The theatre critics have come in with mixed reviews from Stratford on Paul Gross's performance in this year's Hamlet, but one thing's for sure: Canada's favourite Mountie is one of the bravest men in showbiz.

The former star of TV's Due South dropped the red serge for a puffy shirt and waistcoat in a controversial remount of one of Shakespeare's trickiest plays. He was bound to be criticized, at the least, for his TV star's pretensions. And, he's really about 10 years too old for the role.

He and the director tackled the age problem head-on, by playing this Hamlet as a wiser and more decisive character. The local paper, the Stratford Beacon Herald, weighed in with a rave review: "Anyone worried about the star of the TV series Due South delivering a major Shakespearean part on stage can put that to rest. Gross presents a complex and vulnerable young man mourning the death of his father."

The Toronto Star calls it "A terrific Hamlet ... This is a performance that will linger in the memory for a very long time." But The Globe and Mail's Kate Taylor, who doesn't like Hamlet in the first place, had a hard time with Gross's star turn: "Nobody is embarrassing himself here, but this banal production adds precisely nothing to our understanding of the play. On the other hand, with Gross's famous name on the playbill, it may well add something to the Stratford coffers…"

Hamlet is Stratford's hottest ticket this season, thanks in part to Due South fans. Though the series has been off the air for several seasons, the Gross fan club is still very active and is snapping 'em up fast.

Next TV star to hit the boards at Stratford: Al Waxman (King of Kensington) opens tonight in a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Links:
Toronto Star review
Globe Review
Stratford Festival

Hot Time in T.O. Tonight
World renowned tenor Ben Heppner is teaming up again with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to make the kind of music that garnered them a Juno Award back in 1996. Heppner and the TSO will be performing Love Songs, a "programme dedicated to affection." Strauss' romantic Op.27, Op.10 and the composer's clever tale Till Eulenspeigels lustige Streiche are on the boards, as well as a world-premiere oratorio by Canadian composer Derek Holman, entitled The Invisible Reality.

The Invisible Reality was based on a series of poems by P.K. Page and commissioned in partnership with MusicCanadaMusique 2000. Soprano Wendy Nielsen, mezzo-soprano Susan Platts, The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Children's Chorus will join Heppner and the TSO. This sounds like an unbelievable evening of top-drawer entertainment, designed especially to bring out the romantic in you.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra
"Love Songs:"
June 1st &3rd
(416)593-4828

Got a Story to Tell?
The oral tradition stretches all the way back to -- well, I guess to when we were grunting and scratching at the ground, shaking sticks at the sky. Storytelling is the prime mean by which humans share their personal and communal experiences. For thousands of years it was the only means of transmitting history. The Ottawa Storytellers is an association that exists to keep this tradition alive. The association meets to share stories from many disparate times and places. If you're a storyteller at heart, or simply want to hear the verbal yarns of others visit: Ottawa Storytellers
National Library of Canada, Ottawa
Room 156 395 Wellington Street Ottawa
Thursday, June 1
7:30 p.m. (Room 156)
For further information, please call (613) 599-9386. Free admission. In English.

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