Articles by Aiden

Brockville’s Michael Healey is Coming (Close to) Home
- Interview
- News
- Thousand Islands Playhouse
In 1972, Paul Thompson (who at the time was artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille) and a group of actors ventured out of the city to interview farmers in and around Clinton and Blyth, Ontario. They discussed their lives and their careers, while also occasionally aiding in the chores and fieldwork. This resulted in The Farm Show, a play made up of those interviews which has gone on to be […]

Marriages and Mishaps Galore: ‘Stag and Doe’
- Review
- Thousand Islands Playhouse
A wedding is widely regarded as the “happiest day of your life” but the stains of actually achieving that blissful status often turn the festivities sour. Bonnie (Emily Lukasik) and Brad (Henry Beasley) are throwing a stag and doe in preparation for their wedding. Unfortunately, after a terrible storm, Rob (Kyle Brown) and Mandy (Romi Shraiter) have had to relocate their wedding, and the only venue in town that can […]

‘Bridge Street’ is Perplexing Yet Powerful
- Review
- Théâtre Roulant
Jake MacNeil (Pat Larkin) has long been in charge of the A.G. MacNeil woolen mill, but now is in the early stages of dementia. As Jake’s mind fades, so does his company, leaving his children Judith (Liz Simpson) and Ned (David Baker) to grapple with how to salvage their father’s life’s work. With an offshore company offering to buy the business, the future of the mill as well as the […]

TK Fringe 2025: A Festival in Review
- Kick & Push Festival
- Review
- TK Fringe
When the TK Fringe began this year and I received my press pass I found myself thinking: “How much can I abuse this power?” Each of the KTA’s three summer critics were assigned five shows to review, so I knew not everything would be covered and I would not be assigned to see every show I was interested in. So rather than simply abuse the power of the press pass […]

‘Love in the First Degree’: A Killer Improvized Courtroom
- 6 AM Productions
- Kick & Push Festival
- Review
A beautiful wedding has been ruined by the murder of the groom. The crime has eight suspects, and rather than bother a judge with the issue, Vic Vanderspank (Shanique Peart), the evening’s host, has assembled a collection of jurors (the audience) to decide by vote. The jury is not voting on who is guilty though: the trial is broken up into rounds with someone being voted off as innocent each […]

Next Stop: Toad Hall!
- Bottle Tree Productions
- Kick & Push Festival
- Review
- TK Fringe
Whether you are familiar with the original novel by Kenneth Grahame, the stop motion film, the Disney animated short film, or the more recent 2016 musical, it is hard to deny The Wind in the Willows as one of the greats in children’s literature. The adventures of Mole (Liv Hendy) and Rat (Essie Latimer-Scahill) as they try to help the infamous Toad (Kai Kerr) out of his nasty habits have […]

Teacher’s Trials and Tribulations in ‘Detention’
- Kick & Push Festival
- Review
- TK Fringe
Being a teacher is difficult: parents demanding the world for their children regardless of the effort being put in on the student’s end, a complete lack of social life because of all the time needed for marking, and to top it all off there’s the endless torment of your unenthusiastic pupils. Samantha Twiggs (Eleanor Daly) embodies all of these struggles and shows what happens when just about everything goes wrong for […]

‘1969’: A Multimedia Hitchhiking Glimpse Into the Past
- Kick & Push Festival
- Review
- TK Fringe
It’s 1969, the Vietnam war is at its peak with more than 500,000 American soldiers overseas and to protest the war and advocate for peace, John Lennon and Yoko Ono are staging a bed-in at a Montreal hotel. Enter Micheline (Lilli McDonald) and Suzie (Gia Silva), two Canadian teens trying to hitchhike their way to Montreal to allegedly join the protest efforts. They soon meet Sammy (Kieran Chenier), a young […]

‘The MaryRobin Show’: Silly Syllabaries, Transfixing Translations, and More
- Kick & Push Festival
- Review
- TK Fringe
Performing on the stage is one of the oldest and most universal forms of expression—or rather—it tries to be. But so much theatre is dependent on language, and theatres globally have been attempting to tear down this language barrier for years. Canada has made some great strides in the past with the Canadian Opera Company introducing Surtitles in 1983, but reading words far above the action of a piece hardly […]

Give Me Excess of It: ‘Play On! A Shakespeare Inspired Mixtape’
- Review
- St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival
William Shakespeare wrote his fair share of catchy song lyrics back in his day, but unfortunately you won’t find them playing on grocery store speakers as you wander the aisles. Luckily, Robert Markus, Julia Nish-Lapidus, and James Wallis have assembled a collection of popular tunes inspired by the Bard’s legendary works that one might be more likely to come across in day to day life. Play On! A Shakespeare Inspired […]

The Inner Workings of an Improvized Courtroom: Behind the Scenes of ‘Love in the First Degree’
- 6 AM Productions
- Kick & Push Festival
- News
I arrived at the Tett Centre on August 6, 2025 and wandered down the stairs to the rehearsal hall, completely unsure of what to expect. As I turned the handle and pried the door open I could hear the faint sound of “Raspberry Beret” playing from an iPad speaker, and there were people scurrying all around the room carrying various articles of clothing or standing on their phones waiting. I […]

Dockside Drama at Canada’s Dockside Theatre: ‘Cottagers and Indians’
- Review
- Thousand Islands Playhouse
Ah, cottage country: a serene refuge for upper middle class urbanites to flee the troubles of the concrete jungle to a second home where their time can be wasted in relaxation, barbecuing, and boating. But Otter Lake is not quite so serene; there is a full-fledged war being waged between Arthur Copper (Jeremy Proulx), an “Aboriginal horticulturalist gone mad,” and Maureen Pool (Jane Wheeler), “the demon in khakis.” The casus […]