Thousand Islands Playhouse — Kingston Theatre Alliance

“Write what you know. And what you don’t know, research.” Playing the young and bold Tia, Makambe K Simamba speaks these words and thunder ripples across the darkened theatre. It is with power and conviction that she stares down her fictional screenwriting superior, and with a warning that finds relevance even outside the story world. Everyone is shaken with the implications. This is my second time seeing a performance of […]

It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon when I asked my father to join me for some caramel corn and a matinee performance of Thom Currie’s Back in ’59, the Thousand Islands Playhouse show that is Mashed Potato-ing its way through a sold-out run (or in our case, available via streaming online). Despite not being present for all the toe-tapping and in-seat jiving I’m sure accompanies the live productions, we found […]

WARNING: This review contains spoilers. At the end of the day, I get it. Times have been tough, and when the going gets tough and revenue must be guaranteed, safe choices need to be made.  Thousand Islands Playhouse marks its return with award-winning Vancouver playwright Michele Riml’s Sexy Laundry. The play follows the tale of a tepid night shared by a middle-aged couple that aim to fuck themselves out of […]

Two Filipina nurses walk into Arborfield Memorial Hospital. You won’t believe what happens next! Marie Beath Badian was inspired to write Prairie Nurse by real people, including her mom, a nurse who immigrated from the Philippines to Canada, Penny, another Filipina nurse, and Pat Hackett, a candy striper at the hospital. Prairie Nurse is bright, energetic, and bears all the markers of a TV sit-com—wild misunderstandings, over the top characters, […]

A new Canadian farce! Playing in the Springer Theatre until August 18, The Canadian by this new whimsical physical comedy world premiered by Thousand Islands Playhouse – takes the audience through a whirlwind of events so calculated and carefully timed that they could all crumbling down upon an accidental early entrance or line fumble. Director Rob Kempson reflects upon this in his Director’s Note, equating a farce to a “complex […]

Upon entering the Firehall theatre, there was a sense of familiarity. The stage was dressed as a pub, complete with TV screens playing soccer games (or, since Midsummer is set in Edinburgh, “football” games) and the sound of chatter and dishes that blended smoothly into the sound of the audience talking amongst themselves. In his director’s note, Brett Christopher refers to the universality of the story that is about to […]