Fall stages set for social commentary
Offerings include incisive, blunt, controversial stories with a side of a musical showcase
The fall theatre season is already in full swing: a lively Fringe Festival, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Arts Club), Kim’s Convenience (Pacific Theatre), Marion Bridge (Kay Meek), The Life of Galileo (United Players). Indigenous plays Kamloopa (Cultch) and Tales of an Urban Indian (Presentation House) open later this month.
These four might be the best of the rest.
LES BELLES-SOEURS
When: Sept. 27-Oct. 6 Where: Gateway Theatre, Richmond
Tickets and info: from $35, gatewaytheatre.com
Michel Tremblay’s groundbreaking 1968 play opened the floodgates for hard-hitting contemporary theatre in Quebec. Set during the Quiet Revolution, Les Belles-soeurs (literally, the sisters-in-law) crams 15 mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, friends and female neighbours into a Montreal tenement kitchen. Chaos ensues as three generations of women struggle to cope with the changing mores of a radically transitioning society in this brilliant, bitter Canadian comic classic.
An incisive slice of social history, the play examines nationalism, feminism and class, religious oppression, sexual repression, the perils of sisterhood and the joys of bingo in an array of witty theatrical set pieces. Director Diane Brown’s all-star cast for Ruby Slippers Theatre includes France Perras, Pippa Mackie, Beatrice Zeilinger, Sarah Rodgers, Lucia Frangione, Melissa Oei, Kerry Sandomirsky, Patti Allan and Emilie Leclerc. Surprisingly, this will be Metro Vancouver’s first professional production of the play. Not to be missed.
KILL ME NOW
When: Oct. 13-27 Where: Firehall Arts Centre Tickets and info: $17, firehallartscentre.ca
In this controversial, harrowing family drama, Canadian playwright Brad Fraser tackles issues of disability, sexuality, and assisted suicide with his patented in-your-face bluntness and off-kilter dark humour. Should the father who nurses his teenage son with severe cerebral palsy also provide the boy sexual relief? When the caretaker needs to be cared for, who determines what’s ethical and what’s off limits?
Since its 2013 premiere, Kill Me Now has gotten raves in New York, London and across Canada. It’s been called “unflinching” and “taboo-busting,” “an important play that boldly goes where few plays have gone before,” but has also been angrily attacked by advocates for the disabled. With a strong cast led by A-list actors Bob Frazer and Luisa Jojic, Roy Surette’s Touchstone Theatre production promises a challenging evening that playgoers will be talking about long after the lights come up.
SWEAT
When: Oct. 18-Nov. 18 Where: Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Tickets and info: from $29, artsclub.com
Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat presciently xrays the Middle American working-class anger and dislocation that put Donald Trump in the White House. Set in 2000 and 2008, in a bar where locals hang out after work at the steel factory, Sweat looks at the ways booze, drugs, crime and race, and especially the erosion of well-paying blue-collar jobs (hello NAFTA!) eat away at the integrity of a rust-belt community.
Nottage has a keen eye for the lives of marginalized people, as Pacific Theatre’s fine production of her play Ruined, set in a bar in civil war-ridden Congo, displayed earlier this year. This is an Arts Club co-production with Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. This production of Sweat features local star Marci T. House and Edmonton’s Ashley Wright, a popular Falstaff in Bard’s Merry Wives of Windsor two summers ago.
BEAUTIFUL – THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL
When: Nov. 13-18 Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Tickets and info: broadwayacrosscanada.ca
A jukebox musical showcasing some of the best songs of the 1960s and 1970s, Beautiful tells the story of Brooklyn teenager Carol Klein’s emergence as songwriter and eventual solo superstar Carole King. Part of the legendary Brill Building songwriting teams with husband Gerry Goffin and friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, King created hits for the Drifters, Shirelles, Righteous Brothers, Aretha Franklin and more. Her solo album Tapestry, with songs like It’s Too Late, I Feel the Earth Move and So Far Away, remained the best-selling album by a female performer for 20 years.
This Broadway Across Canada national touring production highlights the musical genius of a remarkable artist. For a special treat, listen to Aretha’s transcendent version of King’s (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and her exquisite gospel medley of Precious Lord, Take My Hand with King’s You’ve Got a Friend.