Karen Robinson to Lead THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF BERNICE TRIMBLE at Factory Theatre; Full Cast Announced

Factory Theatre and Obsidian Theatre today announced complete casting and creative team for their upcoming co-production of THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF BERNICE TRIMBLE by Beth Graham.

Honest, revealing and darkly funny, THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF BERNICE TRIMBLE is a heartbreaking portrait of a family in crisis. Directed by Obsidian's Dora Award-winning Artistic Director Philip Akin (Top Dog/Under Dog), performances begin November 2 on the Factory Theatre Main Stage with the official opening night on Thursday, November 7. Performances continue through December 1.

THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF BERNICE TRIMBLE stars Karen Robinson ("King," Eternal Hydra, Crow's Theatre) as Bernice, a widowed mother of three grown children. When Bernice's doctor confirms that she has fast-advancing, early onset Alzheimer's, Bernice enlists her daughter Iris' reluctant support to "bow out with dignity." Alexis Gordon (Godspell, Victoria Petrolia Playhouse; A Midsummer Night's Dream, Driftwood Theatre) plays Iris; Lucinda Davis (The Lady Smith, Black Theatre Workshop; Doubt: A Parable, Centaur Theatre) is Bernice's dramatic eldest daughter Sara; and Peyson Rock (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; King Lear, Soulpepper) is son Peter.

Beth Graham is a writer and actor from Edmonton, Alberta. Much of her playwriting has been collaborative: The Drowning Girls (with Daniela Vlaskalic and Charlie Tomlinson), Comrades, Mules, The Vanishing Point (with Daniela Vlaskalic) and Victor and Victoria's Terrifying Tale of Terrible Things (with Nathan Cuckow). The Drowning Girls premiered at ATP's 2008 playRites festival and then toured across the country. Beth is a University of Alberta graduate and a member of the Playwright's Guild of Canada.

Director Philip Akin won the 2012 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction and was the 2010 recipient of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts Silver Ticket Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts. Active for over thirty years in stage, film, and television as an actor, director, and producer, he is a founding member and current Artistic Director of Obsidian Theatre Company. The creative team for THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF BERNICE TRIMBLE is Camellia Koo (set designer), Ming Wong (costume designer), Andrew Smith (lighting designer) and Richard Lee (sound designer).

For over four decades, Factory Theatre has developed and produced some of the finest theatrical works in our national canon and has been home to some of the most gifted and prolific playwrights in Canada. In any given year, more than 50,000 patrons come to Factory's historic Victorian mansion at the corner of Bathurst and Adelaide Streets (in the heart of Toronto's cultural west-end district) - an inviting, inclusive environment where ideas and imagination intersect.

Obsidian is Canada's leading culturally diverse theatre company with a threefold mission to produce plays, to develop playwrights and to train emerging theatre professionals. Obsidian is passionately dedicated to the exploration, development, and production of the Black voice and produces plays from a world-wide canon focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on the works of highly acclaimed Black playwrights.

Photo by Adam Rankin