Winter dramatics

Stage and screen classics, a treasured childhood
favourite and a Pulitzer Prize winning play

FREEDOM PUPPETS: Maïta

By NEIL BOYCE

An interesting time of the year, these post-holiday months: the happy horror of Christmas is over and the rest of winter looms large. To fill this season’s dreaded second act, touring companies are busy bringing in shows from all over, there’s a minifest of hand-picked gems and hardy local companies keep pounding the boards at beat-up indie joints. Meanwhile, the big two Montreal theatres offer a string of solid productions to coax frozen asses into comfy seats.

TOURS BIG AND SMALL

Two great names in Canadian theatre team up at the magnificent Usine C for what could be the brightest four days of winter. The blurb for This Is what happens next—created by Daniel MacIvor, directed and dramaturged by Daniel Brooks of Toronto’s Necessary Angel theatre— offers little in the way of description or understanding. You go to a show like this because of who put it together and with great expectations:

“A journey deep into the heart of the Kingdom of Kevin with an astrologer, a lawyer, an absent father ... the dark forest of addiction, divorce, Arthur Schopenhauer, The Little Mermaid and the life of John Denver. A scary fairytale with a happy ending.”

Recent recipient of the lavish 2008 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, MacIvor premieres the work in Montreal as Necessary Angel celebrates its 30-year anniversary. To Jan. 17 at Usine C (1345 Lalonde).

Geordie Productions continue a season of all-ages theatre rich in fantasy and magic. Their school-touring production of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe stops here for a single night as part of the Centaur Theatre Children’s Series, Jan. 24. The Clanché du Rand adaptation directed by Dean Patrick Fleming conveys the epic battles, talking animals and wintry splendour of Narnia via two (very busy) actors. Tickets are a steal at $5–$8 at the Centaur Theatre (453 St- François-Xavier).

Franco-Ontarian company Théâtre de la Vieille 17 brings Maïta to Geordie for its Montreal Mainstage series. Inspired by traditional Indonesian shadow-puppetry, “Maïta is a poetic fable about freedom and childhood told by marionettes.” March 13–22 at D.B. Clarke Theatre, (1455 de Maisonneuve W.).

Originating in South Africa, the big international touring show this year is Molora, whose title means ashes in the Sesotho language. Adapted and directed by Yael Farber, the play relocates the ancient myth of Orestes to the recent history of South Africa, to “expose the cycle of violence and the dilemma faced by survivors who have to choose between revenge and forgiveness.” Performed widely since the original staging at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, Molora touches down at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts from Jan. 22–Feb. 1.

NO REGRETS: Naomi Emmerson as
Edith Piaf in Love Conquers All

BIG THEATRES, BIG SHOWS

It’s a Montreal premiere for West-coaster Nicola Cavendish in her multiple award-winning solo show solo, Shirley Valentine, based on the film of the same name, and directed by Surette. A bored housewife commits the unpardonable sin of ditching her drag of a family and escaping to sunny Greece in search of the joy and wonder left behind in her youth. Jan. 27–Feb. 22

Next, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt makes an English-language debut in Montreal, directed by Micheline Chevrier. Winner of every major American theatre award, and recently turned into a movie with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the play is set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 and centres around the possible sexual abuse of a young man: the first black student ever admitted. It runs from Feb. 24 –March 29.

Roger Peace’s Off Broadway hit, Piaf: Love Conquers All—the acclaimed one-woman musical drama with Montreal-native Naomi Emmerson as “La Môme.” Controlfreak Emmerson also handles set design, costumes and stage direction. Jan. 28–Feb. 8 at the Centaur.

Sam Shepard’s landmark early work on the dysfunctional American family, Buried Child, runs Feb. 1–22 at the Segal (5170 Côte-Ste- Catherine), continuing their season of international works. Directed by Peter Hinton (artistic director for English theatre at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa), Shepard’s work was the first Off Broadway play ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. The unannounced homecoming of a long-lost grandson sets the stage. “Vincent brings his girlfriend home to meet his folks—the only problem is the Norman Rockwell exterior of his grandparents’ farmhouse belies the disintegration of the family within and the terrible secret they’re hiding.”

Jeremy Hechtman directs Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound at MainLine Theatre (3997 St-Laurent), Jan. 28–Feb. 14. Finally—and scheduled perfectly to break up winter doldrums— Centaur’s Wildside Festival continues to Jan. 25.