OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Rock Openings & Launches

by Noah Richler
07.07.2009

Newfoundland comes to Toronto. A tremendous Soulpepper opening, the other night, of David French’s Of the Fields, Lately. This is the second part of the trilogy at the heart of the playwright’s Mercer series (they amount to five, in all, and a sixth is in the works), and the third to have been produced by [...]

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OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Festival City Hits Its Stride

by Noah Richler
27.06.2009

Toronto’s amazing month continues, to the point that I cannot think of a better place to be, in June, if culture is the thing that you want to devour. The Griffin was followed by Luminato, featuring new works by Robert Lepage and Murray Schafer, and its corollary of the New Waves Festival at the Young [...]

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OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Capitalizing On Culture

by Noah Richler
17.06.2009

Two weeks go by in a flash, and I figure it’ll take me a week to catch up. The flash was a bolt of lightning in the tornado that is Toronto in June. This city, unfairly now, can have a reputation for being a bankers’ town that sees all in terms of money and an [...]

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OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Beastly Fun And Games

by Noah Richler
01.06.2009

Been on a bit of an animals kick lately and have had the distinct enjoyment of discovering what a pleasure it is to read Frans de Waal’s Our Inner Ape (a Riverhead 2005 paperback, $19.95, easy to find). This is one of a number of books the Dutch-born zoologist has written that explore primates’ worlds [...]

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OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Ain’t Quaint No More

by Noah Richler
27.05.2009

Went up to Don Mills a couple of nights ago to hear Eric Siblin, an old Westmount High School classmate, read from his book, The Cello Suites, at the new McNally Robinson bookstore. Don Mills, named for the mills that used to exist along the Don River, which feeds into Lake Ontario, was one of [...]

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OUR MAN IN TORONTO

It’s the Orange

by Noah Richler
18.05.2009

A radio enthusiast, having worked in the medium on and off for over twenty years—here, and out of London, for the BBC—I make a point of tuning in to local radio wherever I travel.

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OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Slumdog Pauper

by Noah Richler
08.05.2009

Had lunch with Anosh Irani on the weekend, the Vancouver-based playwright and “Canada Reads” alumnus in town for a reading of a new work-in-progress, My Granny the Goldfish. Useless fact: aside from his prodigious talent, Irani is indisputably the best-looking author in the Canadian panoply.

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