2010-2011
THE SHADOW BOX
1st Studio
Written by: Michael Cristofer
Directed by: Winston Sutton
Performance Dates
September 22 – 25, 2010
The work interweaves the lives of three dramatically different terminally ill patients and their loved ones to give a dynamic, well-rounded perspective of death and dying. The action takes place during the course of one day, on a hospital campus. The source for Christofer’s inspiration was his personal experience with two close friends dying of cancer. Offering varying perspectives of characters, comprising three different plots, gives the work a certain objectivity in its discussion of a sensitive subject.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
2nd Studio
Written by: Oscar Wilde
Directed by: W. Steven Lecky
Performance Dates
September 29 – October 2, 2010
A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement. Jack is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward Cecily. He has invented a rakish brother named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to travel to London periodically. Jack is in love with Gwendolen, the cousin of his friend Algernon. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack’s name is Ernest, returns his love, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, objects to their marriage because Jack is an orphan. Jack discovers that Algernon has been impersonating Ernest in order to woo Cecily, who has always been in love with the imaginary Ernest. Ultimately it is revealed that Jack is really Lady Bracknell’s nephew, that his real name is Ernest, and that Algernon is actually his brother. The play ends with both couples happily united.
LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST
1st Major Feature
Written by: William Shakespeare
Directed by: Victor Knight
Performance Dates
NOVEMBER 15 – 27, 2010
Love’s Labour’s Lost deals with war, the differing world views of men and women, celibacy vs romance—in fact the hottest topics we humans discuss and deal with everyday in our homes, classrooms and chatrooms. The characters are young, idealistic, hot-blooded and easy to identify with.
Often thought of as Shakespeare’s most flamboyantly intellectual play, it abounds in sophisticated wordplay, puns and literary allusions and is filled with clever pastiches of contemporary poetic forms. Today’s English Quebec audience will be enriched and enlightened by what seem like our own regional and personal issues of language and culture, power and frustration, conflicting views on sexuality coming to life in 400-year-old language spoken by young Montrealers from a contemporary mix of cultures.
A Flea in her Ear
2nd Major Feature
Written by: Georges Feydeau
Directed by: Doug Buchanan
Performance Dates
January 24 – February 5th, 2011
The wife of an insurance magnate, suspicious that her husband is having an affair, sends him a lascivious invitation from an “anonymous” admirer, just to see if he’ll show. The action of A Flea in Her Ear, one of the best-known French farces, takes us to the sleazy Hotel Coq d’Or with a fine crop of action and error, mistaken identity and hilarious mayhem.
SUMMER AND SMOKE
3rd Studio
Written by: Tennessee Williams
Directed by: Winston Sutton
Performance Dates
March 2 – 5, 2011
This masterpiece takes place in Mississippi during the first decades of last century. The story concerns Alma Winemiller, a proper but slightly affected minister’s daughter, and John Buchanan, a young doctor with a penchant for the fast lane. Over the course of the play, the two come to understand each other with more clarity and compassion, until they are each transformed. The character of Alma is said to have been Williams’ own favorite.
GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA
(GOOD MORNING JULIET)
4th Studio
Written by: Anne-Marie MacDonald
Directed by: Barbara Kelly
Performance Dates
March 9 – 12, 2011
What would happen if Juliet’s and Desdemona’s death sentences were reprieved? In this exuberant response to Shakespeare’s Othello and Romeo and Juliet, Constance Ledbelly, a dusty academic, deciphers a cryptic manuscript she believes to be the original source for the tragedies, and is transported into the plays themselves. She befriends famous characters, and becomes entangled in their destinies. In true Shakespearean spirit, Constance plunders the plays and creates something new, all the while engaging in a personal voyage of self-discovery filled with twists, fights, dances, seductions and wild surprises.
The Coronation Voyage
3rd Major Feature
Written by: Michel Marc Bouchard
Directed by: Jude Beny
Performance Dates
April 18 – April 30, 2011
May 1953. The Empress of France would set sail from Montreal carrying those on board to the celebrations marking the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. From the moment of departure, “every man and every woman would be a pawn on someone’s chessboard. Everyone was prepared to bargain and everyone had his price. Michel Marc Bouchard, one of Montreal’s finest playwrights, tackles the themes of sacrifice and forgiveness, the interpretation of history, the lost (ie. sacrificed) generation, innocence, family and love. A voyage worth taking.
