For their final review of the term, the DARTcritics class take on The National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, playing at Mirvish’s Princess of Wales Theatre. The acclaimed production may have won both Olivier and Tony Awards, but our critics have more mixed reviews: Abigail B…
Essential Collective Theatre (ECT) is a St Catharines staple. Their latest production, The Welland Canal Play, takes another local icon as its subject matter, tracing the complex and contentious history of the Welland Canal’s construction. Here, critics Sumer Seth and Kristina Ojaperv share their thoughts: Sumer Seth w…
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…
Despite this being the DARTcritics third year covering the RHIZOMES at the In the Soil Arts Festival, trying to review such a diverse collection of interactive exhibits remains a challenge. Made up of short performances, art installments, and presentations from local artists — housed for the 2016 festival in the Maril…
Hayley Malouin (Jean) and Nicola Franco (Emma). Photos by Kendra Neaves. What do frogs, shoes, veal, and shampoo have in common? Besides the obvious answer (absolutely nothing), they make up some of the hysterical elements of Refraction Theatre Collective’s production of At Wit’s End. Showing at the Robertson Theatre d…
That Ugly Mess promotional image from the In the Soil Festival Welcome back, readers! Since we’ve been quiet for quite some time now, we will reintroduce ourselves. We are Raylene Turner, Alex Tomulescu, Jonah McGrath, Heather Allen, and Andrew Von Lukawiecki. For our Theatre Criticism class we are working as embedded…
February 25, 2016 Caroline Coon, Sarah Bradford, Johnathan Clancy, and Daryl Hunter write: February 16: We entered Robertson Hall in the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre at 7:20pm with excited anticipation. The cue to cue was well underway so we made sure to enter as quietly as possible. This was our first time wit…
Caroline Coon writes: Photo by Johnny Hockin Stepping into the Dramatic Arts theatre, I didn’t know what to expect; but I certainly didn’t anticipate a show presenting opera, babies, feminism, and machine guns. With a cast of two and a handful of props that can fit into a tiny suitcase, Death Married My Daughter takes…
March 2, 2016 Linda Duong, Brendan Farley, Chloe Lemay, Kaitlin Morrison, Rachelle Scott, and Demetri Tsioros write: We started with a meeting with director Danielle Wilson and have observed fight intensives and fight choreography with Jamie Treschak. Now, in our last posting, we, the six embedders in Good Night Desdem…
The Scene: In The Soil Arts Festival 2015 Narrator: One sunny, Spring afternoon at the In The Soil Arts Festival in St. Catharines, DARTcritics Hayley Malouin and Elizabeth Amos found themselves sitting down to a delightful puppet show at the Central Library amidst a crowd of excited children. Chester: Hey! Who are you…
