Announcing the World Premiere of Ajax and Little Iliad

World Stage at the Harbourfront Centre is proud to present the World Premiere of Ajax and the Little Iliad.  This is an intimate theatrical experience, with only 30 seats available per show.  So act now because once tickets are gone they are gone.  Ajax... runs April 4-8, 2012 at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre.

Taking a cue from contemporary military rehabilitation programs, Toronto artists, Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O’Connell set out to define "Theatre of War" expressly for the civilian population. Ajax & Little Iliad is a pair of companion works that explore the ways that storytelling connects the actions of artists and soldiers. The 30 audience members also wear pair of headphones; this is contemporary performance at its most topical, personal, immediate and intimate.

 “Powerful... a tiny treat of a show.” -Irish Times
“A profound and poignant synthesis of art and war.” – Irish Theatre magazine

Staging a lost fragment from the Trojan cycle best known from Sophocles’ adaptations, Little Iliad examines the ever-present reality of war in an intimate Skype-like encounter between childhood friends Evan, a writer, and Thom, a soldier about to be deployed (who appears projected upon a clay puppet). Discussing the methods of the US Army-funded company Theatre of War, Little Iliad subtly draws parallels between the ancient epic and modern context of Canada’s involvement in war. Written by Webber and directed by Cox-O’Connell, it premiered at the Festival de l’Outaouais Émergent in Quebec and the Absolute Fringe in Dublin, Ireland in 2010.

The world premiere of Ajax expands on the theme of “theatre of war”, presenting a series of letters addressed to the doomed classical hero. Ajax pushes further into the ideas in Little Iliad but shifts from cinematic naturalism to a richly theatrical imagination of ‘the classical’, complete with helmets and sandals. We are in the golden age of democratic Athens, and we are going to the premiere of Sophocles’ new play: the story of a victorious but conflicted general who acts to oppose the corruption in his own army. The audience and actors all sit together for a dangerous experiment in classical drama: a scripted play in which the actors play the role of the audience and the audience plays a chorus who comment on invisible heroes. Ajax is an unnervingly funny and uncompromising set of questions about theatricality, performance and the authors of history.

Performance makers Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O’Connell have created and performed over a dozen performance works in Canada, the United States and Europe – most frequently, with fellow co-founders, in the group One Reed Theatre and as core collaborators with Small Wooden Shoe. Their work aims to unite the informal and participatory with the precisely rehearsed; it documents their ongoing conversation about reality, performance and change.

Performance details:

Wednesday, April 4, 2012: 8 pm
Thursday, April 5, 2012: 7 pm
Thursday, April 5, 2012: 9 pm
Friday, April 6, 2012: 8 pm
Saturday, April 7, 2012: 4 pm
Saturday, April 7, 2012: 8 pm
Sunday, April 8, 2012: 2 pm
Sunday, April 8, 2012: 4 pm

Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West.

Tickets: $35, $28 (seniors and arts workers), $15 (CultureBreak – 13 to 25 years-old, or students of any age) available at Harbourfront Centre’s Box Office. Call 416.973.4000, or email tickets@harbourfrontcentre.com or visit you can also get tickets by visiting the Harburfront Centre website here.

There is a talk back show with Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O'Connell following the 9pm performance on Thursday, April 5, and a second talk back show Friday April 6.