News & Reviews — Kingston Theatre Alliance

Jim Garrard and SALONTheatre deliver a textbook performance of Krapp’s Last Tape worthy of Beckett’s legacy. Needless to say, Jim Garrard had notable names to compete with in his portrayal of Krapp, and yet, he more than held his own in the scope of the play’s notoriety.

As the play finds its narrative structure in Maria’s three-card reading, I find it suitable, being a Tarot reader myself, to provide a three-card response.

Blue Canoe Productions presents their newest work Sharing Stories: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. While there continues to be phenomenal creativity in digital performance, with this production, there is nothing quite like watching actors work together to tell a story in a shared space.

Created and performed by Beau Dixon, Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story follows the story of Maurice Ruddick (or “the singing miner”), an African-Canadian who survived the 1958 mining disaster when an underground earthquake hit Springhill, Nova Scotia. Originally premiering at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, this multi-award-winning play (directed by Linda Kash) now marks the return of the Festival Players’ Six Feet Festival at the Eddie Hotel & Farm’s BMO Pavilion.

The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy is Eldritch Theatre’s modern take on Marlowe’s own Doctor Faustus while being infinitely more engaging and entertaining for the modern audience. Partnered with Kick & Push, Theatre Kingston’s Storefront Fringe is certainly kicking off the festival with a strong show.

Fn (dir. Alex Bulmer and Tristan Whiston) reflects on how Ting comes to terms with her and her mother’s respective urgency to be understood on their own terms, in conversation with the lives and works of composers John Cage and Beethoven.

Described as a part-techno concert and part autobiographical, the musical innovatively tells the entertaining and captivating story of Collier’s life, starting at the beginning of the universe.

Good Things To Do is an immersive virtual experience “blending dreamy sonic landscape, solitary physical environment and an unexpected use of technology” in order to explore the softness within ourselves the world demands we abandon. From its initial workshop implementing digital design into the live installation at foldA in 2018 to its adaptation for COVID-19 today, Good Things To Do’s full embrace of a computerized form is the very thing that potentiates the theatricality of dream logic.

In the first few months of the pandemic, virtual activities were beyond popular. From Zoom drinks to Club Quarantine to the rise of TikTok, people around the globe were craving a sense of togetherness that the pandemic was devoid of. Cabin Fever PROTOTYPE seeks to address this phenomenon: can virtual events create a sense of togetherness and unity?

like a surprising combination to some. On May 27, the Watershed Festival presented award-winning composer and DAN School of Drama and Music’s artist-in-residence Leslie Arden’s latest commission The Lancashire Lass, a full-length musical that will receive its premiere at next year’s festival. 

The Watershed Festival continues to explore how and who exactly are the artists examining and developing music theatre as we know it. The New Works Showcase featured a series of upcoming projects at various stages of development from artists across the country, followed by a live Q & A with the creators. 

In a time of creative and collective upheaval, the inaugural Watershed Festival examines the integration of music, drama, dance, and design as musical theatre or opera, exploring those boundaries in order to revitalize the ways those artforms are practiced and understood.