Books & Theatre

In this modern age of innovative technology, creative media and audio books, an idea comes along that revolutionizes the way we read books. With the Kindle now loved by adults and children alike and having firmly cemented its place as the perfect reading companion, the next generation of interactive books have begun to enter the bookshelves in the market place.

The Toronto Fringe Festival has been bringing laughs, surprises and cutting-edge theatre to Toronto for 25 years. Tickets are now on sale for this year’s event. The 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival includes 148 shows in 35 venues including bars, back alleys, churches and a coin laundromat.

Much has been made of the rise and fall then resurrection of such mercurial actors as Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke but there was an actor/filmmaker/artist that came before them that made those guys look like members of some private school debating team–his name was Dennis Hopper.

TIFF Bell Lightbox will be celebrating the wonders of superheroes from March 9 to 24, just in time for March Break, with a series of family-friendly matinee screenings offering some of the best “spandex-clad superheroes” on the big screen.

This being the 50th anniversary of the most successful movie franchise of all time, and the year that the latest addition to that James Bond franchise, Skyfall, will be released, there is about to be a flood of anniversary tributes in just about all forms of media imaginable–including a travelling gallery show that reflects how James Bond and this franchise has effected style, fashion and pop culture over the decades.

With the ever growing Indie writing scene becoming a prominent source of new and exciting writers, one man in particular is starting to make a name for himself with a blend of clever, thought provoking and superbly written books. By day he is a Seattle based biochemist and in his own words, “If you can go to the grocery store and buy food off the shelf without wondering if it might make you sick, I’ve done my job,” however by night he is a writer and the author of several speculative fiction books.

A juried festival of independent theatre, Toronto’s Summerworks blooms in August every year, offering a bouquet of dramatic delights. Here are a few reviews.

The new work by acclaimed playwright Hannah Moscovitch (The Russian Play) doesn’t disappoint as it leads the audience through an uncomfortable story that, like the car accident, we can’t turn away from. Actor Joe Cobden is superb as the storyteller, Aaron, a long suffering teenage brother whose adopted sister Claire (played by Michelle Monteith with a wonderful reined-in neurotic flourish) is emotionally disturbed due to an early childhood featuring unnamed abuses that are never spelled out but only alluded to (making them all the more horrifying).

Theatre critic Susan Down continues her reviews from the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, which runs until July 17 in venues across Toronto. Reviews include: The Sparrow and the Mouse: Creating the Music of Edith Piaf, So I Married a Muslim, Bloom, and Wishes Are Horses.

Theatre critic Susan Down wades deep into the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, which runs until July 17 in venues across the city. Reviews include: Pitch Blond, Finally: An Epic Cycle, Mary’s Wedding, Man on My Face, The Godot Cycle, She Said What, and Limbo.