A WORLD ELSEWHERE
To go to the theatre is to go on a journey: to enter an
imagined world, resembling our own or fantastically diff erent from it, where we can see anew with beginners’ eyes and gain fresh perspectives on our lives.
Transformative voyages, both literal and metaphorical,
pervade our 2024 playbill. “What country, friends, is this?” asks the shipwrecked Viola in Twelfth Night. It’s Illyria, a topsy-turvy realm in which Viola is reunited with her long-lost twin while unexpectedly finding love. These “elsewheres” offer profound insights and closures: the New World of America in Something Rotten!, the Wales to which Imogen flees in Cymbeline, the nightclub in La Cage aux Folles, Neverland in Wendy and Peter Pan.
Travelling to the other side of the world enables the protagonists of Salesman in China to see beyond the cultural
assumptions of the “other,” while a sojourn in the country awakens the city sophisticates of London Assurance to the
idea of love that reaches beyond oneself.
Journeys can come at a cost too: Like the Jamaican-Canadian family in Get That Hope, who fi nd themselves betwixt the old world and the new, never truly at home in either. And while Morag, in The Diviners, prevails in her struggle to remake herself, others are tragically thwarted. Hedda Gabler rails wittily but vainly against the world in which she is trapped; Romeo and Juliet attempt to create a new one for themselves. In both cases, the result is their tragic undoing.
And at what point is a world elsewhere a world too far? That question is raised, disturbingly, in The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? For all these playbill choices, comic or tragic, I have brought together extraordinary artists who will offer journeys from which you will return invigorated, full of hope and joy, and eager to embark on your next great adventure. Buon viaggio!
Antoni Cimolino
Artistic Director
SOMETHING ROTTEN!
BOOK BY KAREY KIRKPATRICK AND JOHN O’FARRELL
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY WAYNE KIRKPATRICK AND KAREY KIRKPATRICK
CONCEIVED BY KAREY KIRKPATRICK AND WAYNE KIRKPATRICK
DIRECTED AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY DONNA FEORE
“WELCOME TO THE RENAISSANCE WITH POETS, PAINTERS AND BON VIVANTS…”
The Bottom brothers, two struggling playwrights in Renaissance London, need a hit. That’s easier said than done when your chief competition is William Shakespeare. The Bottom brothers’ plan: write the world’s first musical! This is a rollicking song-and-dance extravaganza that sends up the Bard and Broadway and everything in between.
TWELFTH NIGHT
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DIRECTED BY SEANA MCKENNA
“O TIME, THOU MUST UNTANGLE THIS, NOT I. IT IS TOO HARD A KNOT FOR ME T’UNTIE.”
In Shakespeare’s celebrated romantic comedy, Viola finds herself shipwrecked on the island of Illyria. For protection, she disguises herself as a young man, Cesario, and enters the service of Duke Orsino to deliver love letters to Countess Olivia. Drama arises in a tangle of mistaken identities and passions, with Olivia falling for Cesario, whose heart belongs to Orsino, who is still smitten with Olivia. When Viola’s twin brother appears, complications peak!
ROMEO AND JULIET
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DIRECTED BY SAM WHITE
“DID MY HEART LOVE TILL NOW?”
When two young star-crossed lovers lock eyes across a crowded dance floor, their fate-and the fate of two rival families, the Capulets and Montagues-is sealed. The most celebrated romance of all time, Romeo and Juliet is a cautionary tale, timeless in its warning against insatiable revenge, blind hatred and familial pride.
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
BOOK BY HARVEY FIERSTEIN
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY JERRY HERMAN
BASED ON THE PLAY BY JEAN POIRET
DIRECTED BY THOM ALLISON
CHOREOGRAPHED BY CAMERON CARVER
“WE FACE LIFE WITH A LITTLE GUTS AND LOTS OF GLITTER…”
Georges, the manager of a drag club in St. Tropez, decides to “play it straight” when his son arrives with his fiancé and her ultra-conservative parents. Albin, the club’s star performer and romantic partner to Georges, is dubious about the plan. The ensuing clash unravels truth and consequences with heartwarming grace. Gorgeous and funny, this musical has been delighting audiences since its Tony Award-winning première in 1983.
WENDY AND PETER PAN
ADAPTED BY ELLA HICKSON
FROM THE BOOK BY J.M. BARRIE
DIRECTED BY THOMAS MORGAN JONES
CHOREOGRAPHED BY JERA WOLFE
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIÈRE
“SHALL I TEACH YOU HOW TO FIGHT PIRATES?”
Ella Hickson’s smash adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s beloved Peter Pan puts Wendy centre stage in a reimagined journey to Neverland, home of Hook and the Lost Boys. Join Wendy Darling, Peter Pan and all your favourite characters in this thoroughly modern adventure that delivers the same unforgettable thrills, spills and fairy dust of the original tale.
