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  "description": "Festival season begins with international offerings, plus a round-up of late spring openings",
  "path": "/luminato-and-bealtaine-fests-plus-yiddish-fiddler-primary-trust-tiger-bride-next-to-normal-and-more/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-05T21:37:24.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.goaheadsumi.com",
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  "textContent": "Adrienne Truscott in _Masterclass. Photo by Ste Murray_\n\nFestival season has begun. I just made my first trip of the year to the **Shaw Festival** , and I’m going to the **Stratford Festival** next weekend for a double bill. I’ll post about those shows soon.\n\nIn the meantime, Toronto theatre has been busy with its own festivals. **Bealtaine** , the annual celebration of contemporary Irish theatre, storytelling and music, is wrapping up this weekend (I reviewed the show _Chicken_ in a previous post), and **Luminato** just kicked off on Wednesday.\n\nSteven Skybell brings his award-winning portrayal of Tevye the Dairyman to Toronto. __Photo by Dahlia Katz__\n\n## Fiddling with Fiddler\n\nBefore you do anything, though, make sure you see the **National Yiddish Theatre Folksbien** ’s exquisite, award-winning production of **_Fiddler on the Roof_**(Rating: ✭✭✭✭), presented by the **Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company**. It closes this weekend after a too-brief run at the Elgin.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nI had to trim about 150-200 words from my review in the _Toronto Star_ , which you can find here. One of the things I wanted to mention, but knew I couldn’t fit in, was that the ending of the musical hits very differently in this all-Yiddish production.\n\nWhen the Jews in Anatevka are forced out of their shtetl and dispersed, one of Tevye’s daughters leaves to settle in Poland. Somehow, it struck me more clearly than in other productions that she and her husband likely wouldn’t survive the atrocities of World War II.\n\nSomehow it also occurred to me that when the diasporic Eastern European Jews entered America at Ellis Island, they would largely be speaking in the Yiddish of this show.\n\nSeeing English-language productions of the musical, written by the descendents of Jewish immigrants, you understand that the journey has already been made, and the artists are looking back. This production made me feel more uncertain about their fates and what they would have to endure in their exodus.\n\nFiddler on the Roof _continues at the Elgin Theatre (189) until June 7. Ticket details_ here\n\n## Sign up for So Sumi\n\nReviews, interviews and features about Toronto's performing arts scene by Glenn Sumi\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nNo spam. Unsubscribe anytime.\n\nPeter N. Bailey (left), Durae McFarlane, Ryan Hollyman and Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah earn our __Primary Trust__ in heartwarming play. __Photo by Dahlia Katz__\n\n## Primary colours\n\nI also quite liked the **Crow’s Theatre/London Grand Theatre** production of **_Primary Trust_** (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), **Eboni Booth** ’s 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a man finding community and support after suffering several losses.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nI didn’t mention it in my review, but after leaving the theatre at the intersection of Carlaw and Dundas, I overheard a couple say, “Well, it must have been a weak year...,” presumably referring to the Pulitzer. That got me thinking about how we expect art to be about “big” subjects, and how refreshing it was to see a play not trip over itself trying to be profound and important.\n\nAs far as Pulitzers go, the comparable play that immediately came to mind was Thornton Wilder’s _Our Town_ , which won the award in 1938. (You sense Booth’s indebtedness to that classic in some of the narration.)\n\nQuieter books, rather than plays, more often win Pulitzers. Booth’s win reminded me of modest, character-based novels that have won the prize, like Alison Lurie’s gently satiric academic romance, _Foreign Affairs_ , and Anne Tyler’s _Breathing Lessons_ , a very funny slice-of-life look at a middle-aged couple’s road trip.\n\nAt any rate, it was impossible not to feel moved by **Cherissa Richards** ’ lovely production; and **Durae McFarlane** gives a vulnerable, heartbreaking performance as Kenneth. I hope this means he’ll be doing more theatre in the future.\n\n_The show continues until June 21. Ticket details_ here\n\n🎟️\n\nSee what else is currently playing in ****So Sumi**** ’s Toronto Theatre Listings\n\nAndrew Penner (left), Hailey Gillis and Landon Doak roar in __Tiger Bride. Photo by Dahlia Katz__\n\n## Tiger roars\n\nIf you’re in the mood for a new musical that’s more vibes than straightforward narrative, check out **_Tiger Bride_**(Rating: ✭✭✭), a raucous, imaginative adaptation of an **Angela Carter** short story, which was itself a take on the classic “Beauty and the Beast” fairy tale.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nThe heroine, played with intensity and ravishing vocal power by **Hailey Gillis** — who co-wrote the show with **Andrew Penner** and director **Frank Cox-O’Connell** — is no idealistic, romanticized Disney book lover. Near the opening, she’s lost in a game of cards between her degenerate gambler father (Penner) and the Beast, who’s masked, bewigged and shrouded in a cape.\n\nWhile the narrative at times is confusing — it’s not helped by some songs where lyrics are jumbled together awkwardly — the indie rock score, vivid design and stellar performances (the fabulous **Landon Doak** is also in the show) help pass the time.\n\nYou can read my full review here. The show continues at the Young Centre’s Michael Young Theatre (50 Tank House Lane) until June 21. Ticket details here.\n\n## Luminato spotlights\n\nAdrienne Truscott and Feidlim Cannon satirize misogynist male artists in __Masterclass. Photo by Ste Murray__\n\nThe theatre component of the **Luminato Festival** got off to a shaky start on Wednesday with **_Masterclass_**(Rating: ✭✭), the internationally acclaimed two-hander by the Irish company **Brokentalkers**.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nThe show — also part of the **Bealtaine Festival** — is set up as a live interview between an obsequious host/presenter (**Feidlim Cannon**) and a prolific, cocky and notoriously misogynistic (fictional) playwright (played by comic **Adrienne Truscott**).\n\nTruscott, preening and padded, with a fake moustache and cap, responds to questions about his thinly drawn women in works like _Fat Cunt_ ; the two proceed to read excerpts from the play, with the writer defending/explaining a female character’s minimal dialogue and motivation.\n\nEmploying props — cigarettes, a rifle — the actors sendup the toxic masculinity of a Norman Mailer or Ernest Hemingway. All of this soon comes to a halt when Truscott, taking off her wig and costume, confronts Cannon about his own real-life behaviour towards women.\n\nBoth sections go on far too long and have a hectoring, obvious tone. And the ending — which I won’t spoil — isn’t as effective or clever as the artists likely imagined. It’s just awkward and pointless.\n\nMasterclass _continues at the Corleck (3 Eireann Quay) until June 6. Ticket details_ here\n\nGary Keegan (left) and Danny O’Mahony bring __Bellow__ to life in unexpected ways. __Photo by Ste Murray__\n\nI much preferred Brokentalkers’ show **_Bellow_**(Rating: ✭✭✭✭), which played the Bealtaine Fest from May 27 to 30.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nCompany member **Gary Keegan** says he received a note from acclaimed Irish accordionist **Danny O’Mahony** to see if they could create a theatre piece about him and his life.\n\nKeegan and the company work in experimental theatre, and so he uses different techniques to help draw out O’Mahony’s story: improv, word association, role-playing. When they are at a standstill, he brings in dance artist **Emily Kilkenny Roddy** , who brings a physical element to the show that miraculously ties many of the unspoken elements of the accordionist’s story together.\n\nPlaying different accordions — and telling us where they come from, whether it’s a musical ancestor or fellow professional — O’Mahony is a contained, rather laconic actor. He and Keegan (and co-writer **Feidlim Cannon**) touch on difficult things lingering on the edges of memory. They don’t spell things out; they let us put things together.\n\nO’Mahony is hugely expressive as a musician, of course, and he gets lots of opportunities to play, especially in the finale, in which he is surrounded by life-sized cutouts of other accordionists in his life.\n\nAt times his instrument seems to wheeze like an old pair of lungs. At other times, it’s raucous and lively. I came to love the various meanings of the title, summing up the complexity and mystery of the human condition itself.\n\nJocelyne Zucco discusses what to do with her time in a sequence from __Words to Be Scene. Photo by Glenn Sumi__\n\nWhat would a festival be without a walkabout show? Earlier this week, I caught **_Words to be Scene_**(Rating: ✭✭✭), a 65-minute-long ambulatory piece that, even if it wasn’t gripping drama, at least got audiences to breathe fresh air and get in some steps (the route was approximately 1.7 kilometres).\n\nThe show, which played three performances each on June 3 and 4, began at Brookfield Place, where we received wireless headphones, which gave us access to the audio goings on at six spots from there to Maple Leaf Square and down to the Harbourfront area.\n\nBased on monologues from French author **Maylis de Kerangal** ’s book  _Canöes_ , the show seemed to be about women finding their voices. In one vignette, a woman prepares to deliver a speech, but the recording gets interrupted; in another, an aspiring broadcaster is told her speaking voice is too high-pitched — she’s told she must assume a lower, more “authoritative” way of speaking to get a radio job; and in another, a woman who used to work for a map publisher doesn’t know how to spend her time after leaving her job.\n\nThe text isn’t the most compelling part of the experience; rather, the various settings give the piece substance and context. For instance, the radio interviewer segment is performed on the patio of the St. Germain Hotel; and the woman discussing what to do with her time speaks in the atrium of Harbourfront Centre, as audiences look down from above and other actors and strangers criss cross in front of her.\n\nThe final segment, which alludes to canoes, makes lovely use of Lake Ontario’s history.\n\nTaylor Long (left), Aveleigh Keller, Samuel Sunil and Christopher Lyon push meds on April Rebecca in __Next to Normal. Photo by Valentina Caballero__\n\n## Two indie shows about mental illness\n\n**Brian Yorkey** and **Tom Kitt** ’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical **_Next to Normal_** (Rating: ✭✭✭) is difficult enough to stage with a large budget. So recent Dora nominee **Bowtie Productions** gets bonus points for attempting to put on this show with modest means at the Aki Studio.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nLike _Fun Home_ , which the company produced a few years ago, the show explores a family that might seem perfectly happy on the outside but is roiling with tension and secrets underneath.\n\nAt the centre is Diana (**April Rebecca**), who’s been living with bipolar disorder and other mental issues for over 15 years. Husband Dan (**Taylor Long**) and children Gabe (**Christopher Lyon**) and Natalie (**Aveleigh Keller**) each deal with her condition in their own way. And Diana’s physician (**Mich Anger**) attempts to find the right cocktail of drugs to stabilize her.\n\nThis is a hard-hitting musical that nevertheless has some moments of grim humour and real poignancy, and director **Anthony Goncharov** ensures the narrative and emotional beats land clearly. Rebecca and Long seemed a little too young for their roles, but in a nice touch mother and daughter’s red hair made them seem related.\n\nThe rock-infused score (performed with lots of energy by **Michael Ippolito**) can be punishingly difficult to sing, but Rebecca and Long deliver fine interpretations, making up in emotional honesty what they might lack in vocal power and accuracy. Keller is a standout for her grounded, convincing portrait of the overachieving daughter who starts acting out (and **Samuel Sunil** is charming as her geeky, sympathetic boyfriend). And Lyon has a gorgeous lyrical voice used to haunting effect in the most beguiling sequence of the show near the end of the first act.\n\nGoncharov’s set — a series of raised platforms and some chairs — works well in evoking the different playing areas, while **Emily Anne Corcoran** ’s props — cleverly put away in storage containers beneath the platforms — add lots of dramatic surprises.\n\nAt the performance I attended, there were some head mic issues, affecting the sound quality. But this is a solid, intelligent production of a difficult musical that feels as relevant today as it did when it premiered almost two decades ago.\n\nNext to Normal _continues at the Aki Studio (585 Dundas East) until June 6. Ticket details_ here\n\n🎟️\n\nSee what else is currently playing in ****So Sumi**** ’s Toronto Theatre Listings\n\nElizabeth Friesen (centre) tries to help her patients in __World on Fire. Photo by Marianne Sawchuk__\n\nIf you’ve witnessed the decline of social services and guardrails for the marginalized in this city, then **George F. Walker** ’s new play, **_World on Fire_**(Rating: ✭✭✭), will definitely speak to you.\n\n✅ = Critic’s pick / ✭✭✭✭✭ = outstanding, among best of the year / ✭✭✭✭ = excellent / ✭✭✭ = recommended / ✭✭ or ✭ = didn’t work for me\n\nHarried social worker Jules (**Elizabeth Friesen**) is losing faith that what she’s doing has any effect on her patients or the dumpster fire world around her.\n\nHer patients include David, a middle-aged man (**David Huband**) who’s still recovering from the fact that his parents tried to kill him in a pact when he was a child, and Annie, an angry young woman (**Marlene Yan**) who’s lived on the streets since she was 13.\n\nComplicating things further is the fact that a physician, Dr. Emilio (**Alex Clay**), believes every issue can be solved with a prescription.\n\nWalker, who also directs, could set up the play better. I was a little unsure where we were at first; is it a medical clinic? A hospital? But soon, through Jules’ brief monologues, we get a better sense of her situation, and her different approach with each one of her patients.\n\nThere are some sobering passages, including one in which Annie tells us how long she lived on the streets at 14 before anyone intervened and asked if she needed help. And the acting is solid; Friesen is deeply sympathetic as an overworked, underpaid worker, while **Anne van Leeuwen** is unforgettable as Casey, a twitchy, nervous but very perceptive activist who preaches about social justice outside a downtown mall.\n\nThe play lacks momentum, but it comes together in a group therapy session near the end, posing questions about personal responsibility that linger long after the hour-long show is over.\n\nWorld on Fire _continues at the Assembly Theatre (1479 Queen West until June 7. Ticket details_ here",
  "title": "Luminato and Bealtaine Fests, plus: Yiddish Fiddler, Primary Trust, Tiger Bride, Next to Normal and more",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-05T22:09:16.409Z"
}