Review — Kingston Theatre Alliance

The play revolves around the experiences of Janey Quinn, played by Elizabeth Morris, and Fiona Conlon, played by Hayley Hudson, who are two Deaf actors working as extras on a film taking place in Potato-Famine-era Ireland, but shot in Frontenac County. The third and final actress on stage is Lauren Lafayette Brooks, who plays multiple characters: Aisling, the film’s frustrated First Assistant Director (AD); Nicola, the movie’s star; and Sean, Janey’s unhoused and drug-addicted cousin. With this small cast of characters, the three actors lead the audience through the hurdles Deaf actors are forced to navigate to pursue their dreams. 

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – George Orwell One of the first classic novels I read in grade school, Orwell’s Animal Farm is one that stuck with me well beyond my eighth grade classroom. An allegory for the Russian Revolution and Stalin’s rise to power and subsequent dictatorship, the novel also carries a wider warning of the ways in which governance can be […]

A pair of rival, vicious Hollywood stars who must be kept apart at all costs somehow ending up in the same suite? What could possibly go wrong… Suite Surrender, written by Michael McKeever, is a hilarious comedy directed by Lorna Jodoin currently playing at Domino Theatre. Two feuding Hollywood starlets, Claudia McFadden (Julia Moore) and Athena Sinclair (Vanessa Costa) are invited to perform at a war benefit at the Palm […]

On the final evening of PXR2026 Conference, people gathered into a Virtual Reality (VR) world where rolling hills were lit by moonlight. We made our way over to sit on a hillside that sloped toward a pond, where a projection screen glowed from across the water.  Throughout the festival, VR had revealed itself not as an escape hatch but as a medium of attunement. Participants shrank to two inches tall, […]

From the moment I stepped into the Grand Theatre on Saturday evening for the Slaight Music Video Showcase—a treasured part of the Kingston Canadian Film Festival—the space was bursting with energy: jam-packed with festival attendees and creatives alike, all eager to see the hard work of local musicians, production companies, and volunteers on the screen of the Grand Theatre.  Venturing into the lobby, the space was overflowing with well-dressed attendees […]

The following review details two shows as part of PXR2026 Conference. Uncanny Alley: A New Day VR asks for a layered kind of courage. I had assumed the hardest part would be the technical unfamiliarity, but the real bravery comes when you step from your quiet room into a space full of life. This creates the opportunity to arrive exactly as you are in that moment, stepping forward with genuine […]

Presence acts as the sustaining heartbeat to live theatre. In our lifetime, where the digital age brings distancing and screen barriers, I think we are all contemplating the multidimensional angles of presence. It’s easy to refer to it on the surface layer—‘just show up’—but as our experience of ‘just showing up’ becomes increasingly challenging, the need for presence becomes increasingly desperate. As someone who often feels apprehensive about the weight […]

A new drama by Chloë Whitehorn, Admit Two is a one act play presented by Bottle Tree Productions that uncovers the dark, hidden secrets behind a touring circus. Upon the beginning of the show, audiences meet Dante (Craig Norton), a knife thrower for the circus who has recently been released from prison, only to find that he has been replaced by a young and feisty aerialist, Glimmer (Syd Chinnick). He sees that Glimmer has been taken under the wing of Mama Rhea (Rosemary Euringer), a maternal figure whose partner, King, runs the circus. Refamiliarizing himself with his old home, Dante encounters his old flame and clairvoyant, Persephone (Shannon Donnelly). Her harsh demeanor towards him and the others drives the story along as the cast uncovers long-held secrets and attempts to fix the many things that are broken. 

In the quiet darkness of a theatre before the stage lights go on, the squeaky wheels of an IV pole are our first introduction to Dr. Vivian Bearing. “It’s not my intention to give away the plot,” she tells the audience in an opening monologue that immediately breaks the fourth wall, “but I think I die at the end.”  W;t, written by Margaret Edson and directed by Martha Bailey, is […]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a theatregoer in possession of holiday spirit must be in want of a show—and Domino Theatre’s production of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, directed by Craig Norton,is a perfect answer to that want.  Taking place a few years following the events of Pride and Prejudice, the happily married Lizzy (Madeleine Smith) and Mr. Darcy (William Anderson) prepare to welcome the Bennet sisters and […]

Have you ever read a book and wished you could change a character’s fate? My first introduction to Shakespeare was struggling to decipher Romeo and Juliet on my own, without the help of SparkNotes (mostly because I didn’t know it existed), and for years afterward, whenever I thought about the play, I caught myself wishing I could change the characters’ endings. But what if that’s actually possible? Goodnight Desdemona (Good […]

Welcome back to the Script Suggestion Series, where I take the opportunity to abuse my privilege as a theatre critic by getting paid to read and discuss plays from my very own bookshelf. This past summer I read Robert Icke’s Oedipus and was absolutely taken by the powerful adaptation. With that production just about to open on Broadway at the time of writing this article, I’ve been craving some more […]