Around the World in 80 Plays 2021

Hope, healing, and hitchhiking. Taken from her family by the government, Agnes grew up away from the support of her community. Unable to change her past, Agnes follows  the voice inside her, journeying across America to where the women gather, helping her find herself, her history, and her family. An inspiring story of self-determination, and the colonial tragedies that shape our society today.

MOONLODGE by Margo Kane (Cree & Saulteaux nations). Directed by Jani Lauzon. Featuring: Samantha Brown.

“Margo Kane’s play Moonlodge was written at a time where there were very few, if any, stories by Indigenous writers on our stages. This is a story of Indigenous children torn from families, stripped of cultural understanding and identity, searching for answers, navigating the harmful and stereotypical images of in popular media, but mostly it’s a story of resilience and the incredible mothers, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers who continue to survive with humor, dignity, and honour so that our children have a future,” said Jani Lauzon, Director.

Content Warning: This play contains scenes of sexual violence and distressing situations.

Walls exist to keep the truth out. A young man is placed in a room without trial, interrogated by mysterious figures as his humanity is stripped away. Argentina’s most fearless writer holds a mirror to state terrorism that still echoes today. One of the most important female playwrights in Latin America, Gambaro inspired a generation of writers to use theatre in the fight for social justice.

THE WALLS By Griselda Gambaro, adapted by Marguerite Feitlowitz. Directed by Beatriz Pizano. Featuring: Augusto Bitter, Carlos González-Vio, Diego Matamoros.

“It is an honour to try and scrape the surface of Gambaro's first play, a piece that foretold the terrible violence that Argentina would experience during the years of the Dirty War.  Her work is extremely complex, risky and truthful.  In The Walls she warns us about the dangers of turning a blind eye, of denying the truth that is in front of us, of those things that we cannot see but that we know exist.  My life in the theatre has also been about exposing the injustices, inequities, racism, violence and human rights violations that I see around me.  Directing this audio play has been a masterclass in political theatre.  I am forever grateful to Gambaro,” said Beatriz Pizano, Director.

The curtain rises on stories left unfinished. During a routine rehearsal, six strangers show up unannounced declaring themselves fictional characters who would like a word with their author. Finding humour in the absurd, their family drama unfolds in a conflict between illusion and reality. Pirandello’s metatheatrical masterpiece navigates the human search for meaning and the personal desire for control.

SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR By Luigi Pirandello, adapted by Edward Storer. Directed by Daniele Bartolini. Featuring: Beatriz Pizano, Diego Matamoros, Hannah Miller, Moya O’Connell, Gregory Prest, Anand Rajaram, Tom Rooney. Dramaturgical adaptation on translation by Daniele Bartolini and Luke Reece, in collaboration with the cast.

“Precisely one hundred years ago, in a theatre in Rome - Teatro Valle - a theatrical event occurred, remembered as probably one of biggest flops of all time, after which theatre will never be the same: the world premiere of “Six Characters in Search of an Author” by Luigi Pirandello. After one hundred years I decided to look at this play not for historical commemoration but as a reminder for theatre not to be “a cup of camomile tea” and that authentic innovation is not always saluted with hurrahs and standing ovations. It is a masterpiece of theatrical engineering, creating an endless spiral in the eternaltenzone (duel) between reality and fiction, authenticity and artifice. With a thick theatrical instinct, Mr. Pirandello offers us a great canvas in which we can display an exchange about theatre in Canada in 2021” said Daniele Bartolini, Director. 

Unrequited love. Creative jealousy. Guns. Vodka. Art. A summer weekend at a lakeside estate falls apart when celebrities come to visit. Switching effortlessly between the ridiculous and the profound, this masterpiece of the modern era examines the burning need to create art and the destructive power of love.

THE SEAGULL By Anton Chekhov, a new adaptation by Simon Stephens. Directed by Daniel Brooks, Associate Directed by Frank Cox-O'Connell. Featuring: Ghazal Azarbad, Oliver Dennis, Raquel Duffy, Hailey Gillis, Stuart Hughes, Alex McCooeye, Kristen Thomson, Dan Mousseau, Gregory Prest, Paolo Santalucia, Sugith Varughese

“Chekhov’s characters are enslaved in their own identities.  Each life is a calamity, as each character, promoting their own misery, clings fiercely to whatever identity they have concocted for themselves.  Everyone has someone to blame as they cast about for meaning, and never realize that the real meaning and force of life vibrates in the bonds that exist between us all.  A beautiful play for these times,” said Daniel Brooks, Director.

In association with Why Not Theatre

Love is imperfect, identity can be deceiving, and perfection is dangerous. Padmini is in love with two friends, Devadatta, a poet, and Kapila, a blacksmith, but the familiar love triangle is turned upside down when the men’s bodies are mysteriously switched. One of India’s most popular plays of the 20th Century, Hayavadana reinvents an iconic myth into a powerful search for wholeness.

HAYAVADANA By Girish Karnad. Directed by Miriam Fernandes; Featuring: Nadine Bhabha, Sehar Bhojani, Sharada Eswar, Sarena Parmar, Ellora Patnaik, Nadeem Philip, Anand Rajaram, Navtej Sandhu, Ravi Jain.

“During this “great intermission” from live theatre, I find myself constantly coming back to mythology. I have always loved the big, universal questions that myths ask of us and the magic they invite into our lives, so the chance to work on Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana has been such a joy. Inspired by an 11th century myth, Hayavadana takes all the ingredients of a great story; love, friendship, jealousy, the gods, comedy, tragedy, and weaves them into an irreverent and poetic reflection on the theme of identity. What a gift to be able to share this story with an audience right now,” said Miriam Fernandes, Director.

Believing better is possible is the first step. When the call goes out the birds of the world – all sizes, colours, and abilities – gather as one great flock, and embark on an epic journey in search of self, enlightenment, and truth. The beloved allegorical poem by Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar comes to life in a new adaptation filled with hope, that is both timeless and sits firmly in the present.

THE PARLIAMENT OF THE BIRDS By Guillermo Verdecchia, freely adapted from Farid Ud-Din Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. Directed by Soheil Parsa. Featuring: Raoul Bhaneja, Augusto Bitter, Oliver Dennis, Christef Desir, Liz Peterson, Arsinée Khanjian, Jani Lauzon, John Ng, Bea Pizano, Bahareh Yaraghi.

“Based on a twelfth-century Sufi poem, The Parliament of The Birds is an allegorical journey in search of enlightenment and truth. At its center, there is a longing for understanding and peace in a world troubled by hypocrisy, corruption and inhumanity. This play shows how storytelling can bridge differences by emphasizing our shared hopes, dreams and struggles,” said Soheil Parsa, Director.

Bathed in the heat of the feminine erotic and the glow of the Caribbean sun, one of today’s most compelling performers, d’bi.young, tells the story of four friends and their entangled lives in Jamaica. Fusing memoir, music, and myth, this virtuosic performance journeys through love, loss, love and the magic of liberation. A sizzling drama that explores the intersection of identity, sexuality, gender, religion, and (de)colonization.

SHE MAMI WATA & THE PXSSYWITCH HUNT - Written, directed and performed by d’bi.young anitafrika.

"Through storytelling, we are radically transforming oppressive colonial practices that continue to subjugate people. She Mami Wata is urgent because it centres queer Black love as a potent force within that process of transformation; challenging patriarchy, misogyny, racism, classism, and homophobia through the experiences of characters we see ourselves in," said d'bi.young anitafrika, Performer, Writer, Director.

_{Art Credit: Mother of Moons by Danilo McCallum}

In partnership with The Stratford Festival

When an individual’s actions shake a world off its axis, how is honour restored? When a Yoruba King (Alafin) dies, the King’s horseman (Elesin) is required by tradition to accompany him into the afterlife. But this sacred ritual is interrupted, resulting in an unforeseen tragedy. Based  on actual events in British-occupied Nigeria, Wole Soyinka’s Nobel  prize-winning play shares the story of a community striving to uphold its  culture in the face of colonial power.

DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN By Wole Soyinka. Directed by Tawiah M’Carthy. Featuring: Maev Beaty, Déjah Dixon-Green, Ijeoma Emesowum, Peter Fernandes, Patrick McManus, Pulga Muchochoma, Wole Oguntukun, Khadijah Roberts Abdullah, Amaka Umeh, Micah Wood. Dramaturgy by Wole Oguntokun.