Centaur Theatre Gets Back to
Making LIVE Theatre
| Centaur Theatre is very excited to be able to announce its 53rd season: an exceptional blend of mainstage productions, a history-making artistic partnership, a momentous anniversary, and a whole new way to commit to a year of live theatre through the new Go Live @ Centaur membership program. |
| “We thought celebrating our golden anniversary three years ago was a remarkable milestone but after the last year and half, the return to live theatre makes this season stand out like no other in Centaur’s prestigious history!” – Eda Holmes, Centaur’s Artistic and Executive Director. |
| As of today, Go Live @ Centaur memberships are available to the general public at 3 price points: Adult ($75), Senior ($62) and Under 30 ($40). The membership cost includes free admission to the first play selection and 25% off on single ticket purchases to the other mainstage productions. Members will also benefit from special discounts to other Centaur events throughout the season. Click HERE for full details. |
The season opens September 2 with a 10-show run of Brave News Looks @ Centaur (BNL). This year, the Onishka/Imago Theatre production of Okinum, written, co-directed and performed by Émilie Monnet, was selected. Okinum, which means “dam”, explores the concept of interior barriers. In the languages of her cultures, (English, French and Anishinaabemowin), utilizing sound, video and storytelling, Monnet navigates the river of ancestral memory to reclaim language and reconnect with the spirits of those who came before her. Okinum is presented in a unique seating arrangement with both audience and actors on stage. This winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards plays until September 11 with limited seating.
Following BNL @ Centaur, the Portico Project livens up St-François-Xavier with Centaur’s second outdoor mini-festival. This year’s iteration presents a dynamic 20-minute, multi-disciplinary event created by the Project’s debut curatorial team—Eo Sharp, Julie Tamiko Manning and Nalo Soyini Bruce. The newly minted Portico Exchange, a playful reference to Centaur’s Montreal Stock Exchange origins, features five unique performers exploring the nature of reciprocation, resulting in the celebration of what we can each bring to the table. This is a free event Thursdays through Sundays from September 23 to October 2.
Vancouver’s Boca del Lupo contributes another highly imaginative and immersive activity to the Portico Project with its Plays2Perform@Home. Partnering with six prominent Canadian theatre companies, Boca commissioned sixteen playwrights to create five box sets of new plays representing British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Eastern Canada. Montreal’s contributing writers are Marie Barlizo, Michaela Di Cesare, Gabe Maharjan and Adjani Poirier. $30 per Box Set or $125 for all five (plus taxes and shipping). Centaur will be selling the Montreal Box Set at the Portico performances or they can be purchased online at bocadellupo.com/plays2perform.
| The first mainstage production of the season sees the return of one of Canada’s foremost creators and actors. Following her triumphant 2019 success with the fully improvised Blind Date, Rebecca Northan brings a brand new, scripted play to Centaur. All I Want for Christmas, playing November 16 to December 5, opens with two centenarian elves receiving a surprising and unprecedented “Dear Santa” package and the North Pole is thrust into hilarity and more than the usual last-minute Christmas chaos. Mariah Inger, Gabe Maharjan and Amelia Sargisson share the stage under Northan’s direction. Leading designers James Lavoie and Andrea Lundy design sets/costumes and lighting respectively. Single tickets for All I Want For Christmas go on sale for Go Live @ Centaur members September 20 and will be available to the general public as of October 11. |
| Kicking off 2022, the Wildside Festival celebrates 25 years of audacious, bold theatre with a mix of on-stage and online performances curated by Centaur’s Associate Artist, Rose Plotek, from January 10 to 23, 2022. Centaur is turning the heat way up this year with some of Montreal’s most exciting theatre creators and for the third consecutive year, Théâtre La Chapelle will be a festival partner. Details about “the hottest two weeks of winter” will be revealed later this fall. |
The second mainstage production of the season is an historical moment for two landmark Montreal theatres. Centaur Theatre and the renowned Théâtre du Nouveau Monde team up for the first time to co-produce a world premiere January 25 to February 13, 2022. Eda Holmes directs both the French and English productions of Embrasse/Kisses Deep, written by one of Quebec’s leading contemporary playwrights, Michel Marc Bouchard and translated by the esteemed Linda Gaboriau.
High fashion and the relationship between suffering and creativity take centre stage when a young man obsessed with Yves St-Laurent sets out to design the perfect dress to redeem his mother’s reputation when she appears for her day in court. Bilingual actors Yves Jacques (as Yves St-Laurent) and Alice Pascual, who both starred in the TNM production, join Lucy Peacock as the mother. Her son Hugo is played by Robert Naylor with Lyndz Dantiste as the police Sergeant. Michael Gianfrancesco designs the set and Sébastien Dionne the costumes. Etienne Boucher’s lighting design is accompanied by video design from Thomas Payette and original music and sound design by Alexander McSween.Elaine Normandeau is the Assistant Director and Stage Manager. Single tickets for Kisses Deep and Wildside 25, go on sale for Go Live @ Centaur members November 1 and will be available to the general public as of November 15.
| Rose Plotek will direct a mainstage production TBA and there is the possibility of a fourth production being added to the season at a later date. Montreal audiences will see the return of other Centaur favourites, such as the TD Saturday Morning Children’s Series and the Saturday Salons, and can anticipate staged readings of new works and more. Discount mainstage single tickets for Go Live @ Centaur members are $47 (Adult), $39.50 (Seniors) and $26 (Under 30). Full price single tickets are $67 (Adult), $57 (Seniors) and $38 (under 30) and all prices include tax and surcharges. Go Live @ Centaur memberships and single tickets can also be purchased by phone at 514-288-3161. Click HERE for full details about Centaur Theatre’s 53rd season. |
