RONNIE BURKETT AND FRIENDS
The Daisy Theatre Feb. 20-March 25
CENTAUR THEATRE
453 St-Francois-Xavier St.
The Baklawa Recipe
Jan. 23-Feb. 18
Two young Lebanese women emigrate from their homeland to start new lives in Ville-St-Laurent. Forever bound when they marry two Canada-born Lebanese brothers, they struggle to integrate the traditional female roles of their closeknit community with the emerging face of the independent woman of the1960s. The mothers and their first-generation Canadian daughters personify the challenges of living between two worlds: one shaped by their cultural origins and the other by their adopted home. Two generations of women, their joys and complexities, as warm and sweet as Baklawa. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
The Daisy Theatre
Feb. 20-March 25
The Daisy Theatre is world-renowned Canadian puppet mastermind Ronnie Burkett, unleashed and unscripted in a hilarious one-man cabaret packed with 40 of the most outrageous characters you’ll ever encounter. Meet Canada’s oldest and worst actress, Miss Lillian Lunkhead; chanteuse Jolie Jolie; marionette ventriloquist, Meyer Lemon; and lounge singer, Rosemary Focaccia. The bawdy antics of Esme Massengill, Mrs. Edna Rural and beloved fairy child Schnitzel, lampooning theatre, opera, music hall, Vegas, and vaudeville in a nightly improv, have audiences coming back for seconds and thirds. For 16 years and older. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Successions
April 10-May 6
From the award-winning creator of the hit comedy, 8 Ways My Mother was Conceived, and Wildside Festival favourite In Search of Mrs. Pirandello, comes a family saga about two second-generation Italian-Canadian brothers: an uptight lawyer running for office and his party-hearty kid brother. After the sudden death of their parents, they must decide what to do with the family home, a rundown relic stuffed to the gills with secrets and a lifetime of worthless junk. To move forward, they need to let go but at what cost to their relationship? Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Hosanna
May 15-June 10
The 2015 quadruple Montreal English Theatre Award-winning production by Montreal’s Tableau D’Hôte Theatre, and the first professional English production of Michel Tremblay’s seminal work in his own hometown. Hosanna, a.k.a. Claude Lemieux, returns home in tears after being cruelly betrayed by her lover and friends at a Halloween party. Over the course of one tumultuous evening that volleys dizzily between catty quips and gutwrenching honesty, the Cleopatra impersonator comes face to face with her deepest fears and insecurities. In a world that forced her to wear a mask to fit in, will the need to be loved and appreciated for who she truly is outweigh the dread of shedding her illusions? Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. 514-288-3161 www.CentaurTheatre.com
INFINITHÉÂTRE
Espace Knox, 6215 Godfrey Ave.
Conversion
Feb. 6-25
Hot topics and clever wit at the dinner table offer audiences plenty to chew on. In Conversion’s hyperrealistic world, we get an intimate glimpse into the lives of four family members. Abi and Al, a young mixedrace couple, host a family dinner plagued by Abi’s mother Mary, laying waste with her polarizing, destructiveness of bigotry and religious intolerance. It is meant to be a straightforward celebratory supper, but familiar patter and patterns quickly devolve into a collision course of identities — race, class, gender and religion. This is the night that secrets explode and the bonds of love and blood get twisted and tested. Imagine Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf on steroids and Guess Who’s Coming to (ruin) Dinner. 514-987-1774 http://www.infinitheatre.com/
LAKESHORE PLAYERS DORVAL
Lakeside Academy High School, 5050 Sherbrooke St., Lachine
Calendar Girls
Feb. 8-17, 8 p.m.
Based on the Miramax motion picture by Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth, Calendar Girls is a heartwarming comedy about a group of women from Knapely Village, Yorkshire, who pose for a charity calendar. Steve Gillam directs this talented cast of inspiring characters.
Rough Justice
May 10-19, 8 p.m.
Carolyn Fe directs this intriguing courtroom drama about a crime reporter, now on trial for murder. This poignant, relevant and controversial story will keep you on the edge of your seat. Guilty or innocent? 514-631-8718 www.lakeshoreplayersdorval.com
MONTREAL IMPROV 50/50
Jan. 21, 8:30 p.m.
Montreal Improv Theatre,
3697 St-Laurent Blvd.
Nine scripted actors are paired with 9 improvisers who have no prior knowledge of what the actors have rehearsed, making it up as they go along. The result is a hilarious, exciting and one-of-a-kind theatre experience, seen only at Montreal Improv Theatre. 50/50 has been performed in the past to sellout audiences at Mprov and Just For Laughs. Its cast includes award-winning actors, hilarious comedians and talented improvisers from all over Montreal, gathered together for one night only. Imprivisors: Dale Bernier (Coffee Break), Alex Brown (Good Boy), Jess Fildes (Jess and Vance), Todd Houseman (Folk Lordz), Sehar Manji (Colour Outside the Lines), DJ Mausner (Crybabies), James McGee (Too Sick, Bro), Marc Rowland (The Dice of Destiny), Brent Skagford (Easy Action). Actors: Miriam Cummings (The Tragedy of Julius Caesar), Nicky Fournier (The Sad Music of a Sad Man), Raphael Grosz-Harvey (CBC’s Bellevue), Cat Lemieux (Chlorine, Triplex Nervosa), Dayane Ntibarikure (Binti’s Journey, Angelique), Carmen Rose (Dough Girls), Joy Ross-Jones (Elsewhere), Ross Wegscheider (Employees of the Year), Bianca Yates (Just Askin’). Featuring Blood & Thunder hosted by Vance Gillis https://www.facebook.com/ events/132523937445823/
At the Movies
Feb. 10, 8 p.m.
Montreal Improv Theatre, Theatre B, 3713 St-Laurent Blvd.
In At the Movies, a team of expert improvisers watch the first five minutes of an obscure movie that none of them have seen before and then make up the rest live on stage. Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes the ultimate romantic comedy, made up on the spot. Starring Andy Assaf, Alex Brown, Laura Buchanan, Jess Fildes, James Mcgee, Helena Vassiliou. Featuring Anglais to de Max Coffee Break. https://www.facebook.com/ events/155232245101646/
SEGAL CENTRE FOR PERFORMING ARTS
5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd.
“Master Harold” ... and the Boys
Jan. 21-Feb. 11, 8 p.m.
The acclaimed Shaw Festival production. Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1950: Seventeen-year-old Harold does his homework while two black men, who have long worked as servants for his family, clean the floors. As the day unfolds, the three reminisce fondly about times spent together, but when news comes that Harold’s alcoholic father is returning home, affections turn to anger, intimacies sour, and the personal becomes political. The play was initially banned in South Africa and has since become an enduring, modern classic that continues to speak to inequality and injustice. The Segal, in association with Black Theatre Workshop, presents the Shaw Festival production in association with Obsidian Theatre.
Marjorie Prime
Feb. 25-March 18, 8 p.m.
2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Written by Jordan Harrison, directed by Lisa Rubin, starring Clare Coulter, Tyrone Benskin, Eloi Archam Baudoin and Ellen David. Eighty-five-year-old Marjorie, grappling with fading memories, receives help from a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed back only the best stories of her life. But given the chance, what would we remember, what would we forget? In this wondrous, touching and clever new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity, collective family memory and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace. Marjorie Prime is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
The Angel and the Sparrow
April 15-May 6, 8 p.m.
A play with music featuring 20 immortal hits by Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf. By Daniel Große Boymann and Thomas Kahry, adapted by Erin Shields from an English translation by Sam Madwar. Based on a concept by David Winterberg, directed by Gordon Greenberg. Based on the true story of Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf, two indomitable women of incomparable talent. This new musical drama is an intimate and entertaining portrait of a fascinating friendship between show business legends that began under the most unlikely of circumstances and lasted their entire lives. Featuring 20 of their unforgettable hits including La vie en Rose, Milord, and Where Have All the Flowers Gone.
Golda’s Balcony
May 22-June 10, 8 p.m.
2004 Tony nomination for Best Actress. Montreal Premiere. Written by William Gibson, starring Tovah Feldshuh. The longest running onewoman show in Broadway history! A riveting portrait of Golda Meir and her journey from the pogroms of Russia to the halls of the Knesset as Israel’s first and only female prime minister. This award-winning play features four-time Tony and two-time Emmy Award-nominated Tovah Feldshuh. This one-woman tour de force promises to be a thrilling, deeply moving and unforgettable night of theatre. 514-739-7944 www.segalcentre.org
THÉÂTRE DU NOUVEAU MONDE
84 Ste. Catherine St. W.
Les fourberies du Scapin
Jan. 16-Feb.10
This Molière three-act farce features Scapin the schemer, a valet who is pressed into service to sort things out when two young men take advantage of their fathers’ absence to find the women of their dreams — who happen not to be the wives the fathers would have chosen.
La détresse et l’enchantement
Feb. 10-March 10
La détresse et l’enchantement is based on the last book written by Gabrielle Roy. It attempts to recreate everything that shaped the novelist’s life: the places, the events and the people who formed her personality. The book has been called one of the most original works in Quebec and Canadian literature. In French.
L’Idiot
March 20-April 14
Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot brought to the stage by a new generation of actors. In French.
Les Chaises
May 8-June 2
Les Chaises by Eugène Ionesco is sometimes called a “tragic farce.” It features two characters, Old Man and Old Woman, preparing chairs for invisible guests who are coming for the revelation of the Old Man’s discovery. In French. 514-866-8668 http://www.tnm.qc.ca/