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It’s A Man’s World: Alumnae Theatre Company Presents MacEwen’s Masterful Adaptation of The Trojan Women
Reviewed in this essay: The Trojan Women, from Alumnae Theatre Company. Translated and adapted by Gwendolyn MacEwen. Directed by Alexandra Seay. Produced by PJ Hammond & Tabitha Keast. Until February 4th at Alumnae Theatre, 70 Berkeley Street, Toronto. 416-364-4170 or http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/tickets.html. In Gwendolyn MacEwen’s adaptation of The Trojan Women, the world of men is defined…
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Bookishness: Week of January 30, 2012
Mister Lonelyhearts Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) recently took over the Huffington Post Books twitter feed to dole out relationship advice in support of his latest book, Why We Broke Up. As one might expect, the resulting advice is clever and wry, but it’s also, in many cases, pretty bang on. Example: Q: “How do you go from being just…
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Where’s the Beer? And Jamie Fitzpatrick’s You Could Believe in Nothing
Reviewed in this essay: You Could Believe in Nothing, by Jamie Fitzpatrick. Nimbus Publishing, 2011. Until a few weeks ago, I thought I knew hockey culture. Like many Canadians, I grew up playing the game, and put in my time watching Don Cherry in the 80s and 90s. And, like Derek in Jamie Fitzpatrick’s fine…
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On Reading Fast and Slow
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Have We Dreamed so Big?: A Review of Rebecca Rosenblum’s The Big Dream
Reviewed in this essay: The Big Dream, by Rebecca Rosenblum. Biblioasis, 2011. Have we dreamed so big, only to awake small, suburban and fragile? Rosenblum’s collection of linked short stories is a chronicle of the disappointments of waking/growing up, only to find that the golden palace of your dream is a squat, square low-rise commercial…
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Bookishness: Week of January 23, 2012
Fewer cardigans than one might expect, but a fair number of spectacles The latest in the Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project: Librarians. CanLit is Sexy Not convinced? Let the CanLit is Sexy tumblr sweet talk its way into your heart (or elsewhere). Definitely safe for work, sadly. Books on film TIFF’s Books on Film returns in February for a second season, featuring Eleanor Wachtel…
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TRB Podcast: The Master Critic and the Review – Robert Cushman at York University
On October 18, 2011, renowned critic Robert Cushman spoke on “The Master Critic and the Review” at York University: the TRB is delighted to be able to bring you his lecture. [audio:cushman.mp3] Cushman’s bio on the York event page is as follows: Born in London and educated at Cambridge University, worked for the BBC’s radio…
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Ecce Homo Theatre’s Loving the Stranger… Examines the War that Never Ends
Reviewed in this essay: Loving the Stranger or How to Recognize an Invert, from Ecce Homo Theatre. Written and directed by Alistair Newton. Until January 15th at Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto. Part of The Toronto Fringe’s NextStage Festival. 416-966-1062 or www.fringetix.ca. One of the final slides projected onto the screen hanging onstage during…
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CanLit Canon Review #2: Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that have shaped this country. From its very first sentence, which is 148 words long and covers, in part, the evolution of a local stream, Anne of Green Gables is a charming novel, but in an excruciatingly bland…
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Much Ado in Theatre Brouhaha’s Titillating Commentary LoveSexMoney
Reviewed in this essay: LoveSexMoney, from Theatre Brouhaha. Written and directed by Kat Sandler. Until January 15th at Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto. Part of The Toronto Fringe’s NextStage Festival. 416-966-1062 or www.fringetix.ca. If hotel rooms could talk, what stories would they tell? And would you really want to know what they have to…
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Bookishness: Week of January 16, 2012
027.471 meets 641.874 The Toronto Public Library Foundation aims to recruit a younger set of donors with the New Collection, a membership program for Torontonians under 40. The $300 solo membership ($500 duo) provides members with invitations to special events throughout the year (or, as the National Post puts it, “parties and booze”), after-hours tours of library…
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TRB Podcast: Mike Carey at the 2nd Annual Toronto SpecFic Colloquium
As part of the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium on October 15, 2011, and sponsored by The Beguiling, comic-writer Mike Carey presented a talk entitled “Speak of the Dazzling Wings”: Myth, Language, and Modern Fantasy.” Listen, and enjoy. [audio:carey.mp3] From the SpecFic site: MIKE CAREY was born in 1959 in Liverpool, England, where both his parents worked…