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| City Guide - Toronto - Culture | ||
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Culture Although Toronto's reputation precedes it as a place of business, it has much to offer the visitor interested in soaking up some local culture. The theatre scene is its most vital. Toronto has the third most theatres of any city in the world, after London and New York, showing everything from high-budget musicals to experimental fringe theatre. The Canadian Opera Company has received growing audiences in recent seasons and the city has, for several years, been investigating plans to build its own opera house. The Toronto Symphony plays at Roy Thomson Hall. Further east, the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, the largest multi-use facility in the country, is home to the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada, as well as numerous touring acts. The Toronto International Film Festival is world-famous - now the second largest in the world, after Cannes. Tickets for most cultural attractions can usually be bought through Ticketmaster Canada (tel: (416) 870 8000). Music: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra plays at Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe Street, performing over 125 concerts every year and attracting guest performers of international acclaim (tel: (416) 872 4255). Theatre: The city's theatre district is focused on on King Street, slightly north of the CN Tower. Built in 1907, the Royal Alexandra Theatre , 260 King Street West, is an old, spacious Victorian theatre that shows musicals along with the occasional piece of serious theatre. The nearby Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King Street West, shows similarly popular entertainment, generally bringing touring versions of major West End and Broadway shows. Both venues can be booked through TicketKing (tel: (416) 872 1212 or (800) 461 3333). For a more local flavour, the Poor Alex Theatre, 296 Brunswick Avenue (tel: (416) 923 1644) is one of the best venues offering innovative new theatre. The Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgeman Avenue (tel: (416) 531 1827), specialises in new Canadian writing. The St Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts, 27 Front Street East (tel: (416) 366 7723), is home to the Canadian Stage Company, producers of modern Canadian plays and productions. Closer to the waterfront, the Du Maurier Theatre at the Harbourfront Centre, 231 Queens Quay West (tel: (416) 954 5199) was built as an ice house in the 1920s but was renovated in 1992 into a modern theatre, showing musicals alongside more serious pieces of theatre. The Pantages Theatre, 263 Yonge Street (tel: (416) 872 2222), restored to its exquisite 1920s design, has for many years been the Toronto home of Phantom of the Opera. Dance: The National Ballet of Canada (tel: (416) 345 9686), the country's best-known dance company, finds its home in Toronto at the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, 1 Front Street East (tel: (416) 393 7469). It is best known for its annual Christmas production of the Nutcracker. Film: In recent years, Toronto has gained the nickname 'Hollywood North', due to the large amount of American films that are shot on its streets and in its buildings. The city is also producing more and more of its own films, with its own Atom Egoyan (director of The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica) gaining popular and critical praise with each new release. As far as seeing a film in Toronto goes, its customary to purchase tickets at the theatre, which means arriving early if the film is likely to sell out. Seating is always done on a first-come, first-serve basis. Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players operate the vast majority of the city's mainstream cinemas, with locations throughout. The Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West (tel: (416) 532 6677), is popular for arthouse and more obscure international films. Cinémathèque Ontario at the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West (tel: (416) 923 3456), shows a mixture of English-language and subtitled films. The Toronto International Film Festival takes place early in September every year (see below). Cultural events: Every September, the city is flooded with celebrities and film types, patios are overrun with bruschetta and canapés, as film buffs line up to see major releases and arthouse works from around the world, for the Toronto International Film Festival, the second largest in the world. Caribana, run by the Caribbean Cultural Committee (tel: (416) 465 4884), is Toronto's annual summer celebration of Caribbean culture, and is one of the largest cultural celebrations in North America, attracting thousands. Taking place in the last two weeks of July, the festival features parades, extravagant costumes, food and music. Late June sees the week-long Toronto Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration, culminating in the over-the-top Pride Day Parade. Summertime also sees the annual DuMaurier Downtown Jazz Festival, which brings famous jazz acts from all over the world to the city's concert halls and bars. The International Festival of Authors takes place annually at the Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West (tel: (416) 973 3000), attracting authors both local and international for readings, lectures, talks and awards. Literary Notes Toronto is home to two of the English-speaking world's most talented and well-known writers: Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood. Not surprisingly, their home city features directly in much of their literature. Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion (1987) follows the early history of Toronto, including the building of the Bloor Street Viaduct and the R C Harris Waterworks (see the Key Attractions section). Atwood's Cat's Eye (1988) also finds the city as its setting, telling the story of a woman painter returning to Toronto for a retrospective of her work that brings on a re-examination of her and her city's past. Other famous Torontonian writers include recently acclaimed Anne-Marie MacDonald, whose Fall on Your Knees, the story of love, abuse and incest on Canada's east coast, won the Commonwealth Prize, and Anne Michaels, whose Fugitive Pieces tells the story of an ageing holocaust survivor's life and friendship in Toronto. The famous American author John Irving has a particular fondness for Toronto, spending much of his time in the city. His novel A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) is concerned with a private school for girls which exists in Toronto. And it was also in Toronto that a young American writer, Ernest Hemingway, got his big break - as a journalist on the Toronto Star. |
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