Shakespeare and the classics, plus a nine-hour work by the renowned Robert Lepage are among the best bets for Toronto theatres for the summer 2009 season.
Toronto's summer theatre season for 2009 includes noteworthy productions ranging from classics to the true avant-garde. The action starts early with the citywide Luminato festival of arts, running from June 5 to 14.
Some Theatre Highlights at Luminato
- The most anticipated show is certainly world-renowned director Robert Lepage's nine-hour multimedia epic Lipsynch (see image.) It follows nine different narratives over nine hours with a dinner break. Tickets are priced at a relatively modest $75 to $125.
- The Canadian Children's Opera Chorus performs a new opera, The Children's Crusade by R. Murray Schafer.
- Catalyst Theatre presents Nevermore, a tribute to the tormented psyche of Edgar Allen Poe, using music, movement and verse.
- Ottawa's Sleeping Dog Theatre contributes 5 O'Clock Bells, about the unsolved 1984 murder of jazz guitar legend Lenny Breau. It runs at the Berkeley Street Theatre.
- Continuous City is a participatory multimedia work by The Builders Association of New York about a traveling businessman who uses electronic media to keep in touch with the people in his life.
- Beit Lessin Theatre of Tel Aviv in association with the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company offer Zisele, a celebration of the quirky and complex relationship between mother and daughter in Yiddish culture.
Soulpepper Theatre Summer Season
Soulpepper is an acting company dedicated to the classic repertoire, with an emphasis on 20th-century theatre. They present five productions for summer 2009 at the Young Centre in the Distillery Historic District.
- June 6 to July 31: Awake and Sing, Clifford Odets' hymn to social justice
- June 25 to July 30: Of the Fields, Lately by Canadian playwright David French
- August 8 to 28: Billy Bishop Goes to War by John Gray: another Canadian work, with veteran performer Eric Peterson reprising the title role he created
- August 29 to October 24: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
- August 31 to October 24: The Guardsman, a comedy by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar
Other Noteworthy Productions
- From June 6 to 21, Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space sees a remount of Canadian playwright Judith Thompson's Body & Soul. It's a provocative play crafted from the contributions of 12 women aged 46 to 79. Then, from June 9 to 28, the searing war drama Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad returns on the mainstage. (Tarragontheatre.com)
- The Canadian Stage Company (Canstage.com) presents another installment of its traditional Dream in High Park: an outdoor staging of The Tempest with Karen Robinson as "Prospera". It runs from June 30 to September 6.
- The Bard's Bus Tour, presented by Driftwood Theatre (Driftwoodtheatre.com), hits the road with stagings of King Lear and A Comedy of Errors in various locations including Todmorden Mills (June 9 to 12); Bradley House Museum in Mississauga (July 17 & 18); Trinity Bellwoods Park (July 28 to 30); Mississauga City Centre (August 15 & 16) and Withrow Park (August 22 & 23).
- And finally, Toronto`s two big summer theatre festivals return with dozens of indoor and site-specific creations ranging from the outright silly to the deeply significant. The Fringe: Toronto’s Theatre Festival (Fringetoronto.com) runs July 1 to 12, followed from August 7 to 17 by the SummerWorks Theatre Festival (Summerworks.ca).
The copyright of the article Toronto Summer Theatre 2009 in North American Modern Theatre is owned by Sarah B. Hood. Permission to republish Toronto Summer Theatre 2009 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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