You might be aware that there’s a HUGE event opening on the world stage next week (whether it’s set to be farce, tragedy, clown show or heroic pageant depends on your viewpoint). Here in Montreal, there’s plenty going on over the rest of winter and spring to offer some much needed distraction. But there’s also a noticeable sharpening of political content, which will no doubt give us much food for thought during these interesting times.
Take Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (84 Ste-Catherine St. W.), which this week sees a rare sighting of that most political of theatrical beasts, Bertolt Brecht: so political, in fact, that he’s often dismissed as an irrelevant Marxist troglodyte. Lorraine Pintal’s production of his The Good Person of Szechwan (La bonne âme du Se-Tchuan in Normand Canac-Marquis’s translation) should put paid to such dismissiveness. It’s a playful parable about a big-hearted prostitute who, bidden to do good by three buffoonish gods, finds she can only do so in hard times by disguising herself as a ruthless, amoral businessman. Leading a 20-strong cast, Isabelle Blais plays Shen-Te and her alter ego Shui-Ta. If you’re worried about “yellowface” casting, let’s point out that Brecht’s China is about as realistic as the cartoonish London he created in his Threepenny Opera. It previews Tuesday, continuing to Feb. 11.
Another francophone show opening this week is Jerk (Usine C, 1345 Lalonde Ave., Jan. 17 to 21), cult-writer Dennis Cooper’s tale of a serial killer speaking through glove puppets. A taste of Cooper’s enjoyably macabre style was seen in his The Ventriloquist’s Convention that played last year’s Festival Transamériques and, like Jerk, was directed by Gisèle Vienne.
Already underway is a remount of director Angela Konrad’s deconstruction of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Auditions ou Me, Myself and I (Théâtre de Quat’sous, 100 Pine Ave. E., to Jan 21). It stars Dominique Quesnel, with whom Konrad worked to such stunning effect in a Québécois Macbeth recently.
The big theatre story of 2017 so far is the departure of Roy Surette, whose tenure as artistic director of Centaur Theatre (453 St-François-Xavier St.) ends in June (watch this space for news of his successor). His very last show as director will be the aptly named You Will Remember Me (March 7 to April 2), the Quebec English language première of the darkly comic tragedy Tu te souviendras de moi by François Archambault (who also has a new play, Une morte accidentelle opening at La Licorne, 4559 Papineau St., on Tuesday). It’s about an academic struggling with senility and weaves family drama in with the fading memories of the Lévesque years.
Before that, there’s the Surette-directed production of Steven Sach’s two-handed comedy, Bakersfield Mist (Jan. 31 to Feb. 26), which arrives at Centaur from Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre. It stars Nicola Cavendish as a trailer-park ex-bartender who might have bought a multi-million-dollar Jackson Pollock from a local thrift store. Jonathan Monro plays the pompous art expert who arrives to appraise whether it is indeed the work of Jack the Dripper.
Ellen David directed a terrific production of Archambault’s The Leisure Society some years back, so there’s confidence that she’ll be more than capable of handling the high demands of Clybourne Park (April 4 to 30), Bruce Norris’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play that ingeniously riffs on Lorraine Hansberry’s ’50s classic, A Raisin in the Sun. It brings the story up-to-date to a contemporary and perhaps even more racially charged Chicago. Centaur’s season ends on an amiable note with Bed and Breakfast (April 25 to May 21). The heart-warming tale of two gay B&B proprietors in a tiny tourist town, it first played at the Thousand Island Playhouse in Gananoque, Ont.
The Segal Centre’s (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd.) year opens with a crash, a bang and hopefully waves of laughter as Michael Frayn’s classic Noises Off takes the stage from Jan. 29 to Feb. 19. It’s an ingenious slice of meta-theatre in which the staging of a raucous trouser-dropping farce is doubled by the chaotic backstage antics of the hapless cast. It’s being directed by filmmaker Jacob (The Trotsky) Tierney, whose production of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties played at the Segal in 2015.
It’s followed by a visiting production from Toronto’s theatrical jewel, Soulpepper, of Kim’s Convenience (March 8 to 19), the hit comedy about a Korean store that went on to become a CBC sitcom last year.
Segal boss Lisa Rubin follows up her impressive directing debut of Bad Jews with Million Dollar Quartet (April 23 to May 14), the Tony-award winning show that recreates the too-good-to-be-true (but actually true) 1956 recording session, which included Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.
Over in the Segal Studio, Black Theatre Workshop and Tableau D’Hôte première Lorena Gale’s Angélique (March 15 to April 2), which tells the story behind the story of a slave who started a fire in 18th century Montreal. BTW will also be giving the public the opportunity to catch its school-touring production of Blue Nose, a playful look at prejudice on a pirate ship, at the Black Community Resource Centre, 6767 Côte-des-Neiges Rd., on Feb. 18. And don’t forget the lavish BTW Gala this year, which will be honouring, among others, director and educator Winston Sutton on Jan. 28 at the EVO Hotel, 420 Sherbrooke St. W.
Segal Studio also sees award-winning lighting designer Itai Erdal reprising a show first seen at Usine C: How to Disappear Completely (April 30 to May 14) takes a tender look at mortality and the magic of light.
Geordie Productions are opening up their school-touring productions for the general public with Erin Shields’s Instant, Marcus Youssef’s Jabber and Jesse Strong’s Water Weight playing at Le Monument-National (1182 St-Laurent Blvd.) March 21 to 26.
Meanwhile, over at Théâtre St-James (265 St-Jacques St.), Infinithéâtre continues its commitment to new writing with the première of Oren Safdie’s Mr. Goldberg Goes to Tel Aviv (Feb. 2 to 19), a comedy about a Canadian writer controversially sticking his oar into the Israel-Palestine conflict. Infinithéâtre then return to their temporary Rialto Infinite Studio base (5723 Parc Ave.) for a remount of Michael Michel’s sexy and thoughtful comedy-drama, Honesty Rents By the Hour (March 2 to 19).
Imago Theatre have a particularly hot-topic piece on their hands with Intractable Woman, Stefano Massini’s play about murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, which guests at Centaur Theatre, Feb. 9 to 18.
Over at Mainline Theatre (3997 St-Laurent Blvd.), there’s the chance to catch two Shakespeare productions: Snowglobe’s Much Ado About Nothing, Jan. 26 to 29, and Théâtre Sans Argent’s Troilus and Cressida, Feb. 23 to 26.
If you’re desperately looking for big, brash escapist entertainment, head over to Place des Arts for the visiting production of the Abba extravaganza Mamma Mia (Feb. 17 to 19).
Meanwhile, back to the francophone side, TNM follow up their Brecht production with a real scoop, made possible by the cancellation, due to health reasons, of Novecento. Replacing it is Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s heart-warming one-hander Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran (Feb. 22 to 28), performed by the author himself.
Other francophone highlights include three adaptations that were previously classic films: Vol au-dessus d’un nid de coucou at Théâtre Rideau Vert (4664 St-Denis St.), March 21 to April 22; Harold et Maude at Théâtre Duceppe (Place des Arts), April 5 to May 13; and Le décline de l’empire Américain at Espace Go (4890 St-Laurent Blvd.), Feb. 28 to April 1. Meanwhile, FTA hit Siri returns for a date at Théâtre Aujourd’hui (3900 St-Denis St.), Jan. 17 to Feb. 4.
Finally, the narrowing of the anglo-francophone divide continues at Théâtre Prospero (1371 Ontario St. E.) with a bilingual presentation of Jon Lachlan Stewart’s Fringe classic Big Shot from April 11 to 29.