Canadian Stage

2018 Toronto Theatre Preview

Lauren Gillett — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

10 shows to watch this winter

Headline:

Preview

The new year is upon us, and it looks like Toronto is bracing for a long cold winter. What better way to warm the spirit than by taking in some hot new theatre? There are plenty of options to choose from this season.

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Jan/Feb 2017 Theatre Preview

Lauren Gillett — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 05:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Warm up with some hot Toronto theatre this winter

Headline:

Preview

The new year is upon us and with it comes a fresh crop of Toronto shows. From east to west, this season's lineup spans the city and boasts genres to suit almost every taste. Here, we round up some of the most promising productions to watch in January and February:

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Q&A: All But Gone

Lauren Gillett — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 15:56:32 +0000

Subtitle:

Opera star Shannon Mercer on her role in Necessary Angel's new Beckett rhapsody

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

A Necessary Angel Production in Association with Canadian Stage
Featuring short plays by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Jennifer Tarver
Musical direction by Dáirine Ní Mheadhra

Following Queen of Puddings' sold-out hit Beckett: Feck It! (2012), Necessary Angel and Canadian Stage present All But Gone, a contemporary musical exploration of the absurd and evocative imagery of Samuel Beckett.

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Show Dates:

Sat, 2016-10-15 - Sun, 2016-11-06

Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

The Plough And The Stars

Lauren Gillett — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 03:52:47 +0000

Subtitle:

Dublin's Abbey Theatre revisits Ireland's violent political past with powerful new production

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Abbey Theatre
Written by Sean O'Casey
Directed by Sean Holmes

Sean O'Casey's 1926 play The Plough and the Stars gets a fresh staging in Abbey Theatre's new production directed by Sean Holmes, now playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre with the support of Canadian Stage. The production comes as part of the Abbey Theatre's "Waking the Nation" season, which commemorates the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising—the armed action of the Irish revolutionary period.

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Show Dates:

Wed, 2016-09-14 - Sun, 2016-09-18

Theatre:

Bluma Appel Theatre

Botticelli In The Fire & Sunday In Sodom

Annie Hodgins — Sun, 08 May 2016 14:46:36 +0000

Subtitle:

Toronto playwright Jordan Tannahill rewrites history in brilliant double bill

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Canadian Stage in collaboration with the Department of Theatre in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University
Written by Jordan Tannahill
Directed by Matjash Mrozewski and Estelle Shook

Award-winning Toronto playwright Jordan Tannahill’s latest offering is an impressive double bill that provides a fresh and poignant take on the lives of two figures from the past. As Tannahill explains in the playbill, his muses for Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom were, in fact, two singular details about the lives of Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli and Lot’s (unnamed) wife in the Old Testament.

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Show Dates:

Sun, 2016-04-24 - Sun, 2016-05-15

Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

Q&A: Chimerica

Lauren Gillett — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 20:02:25 +0000

Subtitle:

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee on the cost of heroism and working with director Chris Abraham

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

A Canadian Stage and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre production
Written by Lucy Kirkwood
Directed by Chris Abraham

The jumping off point of Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica is the real-life photo taken in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989 by AP photographer Jeff Widener, which quickly became one of the most iconic pieces of photo-journalism in history.

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Show Dates:

Tue, 2016-03-29 - Sun, 2016-04-17

Theatre:

Bluma Appel Theatre

Q&A: Hedda Gabler

Lauren Gillett — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 18:57:44 +0000

Subtitle:

Cara Ricketts talks about playing Ibsen's famous anti-heroine

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

Presented by Necessary Angel in association with Canadian Stage
Written by Henrik Ibsen
Adapted by Robin Baitz
Directed by Jennifer Tarver

This season, Necessary Angel and Canadian Stage present a modern adaptation of Ibsen's popular Hedda Gabler starring Cara Ricketts in the title role. Directed by Jenniver Tarver (Venus In Fur), the enduring drama, currently on stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre, tells the story of a woman determined to live by her own rules.

Here, Ricketts talks about her experience working on the show.

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Show Dates:

Tue, 2016-01-12 - Sun, 2016-02-07

Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

Domesticated

Lauren Gillett — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Paul Gross and Martha Burns face off in Canadian premiere of Bruce Norris's marital drama

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Company Theatre and Canadian Stage
Written by Bruce Norris
Directed by Philip Riccio

Bruce Norris's Domesticated is not so much a battle of the sexes as an all-out gender war, explosively staged and masterfully performed by real-life couple Paul Gross and Martha Burns, in a new Company Theatre and Canadian Stage co-production now playing at the Berkeley Street Theatre.

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Show Dates:

Tue, 2015-11-17 - Sun, 2015-12-13

Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

Beckett Trilogy

Lauren Gillett — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Acclaimed Irish actress Lisa Dwan captivates in hypnotic triple bill

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Canadian Stage
Written by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Walter Asmus
Performed by Lisa Dwan

Following a successful run at the Royal Court Theatre, the internationally acclaimed Beckett Trilogy: Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby, starring Lisa Dawn and directed by Beckett's long-time friend and collaborator Walter Asmus, opens Canadian Stage's 2015/2016 season this month at the Berkeley Street Theatre.

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Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

Q&A: Shakespeare in High Park

Lauren Gillett — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 13:37:09 +0000

Subtitle:

Directors Matjash Mrozewski and Estelle Shook on helming Canadian Stage productions of The Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

Presented by Canadian Stage
Written by William Shakespeare

Comedy of Errors - directed by Matjash Mrozewski

Julius Caesar - directed by Estelle Shook

This summer, Canadian Stage returns to High Park for its 33rd season of with two of Shakespeare's great Roman plays on alternating nights. Audiences can choose between a farce—The Comedy of Errors, and the classic tragedy Julius Caesar. Both shows are directed by recent graduates of York University's MFA Program in Stage Direction (in collaboration with Canadian Stage).

Images:

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Show Dates:

Thu, 2015-07-02 - Mon, 2015-07-06

Theatre:

High Park Amphitheatre

Harper Regan

Lauren Gillett — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Molly Parker returns to the stage in Simon Stephens' unsettling drama

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Canadian Stage
Written by Simon Stephens
Directed by Matthew Jocelyn

The truth unravels slowly in Simon Stephens' Harper Regan, a suspenseful drama about one woman's mid-life crisis that premiered at the National Theatre in London in 2008.

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Stars:

3.5

Show Dates:

Sun, 2015-03-01 - Sun, 2015-03-22

Theatre:

Bluma Appel Theatre

Q&A: The Other Place

Lauren Gillett — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:02:40 +0000

Subtitle:

Tamsin Kelsey on acting, teaching and her return to the stage in Sharr White's psychological thriller

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

Presented by Canadian Stage
Written by Sharr White
Directed by Mel Brooks

After a 12-year break from the stage, performer-turned-TDSB-teacher Tamsin Kelsey returns this season as the lead in the new Canadian Stage production of Sharr White's The Other Place directed by Mel Brooks.

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Show Dates:

Sun, 2015-01-18 - Sun, 2015-02-08

Theatre:

Bluma Appel Theatre

The Seagull

Lauren Gillett — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 05:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

A splendid new adaptation of Chekhov's play featuring an all-star Canadian cast

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Crow's Theatre in association with The Company Theatre and Canadian Stage
Written by Anton Chekhov
Adapted by Robert Falls based on a translation by George Calderon
Directed by Chris Abraham

This season, Crow's Theatre tackles Robert Falls' contemporary adaptation of Anton Chekhov's tragicomic 1895 play The Seagull in partnership with Canadian Stage and The Company Theatre. Originally produced by Goodman Theatre in Chicago, the new production features a dream cast of Canadian performers under the direction of Crow's artistic director Chris Abraham.

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Show Dates:

Sun, 2015-01-11 - Sun, 2015-02-08

Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

Q&A: The Seagull

Lauren Gillett — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 02:11:57 +0000

Subtitle:

Eric Peterson on his role in the Crow's Theatre production of Chekov's classic drama

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

Presented by Crow's Theatre in association with The Company Theatre and Canadian Stage
Written by Anton Chekov
Adapted by Robert Falls based on the George Calderon translation
Directed by Chris Abraham

The Seagull by Anton Chekhov is a play about a family at the end of an era in late-19th century Russia. It has stood the test of time since it first opened to terrible reviews in 1895, and continues to draw artists, such as contemporary adaptor Robert Falls of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, to its powerful story and characters.

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Show Dates:

Sun, 2015-01-11 - Sun, 2015-02-08

Theatre:

Berkeley Street Theatre

Helen Lawrence

Lauren Gillett — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:00:25 +0000

Subtitle:

Theatre and cinema overlap in Chris Haddock and Stan Douglas' film noir-inspired production

Headline:

Review

Credits:

A co-production with Canadian Stage, Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver, The Banff Centre, Stan Douglas Inc and Canada's National Arts Centre
Conceived by Stan Douglas
Story by Chris Haddock and Stan Douglas
Written by Chris Haddock
Directed by Stan Douglas

After premiering in Vancouver in March, and touring Europe with stops in Munich and Edinburgh this past summer, Helen Lawrence has finally landed on stage in Toronto at the Bluma Appel Theatre.

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Stars:

Show Dates:

Sun, 2014-10-12 - Sun, 2014-11-02

Theatre:

Bluma Appel Theatre