Goblin-themed ‘Macbeth’ part of Tarragon’s new season
A new Canadian musical inspired by true events and a goblin-themed riff on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” are among the seven works that will play at Tarragon Theatre as part of the company’s 2024-25 season.
The programming, announced Thursday, features a diverse mix of productions from emerging voices and established playwrights.
“We wanted to lean into being ambitious and what it means to generate electricity with the stories we’re offering next season,” artistic director Mike Payette said in an interview. “These are some raw and intense works that are coupled with comedy and intense laughter, building on what it means to find commonality between each other even through our differences.”
“After the Rain,” a co-commission between Tarragon and the Musical Stage Company, will make its world premiere in May 2025. Written and composed by Rose Napoli and Suzy Wilde, the semi-autobiographical musical is based on Wilde’s experience as a music teacher. It will be helmed by Marie Farsi, who wrote and directed the Crow’s Theatre production of “Fifteen Dogs.”
Tarragon’s new season will begin with “GOBLIN: MACBETH,” running from Oct. 4 to 27. Co-created by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak, the show is an irreverent take on the Bard’s play, about three goblins who stumble across a copy of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and are eager to mount it in a theatre. It played to critical acclaim at the Stratford Festival and in Calgary. Also opening in October is a new work by playwright Rosa Laborde. “Interior Design” is a biting comedy about four girlfriends who discover some messy truths after an attempted intervention. It runs from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10 with direction by Kat Sandler.
Payette himself will direct two productions: “Craze,” written by Rouvan Silogix and Rafeh Mahmud, is billed as a “sexy, surrealist, laugh-out-loud comedy” following a pair of couples who shelter from a storm, and whose time is filled with technological mayhem and sexual frivolity.
In April 2025, Payette will helm “Benevolence,” a solo play written and performed by Kevin Matthew Wong, exploring ideas of migration and what it means to be from the Hakka Chinese dialect group. The play was part of Tarragon’s inaugural Greenhouse Festival in 2023, an incubator program for new work.
“The Wolf in the Voice,” a new work by Martin Julien and Brian Quirt, will also receive its world premiere at Tarragon, running from Feb. 4 to 23, 2025. Starring Neema Bickersteth, Jane Miller and Taurian Teelucksingh, the genre-defying work explores the human voice as an instrument.
Rounding out the season is the Toronto premiere of “Feast,” created by Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Guillermo Verdecchia. The dark comedy, directed by Verdecchia’s longtime collaborator Soheil Parsa, will run from April 1 to 27, 2025.
Tarragon will also welcome dance immersion as its company in residence. The dance company, which focuses on showcasing the performers and dances of the African diaspora, will present its production of “Black & Rural,” described as “an artistic inquiry into the hearts and minds of Black folks tucked away on Canada’s countryside.”