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puppets kill
The new Comedy Network series Puppets Who Kill killed in the ratings last week. Its first episode pulled in 92,000 viewers — the biggest premiere ever for a Comedy Network original show. It’s set in a halfway house where four “puppets who’ve gone bad” are overseen by an earnest but ineffectual social worker. Tomorrow’s (Friday, October 18, 10 pm) episode finds comfort doll Cuddles in jail (think The Muppets Do Oz) and ventriloquist dummy Bill as a possible testicle thief. Yep, the creators have balls.
The hilarious series has absolutely no redeeming social value, but it is solidly written, cleverly directed and just silly enough to keep you hooked. It also features some of the city’s best local comics, like awesome straight man Dan Redican (of the Frantics), Alumni Café’s Bob Martin and The Hub’s Bruce Hunter.
the write stuff
Are you a young writer with a script or an idea for an innovative theatre project?
Nightwood Theatre’s call is to women 18 to 25 for Write From The Hip, a weekly workshop-and-seminar series to develop writing skills. Participants get a staged reading of their work next spring in the annual Groundswell Festival. Send five to eight pages of writing — not necessarily for theatre, nor is theatre experience required — and a cover letter to Nightwood Theatre, Write From The Hip, attention Lisa Silverman, 9 St. Nicholas, 6th floor, Toronto M4Y 1W5. Deadline is November 1. 416-944-1740.
new voices
Here’s a chance to get an inside lane to some new and exciting theatrical voices. The Desibel Co-op for New South Asian Voices workshops Calcutta-born, New York City-raised Sourabh Chatterjee’s new one-act, Left. The dark comedy about three sisters left at an early age by their father features Imali Perera, Ellora Patnaik, Laila Moos and Sa’ad Shah, with Sally Jones directing. The audience is invited to discuss the play with the writer after the performance.
Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal and Factory Theatre present a free staged reading of Quebec writer Reynald Robinson’s Far Horizons Hotel, in an English version by talented dramaturge and translator Maureen LaBonté. Part of Transmissions, the annual Montreal translation program, the reading — directed by Sarah Stanley — features Matthew MacFadzean, Tanja Jacobs and Catherine Fitch in a piece about a burned-out young hustler who encounters a trio of hardened revolutionaries in a remote Quebec resort. See listings for details.
