Natal'ya Vorozhbit's BAD ROADS Extends at Crow's Theatre

Performances of BAD ROADS continue to sell out in rapid succession. The Globe and Mail “Critic's Pick” is now on stage until December 3 only.

“The horrors of war are beautifully realized in this bracing play which is astonishing in its emotional impact,” states theatre critic Lynn Slotkin.

“It's fascinating, disturbing stuff with a powerhouse cast, literally unsettling: it stretches deep into the monstrous before snapping back to remind us that the high and low road often originate from the same place,” reviewed BroadwayWorld. 

Ukrainian playwright Natal'ya Vorozhbit deftly intertwines love, sex, trauma, loss, and resistance and the heartbreaking effects of conflict on intimate relationships and a country's social fabric; “a staggering achievement,” according to theatre reviewer Istvan Dugalin.

Ukrainian Canadian Andrew Kushnir is an award-winning playwright, director, activist, and artistic director of the socially engaged theatre company Project: Humanity, a leading developer of verbatim theatre in Canada including Towards Youth: a play on radical hope, and Freedom Singer at Crow's Theatre. His production of Casey and Diana at the Stratford Festival was named “the most moving play of 2023” by the Toronto Star.

“Bad Roads feels like more than a play – it's a kind of portal” explains director Andrew Kushnir. “How do we, in our part of the world, connect beyond the headlines of the past 19 months? Sometimes it takes a piece of theatre to help us grasp the complexity of a place, its people, its struggle, its mysteries, and riddles. Just showing up to experience this deeply humane play is a remarkable act of solidarity.”  

BAD ROADS features “seven extraordinary ensemble performances” (Our Theatre Voice) by Andrew Chown, Katherine Gauthier, Craig Lauzon, Diego Matamoros,  Seana McKenna, Michelle, and Shauna Thompson.

The leading Ukrainian playwright of her generation, “a Ukrainian Sarah Kane” (The Guardian), Natal'ya Vorozhbit premiered BAD ROADS at The Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2017, and wrote and directed the feature film version, Ukraine's official Oscar selection, in 2020. Since premiering in Kyiv in 2018, BAD ROADS has become an undeniable hit and an important representation of wartime life in Ukraine.