As always, there’s amazing theatre happening all over the GTA and beyond! Let me know if you make it out to any of these stunning productions!
In the GTA
One Man, No City
Vivek Srikanthan is an astronaut! Well… not really. But he might as well be in the cold, isolation of the cosmos as he can’t seem to connect to his friends, family, or (theoretical) lovers. Join him as he comedically and painfully pulls apart his life, history, relationships, ethnicity, and family while struggling to understand himself in this meta-fictional, idiotic, self-deprecating solo sketch comedy revue. Take the one-sided conversations of Bob Newhart, the high energy stupidity of Key & Peele characters, run them through the grinder of growing up in Regent Park and you’ve got One Man, No City.
November 2
Aki Studio Theatre – 585 Dundas St E
Vivek Srikanthan: One Man No City – Native Earth Performing Arts
Echoes of In Between – ProArteDanza
ProArteDanza will proudly celebrate its 20th Anniversary season with Echoes of In Between from November 8-10, 2024. Echoes of In Between features a reimagining of Roberto Campanella and Robert Glumbek’s Dora award-winning work In Between, and a new duet choreographed by the renowned Métis artist Jera Wolfe.
November 8 – 10
Fleck Dance Theatre – 207 Queens Quay W
The Last Piece – Hart House Theatre
When a lost love becomes a distant memory, what do we do when those memories start to fade away? The Last Piece, a new Canadian musical, follows Amara, an elderly woman coping with her ex-husband Andrew’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
When Andrew suddenly reappears in Amara’s life, the two begin to re-hash their memories of their 20 year marriage, attempting to reconnect to their past and stall Andrew’s worsening condition. As they recount the stories of their meeting and relationship, Amara is left to reckon with her unresolved feelings surrounding their split, and her fear of progressively losing the man she loved most. The Last Piece highlights the withstanding bond of familial love, the subjective nature of our recollections, and how much of ourselves are made up of the fragile memories we hold.
November 7 – 9
Hart House Theatre – 7 Hart House Circle
The Last Piece | Theatre | Hart House
Raven Mother – DanceWorks
Elder Harris (1931-2020) was a respected Cree Elder from Northern Manitoba who spent the majority of her life on B.C.’s Northwest Coast, where she trained under her mother-in-law, Gitxsan Matriarch Irene Harris, and later dedicated her life to the revitalization and teaching of Indigenous cultural practices, including song, dance, stories, and regalia making.
In Raven Mother, Harris’ spirit lives on, not only in the embodied narrative, but in the dancers themselves, who carry their grandmother’s vision forward for future generations to come. Performers include Harris’ daughter Margaret Grenier, and grandchildren Nigel Baker-Grenier and Raven Grenier, as well as Margaret’s niece Tobie Wick and daughter-in-law Rebecca Baker-Grenier.
In a series of narrative-based vignettes, Raven Mother shares the movement, song, regalia, masks, and sculptures of the Gitxsan people. The Raven crest, manifested in multiple forms throughout the piece, embodies transformation and the strengthening of culture, and breathes sustained life into a rich lineage of teachings.
November 29 at 12:15 and 7:30
Fleck Dance Theatre – 207 Queens Quay West
Erased – An Open Heart Surgery Theatre production in partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille
Written by Coleen Shirin MacPherson and developed by Open Heart Surgery Theatre with a star-cast and creative team, Erased draws us into a greeting card factory in a post-climate collapse world, where workers are forced to meet a quota, making ridiculous greeting cards while trying to survive within the machinery that controls and erases them. This tremendous 11 cast member physical theatre piece speaks to our addiction to production in late-capitalism and is a call to look deeper into the state of our planet and the structures that have entrapped us.
A surreal marriage of absurdism, dark comedy, political theatre and poetry, Erased explores how the kindling of a soft revolution turns to flame, igniting the spirit of resistance that keeps it alive.
November 20 – 30
Theare Passe Muraille Mainspace – 16 Ryerson Avenue
Erased – Theatre Passe Muraille
Dogfight: The Musical – Thaumatrope Theatre
Thaumatrope Theatre is proud to present Dogfight: The Musical, a poignant and challenging exploration of cruelty, empathy, and human connection. In November 1961, a group of young American marines prepare for a party on the eve of their departure for Vietnam. The party in question is a “dogfight,” a competition between the men to bring the ugliest date and win a cash prize. Eddie Birdlace invites Rose, an idealistic aspiring musician unaware of the true nature of the event, and their evening together changes both of their perspectives on life.
November 28 – 30
Harbourfront Centre Theatre – 231 Queens Quay West
Dogfight | Thaumatrope Theatre
In Montreal
Three Women of Swatow – Centaur Theatre
Dark humour, sharp wit, and family secrets collide in Three Women of Swatow, a gripping exploration of generational legacies from acclaimed playwright Chloé Hung. When Mother accidentally kills her husband, the stage is set for a fierce and wickedly funny confrontation as three generations of Chinese-Canadian women come together to clean up the mess—literally and figuratively.
November 5 – 24
Centaur Theatre – 453 Saint Francois-Xavier, Montreal
Three Women of Swatow | Centaur Theatre
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