The DARTcritics class is back in session! Our 25 budding theatre critics tested their critical skills on local St. Catharines company Stolen Theatre Collective’s production of House by Canadian theatre darling Daniel MacIvor. Here’s a taste of what they thought. Welcome, DARTcritics class of 2017/18! Anthes as Victor.…

Questions of representation and ethnicity have been at the forefront of dialogue in Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) this year. In a talkback after the department’s Mainstage production of Gormenghast in November, a student audience member wondered about the fact that all the lead performers in the…

Director Daryl Cloran puts a vaudeville twist on a Shakespearean classic in Theatre Aquarius’ production of The Comedy of Errors. A talented cast serves up some stage magic with a dash of slapstick comedy, but misses the mark when it comes to the representation of some female characters. The Comedy of Errors follows th…

That’s all, folks! DART 4F56’s production of Jennifer Haley’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom has reached the last chapter. Leading up to our weekend of performances we had not one, but four tech runs—that is a lot considering Brock mainstages only have two. Since this was such a tech-heavy show it was crucial to b…

It isn’t often that a play begins with a three-minute sequence of a man making a sandwich, and ends up becoming one of the most touching pieces of theatre you can imagine. Essential Collective Theatre’s production of The Drawer Boy, directed by Monica Dufault and written by Michael Healey, brings us back to the summer…

Elena Belyea as Tick. Photo by Lauren Garbut. If you had to choose between watching a solar eclipse or rebelling against a higher power, which would you opt for? For the intelligent and free-spirited characters in Matt Mackenzie’s Tick the decision isn’t an easy one. On Tuesday February 21st in E.I McCulley Elementary…

The 38th Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times theatre is upon us! While our focus at DARTcritics is on theatre in the Niagara region, every once in a while we venture further afield —and the fact that this is billed as Canada’s longest-running new works festival and a “hotbed of creativity” certainly caught our eye…

The concept of time has been debated, theorized, and even denied throughout history by scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers alike. In Hannah Moscovitch’s Infinity the push and pull of time is deeply felt by three characters whose experiences and tribulations in love and intimacy take centre stage. Performed at…

February 22nd, 2017: I entered Robertson Hall in the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre at 7pm as The Drawer Boy crew were adding last minute tweaks to the set. The space was set up in typical tech week fashion: a row of tables and chairs in front of the stage for designers and operators, adorned with switchboards, c…

This winter’s Mainstage production at the Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) at Brock University represents something unique in departmental memory—the first time that a Mainstage is being directed by an outside professional, not a faculty member. The play is Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory and the director is Philip McKe…