July 31st, 2009

More good stuff

This week is full of good things I can recommend in a quick list, which is good because this week is also scant on time for me to write longer blog posts. So enjoy the fruits of others’ labours:

Annabel Lyon does 12 or 20 with rob mclennan (have I mentioned recently how much I love this series?)

The Hart House Players’ outdoor production of Romeo & Juliet runs until Saturday and is highly highly recommended. The spot on Philospher’s Walk is beautiful and even you know the Walk, you probably haven’t been there before (I hadn’t–there’s a grassy park on top of flight of cement stairs!) Also, and most importantly, the cast as amazing, free and relaxed and passionate, which is how I like to see Shakespeare. They play the characters young and silly and bawdy, and Mercutio and Benvolio’s banter is an especial delight. Another highlight is Juliet, a role that often gets played as a pretty hysteric. Here, Cosette Derome makes the 13-year-old lover human and funny in her giggly ardour, and later in her wretched but wry sorrow. When I looked up Derome in the program, I was surprised-but-not-really to find she’d been in my favourite play of the summer, 36 Little Plays about Hopeless Girls. I wonder what else she’s going to be in…whatever it is, I’d watch it!

Steven W. Beattie‘s desk is now viewable on Desk Space. I also love this series a lot; there are no bounds to my nosiness about fellow writers!

And finally, a while back I talked books and bars with Ian Daffern at the Victory Cafe and Dave Kemp photographed the proceedings. The result is a slideshow feature at Open Book Toronto called Open Bar. I think it’s pretty cool.

Ok, now I’m outie for the holiday. Happy Civ–I promise to write something with real paragraphs next week!

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RR