Explosive and techy tales set to open local theatre seasons
Under the artistic direction of Suzie Martin, Theatre Projects Manitoba (TPM) continues the company's tradition of homegrown storytelling, kicking off its season with an innovative and potentially explosive, multi-tiered production of O.G.I. (The Only Good Indian). Each incarnation 'recruits a new artist to step into the radical headspace of a suicide bomber,' the description reads. 'In turn, each performer straps themselves into a suicide vest — and struggles to rationalize to the audience such an 'irrational decision.''
Written and performed by Debbie Patterson, Hazel Venzon, Eric Plamondon, Jivesh Parasram and Tom Arthur Davis, the original production burbles with intrigue and potential for thought-provoking drama. Set to run inside Prairie Theatre Exchange's Colin Jackson Studio Theatre from Sept. 18 to 27, O.G.I. promises to be a pressurized experiment in storytelling for its performers and audiences alike.
Developed by the ever-mobile One Trunk Theatre at various stops along TPM's annual live art trade route, The Martian and the Mound was concocted with citizens and artists throughout southern Manitoba, with premières planned in Neubergthal (Oct. 17-19), Morden (Oct. 31-Nov. 2) and at the Gas Station Arts Centre (Nov. 14-17). Performed by Morden's Candlewick Players, the show, written by Andraea Sartison (Ponderosa Pine), follows Dr. Phoenix Albright, an archaeologist from the red planet investigating a mysterious, magnetic 'pull' beneath a Manitoba mound.
Following stagings of David Yee's among men and Armin Wiebe's The Recipe, TPM will partner with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre for the third consecutive year. Local playwright Trish Cooper's Holland, directed by Martin, tells the story of married couple Carrie and Paul, who aim to meet their disabled child's best interests while contending with an antagonistic social worker.
Holland (Feb. 4-21 at the Tom Hendry Warehouse) is Cooper's second original script to be staged by the RMTC in a two-year span following 2024's The Comeback.
At Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, artistic and managing director Dan Petrenko has constructed a season built around two 10-day productions and a pair of limited engagements.
The company's 38th regular season begins at the Berney Theatre with the Dev Hynes-scored JOB The Play, a techy therapy comedy written by American playwright Max Wolf Friedlich (Sept. 11-21), followed by a reading of playwright-in-residence Alex Poch-Goldin's The Right Road to Pontypool. A creation centred on early 20th-century entrepreneur Moishe Yukle Bernstein's efforts to carve out space for Jewish summertime recreation in a small Ontario town where mostly Protestants resided (Nov. 22-23).
The season closes with RIDE, a real-life musical about a 19th-century Bostonian — a Latvian Jewish immigrant named Annie Cohen Kopchovsky — who, under the name Annie Londonderry, became the first woman to ride her bicycle around the world (April 16-26). A bonus production of a 'top secret surprise musical' has also been programmed for two nights (May 22-23) at an undisclosed venue.
ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com
Ben WaldmanReporter
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
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