I was surprised on Tuesday night to discover that the washroom facilities aboard the Montreal to Toronto 6:20 train smelled of iced tea - the peach kind.

Sitting in Dessert Trends at the corner of Harbord and Brunswick, i was pouring over my Golden Book of 555 Latin Verbs (totally worth the nine dollars even if i can’t read the classical examples on the bottom of each page. Nothing destroys classical latin like medieval Latin) and the waitress asked if i wanted anything to drink while waiting for Isabelle and Emily to arrive. I asked if she had gravol because “i think i’m going to be sick” - that was when i realized that despite all my studying i couldn’t respond to her question of how you say “i am going to vomit” in Latin. It’s vomam.

I may have passed. It’s possible. Weirder things have happened.

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Much of Shakespeare’s comedic corpus illudes me, but I am also of the belief that anything written by the bard builds character. What could be more typical of his vision than a play of gender reversal and improbable love relationships ending in not one but four weddings?

As You Like It contains not only the often-quoted “all the world’s a stage,” which incidentally I found delivered without the power it COULD evoke although the rest of Jacques’ speech and Anthony Reid’s overall performance was absolutely delightful, but also one of my favourite monologues – when Phoebe, played by Sarah Swift, attempts to convince Silvius, played by Paul Hardy, tht she is not in love with Rosalind’s male persona. Sarah Swift provided a magnificent performance of a stunning, yet difficult segment of script that made the almost three hour performance worth attending in and of itself.

The rest of the audience seemed particularly impressed with the opening wrestling match, in which Orlando, played by Tyrone Savage, delivers an unexpected move (I won’t spoil the fun) to win both the match and Rosalind’s heart. I found this staging problematic – that a “low blow” would inspire such admiration from a lady at court was a little more than I could let slip by. I agreed with many of the Lada Darewych’s (the director) other calls, just not this one.

Kristina Stanclik and Evelyn Wiseman gave good performances of Rosalind and Celia respectively. The former had participated in a Ryerson fourth year RTA project, and thus earned my almost instant approval, but her gait and bearing were not convincing – room for improvement rather than outright criticism on my part. Her yellow, shift dress in the opening scenes emphasized a poor posture not fitting of her character and in the last dance scene she was the only actor who appeared outright uncomfortable moving on stage. Practice makes perfect and I am hopeful that even by the end of the show’s run she may correct this. Wiseman’s portrayal of Celia took me by surprise and until the second act I couldn’t resign myself to the exaggerated facial expressions and nasal voice that the rest of the audience appeared to delight in. Perhaps this demonstrates more my own inappreciation for Shakespeare’s comedies than anything else because by the scene in which she futilely endeavours to get some sleep but is unceasingly interrupted by lovers on stage, I too was laughing.

Philosopher’s Stage may no longer be a venue for outdoor performances in downtown Toronto next summer. I highly recommend attending this season (July 16-August 2). The venue opens at 7:30pm with performances from Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm. Pricey, although keeping with Toronto’s expected ticket prices of $10 for adults and $8 for students, Wednesdays are PWYC. Bring a blanket and enjoy the brief musical performances throughout the play, the completely appropriate modern adaptation and the over-the-top staging.

Whenever i come home for even a short stay, my Montrealer friends ask how it is in Toronto - and the answer is always - tedious. I have great things to say about U of T and am perfectly aware that as a busy grad student holed up in her basement bachelor, i don’t get a chance to really enjoy the city as much as a should - for example, i NEED to go with Jen to an Indie Rock show. However, Montreal has many great things which, frankly, Toronto lacks.

Julie just recently wrote a very nice livejournal post listing her eight favourite things about Montreal - all of which i have to agree with. I added my take on Montreal’s architecture (which i think puts it up there with some great European cities i have visited, like Stockholm and Amsterdam) in a comment. It’s a good read that i highly recommend - although i will continue to give Toronto a chance before leaving later this summer.

The most recent ’bout of giving Toronto a chance was karaoke at Fiddler’s Green on Thursday evening. I don’t sing at karaoke - but i do sing along if someone picks a Meatloaf song like “I Would Do Anything for Love, but i won’t do that” (yes, i thought of Bryan). In honour of Sandy’s friends visiting for a week and the completion of comps for those writing them - there was some serious enjoying of ourselves going on among the history/CMS crowd. Yeah! It was the second time i have been to Fiddler’s Green and i will go again - even if they DID change the channel on the TV when the Habs vs. Flyers game was still in overtime. A Toronto faux-pas if you ask me.
Oh, and their poutine is completely edible. The gravy isn’t right and there’s this green stuff that looks way too healthy to be poutine-related (it’s parsley), but it’s edible even if it isn’t real poutine.