Edmonton Journal

TEA WITH A TWIST

Firefly upends a British tradition

- LIZ NICHOLLS Edmonton Journal lnicholls@edmontonjo­urnal.com twitter.com/ lizonstage

Firefly elevates tea-time to new heights with their annual High Tea, Sunday afternoon (2 to 4 p.m.) at the ATB Financial Arts Barns. It’s a crazy mix of literal and fantastica­l; have I pekoed your interest?

Acrobat butlers — a job descriptio­n that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the hospitalit­y industry — dangle from above, and swoop by on trapezes to serve tea (Acquired Taste Tea Co.), champagne, and sweets (Duchess Bake Shop). The Spirit Sisters of the Flying Séance (airborne actors Stephanie Wolfe and Belinda Cornish) will read your tea-leaves.

Glasses and teacups will be raised — along with funds for Firefly’s new circus spectacle Panache, running March 7 to 17 at La Cité francophon­e. Firefly artistic director Annie Dugan, who has minimal contact with the ground on most occasions, presides over High Tea, with a cast of performers that includes Kevin Ouellet, Michalene Giesbrecht, Aytahn Roo, and six Firefly aerialists. Tickets ($50, 780-758-9999 or Tix on the Square 780-420-1757).

WINNER IN FILLION VARSCONA FUNDRAISER

In other Firefly news, the sixweek Varscona Rebuild crowdfundi­ng campaign on Prizeo.com sponsored by Nathan Fillion, who starred in the sci-fi TV series of that name, has its grand-prize winner. Jennifer Mills from Richmond, Ind. and a guest will be joining Fillion, star of ABC’s hit Castle series, for a private lunch in Los Angeles. The campaign raised nearly $132,000 for the reconstruc­tion project currently underway on the Varscona Theatre’s home turf in Old Strathcona.

“I can’t even put into words how shiny this is to me and my husband!” wrote Mills on the Prizeo website. “I donated because I believe in the importance of the arts to the imaginatio­n of our youth.”

SEE NATIONAL THEATRE’S HAMLET ON THE SMALL SCREEN

To see or not to see: The hottest ticket in British theatre history will be yours to command soon — on screen. It’s the National Theatre production of Hamlet, with the English stage and film star Benedict Cumberbatc­h as the broody Dane.

The Lyndsey Turner production was a record-breaker from the start. Tickets for the 12-week run in London sold out in minutes; the online queue exceeded 30,000. Now it’s going live to screen, in the National Theatre’s continuing big-screen series.

The live broadcast comes to Scotiabank Theatre West Edmonton Mall and Cineplex South Edmonton Common Oct. 15. Encore performanc­es come to the former location Nov. 7 through 11, and the South Edmonton Common site Nov. 7 through 9. Tickets and times: Cineplex.com/Events/NationalTh­eatre.

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 ??  ?? Firefly Theatre’s High Tea gala fundraiser will feature high-flying, upside-down butlers serving tea, among other fantastica­l fun.
Firefly Theatre’s High Tea gala fundraiser will feature high-flying, upside-down butlers serving tea, among other fantastica­l fun.
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