organized a birthday celebration for her and she phoned her new partner/ lover for solace.

Guilt is a rich and amazing play and Flacks’ ability to deliver the whole thing alone is nothing less than a bravura performance. She gives us a fine summary of the play saying "I’m dehydrated, I’m broke, I’m crumbling. I know I should just let go of guilt. But I don’t understand how." But the play does end on an optimistic note when there is some kind of conciliation. Her, the ex-wife, her new partner and her parents take the children for a holiday in the Dominican Republic
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Guilt (A Love Story)  by Diane Flacks, directed by Alisa Palmer continues until March 3,  2024, at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario. www.tarragontheatre.com

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

Sunday, February 18, 2024

EARWORM - REVIEW OF 2024 PLAY ABOUT IRAN AT CROW’S

 Reviewed by James Karas

Several months ago, Crow’s Theatre produced Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s Bad Roads, a riveting play about Russia’s brutal invasion of part of Ukraine and its continuing assault on an innocent nation. Now, with Nowadays Theatre it has staged a play about the theocratic and equally horrific regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Earworm by Mohammad Yaghoubi is an indictment of the theocracy that runs Iran with a viciousness that is reminiscent  of  Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany and so many others. The play has four characters. Homa (Aida Keykhaii) and her son Pendar (Amir Maghami) live in Canada after having lived in a prison in Iran where the mother was kept in solitary confinement for four months and years in captivity. Pendar is shown wearing a University of Toronto sweater and we may assume that he is a student.

The two argue about what the mother should wear when they plan to meet the other two people in the play, Pendar’s girlfriend Fatemeh (Parya Heravi) and her father Mohammad (Amir Zavosh). The liberated Homa puts on a very short dress – I thought it was a bathing suit – and declares herself independent of the archaic attire of scarves and hijab. Her son wants her to be more conservative to please his girlfriend’s father. For the visit she is dressed conservatively but without a hijab or a scarf.

Fatemeh loves her traditional father and is trying to get him to change his ways. The visit begins with some awkward moments and develops into an explosive situation when Homa realizes that Mohammad was in fact her interrogator while she was in prison. It is an incredibly dramatic discovery.

Parya Heravi and Amir Maghami Photo by Dahlia Katz 

There is no doubt about the dramatic content of the plot but I suggest that the play has some basic problems. The dialogue is often awkward, repetitive and creaky. Conversations that have made their point continue for unnecessary lengths. There is a lack of cohesiveness and tautness that takes away from the dramatic plot. 


The actors may have substantial experience but, in this production, they appeared uneasy and unable to communicate with the audience. Keykhaii has a thick accent and she is talking with her son whose enunciation is uncertain. In real life they would be talking in Parsi and the accent should be modified or even almost eliminated. Mohammad mumbles more than he speaks his lines as if he were put on the stage against his will. Heravi’s English is less accented but again there were issues with her delivery and conviction.
Aida Keykhaii in Earworm. Photo: Dahlia Katz
These actors may sound much better if they spoke their native Farsi rather than English. The play can be seen in Farsi with English subtitles and I suspect it would sound much better with the actors not struggling with English. 

The arrest and torture for not wearing a hijab of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini haunts the play and resonates in the life of Homa. Amini is a potent symbol and a haunting reminder of life in Iran. Her subsequent death on September 16, 2022, in the hands of Teheran’s Morality Police could have been Homa’s fate when she was in jail or interrogated by Mohammad. The recognition of Mohammad by Homa as her interrogator is, as I said explosive, but he reacts as if he has not been there or had anything to do with her.

The play falls apart at this point. We get an editorial comment that Yaghoubi finished the first  draft of the play, and there was a suicide but he decided to change the ending.  

Then another scene follows with Homa giving a speech condemning the ruthless regime of Iran. The effectiveness of her speech was reduced because she lacked the eloquence that it demands. Again, I think she would sound much better if she spoke in her native language without the impediments of uncertain handling of English.

The idea of changing the ending or supplementing it is not the best solution. Yaghoubi could use a dramaturge for many parts of the play but writing a version with whatever conclusion he wanted is surely preferable to the awkward notice to the audience of what he did and wanted to do.

Earworm is a good first draft of a play and there was no reason to rush to production of an unfinished script with a cast that felt uncomfortable with the whole thing.

The play is produced by Nowadays Theatre in association with Crow’s Theatre. It is directed by Yaghoubi who is also the founder of Nowadays Theatre.    

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Earworm by Mohammad Yaghoubi in a production by Nowadays Theatre and Crow’s Theatre opened on February 13 and  continues until February 26, 2024, in the Studio Theatre of Streetcar/Crowsnest Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/