Fall review roundup #1: All the Cows are Dead, Our Little Secret, I See You, De Profundis and more

This month the Toronto theatre scene is crazy busy, and things don’t let up until mid-December. So for the next while, in between features and the occasional film piece, I’ll be posting review roundups of recent theatre openings (likely five to seven titles a week). Wish me luck.

✅All the Cows are Dead

Ben Page’s impressive All the Cows are Dead (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) feels like a Gen Z chamber musical response to Sweeney Todd. Anton (Mike Nadajewski) is a successful artisanal butcher who, after his sister dies, takes on his nephew Louis (Taylor Garwood) as an apprentice, even though the boy is less interested in carving up meat than in writing poetry (not that he’s written any).

Page, who wrote the book, music and lyrics and also acts as music director/keyboard player, has created an inspired, lively score (with Kyra Crilly playing cello) that owes a lot to Stephen Sondheim but still feels fresh and original. While Page’s book could use more clarity — themes include war, art, marketing and presentations of traditional masculinity (one of the cleverest lyrics: “he’s much butcher than I”) — the show pulses with life, energy.... and imagined viscera. It’s meaty stuff.

Director Will Dao presents the show in a limited-seating, site-specific setting in an industrial area that feels appropriate for a butcher’s shop. Designer Alessia Urbani (sets, costumes and props) makes brilliant use of balloons to suggest animals and various cuts of meat/sausages. With the two actors wielding cleavers at times, this adds plenty of tension.

Initially, stage veteran Nadajewski’s stern, judgemental Anton dominates the narrative with his booming baritone, particularly in a number in which he tries to teach his introverted nephew about charming customers. Garwood exudes a quieter, lyrical spirit that is very appealing.

I’m still not sure what the show is about — Gen Z job precarity? Artistic pride and accomplishment in the shadow of corporate greed? The classic clash of generations?

Never mind. Page, Dao and Garwood are clearly talents to watch. And this Talk is Free Theatre production is easily one of the best new shows of the year.

All the Cows are Dead continues at 68 Tycos Dr. until Nov. 18. Ticket details here

✅De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail

If you missed the initial run of Gregory Prest’s bold, inventive take on Oscar Wilde’s (Damien Atkins) famous letter written to his lover Lord Alfred (“Bosie”) Douglas (Colton Curtis) during the two years he spent in prison for “gross indecency,” it’s back at Soulpepper and should not be missed.

As I wrote in my original Globe and Mail review of De Profundis (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) back in 2024, multiple viewings are required to appreciate everything that Prest is doing. Playfully meta-theatrical, the production is far from a simple recitation of the letter, acknowledging Wilde’s glittering career up until then, the ostracizing he and his family received during and afterwards and the fact that Bosie didn’t have the courage to write him during his incarceration.

Prest, who also directs, presents Wilde as an angry, iconoclastic rock star, which Atkins captures in a fierce, fearless performance, as committed to the eclectic songs (music by Mike Ross, lyrics by Sarah Wilson) as to his monologues. He’s beautifully framed by Lorenzo Savoini’s set and neon lighting design and Frank Donato’s dream-like projections.

Even from beyond the grave, his Oscar is still drawn to Bosie’s seductive charms, and Curtis, whether dressed up in Victorian-era garb or stripped down to his underwear and dancing gracefully (Indrit Kasapi is movement director), makes a believable, magnetic object of desire.

Having Wilde’s (Canadian) friend Robert Ross (music director Jonathan Corkal-Astorga) accompany him on keyboards and provide a friendly, encouraging presence nearby adds a lot of heart to the complex tale.

De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail continues at the Young Centre’s Michael Young Theatre (50 Tank House Lane) until Nov. 29. Ticket details here

✅I See You

Immersive theatre meets cutting-edge pediatric medicine in I See You (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), a wondrous show commissioned by the SickKids Foundation and performed in several old wings of the world-renowned hospital.

Created by Mitchell Cushman, Tanja Jacobs and Kristen Thomson, with text by them and Rosamund Small and music by composer Suzy Wilde and lyricist Akiva Romer-Segal, the show interweaves several stories about patient care, research and even a lively symbolic tailor to give you a sense of how far pediatric care has come.

The story of 10-year-old patient Nico (Amaka Umeh), who’s living with cystic fibrosis, bookends the show. Depending on the colour of their badge, audience members get a different selection of playlets.

Mine let me watch a scene about a young soccer enthusiast with a heart issue being attended to by a physician (Alon Nashman) who had the same diagnosis when he was a child. In another scenario, a researcher (Katherine Cullen) and her partner, a therapeutic clown (PJ Prudat), support their neighbour (David Jansen) whose daughter is ill.

The scenes, directed by Cushman and Jacobs, are absorbing and informative and all illustrate the effectiveness of what the hospital calls “precision child health” — or medicine tailored to individual patients.

Three of the city’s top theatre companies — Crow’s Theatre, Outside the March and the Musical Stage Co. — combined forces for this unique show with its intentionally punny title. The production is meant to be seen by SickKids clinicians, researchers, volunteers, patients, families and supporters. But Ontarians who want to attend can enter the draw for a performance on Nov. 20. Details can be found at SickKidsISeeYou.ca 

Our Little Secret

A promising, entertaining musical when it first appeared three years ago at the Toronto Fringe, Our Little Secret: The True New Musical (Rating: ✭✭✭) has been further developed (at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Segal Centre and more) and now feels padded out and fussily over-directed in this Off-Mirvish transfer.

The autobiographical show chronicles writer/performer Noam Tomaschoff’s discovery that the man who raised him was not his biological father. Instead, he was donor-conceived, and after taking a 23andMe genetic test discovers he has at least 35 half-siblings around the world. (This is not a spoiler, since it’s used in the marketing materials.)

The show’s heart is still Noam’s relationship with his father, who questions his role in his son’s life and his own legacy. Some of the most memorable scenes involve Tomaschoff capturing his parents’ reaction to his news. Ryan Peters’ songs are likeable but, as played by a small band, sound more derivative and pastiche-like than they did at the Fringe.

When he’s not bounding all over the stage in Adam Pascal’s frenzied direction, Tomaschoff is a marvellous performer, with great comic timing and a warm, expressive singing voice. But his charisma and flashier production elements (Bruno-Pierre Houle’s multi-tiered set, Stéphane Ménigot’s lighting) can’t cover up the many underexplored themes and plot points.

Our Little Secret continues at the CAA Theatre (651 Yonge) until Nov. 22. Ticket details here

✅Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

How much do we communicate when we talk? That’s the question underlying Sam Steiner’s intriguing two-hander, which gets a sharp production (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) by the indie company Theatre Aurinko.

Musician/activist Oliver (Jack Copland) and divorce attorney Bernadette (Lara Lucia) meet cute at a pet cemetery, become a couple and then, when something called the “Hush Bill” is introduced, are limited to only speaking up to 140 words per day. They deal with things lots of couples deal with: financial issues, class, exes, fidelity.

Steiner mixes up the chronology of the scenes, so we see the pair at different stages of their relationship. This keeps us on our toes, letting us gradually figure out the rules of the new bill and the rhythms of the couple’s interactions.

While a touch contrived (also: what happens if someone exceeds the word limit?), this structure presents the actors and director Bonnie Duff with the challenge of quickly establishing where we are in the timeline. Helped by Jay Hines’ lighting and Jack Schindler’s sound design, Copland and Lucia are marvellous together, especially in those pre-bill moments when they have the freedom to speak but don’t say what they obviously want to say.

Lemons x5 continues at the Assembly Theatre (1479 Queen West) until Nov. 15. Ticket details here