I love the summer! There’s lots of theatre to see, especially outdoor theatre, while also giving me a bit of a chance to rest before the regular seasons start up again in September. I’m going to be going to some new venues and working with new companies this August, and I’m really looking forward to it!
The Saviour – Here For Now Theatre
There’s a new man in Máire’s life. But some people aren’t happy. On the morning of her 67th birthday, Máire sits up in bed enjoying a cigarette. There’s a man downstairs.
She is blooming.
July 31 – August 16
Stratford Perth Museum – 4275 Huron Road RR#5, Stratford
The Saviour — Here For Now Theatre
SummerWorks Festival
In response to the current zeitgeist, the 2024 SummerWorks Performance Festival presents 11 days of bold creative expressions from a diversity of perspectives and lived experiences, that engage with the idea of survival, in both subtle and blunt ways, with nuanced complexity.
With over 40+ events and activities, all curated and designed around the idea of gathering together in public space, this year’s Festival offers you a moment to pause and reflect, to dive into the energy and chaos, and to witness dynamic live performances by independent artists from across Canada, and around the world.
We invite you to join us this summer, for an inspiring, thought-provoking, and magical SummerWorks experience.
Note: I’ll just be reviewing a small portion of the SummerWorks offerings. Check out their website for everything on offer.
August 1 – 11
Various Venues around Toronto
SummerWorks 2024 | SummerWorks
Many Happy Returns – à toi
It’s New Year’s Eve: December 31, 1924, and capers and thrills are afoot!
MANY HAPPY RETURNS is a group-based interactive, immersive performance with artifacts to find, intriguing guests to meet, and mysteries to unravel. Use teamwork to learn, plan, and manipulate the events of a swinging party to retrieve the 10 artifacts before your time travel abilities wear off! Will you succeed? Or will you find yourself in an endless loop in this race against the clock?! Your ticket time includes time to enter, engage with the immersive environment, get a drink and some appies, enjoy a 60-minute performance, and enjoy some post-show mingling and party vibes.
Wednesday at 6pm until August 28
Coffee Oysters Champagne – 214 King St W (basement)
Salt-Water Moon – King Theatre Company
It’s a splendid moon-filled night at Coley’s Point in August, 1926. Jacob Mercer has returned from Toronto hoping to win back his former sweetheart, Mary Snow. But Mary has become engaged to wealthy Jerome McKenzie, and she is still hurt and bewildered by Jacob’s abrupt departure a year earlier. She will not be easily wooed.
Salt-Water Moon won the 1985 Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Drama, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the Hollywood Drama-Logue Critics’ Award, and was a finalist for the 1985 Governor-General’s Award for Drama.
August 14 – 24
Pine Farms Orchard – 2700 16th Sideroad, King City
What’s On | King Theatre Company
Constellations – Icarus Theatre
In the beginning Marianne and Roland meet at a party. They go for a drink, or perhaps they don’t. They fall madly in love and start dating, but eventually they break up. After a chance encounter in a supermarket they get back together, or maybe they run into each other and Marianne reveals that she’s now engaged to someone else and that’s that. Or perhaps Roland is engaged. Maybe they get married, or maybe their time together will be tragically short.
Nick Payne’s Constellations is a play about free will and friendship; it’s also about quantum multiverse theory, love, and honey.
August 16 – 23
Tarragon Theatre Extraspace – 30 Bridgman Ave
CONSTELLATIONS | Icarus Theatre
Christmastown – Capitol Theatre Port Hope
Kringle, Ontario is in a rut. When the well-meaning town reeve devises a tourism development plan to celebrate Christmas all year round, the town thinks it’s a great idea. But two weeks and a heat wave later, they’re having second thoughts. Nora, whose convenience store (and gas station) is the centre of cultural activity, is suddenly desperate for a much-needed vacation. Throw in an anxious restauranteur, a sassy teenager, and a wide-eyed new resident, and you’ve got a recipe for a veritable blizzard of hilarity!
This world premiere Canadian comedy by celebrated writer Briana Brown chronicles the holiday magic of small-town living—all while sweating in Santa suits in August!
August 16 – September 1
Captiol Theatre – 20 Queen St., Port Hope
Capitol Theatre – Christmastown
Romeo & Juliet – Unchained Theatre Company
The feud between Toronto’s oldest and most dangerous crime families fills the streets of Yonge and Bloor with mayhem. Young Romeo Montague of St. Clair West and his friends sneak into a party at Old Capulets place in Rosedale, where Romeo finds a young woman who he believes to be the love of his life. But his true love is a Capulet named Juliet. With the tension reaching its boiling point and Juliet set to marry another, the two star crossed lovers race to find their way out of their parent strife by marrying in secret. The consequences that follow are dangerous, even fatal. A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s classic dives into the divide of the young and old, rich and poor, violence and love and the constant struggle of the TTC.
August 22 – 24
The Assembly Theatre – 1479 Queen Street West
Romeo and Juliet Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite
With Love and a Major Organ – Here For Now Theatre
During her morning commute, a young woman falls in love with a total stranger she meets on the subway. After giving the man her actual beating heart, he disappears -leading this unlikely heroine on a quest to retrieve her heart, accidentally cracking open those of others she meets along the way. An eccentric, edgy comedy about what it costs to give your heart away, and what happens when you discover you actually have one.
August 21 – September 7
Stratford Perth Museum – 4275 Huron Road RR#5, Stratford
With Love and a Major Organ — Here For Now Theatre
Pave Paradise – Alumnae Theatre Company
Pave Paradise is a satirical comedy set in the city we love: The City announces plans to build supportive housing on the neighbourhood parking lot, and local homeowners lose their minds. Yet the very people the NIMBYs fear are already among them and their lives are woven together in new and surprising ways. The scent of money attracts dark interests to the hood while the parking lot enjoys a meteoric rise in status. And what happens to Nimrod, the littlest Chihuahua?
Remaining Performances August 24 and 25 at 2pm
St. James Park – 120 King Street East
Theatre In St. James Park – Old Town Toronto
Girls Unwanted – The King Black Box
GIRLS UNWANTED centers around the lives of three young women who struggle to co-exist in the confines of an inner city halfway house. Under the supervision of a woman with issues all her own, their lives begin to further unravel when a distant relative inexplicably shows up and they find themselves at the center of a murder investigation. From the heart and mind of one of Canada’s most prolific and raw playwrights, George F. Walker, The King Black Box invites you to explore what can be discovered when we shine the light on the darkest parts of our city and ourselves.
For this production, director George F. Walker and production designer Sophie Ann Rooney have created an immersive experience that brings the theatre’s location outside seemingly inside. Taking place in our current day in Toronto’s and The King Black Box’s very own, Parkdale, the audience is unable to escape the reality and insecurity of living in the city center.
September 5 – 29
The King Black Box – 1224 King St. W 3rd Floor (No Elevator)The King Black Box Theatre | Toronto Theatre | 1224 King Street West, Toronto, ON, Canada
Thank you to my Patrons:
B. Kinnon, D. Moyes
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Angelica and Paul, Anonymous, Adrianna, and Caitlin
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A View from the Box 