November 25th, 2009

Last night I finally got a chance to see that show, “The Madonna Painter, ” at the Factory Theatre. It’s been hours since I saw it, and am still in a state of astonishment and awe. To put it simply, it was incredible! It’s probably one of the best theatre performances I’ve ever seen and is definitely the best play I’ve ever seen at the Factory Theatre. The cast was strong, the set designers did an amazing job (I didn’t realize that the Factory stage could ever look this good), the play itself – written by Michel Marc Bouchard and translated by Linda Gaboriau – was phenomenal, and it had this musical, “operetta-esque” element to it that was right up my alley. To top it all off, just as I was beginning to catch my breath at the end of the play, we discovered that there was going to be a talk-back with the cast and the lighting director, hosted by Ken Gass. He is the Artistic Director of the Factory Theatre and was my first-year instructor at the theatre program of University of Toronto. He has always been my favorite instructor at the program so seeing him unexpectedly was a real treat.