Friday, January 30, 2015

Summer dreaming - Stratford and Shaw

This post will actually cover a few other companies that have announced their summer seasons (for 2015) or even their 2015/16 seasons (I believe Canadian Stage is one of the few to be quite so far ahead of the curve*).  In many ways, this is simply a continuation of this post where I started tracking things of interest.  I'm about halfway through that list, and indeed went to roughly 3/4 of the events through Dec. 2014.  So this is a bit of a continuation in a slightly different format, focusing on theatre events happening 5 to 6 months out (when it should be a lot nicer).  As it turns out tomorrow is supposedly the last day for general discounts on tickets to Stratford though they extended discount pricing at Shaw by another week (through Feb 8).

I won't list everything that one could see, just the things I actually went ahead and got tickets to (now that I can no longer be scooped...).

Shaw
Caryl Churchill Top Girls
Tony Kushner The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide...

Stratford
Hamlet
Taming of the Shrew
Love's Labour's Lost
Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer
Friedrich Dürrenmatt The Physicists
John Mighton Possible Worlds

I am really tempted to come back and see Jonson's The Alchemist, though I've seen it a couple of times already** and I dropped enough ducats at Stratford for one season.  The Alchemist will probably turn up at a UT Hart House production before too long, and that should be sufficient.

Soulpepper (I'm going to break my own rules and list a couple of plays that are worth seeing, but I saw recently so am passing on.  I guess eventually it will become clear which I did and didn't go to.  Also, a few of these will be shown over the late spring into the summer, so check it out sooner than later if interested.)
Alan Ayckbourn Bedroom Farce
A.R. Gurney The Dining Room (this got rave reviews in Chicago, so I hope this production comes close to matching that)
Sarah Ruhl Eurydice
Michel Tremblay Yours Forever, Marie-Lou

Canadian Stage
Robert LePage Needles and Opium
Shakespeare in High Park - Julius Caesar
Shakespeare in High Park - The Comedy of Errors

So a lot to see and to squeeze into my calendar.  There's quite a bit to be excited about, including the changing of the seasons, but I will say that, like Chicagoans, Torontonians do go out and support the arts, even in the dead of winter.

But I must be off now.  Go ahead and leave a comment if you end up going to one of these shows.  Or if there is some upcoming summer theatre (particularly in the GTA) that excites you.

* Edit: I just recalled that East Side Players have also announced their 2015/16 season here.  It turns out that one of them (Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire) is one of the plays I listed on my want-to-see list, so I should go, even though I borrowed the script and browsed it a bit.  I wouldn't say I am in love with the script, but it has its moments, and the company puts on plays fairly close to my home, so I should probably go support them.

In other way-ahead listings, I see that Alumnae Theatre Company plan on doing Lett's August: Osage County in April 2016!  There was a very short run of the Broadway touring production that came through Toronto back in Nov. 2009, but this will be the first locally organized production, as far as I know.  I will probably encourage others to go.  However, I won't go myself.  I saw the Steppenwolf production with the original cast, and I just don't think anything else will live up to that.  I don't want the different versions getting muddled in my mind.

Now in terms of other want-to-see plays I listed, I thought I would make the trip to the UT-Erindale campus, but it turns out they are only performing Inge's Picnic for a single weekend, and it happens to be this weekend(!), when I am booked solid.  The other Picnic is in Scarborough in early March, which may not work out either.  It's about a half hour drive, though I'd have to rent a car, and it looks like I could make it in about an hour via transit, assuming most of my connections are ok.  That's not so terrible, but I'll just have to see how booked I am in early March.  It's quite droll that I am more likely to go to Montreal to see Travesties than to see Picnic just slightly outside of town...

** And one of those times was at Stratford, though back in 1999!  (Incidentally we also saw School for Scandal on that visit, which is one I would like to see again.)  It is really tempting to go again, and perhaps even see if my son would enjoy it, but I think it will be another couple of years before he could really follow it (he was able to follow most of Wilde's  The Importance of Being Ernest).  So I really need to hang tough and wait for a local performance.  However, if somebody gave me tickets I would go for sure. But if Mirvish tries to bring it to town in the fall or in 2016, like they did for Arcadia, I would definitely go.



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