THEATRE NEWS: Another Africa
heads up Canadian Stage fall season
23 FEB/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

In his second season at the helm of Canadian Stage, artistic and general director Matthew Jocelyn will continue to push the boundaries of theatre for a Toronto audience. In a 2011-12 season announced Wednesday in the lobby of the Bluma Appel Theatre, the company’s mainstage‚ Jocelyn continued to interweave conventional theatre with the work of artists from a wide range of performing arts disciplines including film and dance.

While Jocelyn will launch his season conventionally, with two of the three plays that comprised Volcano Theatre’s acclaimed Africa Trilogy at last spring’s Luminato Festival — Binyavanga Wainaina’s SHINE YOUR EYE and Roland Schimmelpfennig’s PEGGY PICKIT SEES THE FACE OF GOD, repackaged under the title of ANOTHER AFRICA — he wastes little time before he sets off redefining the theatrical map.

While theatre audiences may be familiar with the tale of ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE, Jocelyn has programmed a new version, choreographed and directed by Quebec’s Marie Chouinard and featuring the Compagnie Marie Chouinard, to follow ANOTHER AFRICA on to the Bluma stage for a limited run.

Next up, director Kim Collier will bring John Logan’s Tony-Award-winning RED to the Bluma stage in a co-production with Vancouver Playhouse and the Citadel Theatre.

To launch the company into 2012, Jocelyn has enlisted filmmaker Atom Egoyan who will return to the stage to direct Martin Crimp’s CRUEL AND TENDER, featuring a cast that includes Egoyan’s wife, Arsinée Khanjian, Daniel Kash, Nigel Shawn Williams, Thomas Hauff, Jeff Lillico, Abena Malika, Cara Ricketts, Brenda Robins, André Sills and Sarah Wilson.

It will be followed by THE YOU SHOW, a production of Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM, featuring the choreography of Crystal Pite, whose work was featured in both Canadian Stage’s acclaimed presentation of STUDIES IN MOTION last year and the National Ballet of Canada’s EMERGENCE. A yet-to-be-commissioned new translation of Marivaux’s THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE (last produced in Toronto by Pleiades Theatre in 2000) will close the Bluma season, in a co-production with the Centaur Theatre, directed by Jocelyn himself.

Meanwhile, things will continue to percolate at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre, where the company has established a producing partnership with some of Toronto’s most exciting and innovative small theatre companies. This year, the Art Of Time Ensemble launches things with I SEND YOU THIS CADMIUM RED, a work featuring text by John Berger and John Christie, music by Gavin Bryars and choreography by James Kudelka, all under the direction of Daniel Brooks.

In the first year of their association with Canadian Stage, Company Theatre will tackle Germany’s Lukas Barfuss’s THE TEST, in a translation by Birgit Schreyer Duarte, directed by Jason Byrne and starring Eric Peterson, Liisa Repo-Martell and Philip Riccio.
For their stint at the Berkeley, Queen Of Puddings Musical Theatre tackles some of playwright Samuel Beckett’s shorter plays, blending them with the music “of contemporary classical music from outstanding Irish composers.” With musical direction by Dairine Ni Mheadhra and John Hess and direction by Jennifer Tarver, it will be presented under the title of BECKETT: FECK IT!.

Finally, in their last Berkeley collaboration with Canadian Stage, Studio 180 Theatre tackles Bruce Norris’ CLYBOURNE PARK, under the direction of Joel Greenberg. As previously announced, this summer’s Dream In High Park production will feature William Shakespeare’s THE WINTER'S TALE, directed by Estelle Shook.

For further info, visit canadianstage.com or phone 416-368-3110.