Your holiday to-do list

It’s a busy time of year, so I’m going to keep this intro short. Here’s a self-explanatory list of things you need to pay attention to on local stages before life gets even more hectic.

#1 See King Black Box’s haunting production of Bug

Tracy Letts’ 1996 psychological thriller Bug (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) is getting a Broadway revival later this month starring the great Carrie Coon (Letts’ wife). But it’s hard to imagine a more eerily intimate and effective production than the current King Black Box staging by Andrew Cameron. It’s one of the most memorable and haunting shows of the year. And boy does it ever to speak to the current political and social moment.

The play begins in semi-darkness. We’re in a grubby, realistic-looking motel room (evocatively captured by Sophie Ann Rooney) somewhere in Oklahoma. Turns out a cocktail waitress named Agnes (L.A. Sweeney) has been receiving silent phone calls, possibly from her abusive husband, who’s just been released from prison.

The two share a troubled history, which will be partly revealed as the play goes on. Agnes is jumpy, anxious and suspicious of others (the cocaine she takes probably doesn’t help matters); she spends a lot of time looking out the window of the motel room. When her co-worker R.C. (Alexandra Floras-Matic) brings along a mysterious man named Peter (Nicholas Eddie), a Gulf War veteran, the two form a bond.

Peter initially has a placid, calm demeanour, which likely attracts Agnes. But as the play progresses it soon becomes clear that Peter has a lot on his mind. Agnes, who’s been through hell these past few years, is vulnerable enough to be susceptible to whatever he’s saying, and soon the two are feeding off each other’s paranoia.

Watching this show when conspiracy theories thrive on podcasts and social media platforms — and even make their way into public policy — is deeply disturbing. The names Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma bomber) and Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) come up in the play, giving you some insight as to why Letts wrote it.

You need careful direction to convey the gradual shifts in the characters’ thoughts and behaviours. You also need two actors who can convince you of the wild emotional swings — so much so that you begin questioning things you’ve witnessed.

Cameron, Sweeney and Eddie, helped by the subtle changes in the lighting (by the director, Grisha Pasternak and Rooney) and sound (by Cameron), take you on a wild ride. Low-level rumblings underscore some scenes — are these the settling sounds of an old motel, or something more sinister? Other sounds detonate and take you aback. A feeling of foreboding and unease pervades much of the play.

Sweeney, who was so effective at communicating the exhaustion of her social services worker in Girls Unwanted, is equally powerful here. In her solo moments, she doesn’t have to say anything to understand what she’s feeling. Eddie’s Peter transforms from an unassuming man who doesn’t look like he could hurt a fly to someone unhinged and desperate.

Floras-Matic, Bongani Musa and Sean Jacklin fill out the cast skillfully.

Don’t be surprised if you feel a little disoriented when leaving the theatre. This King Black Box production — in partnership with Elkabond Theatre Projects — will shake you up.

Bug continues at the King Black Box (1224 King West, #300) until Dec. 14. Ticket details here

#2 Savour Damien Atkins’ nasty King John in the Robin Hood panto

Theatregoers know Damien Atkins as a skilled dramatic actor and singer. But rarely does he get to show off his considerable comedy chops. He is the best reason to catch Robin Hood: A Very Merry Family Musical (Rating: ✭✭✭), the Canadian Stage panto currently on at the Winter Garden.

This year’s show, with a book by Matt Murray and direction by Mary Francis Moore, isn’t the most inspired. It involves Robin (Julia Pulo, Six and Life After), the problematic owner of an indie hoodie shop called Robin’s Hoods, who’s being squeezed out of her brick and mortar business by online retailer Glamazon, owned by Prince John (Atkins).

The latter, along with his nephew Marion (Praneet Akilla), wants to raze High Park of its trees to add onto his physical empire at Casa Loma. Robin, her nursemaid Sparkle Bum (Daniel Williston), and a ragtag group of merry men and women (including a woefully underused Eddie Glen, as Friar Tuck, and Julius Sermonia, as Little John), plan to stop them.

There’s some drama in the question of whether Marion is one of Robin’s allies or foes, but neither Murray nor Moore does much with that detail.

You don’t go to a panto for air-tight writing or logic, however. When the performers are singing and dancing, all is fine. Williston, filling Dan Chameroy’s great big shoes, makes the dame role his own, dropping double entendres with ease. His costume, by Ming Wong, looks as scrumptious as a wearable strawberry shortcake from the Elizabeth era.

But it’s Atkins’ King John who gets the best moments, delivering his lines with withering sarcasm and note-perfect timing. It’s as if he has ingested Miranda Priestly, Cruella de Vil, and every bitchy commenter on RuPaul’s Drag Race. (Speaking of clothes, his outfits and hair, designed by Wong, are deliciously costumey.)

Robin Hood continues at the Winter Garden Theatre (189 Yonge) until Jan. 4. Ticket details here

#3 Savour A Christmas Carol like you’ve never seen it before

I’ve probably read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol half a dozen times and watched at least 50 adaptations of it. (If you haven’t seen it yet, Three Ships Collective’s site-specific version of the show currently on at Campbell House is excellent.)

So I was intrigued when I heard that Knifefight Theatre, in association with One Four One Collective and the Assembly Theatre, was presenting Invasion: Christmas Carol (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), in which a surprise guest “invades” the show, resulting in lots of adjusting, improvising and altering to the familiar story.

At the performance I saw, improv great Lisa Merchant invaded the show as Mrs. Bunny Claus, who had known Ebenezer Scrooge (Jamie Cavanagh) when he was younger and in fact had a child from him (perhaps from that trip they took to sunny Cabo). When she appears, she carries that child’s child. Scrooge is a grandpa!

The ensemble has great fun with the basic play, finding ways to add some modern fun to the period piece; look for an earworm of a song during the act two party scene during the Ghost of Christmas Present section (thanks to ensemble member Richard Lam), and the way Tiny Tim is realized by actor/puppeteer Lucy Hill.

What’s terrific is that Cavanagh’s Scrooge rarely breaks character but goes with each added development. Cavanagh also directs, ensuring that some characters who pop in the novella/movie versions — Peter and Martha Cratchit, for instance — get special moments. And a lively bit of dialogue at Fred Scrooge’s party gets enhanced for even more fun here.

Improv is different each time out, of course, but at the performance I saw, Liz Johnston, besides establishing her characters quickly (Mrs. Dilber, Mrs. Cratchit), calmly and clearly took a bunch of chances that paid off.

I’m not sure the show, which includes family-friendly matinees on the weekend, needs to be performed in two acts.

But if you want a different spin on a show you thought you knew, check it out. You might even get to play that kid Scrooge asks to buy a turkey from on Christmas Day.

Invasion: Christmas Carol continues at the Assembly Theatre (1479 Queen West) until Dec. 14. Ticket details here

#4 Enjoy the reimagined look and book of We Will Rock You

I often confuse We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages, two pretty meh jukebox musicals from the 00s. But one of them features a story that is silly and bonkers, while the other nastily thumbs a nose at the musical genre itself.

WWRY is the one with the silly, convoluted plot, but in this new production (Rating: ✭✭✭) by Montreal company GESTEV it features an updated, revised book by Steve Bolton that is lots of stupid fun, even if the story is still nuts. What do you expect from a book — originally by Ben Elton — that has to link together songs by the rock group Queen, including that pop culture touchstone “Bohemian Rhapsody”?

Particularly effective are the lighting and video designs from Studios XF-40. They create a dystopic backdrop that feels like something Fritz Lang might have dreamt up today, all glowing, swirling columns and neon-lit chambers. I spent a good deal of time looking to see if these “sets” had any dimension to them. At times I swear they did.

The rest of the time, when not rolling my eyes at the silly plot about saving rock ’n’ roll, I was admiring the vocal prowess of the cast, including Callum Lurie as Galileo, who’s had all of rock uploaded into him, Paige Foskett as Scaramouche, a rebel who escapes her Mean Girls-esque life to join him, and Laurence Champagne, Peter Deiwick, Patrick Deiwick and Maggie Lacasse as various people either helping or hindering them.

The show is really an excuse to hear a fantastic Queen cover band, with some cool visual backdrops. Go in expecting that, plus a few laughs, and you won’t be disappointed.

We Will Rock You continues at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre (244 Victoria) until Jan. 18. Ticket details here