Ladies Night
Fascinating Maritime Ladies
Fascinating female trios abound in pop culture, from classical icons like the mythological Fates and MacBeth’s witches to modern examples like Charl...
Author: Sean McQuaid
Review: Doubt
Second chances
The best and worst part of live theatre is how fleeting it all is. Every single performance is a one-time-only, one-of-a-kind entity all its own; and ...
Review: At the Dog Leg Turn of the Road
Out of the past
My late, great grandfather Charles MacDonald – family man, checkers champ, covert dog fancier – was a World War II combat veteran. I don’t remem...
Review: Punch Up
Underground Comedy
PEI’s fringe theatre imports often consist primarily of whatever lands in the Island Fringe Festival each summer; but new local company Desert Islan...
Review: The Shame of the Meek
The Shame of the Meek is a deceptively simple show, yet also oddly complex. It’s simple structurally and conceptually – it’s a show about unwed ...
Review: Salt-Water Moon
Moonstruck
One sees certain plays repeatedly in the reviewing racket, especially classics, and the best of these hold up well. It’s partly a matter of pure, en...
Review: Island Fringe Festival 2019
Magic vs. Science
Fringe 2019 features productions that are deep, dark, moving, profound, thought-provoking, stunningly original and/or just plain bizarre. My second-fa...
Review: Real Estate
Playing House
Your reckless reviewer often likes going into a show cold – knowing as little as possible about the play and the players beforehand, so as to make t...
Review: Murder Inn
Good Inn Tensions?
Georgetown, sweet Georgetown – the town so gorgeous they named it George-ish (almost certainly not their official motto, though we haven’t looked ...
Review: Meanwhile in Ward 16
Brilliant Mistakes
“I was a fine idea at the time,” Elvis Costello once sang. “Now I’m a brilliant mistake.” That lyric’s been on your susceptible scribbler...
Review: Culture Shock
3x2 = Funny
Lorne Elliott usually works alone. He’s not antisocial – the witty, wild-haired comedian/actor/writer/musician has dabbled in many collaborations ...
Review: Anne of Green Gables – The Musical™
Sweet 19
For your anglophile analyst, the Charlottetown Festival’s endless run of Anne of Green Gables – The Musical™ feels a bit like the British sci-fi...
Review: Into the Den
Personal Trainor
Accomplished PEI stage and screen veteran Dennis Trainor is a longtime ensemble contributor who is seldom billed as a solo star. A far fuller picture ...
Review: 12 Angry Women
Fiercer by the Dozen
Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men started life as a 1954 TV special. It’s been reworked in a host of stage and screen incarnations since then, but TV...
Review: 7 Stories
Magnificent Seven
Your old-timey observer’s been at this reviewing racket long enough that I inevitably cover certain plays more than once – and Morris Panych’s s...
Review: An Improvised Christmas Carol
Yule Be Amazed
Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol has been reprinted, adapted, imitated and lampooned endlessly, so coming up with a new spin ...
Review: Four One-Act Comedies Did by Rob MacDonald
We Was Robbed
Ye olde reviewer last visited The Guild to watch a musical based on an Anne of Green Gables novel, so it neatly bookends the month to be back there a ...
The Wrestling Play
Grappling Schnook
Island audiences tend to give standing ovations to just about everything, regardless of the quality of the play or the performance. I’ve seen standi...