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u/alestracuz

r/torontotheatre
FRINGE — first dispatch
▲ 17 r/torontotheatre

FRINGE — first dispatch

How’s your Fringe marathon going? I could already use some sleep. Here’s a first round of reviews and recommendations in case anyone is still building their schedule.

RECOMMENDED

1. LADIES’ DAY
My current top recommendation. A delightful and sensitive look at women in the 1960s discovering, through solidarity, a sense of self beyond the narrow scripts they’ve been handed. It has charm, heart, and even bite. Review coming soon on NEXT. (Gosh, I’m behind on writing it; Ryan, don’t read this!!)

2. AFENI
A sharp piece of lecture-theatre centred on a Black Panther activist. It is politically anchored and passionately acted.
https://nextmag.ca/fringe-review-afeni-is-a-fierce-lesson-in-revolutionary-faith/

3. HE-R’TZ
A compelling dance piece about the fragmentation of migrant identity.
https://ourtheatrevoice.com/toronto-fringe-2026-dispatch-1-first-encounters-and-early-picks/

OTHER SHOWS I’VE SEEN

1920s Walking Around in a Dream
A sweet, (amateurish) old-fashioned show with real affection for 1920s performance traditions.
https://ourtheatrevoice.com/toronto-fringe-2026-dispatch-1-first-encounters-and-early-picks/

Finding Jamie
A queer coming-of-age solo show about childhood self-discovery and heteronormative expectations. It has some genuinely interesting ideas, though I found it a little thin overall. Review coming soon on NEXT.

Minimum
A political satire that turns Ontario politics into a circus of egos, though I wasn’t fully convinced it knew exactly where to aim its fire.
https://nextmag.ca/fringe-review-minimum-turns-ontario-politics-into-a-circus-of-egos/

Three Descending Notes
A gentle musical about dementia, with intriguing images, though for me it struggled to hold together dramatically.
https://ourtheatrevoice.com/toronto-fringe-2026-dispatch-1-first-encounters-and-early-picks/

u/alestracuz — 3 days ago
▲ 12 r/torontotheatre

'Next to Normal' got me

So... how did I not know Next to Normal?

I mean, I knew of it. I knew some bits, some songs. But I had never watched all of it. Let alone live.

Yesterday I walked out of Aki Studio, ran home, listened to the original cast album, then listened to the Italian version, then started scavenging through years and years of versions, productions, and countries.

Gosh, the material is so good.

And so I wrote this down: https://ourtheatrevoice.com/the-happiness-mandate-in-bowtie-productions-next-to-normal/

Written at 4am, with too much coffee and the original cast album on loop.

ourtheatrevoice.com
u/alestracuz — 1 month ago
▲ 5 r/torontotheatre

cicadas, rimbaud, alcholism… and a dog?

So… how are we ranking last week’s premieres?

That has been one of those weeks crowded with dramaturgical risk, and I’ve come across several strong takes about it.

We’ve got cicadas, take rimbaud, and 12 Liters beside one another. And yet, Glenn Sumi has already suggested that the week’s premieres may secretly belong to Dog Man.

But leaving the dog in the car for a moment — don’t worry, he has water and the windows are slightly open — for those who saw more than one of these, what stood out? Which production felt the boldest, the sharpest, or the most fully realised?

My current order would probably be take rimbaud, then cicadas, then 12 Liters — and I’m very open to being argued with.

*Funny enough, in Italian, when we want to say someone is a bad actor, we say “quell’attore è un cane” — literally, “that actor is a dog.”

reddit.com
u/alestracuz — 2 months ago