Tarragon Theatre to Open 45th Anniversary Season with BLIND DATE, Starring Rebecca Northan

TORONTO (August 19, 2015) - Tarragon Theatre launches its 45th anniversary season with the international sensation Blind Date, created and performed by the award-winning Calgary-born Rebecca Northan. Returning to Toronto after critically acclaimed runs across Canada, London's West End, New York City and elsewhere in the U.S., Northan's hilarious hit show runs Tuesday, September 8 to Sunday, October 4 in Tarragon's Mainspace. (Media Night Sept. 9)

Blind Date opens in a little French café where Mimi sits and waits for a blind date. When he fails to show up, she turns to the audience for someone brave enough to answer Love's call. What happens next is anybody's guess, and different each night. This unscripted, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants adventure is one saucy, daring and entertaining evening out.

"Funny and spontaneous, but also genuinely adorable. Blind Date conjures up all the heart-mushrooming glee of a brand-new romance, even as it gently lampoons sexual politics and courtship anxieties.... Mimi's definitely a keeper. Four stars." - J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail

"Do you believe in love at first sight? I do, because I once spent 90 minutes under the spell of Rebecca Northan...A flight of theatrical fancy that is absolutely magical." - Richard Ouzounian, Toronto Star

"It's one thing to bring audience members onstage for three minutes of mockery, then sit them back down again. It's quite another to play opposite a stranger who's not a professional actor for more than an hour. That's what Ms. Northan fearlessly does, and it's very funny." - Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times

"Rebecca Northan's Canadian hit makes apparent the overlap between improvised performance and blind dates. The concept is bulletproof. ... sexy, goofy...Northan steers the show with a gracious touch" - Brian Logan, The Guardian (London, England)

How did this home-grown international hit begin? "Blind Date started out as a 10-minute piece that Artistic Director Tina Rasmussen commissioned for the Spiegeltent at Harbourfront Centre's World Stage Festival in 2007," says creator Northan. "At the end of the summer I was left with the question, 'What if we took the time to get to know the guy and turned this into a full show?'"

Blind Date was then workshopped at the legendary Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary, AB, where Northan did her improv training, and then returned to World Stage in 2009 and again in 2010. It was picked up by Broadway producer, Kevin McCollum (RENT, Avenue Q), and premiered off-Broadway in 2010.

There are currently five different women trained to play the role of "Mimi" although Northan performed it herself for the New York City and London's West End tours. The first Tarragon performance on September 8th sees Mimi on her 400th date!

Rebecca Northan is an actor/director/playwright and revels in creating her own work. Aside from Blind Date, her other spontaneous theatre creations include Legend Has It, and two in development: An Undiscovered Shakespeare (Stratford Festival) and Undercover (Vertigo Theatre, Calgary). She is also an actor-for-hire and has worked across Canada, most recently at Tarragon Theatre in the world premiere of Morris Panych's Sextet. Rebecca has guest-hosted CBC-TV's This Hour Has 22 Minutes and is the winner of several Canadian Comedy Awards.

Christy Bruce is the Mimi Alternate and plays the lead role of "Mimi" for the matinees. Jamie Northan (Rebecca's brother) is the Stage Manager and Sound Improviser. The Scenographers are Christy Bruce and Kristian Reimer. Brandon Keliman is the Set Designer and Jason Hand is the Lighting Designer.

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