theatre – Teahen Tales

2017 stage stars in review: The London, U.K. file

From our “London Calling” files, a look back at 2017’s outstanding “stage stars” along the Thames River.

It turns out that a fictional theatre festival has become Canada’s gift to smart serial television.

Theatre does more than entertain: it can provoke, question, criticize, and shake people up.

To those who say Canadian history is dull, I say, yay, verily: Get thee to VideoCabaret.

When you grow up in southern Ontario, you take the festival for granted: that’s where you go for the annual English bus trip to see a play.

The theatre’s mandate has shifted throughout the years. For the first few years, it focused exclusively on Shaw.

A play needs to be remounted to remain art its audience can experience. Many new Canadian plays launch, then disappear.

I didn’t know much about Kamal’s personal story, when he was a theatre reviewer and I a theatre publicist.