A couple of Canadian companies are travelling to Europe to perform at international festivals, showing off some of our theatre artists’ best work.
The Halifax-based 2b theatre is remounting a pair of productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. One is The God That Comes, created by writer/performer Hawksley Workman and director Christian Barry, which just closed a successful run at the Tarragon. Inspired by Euripides’ drama The Bacchae, the wine- and sex-infused cabaret is part storytelling, part rock concert.
Following its Edinburgh run, the show returns to Canada and plays at the Stratford Festival from September 11 to 20, part of the Forum Showcase series.
It’s partnered in Edinburgh with When It Rains, a darkly comic social satire that has some of the production qualities of a graphic novel. Written and directed by Anthony Black, who co-helms 2b with Barry, the production played at SummerWorks 2012.
The current version features Pierre Simpson, Francine Deschepper, Black and Samantha Wilson.
Oh My Irma, written and performed by Toronto theatre artist Haley McGee and directed by Alisa Palmer, has already played the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as venues in the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, Mongolia and elsewhere.
The award-winning show about a socially awkward young woman with a keen desire to connect with others still has legs, lots of them, and McGee’s taking it on the road again, this time to England, Finland and the Global Forum of the Arts in Varna, Bulgaria.
Remembering Patrick
The Patrick Conner Award honours the late Conner, a talented actor and director who was also involved in the world of sustainable living, especially food production.
The winners of the second Conner Award are Lea Ambros and Taarini Chopra. Each receives a $2,500 prize.
Ambros is a theatre artist, cook and food sustainability activist. Co-founder of Stranger Theatre and the Cooking Fire Theatre Festival, she’s currently community kitchen coordinator at the Children’s Storefront, a free service that provides support for parents and youngsters.
A researcher with Canadian Biotechnology Actions Network, Chopra is also publications coordinator with Seeds of Diversity, which works to save heirloom and heritage seeds and preserve our food’s biodiversity.
The awards will be presented in a public ceremony August 18 at an appropriate location, the Carrot Common’s Green Roof. The evening will be a celebration of Patrick and the two recipients $75 tickets include food, wine and entertainment.
There’s more information on the award, ceremony and this year’s recipients at patrickconneraward.com. You can buy tickets for the ceremony at http:/patrickconneraward.brownpapertickets.com.
Elvis redux
Can’t get enough of Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll?
You’ll have two chances to reconnect with him and his music this month in two very different productions.
First up is the Fringe show Elvis & Dick, a musical comedy in which Presley and Richard Nixon meet to talk about the performer’s becoming a federal drug agent. Elvis’s tunes will be liberally scattered throughout the show. It plays at the Tarragon Mainspace beginning Thursday (July 3). Tickets and schedule at fringetoronto.com.
The larger take on Presley, Return To Grace, is a concert-style show at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, featuring Steve Michaels as the swivel-hipped singer. Its first performance is Tuesday (July 8), which coincidentally is 60 years to the day since a Memphis radio station broadcast Elvis’s earliest recording, That’s Alright Mama, for the first time.
See listing.
stage@nowtoronto.com
