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A show about a celebrity chicken is one of four Irish plays at this year’s Bealtaine Theatre Festival

This piece of contemporary Irish theatre stars a talking fowl with a ketamine habit. Its creators are anything but chicken.

At the 2026 Luminato Festival, performance gets up close and personal

“It would be so weird for people to be sitting two feet away, watching other people have a good time,” says Katma creator Azzam Mohamed. “In the party environment, there’s nothing between me and you. You’re so close to me that I can’t fake it."

Anita Rochon, director of A Doll’s House at Theatre Calgary, knows a good play has your back

“[I know] the rhythms and aspects of humanity that she’s interested in exploring,” Rochon said. “I’m always attracted to the complex, troubled, imperfect human. Ibsen and Herzog invite in complexity.”

Five theatre professionals champion Canadian plays that deserve more life

Across the country, second productions are rare, especially for shows that premiered pre-pandemic. With this in mind, I spoke to five theatre folks about the Canadian play that each of them thinks deserves another live production.

In Ballets Jazz Montreal’s Dance Me, three choreographers put their own pirouette on a tribute to Leonard Cohen

“It’s very ambitious,” says artistic and executive director Alexandra Damiani. “Each choreographer has a clear vision and language. Leonard Cohen wrote, ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’ When I see Foniadakis work with Cohen’s music, he finds the cracks between the notes, beats, and words.”

Jasmine Case’s role in Clyde’s at Canadian Stage gives the dynamic performer plenty to chew on

“She’s a mother who has a child that deals with epilepsy,” says Case. “I grew up with epilepsy. I had a grand mal seizure as a kid. So I have a weird understanding of her relationship to her child.”