Openings & Closings – Week of April 17

OPENINGS

These are the shows that are opening in Toronto the week of April 17, 2017.

TUESDAY, APRIL 18


CENTURY SONG, Nightwood Theatre/Volcano/Moveable Beast Collective Production

Inspired in part by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, soprano Neema Bickersteth seamlessly melds classical song and movement to inhabit a century of women whose identities are contained within a single performer.

At Streetcar Crowsnest, closes April 29

THE DRAUPADI PROJECT, Why Not Theatre (RISER Project)

The spirit of Draupadi, an important feminist icon, is channeled through the character of a nineteen-year-old girl confined in a cell, wrestling with the voices in her head and grappling with the status of women in today’s society.

At the Theatre Centre, closes April 26

SOUND OF THE BEAST, Theatre Passe Muraille

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard speaks truth to power using spoken word, storytelling, and hip-hop. Inspired by Tunisian emcee Weld-El 15—who was jailed for his song “Boulicia Kleb (The Police Are Dogs)”St. Bernard riffs on oppression, poverty, and systemic injustice.

At Theatre Passe Muraille, closes May 7

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19


BLOOD LINKS, Canadian Stage (Spotlight: Australia)

Celebrated visual and performance artist William Yang’s family is scattered around the world, yet the bond of blood binds them in unexpected and powerful ways. A family story of birth, traditions, love, and food.

At the Berkeley Street Upstairs Theatre, closes April 23

PRINCE HAMLET, Why Not Theatre

Not yet two months after the death of his father the King, his mother has remarried and Prince Hamlet struggles to understand the world they live in. The ghost of his father directs Hamlet to avenge his murder, but is that the right thing to do? 

At the Theatre Centre, closes April 29

THURSDAY, APRIL 20


BANANA BOYS, Factory Theatre

Mental White Noise, mindshifting, sexloverelationships, and the dreaded Small Penis Bomb. Five young Asian Canadian men must confront unrealized potential, devastating loss, and time travel while creating a new language around what it means to be a Banana Boy.

At Factory Studio Theatre, closes May 14

PEARLE HARBOUR’S CHAUTAUQUA, Why Not Theatre (RISER Project)

American World-Wartime gal Pearle Harbour, Toronto’s most cerebral drag queen, is literally pitching her tent in the Theatre Centre for a show that’s part revival, part cabaret, part drag and part salvation.

At the Theatre Centre, closes April 26

FRIDAY, APRIL 21


ILLUSIONS, SideMart Theatrical Grocery

A deceitfully dark comedy that playfully unravels the paradoxes of the lives of two couples. It tells a tale of friendship, crossed lovers, attraction, and confusion.

At Streetcar Crowsnest, closes May 7

SATURDAY, APRIL 22


FREUD’S LAST SESSION, Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company

Legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud and the young, rising scholar C.S. Lewis meet head-to-head in a fictitious battle of the mind.

At the Greenwin Theatre, Toronto Centre of the Arts, closes May 14

LULU V.5 // AND NOTHING COULD EVER BE THE SAME, the red light district

A fantasy—no, a funeral—comedy, carnival, farce. It’s a love story (or seven)—or a sequence of snapshots of the people we’re desperately afraid we might become when we find ourselves in love.

At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, closes April 23

A WAKE FOR LOST TIME, [elephants] collective/Katzman Contemporary

We’ve lost time, we lost it to alienating jobs and lovers who don’t call back, we’ve lost it to myth of progress and the battlefield of history. How does one grieve for inevitable loss? Where can we allow ourselves to hurt? A 24-hour long ritual to all the time we’ve lost.

At 86 Miller Street, for 24 hours starting at sundown

CLOSINGS

These are the shows that are closing in Toronto the week of April 17, 2017.

FRIDAY, APRIL 21


SPOON RIVER, Soulpepper

The residents of a sleepy midwest graveyard return to share their funny, gritty, and touching memories to curious passersby. Edgar Lee Masters’ poems of the dead are brought to vibrant life in this moving piece of original music theatre that is ultimately an uplifting celebration of life.

At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, closes April 21

SATURDAY, APRIL 22


THE CLEAN HOUSE, Alumnae Theatre Company

After the unusual death of her parents, aspiring comedian Matilde moves from Brazil to Connecticut to clean the house of married doctors. When the husband falls in love with a patient, the household is thrown into a messy (and sometimes magical) whirlwind of hilarity and heartache.

At Alumnae Theatre

WORLD STAGE REDUX, Harbourfront Centre

Eight shows present today’s performance leaders—including Clare Coulter, Tim Crouch, and Yael Farber—in order to develop Toronto’s understanding of the contemporary. World Stage 2017 celebrates the exceptional artistry that has never failed to show us who we are.

At Harbourfront Centre

SUNDAY, APRIL 23


BLOOD LINKS, Canadian Stage (Spotlight: Australia)

Celebrated visual and performance artist William Yang’s family is scattered around the world, yet the bond of blood binds them in unexpected and powerful ways. A family story of birth, traditions, love, and food.

At the Berkeley Street Upstairs Theatre

‘I TAKE YOUR HAND IN MINE’, Chekhov Collective

Theirs was one of the theatre world’s most extraordinary love stories: he a famous playwright and she a leading actress of the Moscow Art Theatre. Inspired by the love letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper.

At Tarragon Theatre Extraspace

LULU V.5 // AND NOTHING COULD EVER BE THE SAME, the red light district

A fantasy—no, a funeral—comedy, carnival, farce. It’s a love story (or seven)—or a sequence of snapshots of the people we’re desperately afraid we might become when we find ourselves in love.

At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS, Mirvish

It’s London, 1937, and recently widowed eccentric is looking for a way of spending her time and money when her attention falls on a rundown former cinema in Great Windmill Street.

At the Royal Alexandra Theatre


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