It’s been a strong year for Toronto theatre. I saw 145 shows this year in Toronto and beyond, and am happy to report that theatre is alive and well. I’ve laughed, sobbed, coughed (discreetly into a mask), and cheered my way through our stages in 2023. Here are some local highlights.
The cast and creative teams have been revealed for the Shaw Festival’s 62nd season.
Factory Theatre presents a powerful once in a lifetime double-bill from acclaimed, award-winning playwright Daniel MacIvor. Monster, directed by Soheil Parsa and featuring Karl Ang, will run from November 16-December 10, 2023 in the Studio Theatre; and Here Lies Henry, directed by Tawiah M'Carthy and featuring Damien Atkins, will run from November 23-December 17, 2023 in the Mainspace Theatre.
Danny DeVito returns to Roundabout Theatre Company in I Need That, starring alongside his daughter, Lucy DeVito, and Ray Anthony Thomas. The production begins previews tonight, October 13. Meet the cast of I Need That here!
Unearthing a hidden gem is always intriguing- whether it be a true fossil, pirates booty, discarded musical manuscript, or perhaps a virtually unknown play. The Shaw Festival is the lucky producer who gets to produce a never before seen mystery by the celebrated author Edith Wharton. For the first time, audiences get to be mesmerized by THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT, Wharton's one and only play that was written in 1901, never produced and found in a library archives in 2016.
The Shadow of a Doubt, Edith Wharton's drama of the world she dissected so brilliantly in novels such as The Age of Innocence, began previews July 16 at The Shaw's Royal George Theatre. Peter Hinton-Davis directs the world premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist's only known full-length play.
The Shaw Festival’s 2023 season is continuing with Bernard Shaw’s The Apple Cart and Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. Each begin previews on June 13 and June 14, respectively.
This June, creator/performer Sébastien Heins invites Toronto to a joyous, high-octane, deeply personal adventure story, all experienced at the touch of a button. Video games, theatre and memoir collide as Heins places the control(er) in the hands of the audience, entrusting them to pilot his performance using state-of-the-art motion capture and haptic technology.
Heed the call and return once again to the magical world of Narnia. Molly Atkinson directs the world premiere of Damien Atkins’s adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian.
Artistic Director Tim Carroll has unveiled the Shaw Festival's 2023 casting and creative teams for the Festival Theatre, Royal George Theatre, Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, BMO Stage, as well as the newly added Spiegeltent.
“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens” aren’t my only favourite things about Arts Club’s latest musical, THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Playing at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage from November 10th to December 24th, Arts Club revived this fan-favourite musical once again for audiences to enjoy this holiday season.
The Shaw Festival has announced its 61st season. A mix of classics, real hidden gems, new works and a variety of voices will be seen, heard and experienced in both their indoor and outdoor spaces next season.
Artistic Director Tim Carroll has announced casting for the Shaw Festival’s upcoming productions of Charley’s Aunt, Flush, The Devil’s Disciple, Sherlock Holmes and the Raven’s Curse, A Short History of Niagara and Trouble in Mind.
The Shaw has once again programmed a play known by few. After their success at rediscovering Mae West's SEX this season, I was hoping that THE LADYKILLERS would produce yet another unearthed gem. This comedy, mostly unknown outside of the UK, was briefly revived on the West End in 2011,but it's humor may best be served in a different era.
Artistic Director Tim Carroll and the Shaw Festival have announce their 2020 season.
To say that George Bernard Shaw's social commentaries were erudite would be an understatement. His keen eye and astute observations always allow the reader or viewer to take pause and contemplate life in a different light. The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the Lake is producing one of his lesser works, GETTING MARRIED. Originally written for the stage in 1908, many of it's concepts remain unchanged regarding the institution of marriage and it's sanctity, but Shaw ingeniously takes us for a roller coaster of a ride in telling this story.
After taking London's West End by storm, comedy thriller The Ladykillers makes its North American premiere under the direction of Artistic Director Tim Carroll. The Shaw Festival's production of Graham Linehan's stage adaptation - based on one of the best-loved British films of all time - begins previews tomorrow at the Festival Theatre.
In Damien Atkins's WE ARE NOT ALONE, the playwright and actor leverages his own fears and judgements against an Arizona-based convention full of extra-terrestrial experiencers, believers, and alien-human hybrids to explore the concept of belief in a manner that brings our own existence into question with one simple question: are we alone in the universe?
It's been four years since Damien Atkins's WE ARE NOT ALONE first premiered, but the play is finally making its Toronto homecoming at the Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre in a production directed by Chris Abraham and Christian Barry, and backed by Crow's Theatre, Segal Centre for Performing Arts, and 2b theatre company.
Opening night is set for February 14, 2019 with previews starting February 12.
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