Counts and princes will rule the stage in Vertigo’s next season
Some mighty big names will be part of Vertigo Theatre’s 2018/2019 season.
Dashiell Hammett’s Nick and Nora Charles will be making an appearance as will Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet and Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe.
Since he took the helm at Vertigo six years ago, Craig Hall has been casting his net farther afield each year looking for plays that are not even hot off the press, which means he will have two world premieres and two Canadian premieres as well as a couple of classics.
The new season will kick off Sept. 15 to Oct. 14 with Lucia Frangione’s stage adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1933 novel The Thin Man, featuring his rich and glamorous detectives Nick and Nora Charles.
Hall began talking to Frangione about a possible stage version of one of Hammett’s Nick and Nora novels when Frangione was starring in Farewell My Lovely at Vertigo.
“Lucia has made Nora a Japanese-American which will add a whole new dimension to the story. The comedy in this version is so well mixed in with the mystery,” says Hall.
The Thin Man will be directed by Courtenay Dobbie, the artistic director of Vancouver’s Theatre Melee.
Hall will direct the season’s second show, the Canadian premiere of Dracula: The Bloody Truth, which will run Nov. 10 to Dec. 8.
Hall says he “saw an item about the release for the published version of this new play.” It’s a comedy-thriller for four actors who play 40 different characters.
“My original intention was to bring the British troupe to Calgary for the High Performance Rodeo, but they are booked solid for the next two years. They suggested we do the Canadian premiere.
“There is a bit of an English pantomime feel to this one so we’re going to bill it as a dark family comedy.”
Jamie Dunsdon will direct a new version of Ira Levin’s classic stage thriller Deathtrap for a Jan. 26 to Feb. 24 run at Vertigo.
“I’m excited about bringing Deathtrap back. Audiences love this thriller about scheming playwrights. It opened on Broadway in 1978 and you have to keep it in that period if it is going to work.”
Three seasons ago, Vertigo had a runaway hit with American playwright Joseph Goodrich’s Calamity Town. Once Goodrich saw how Vertigo’s designers use projections and moving sets, the playwright reworked one of his early scripts for Hall. Haysam Kadri will direct this Canadian premiere of the classic Nero Wolfe mystery.
Vertigo’s second world premiere is a collaboration with Catalyst Theatre. Jonathan Christenson is working on a musical thriller called Agents of Influence, which will run at Vertigo May 11 to June 9.
In it, Canadian millionaire William Stephenson convinces Churchill and Roosevelt to combine forces in an effort to defeat Hitler by creating an elite team of spies, including six young women.
“Jonathan premiered his Edgar Allan Poe thriller Nevermore at Vertigo and it was an enormous success for both Vertigo and Catalyst so when I heard he was working on this new show, I asked if he’d do the premiere with us.”
Vertigo also had a hit when it teamed up with The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions for Macbeth. It sold out so quickly they brought it back the next year. So why not return to Shakespeare?
Anna Cummer, who adapted and starred in the mystery-thriller version of Macbeth, has now done an adaptation of Hamlet stressing the supernatural aspects of the play, which explains why it will be called Hamlet, A Ghost Story.
This joint production with The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions will run March 20 to April 13.
Subscriptions to Vertigo’s 2018/2019 season begin at $164 per person and can be purchased at the box office or by phone (403221-3708) or online at vertigotheatre.com
Lucia has made Nora a Japanese-American which will add a whole new dimension to the story.