Winter theatre is here

It's so cold outside, but a number of smaller theatres have upped their game to offer interesting offerings to tempt me outside.

I'll start with productions I knew about (and may have already discussed here), then I'll mention some productions that are completely brand new to me.

Shakespeare BASH'd is doing Othello at the Monarch Tavern from Feb 5-Feb 10 (including a couple of matinees).  Othello is far from my favorite tragedy, since I think far too many coincidences break Iago's way (and his wife doesn't intervene when she had a clear opportunity to do so), but it's still a play to be reckoned with.  I took my son to see Driftwood do it, but we had terrible seats, so I'd like to take him to a performance* where we can actually see what's going on.  Shakespeare Bash'd does a good job with Shakespeare, though I do have a certain fondness for their 90 minute adaptations during TO Fringe, whereas now they are doing the full-length plays.

Opening this weekend and running through Feb. 2 is Caryl Churchill's Top Girls at Alumnae.  I have somewhat mixed feelings about this play, and I definitely wish they were doing Cloud Nine instead.  I really haven't decided if I will go (having seen two previous productions), but if I do make it, it will be at one of the PWYC matinees.  So a lot depends on the weather and what else I am doing...

As it happens, I do have a small gap in my calendar.  I decided I just couldn't justify going out to Rochester to see Yankee Tavern.  Maybe if I had started sooner and had gotten the bus fare down around $50...  But it is about $100 now, and worst of all the outbound trip takes 6 hours (with a couple ridiculous layovers in upstate New York).  While the inbound trip is just over 4 hours, I would have to catch the Greyhound at 1 am, and I honestly don't want to be at the Rochester Greyhound station at 1 AM or in Buffalo at 4 AM.  Of course, if I was convinced this would be a spectacular production, I might still do it, but I have a sinking feeling that this would be kind of amateurish, and I just can't see investing this much time and money in a play that I may not even like.  So I'll see if it comes around any closer next year.  I'm still leaning towards making the trip to Chicago in the late spring to see Dietz's Bloomsday.

Probably the single biggest surprise of this half season is that there is a guest presentation at Tarragon where they are doing Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room from Jan 16-27.  I missed an opportunity to see this in Chicago, and have been somewhat regretting that decision ever since.  Anyway, I'll be going next weekend to catch it.  I can't really discuss it much here, as the whole play is very NSFW...

Another somewhat surprising pop-up is 1979, which is a comedy about Joe Clark and his very short reign of terror (just joking...).  I remember that this was presented at Shaw a season or two ago, and then travelled to Ottawa, and now it is here, as a guest production at Canadian Stage.  It has also already opened and runs through Jan 27.  I'll be checking it out on Sunday.  Ticket availability is pretty good so far.

I decided to pass on Next Stage, as the only production that sounded at all interesting turned out to be a fairly lame illusionist act (at least according to one reviewer).  But I am leaning towards The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, which is part of Theatre Centre's Progress Festival.

I don't have all the details yet, but fairly soon there will be a production of Dorfman's Death and the Maiden at Red Sandcastle.  I'm going to pass, as I just think it is inverted revenge porn, but I know a few people might be interested.

In terms of theatre involving Latin American justice (or lack thereof), I'm much more interested in Kiss of the Spider Woman, which runs March 6-10 in the Don Jail!  Tickets for art workers are already sold out!  There are still general admission tickets, but I had better decide what performance works for me and order quickly.

Interestingly, there is a super short run (March 8-10) of Pinter's Betrayal at Red Sandcastle.  I'll want to catch that as well.  This one wasn't on my radar at all, so I'm glad I stumbled across it.

Then Bigre at Canadian Stage brings me to mid to late April.  I'm assuming by then it will finally feel at least a bit like spring, and I'll have another post dealing with spring through summer theatre down the road.

For the summer, I really haven't looked much at Stratford or Shaw, though I am pondering the full-length version of Man and Superman with Don Juan in Hell.  This seems just a bit excessive at 4.5 hours (and a lunch break)!  On the other hand, this isn't going to be performed again at Shaw, probably not in my lifetime.  So if I want to see it, I have to go this summer.  I have to admit Stratford looks pretty disappointing as well.  There's a moderate chance** I'd go see Wajdi Mouawad's Birds of a Kind and a small chance I'd go for Henry VIII. But I don't think I'll be travelling quite as much as I sometimes do for the summer festivals. Perhaps I am thinking so far ahead, since I don't really want to deal with the actual weather outside...

* I am sorry that I picked a date that conflicts with Amici performing Mozart's Gran Partita, as I would have enjoyed that, but you can't do everything obviously.  For a second, I started panicking that I was nearly triple-booked, but in fact the Shostakovich 5th Symphony is March 10, not Feb. 10.

** I just read the summary of Birds of a Kind and am pretty turned off.  I would go see it at Hart House or a black box theatre, but I'm not going at Stratford prices.  On top of everything else, this sounds like a bit of a repeat of Jason Grote's 1001.  So I guess it is Henry VIII or bust...

Speaking of Hart House, I have kind of tuned them out this season after a quick look at the line-up.  They are currently doing the musical Hair, and in early March a Kat Sandler comedy, Retreat.  I think it might be hard to fit in, given everything else going on at that time and it's a short run, but I'll consider squeezing it in.  I'm intrigued that they have this moderately high-profile drag queen in the cast, so I don't know how that could possibly hang together (whether she is going to be campy or not).

Edit (1/22) In addition to forgetting about Hart House, I totally blanked on Oslo presented by Mirvish, but I doubt I will go to this unless I get a discount coupon in my email.  I will definitely be going to the evening of Pinter shorts at Soulpepper, though I will be going the rush ticket route, so will probably see it midweek, to whet my appetite for Betrayal at Red Sandcastle.