A couple of Pulitzer winners and an all-female bromance
Disgraced Watch this if: You don’t want to miss the year’s biggest hot-button issue play.
Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his first crack at writing a play. Disgraced made a splash on Broadway and is now one of the most produced plays across North America and Europe. Its combination of religious and racial intolerance, and the well-loved dinnerparty-gone-wrong format make it a solid bet for anyone that was appalled, but not altogether surprised, by the current discourse around Islamophobia here and south of the border.
Sunday to April 17, Panasonic Theatre, 651Yonge St.
Killer Joe Watch this if: Your family doesn’t have enough drama and you want more in a play.
Tracy Letts, the writer of Pulitzer Prize winner August: Osage County, and Peter Pasyk, director of the recent dinner party drama Late Company, come together for another family drama with violence, vengeance and vices. Featuring actors such as Matthew Edison and Vivien Endicott- Douglas, Killer Joe is the promising third production in Coal Mine Theatre’s season, which has been very strong so far. The close confines of the storefront theatre will also likely put you much closer to the action than comfortable.
Sunday to April 24, Coal Mine Theatre, 1454 Danforth Ave.
Matt & Ben Watch this if: You love Good Will Hunting and very early Mindy Kaling.
As the “Sad Ben Affleck” meme spreads across the Internet amid widespread pans of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, wouldn’t it feel nice to revisit some of Affleck’s happier times? Like so many of us in 2003, Mindy Kaling ( The Office, The Mindy Project) and her collaborator Brenda Withers were obsessed with the Boston bromance of Affleck and Matt Damon. So they wrote Matt & Ben, a fictional exploration of the friendship before the fame. The quirky comedy launched their careers (Kaling’s and Withers’s, not Matt’s and Ben’s) so let’s see if this all-female version can work its charm for an indie cast and crew of upand-comers from Fancy Bits Theatre.
Wednesday to Saturday, Imperial Pub, 54 Dundas St. E.