Curtain call

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/09/2022 (1500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Well, summer is officially over. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but the changing of the seasons brings with it some benefits: the temporary utility of light jackets, the beautiful foliage on the trees and the satisfying crunch of the fallen leaves under our feet.

Autumn also brings a new season of theatre, and in Winnipeg there’s a lot to see, including some productions that have been hotly anticipated since before the pandemic began.

The Free Press has a quick round-up of some of the shows, which — barring any scheduling changes — will see the curtains raised over the coming weeks.

OCTOBER

● The Velveteen Rabbit, by Purni Morell with music by Jason Carr
Based on the story by Margery Williams
Oct. 14-23

A precursor to Toy Story in the spirit of Pinocchio, this classic story of a stuffed rabbit who yearns to become “real” is an always-relevant parable about relationships, love and being comfortable in your own fur. Eric Blais narrates, Kamal Chioua plays the boy and Tom Keenan becomes the rabbit, accompanied by pianist Brady Barrientos with direction by Ray Strachan. Recommended for ages three and up, Velveteen is a valuable story for anyone looking to hear it.

● Network, adapted for the stage by Lee Hall from the screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Oct. 19-Nov.12

When it premiered in 1976, Sidney Lumet’s Network was an explosive indictment of the media, capitalism, consumerism and corporate America. Nearly 50 years later, the story of a newsman who loses it on air, triggering a ratings bonanza, is more prescient than ever. With local actor Jim Mezon sliding into the rumpled suit of anchorman Howard Beale, delivering the famed monologues of legendary screenwriter Chayefsky, Network will leave audiences mad as hell.

● Old Stock, by Hannah Moscovitch, Ben Caplan and Christian Barry
Winnipeg Jewish Theatre
Oct. 29-Nov.6

Billed as a refugee love story, filled with klezmer music and teetering on the verge of tragedy, Old Stock was inspired by playwright Moscovitch’s grandparents’ plight as Jewish refugees from Romania arriving in Canada in 1908. Starring Canadian musician Ben Caplan, who wrote the music with director Christian Barry, the Washington Post called it “often funny and impishly irrelevant,” a “rollicking klezmer musical” that is quirky, timely and resonant.

 

NOVEMBER

● Bad Parent, by Ins Choi
Prairie Theatre Exchange
Nov. 2-20

This play, from the creator of stage and television phenomenon Kim’s Convenience,was meant to have its international debut in 2020 at PTE, then again in spring 2022. Better late than never, and if anything, the anticipation has grown for this story of a couple (Josette Jorge and Raugi Yu) trying to keep themselves together as they navigate the often-pathetic, frequently chaotic world of raising a child without losing their minds.

● None of This Is Happening, by Ellen Peterson
Theatre Projects Manitoba
Nov. 10-20

An apocalyptic fable following three aging ex-vaudevillians, Ellen Peterson’s latest is described by TPM as “a play about garbage, longing, Niagara Falls, and our inescapable interconnectedness — for better and worse.” Peterson’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, produced by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, received a four-star review from the Free Press in 2018. Alissa Watson (The Paper Bag Princess at PTE) directs Monique Marcker, Gabriel Daniels and Jane Testar. Count us in.

● Antigone, by Sophocles, translated by Anne Carson
Sick+Twisted Theatre Company
Nov. 17-27

This classic tragedy was written in the sixth century before the common era, but Sick+Twisted hopes to give the story, based on Greek legend, a fresh new spin. Performed by a cast of deaf, disabled and non-disabled artists, produced by AA Battery Theatre and the Mariachi Ghost, it’s a fair bet that this Antigone will have added layers of poetry, humour and meaning. Described as “exuberant, edgy, and urgent,” the production is said to “highlight the vulnerability at the very heart of courage.”

● The Three Musketeers
Adapted for the stage by Catherine Bush from the novel by Alexandre Dumas
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Nov. 23-Dec. 17

Athos, Porthos, Aramis, D’Artagnan and the dastardly Cardinal Richelieu roll into town for this adaptation of the 1844 swashbuckler by the French author Alexandre Dumas, a timeless tale of kingdom, country, love and war. All for one, and one for all.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca