Openings & Closings – Week of October 2
OPENINGS
These are the shows that are opening in Toronto the week of October 2, 2017.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3
CIRCLES, Dead and Lovely Collective
This is a story of a band called Dante playing at what they think is a regular open mic, but turns out to be an infernal trap and night of horrors. Supported by a down-and-out producer named Virgil who promises a future with Beatrice Records, their friendship and musical careers are challenged by the grungy regulars of limbo and their own demons as they pass through each individual circle of hell.
At the Cameron House, closes October 5
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3
CAMINOS, Aluna Theatre/Native Earth Performing Arts
A festival of new works-in-progress from local Pan-American, Indigenous, and Latinx artists who are pushing the boundaries of theatre, dance, performance art, music, visual arts, installation, and film.
At Aki Studio & Ada Slaight Hall, ends October 8
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7
ASKING FOR IT, Nightwood Theatre/Crow’s Theatre/Necessary Angel
A documentary play that looks at gender roles and sexual consent in the wake of the Ghomeshi scandal. Playwright Ellie Moon speaks with people of all ages and backgrounds about their assumptions and experiences around consent to sexual relations, and with crown prosecutors and legal experts about the current state of sexual assault law in Canada. Casting announcement here.
At Streetcar Crowsnest, closes October 21
CLOSINGS
These are the shows that are closing in Toronto the week of October 2, 2017.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5
CIRCLES, Dead and Lovely Collective
This is a story of a band called Dante playing at what they think is a regular open mic, but turns out to be an infernal trap and night of horrors. Supported by a down-and-out producer named Virgil who promises a future with Beatrice Records, their friendship and musical careers are challenged by the grungy regulars of limbo and their own demons as they pass through each individual circle of hell.
At the Cameron House
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6
THE BREATHING HOLE, Stratford Festival
Intersecting with Canada’s history from the moment of First Contact to a future ravaged by climate change, this saga follows the mythic adventures of a polar bear to a profoundly moving conclusion.
At the Stratford Festival
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7
ANDROCLES AND THE LION, Shaw Festival
In ancient Rome, a group of early Christians wait to be thrown to the lions in the Colosseum. Some are more eager to be martyrs than others; the Romans just think they are all crazy. Shaw takes the fable of the man who pulled the thorn from the lion’s paw as the starting point for one of his funniest plays. This revival will be a daring theatre experiment: everyone in the room, actors and audience, will have the chance to get involved.
At the Shaw Festival
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, Hart House Theatre
This musical transforms the theatre into a wild, sexually charged punk rock show. Hedwig, our East German, rock superstar goddess—and a victim of a botched sex-change operation, which leaves her with“an angry inch”—leads the band and shares their story in a delightfully raunchy way.
At Hart House Theatre
HOW TO DROWN GRACEFULLY, Filament Incubator
Kat’s life is in disarray. As she attempts to pick up the pieces, she must confront the memories that have hurt her most, and the people that she’s hurt in return, all from the safety of her bathtub.
At Kensington Hall
PETS, Changeup Theatre/Shadowland Theatre
Looney Tunes meets Edward Albee in this twisted fable of our urban homes. Mouse is on a quest to join the house and claim her fair share of cuddles and comfort. But instead she finds a fanatical dog, a nihilistic cat, a happy-go-lucky cricket, three stupid weeds, and a crazy bird who can hear the Internet.
At Bellwoods Garage Studio
PICTURE THIS, Soulpepper
For a group of struggling artists, a visiting Hollywood producer could be the key to a glamorous career in show business. Their dreams all hinge on filming a Napoleonic saga in only two weeks.
At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
THE VEIL, The Toronto Irish Players
1822, rural Ireland: The defrocked Reverend Berkeley arrives to escort 17-year-old Hannah to England where she is to be married to an English marquis to save her mother from the debts of their country manor. Finding Hannah and the house haunted by voices and psychic currents, the Reverend proposes a séance with catastrophic consequences.
At Alumnae Theatre
WILDE TALES, Shaw Festival
In these tales, created to delight and inspire the child in each of us, Oscar Wilde conjures a fantastical world in which statues, birds, and even fireworks have the power of eloquent speech. And yet, in the end, his stories are about the most human things of all: kindness, loss, and love.
At the Shaw Festival
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8
1837: THER FARMERS’ REVOLT, Shaw Festival
A handful of immigrant farmers have been struggling for years to turn Upper Canada’s forests into farmland; now they are told that their land has been dished out to government cronies. With William Lyon Mackenzie as their leader, a band of desperate men and women march down Toronto’s Yonge Street.
At the Shaw Festival
THE ALIENS, Coal Mine Theatre
Behind a Vermont coffee shop is where misfits Jasper and KJ find asylum from the achingly lonely world around them. Here they are geniuses. Here they are the next best novelist and a spiritual healer. Here they meet seventeen-year-old café employee Evan, who is pulled into to their world of magic mushrooms, philosophical musings, and would-be rock bands.
At Coal Mine Theatre
CAMINOS, Aluna Theatre/Native Earth Performing Arts
A festival of new works-in-progress from local Pan-American, Indigenous, and Latinx artists who are pushing the boundaries of theatre, dance, performance art, music, visual arts, installation, and film.
At Aki Studio & Ada Slaight Hall
IN HER OWN WORDS: THE DIANA TAPES, What Will the Neighbors Say?
A tense thriller about the true story of one of the greatest media scandals in British history: the publication of Andrew Morton’s book about Diana, Princess of Wales, which ended her marriage and shook the monarchy to its core.
At Red Sandcastle Theatre
LELA & CO, Discord and Din Theatre/Seventh Stage Productions
Based on a true story, Lela & Co. gives space for a woman to be able to tell her story of being brought into sex trafficking by her husband during a time of war.
At the Theatre Centre
LET’S GO! A G_DOT PREQUEL, DMT Productions
Set forty years before the events of Beckett’s seminal play, this is the journey of Gogo and Didi: two young, aspiring, and struggling Vaudeville performers in 1913. They receive a call to action from an unknown source, leading them to question the world as young people figuring out their path, and changing the course of their lives forever.
At Theatre Passe Muraille’s Backsspace
TITLE AND DEED, Nightfall Theatrics
An unnamed man has recently arrived here, from an unnamed place—a homeland somehow familiar, yet decidedly not. He is a refugee. But what is he fleeing? And what is he hoping to find, now that he’s landed… here?
At Tarragon Theatre’s Workspace
TURTLENECK, emerGENce Theatre
Vicki is trying to escape from a dark past that has come back to haunt her. In an attempt to distance herself from a destructive addiction, she befriends a rehabilitation worker named Darcy, and is accidentally introduced to Darcy’s sex-obsessed older brother, Brian, who develops an all consuming lust for Vicki.
At Tree of Life Theatre
THE VIRGIN TRIAL, Stratford Festival
In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, the young princess Elizabeth navigates a labyrinth of political and sexual intrigue in the Tudor court that threatens her freedom—and even her life. Don’t miss this eagerly awaited companion piece to the runaway hit The Last Wife.
At the Stratford Festival
iPhoto caption: Vancouver’s Third Beach. Photos courtesy of Sarah Afful
Openings & Closings – Week of January 8
These are the shows that are opening and closing the week of January 8, 2018.
Closings – Week of December 25
These are the shows that are closing the week of December 25, 2017.
Closings – Week of December 18
These are the shows that are closing the week of December 18, 2017.
Openings & Closings – Week of December 4
These are the shows opening and closing the week of December 4, 2017.
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