End of summer roundup, Part 1: in town
Weighing in on two very different shows at SummerWorks, as well as a whimsical As You Like It sequel
While things are gearing up for a jam-packed fall theatre season – I’m really glad companies like Crow’s and Coal Mine are opening shows right after Labour Day, competing with TIFF, which never used to happen — I wanted to look back at a few recent plays that helped close out the summer.
It wouldn’t be the end of summer without SummerWorks, the catch-all arts festival that’s broadened its scope. There used to be a lot more theatre, or theatre-adjacent works, but many this year were workshops/in early stages. Of the finished works, I caught two that I quite enjoyed.
By far the hottest ticket of the festival was the sold-out Blood Brothers (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), Brianna Russell and Catie Thorne’s immersive, choose-your-own-adventure, walkabout reimagining of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar set at (and performed in) a U of T frat house (Delta Upsilon).
During a night devoted to the initiation — i.e., hazing — of new pledges, a power struggle plays out among the frat’s leaders, who include Julian (Jonah Paroyan), Brutus (Boro Milošević) and Cassius (Nick Cikoja). The latter two are still reeling from the cover-up of a story about Julian using the date rape drug Rohypnol on two women.