Preview: Eternal Hydra

Opening this week at the Factory Theatre is the critically acclaimed Eternal Hydra. The show joins Ruined as a must see powerful piece of theatre playing right now in Toronto. Cara Ricketts and David Ferry star in the play that is being produced by Crow’s Theatre in association with Factory Theatre.

Show Description:
Vivian, a scholar, unearths a long-lost manuscript by firebrand author Gordias Carbuncle that is supposedly a work of staggering genius. When Selma Thomas’s connection to Carbuncle is discovered, it sparks a controversy reaching from the high-powered publishing world of present-day New York, to 1930’s Paris, and the American Civil War. Eternal Hydra is about identity politics, sex and the myth of genius – a thrilling look at the making of a modern masterpiece.

Eternal Hydra

Written by Anton Piatigorsky
Directed by Chris Abraham
Until Feb. 13
Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst St.
TICKETS: $28 to $40 at 416-504-9971 or by clicking here!

Photo by Monica Esteves

Preview: Questo Buio Feroce

Opening tomorrow at the Harbourfront Centre, as part of World Stage 2010-11, is Questo Buio Feroce, or (The Wild Darkness.) The show, by performer/creator Pippo Delbono is being hailed as a theatrical spectacle combining dance, theatre and carnival. Questo Buio Feroce is inspired by the autobiographical essays, The Wild Darkness: The Story of My Life, by American Harold Brodkey.

Brodkey, was writing about his life as he neared death from AIDS. The Wild Darkness was published in 1996. For this stage adaption, Delbono, worked with actors and non-actors alike, including former homeless performers, and even one individual who lived for over 40 years in a Naples asylum for the insane. It is sure to be a gripping evening.

EAP is going to see the show on Thursday, to take part in the Q and A after the performance. Questo Buio Feroce runs January 26th - 29th. Click the header for box office information. (Image courtesy of World Stage and photographer Gianluigi di Napoli)

An open letter to Theatre20

Dear Theatre 20,

Congratulations on the launch yesterday and the remarkable reception. It is amazing to see so much theatre energy in Toronto, and it is all because of you. We are looking forward to your residency at the Panasonic because it means you'll be right around the corner. Your website is attached to the letterhead, for all to see. Justin and I are ever so impatient for full productions, which we understand wont begin until next season. But surely there will be lots to talk about until then. I've "clipped" a few of the articles that have been written in the last few days just in case you want to read them over and over. Here is one from The Globe and Mail yesterday, and here is the CBC coverage. It is very exciting to think about all of the great potential for an elevated, if perhaps less commercial brand of theatre. We have high hopes and expectations for all of the artists who have come together for your vision.

Here's to amazing things to come!

Liza Mattimore

Emerging Art Productions

Preview: Redheaded Stepchild & A Maude Lynn Evening

Great fun this weekend at Buddies! Check out these two hit shows as they come together for four evenings only!

For tickets click here.

Preview: Ruined

Opening this week at The Berkeley Street Theatre is the sexually and politically charged RUINED, by Lynn Nottage. The piece is presented by Obsidian Theatre Company in association with Nightwood Theatre Company.

Show Description:

Set in a present-day small mining town in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lynn Nottage's Ruined (2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) follows a young woman's path to Mama Nadi, a savvy businesswoman who, in the midst of a complex civil war, both protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become battlegrounds.

At once heartbreaking and captivating, Ruined pays homage to the courageous and resilient women who must piece themselves together after the ruin.

Sounds pretty compelling to us. For tickets please click here!

RUINED
Written by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Philip Akin
Starring: Yanna McIntosh, Sterling Jarvis, Richard Alan Campbell, Marci T. House, Daniso Ndhlovu, Muoi Nene, Thomas Olajide, Anthony Palmer, Sabryn Rock, Marc Senior, Andre Sills and Sophia Walker

Jan 16th - Feb 12th, 2011
Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs
Toronto, ON

Canadian Opera Company 2011-12 Season

This morning the COC announced It's upcoming season. Among the seven operas the company is planning, are four COC premieres, two of which have never been performed anywhere in Canada. Plus, one of Opera's most enduring classics, Tosca. Click the header to see the full COC press release.

Preview: Fool For Love

Opening this week is another VERY interesting piece from Red One Theatre Company and Ezra's Atlantic Co-op, Sam Shepard's Fool For Love.


Show Description:
Set in a motel room on the edge of a desert, Sam Shepard's intensely sexual psycho-drama is one of the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright's best known works. Written by the Academy award-nominated actor (The Right Stuff) while he was in the process of leaving his first wife to be with Hollywood actress Jessica Lange, the play is a vivid and violent exploration of the terrible bonds of love and family and fate. Eddie and May are the tragic heroes of this tale - lovers who became so before realizing that they were the son and daughter of the same man. When his two separate families discovered his secret the father disappeared and was never seen again. The motel room becomes the crucible for the two lover-siblings, and a father who may or may not be real, to act out the tale of their obsessive, destructive bonds and to try once more to be free of each other forever.


Fool for Love by Sam Shepard
Limited engagement.

Only 10 performances.
$15
Jan. 13th – 21st at 8pm, with a 2pm matinee on Sunday the 16th.
Meta Gallery, 124 Ossington Ave.

Toronto, ON
$20

To reserve tickets, please email foolforlovetoronto@gmail.com.