Diving into the deep end of Montreal’s fall theatre season

Article content material

There’s good cause to hope that Montreal’s fall theatre season will begin swimmingly Saturday when Pool (No Water), a visitor present from Persephone Productions, reopens the Segal Centre. 

Article content material

Taking part in within the Segal Studio area by means of Sept. 15, it’s a few group of younger theatre-makers confronted with an pressing and horrible dilemma: Ought to they exploit a horrific accident that befalls one in all their quantity to realize the success that has eluded them to date?

Article content material

The play, from in-yer-face Brit author Mark Ravenhill, is arguably an uncommon selection for the as soon as classically minded Persephone Productions, and one which marks a dramatic assertion of intent for the corporate’s younger new directing staff of Rebecca Gibian and Leila Ghaemi. (They have been featured within the Montreal Gazette at first of the yr as my artists to be careful for in 2022.)  

“It’s a play a few group of rising artists who’re searching for success and grappling with what it means to attain success,” Gibian tells the Montreal Gazette. “It’s a play I’ve had my eye on for some time, partly as a result of I’m an rising artist myself. And within the context of Persephone Productions (an organization set as much as encourage new younger artists), it appeared too good to go up. Plus, the play is much more attention-grabbing post-pandemic, in its questions on making it as an artist in a life-or-death state of affairs.”

Article content material

Later within the season, two traditional monsters will probably be battling it out within the Segal’s two performing areas simply in time for Halloween. On the primary stage, there’s the farcical Dracula: Comedy of Terrors (Oct. 23 to Nov. 13), with dozens of characters conjured up by a forged of 4. Over within the Segal Studio will probably be everyone’s favorite lumbering dwelling corpse in Frankenstein: A Dwelling Comedian Ebook (Oct. 19 to 30), a visually wealthy mixture of dwell efficiency and digital wizardry put collectively by Geordie Theatre, Wyrd Productions and Rick Miller’s firm Kidoons.

Pool (No Water) performs from Saturday, Sept. 3 to Thursday, Sept. 15 on the Segal Centre, 5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd. Tickets: $30. Name 514-739-7944 or go to segalcentre.org.

Article content material

***

Centaur Theatre (453 St-François-Xavier St.) opens its season with the much-delayed Cyclorama (Oct. 11 to Nov. 5), a bilingual two-venue drama-doc created by Laurence Dauphinais. It asks that perennial query on this province of Two Solitudes: Why are we so divided? Intriguingly, the manufacturing goals to slender that divide by actually placing its viewers on the bus throughout the efficiency and transporting it throughout city to Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui.

Cyclorama is adopted by Hannah Moscovitch’s provocative, Governor Normal’s Award-winning comedy Sexual Misconduct of the Center Lessons (Nov. 8 to 27). Directed by Eda Holmes, it charts the connection between an completed tutorial and a teenage scholar, set throughout pre- and post-#MeToo occasions. Inès Defossé will play the scholar, Marcel Jeannin the errant prof. (514-288-3161; centaurtheatre.com)

Article content material

Jeannin will even be within the nine-strong forged of a revival of Vittorio Rossi’s Paradise by the River, Sept. 13 to Oct. 2 on the Leonardo da Vinci Centre (8370 Lacordaire Blvd.). It’s a narrative of revenge springing from the internment of Italian-Canadians after Mussolini declared battle on England and France. (514-955-8370; cldv.ca)

This yr noticed a change of creative administrators at Imago Theatre, with Krista Jackson taking up from Micheline Chevrier. The corporate’s newest present is a manufacturing of British playwright Daybreak King’s acclaimed rural drama Foxfinder, Oct. 5 to fifteen on the MAI centre (3680 Jeanne-Mance St.). It conjures up a dystopian future wherein foxes, quite than local weather change, take the rap for the world’s woes. (514-982-1812; m-a-i.qc.ca)

Article content material

Teesri Duniya Theatre joins forces with Dwell Motion Theatre Challenge for Meet Me, an immersive promenade manufacturing that can play from Sept. 29 to Oct. 8 on the McGill College campus. (The assembly level is the Tuesday Night time Cafe Theatre in Morrice Corridor, 3485 McTavish St.) Like Moscovitch’s play at Centaur, it issues itself with questions of consent and sexual misconduct in an instructional setting. (514-848-0238; teesriduniyatheatre.com)

Across the time Dracula and Frankenstein are stalking the Segal, MainLine Theatre (3997 St-Laurent Blvd.) will probably be reanimating its Halloween manufacturing of The Rocky Horror Present (Oct. 20 to 31) after a hiatus because of the pandemic.

Earlier than that, Acts to Grind Theatre will evoke real-life horrors at MainLine with Cherry Docs (Sept. 28 to Oct. 9), David Gow’s blistering two-hander a few murderous neo-Nazi and his Jewish lawyer. (514-849-3378; mainlinetheatre.ca)

Article content material

Over at Hudson Village Theatre (28 Wharf Rd.), Harry Standjofski will probably be performing solo in Bloodshot (Oct. 19 to Nov. 6), Douglas Submit’s Fifties-set noir thriller about an alcoholic ex-police photographer who, Antonioni’s Blow Up-style, solely sees the complete image when it’s too late. (450-458-5361; villagetheatre.ca)

Jean Genet’s traditional The Maids will get a radical remodeling at La Chapelle (3700 St-Dominique St.) with Proje(c)t; les bonnes (Sept. 6 to 10) from Third Area Theatre. Carried out in Spanish, French and English (with English surtitling on Sept. 9), it hops throughout eras from the Despair to modern-day Montreal.

Additionally taking part in at La Chapelle is a rerun of final spring’s Pageant TransAmériques present Malaise dans la civilisation (Nov. 10 to 13), which packs philosophy, deadpan humour and slapstick right into a completely satisfying complete. (514-843-7738; lachapelle.org)

Article content material

Talking of slapstick, the Pageant des Clowns de Montréal will make a welcome return this yr, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 at Le Gesù (1200 Bleury St.). The lineup contains acts from throughout Canada (in addition to New York), together with Toronto’s Pearle Harbour and Tupiq A.C.T. from Nunavik and Montreal. (mtlclownfest.com)

Lastly, opening at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (84 Ste-Catherine St. W.) this month is La nuit des rois (Sept. 20 to Oct. 15), a brand new translation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night time. (514-866-8668; tnm.qc.ca)