Winter review roundup #3: Through the Eyes of God, You, Always, Eureka Day and Witch
Don’t miss Anusree Roy’s follow-up to her first play, as well as a moving Erin Shields two-hander and a biting satire about a mumps outbreak
This particular slice of Toronto’s theatre calendar is shaping up to be one of the best of the 2025/26 season. Temperatures might be frigid, but artistic output is sizzling hot.
You won’t find Chaya, the central character of Anusree Roy’s astonishing new play Through the Eyes of God (Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭), complaining about the weather. She has way more important things to worry about.
At the beginning of the compact 45-minute solo drama, she’s been arrested by the Kolkata police for trying to steal a handful of rice to feed her daughter, Krishna. The girl, incidentally, is 11, the same age Chaya was when she gave birth to her.
A cop recognizes Chaya, who’s stolen rice before. But the young mother is a quick talker, and knows how to get out of tight situations. Through the “Police Madam” she discovers Krishna has been abducted from their slum and has likely been taken by a man named Babla, who disfigures his charges and trafficks them in Delhi.
And so begins a nightmarish journey that involves basic things like how to get money, purchase a train ticket (Chaya is illiterate) and locate a neighbourhood in a strange city to figuring out people’s motives. Everyone in this corrupt world seems to be on the take.