Category Archives: All Years

Strictly Murder (Jan 26 – Feb 4, 2017)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Strictly Murder (Jan 26 – Feb 4, 2017)

Strictly Murder by Brian Clemens

April 1939. An English couple, Peter and Suzy, are living in Provence in idyllic isolation, far, it seems, from the rumblings of the coming war. Their peace is shattered from within when Suzy discovers she has been betrayed: Peter is not the man he claims to be! Is he in fact a ruthless killer on the run? When a Scotland Yard detective arrives, events become even more complicated and frightening. Lies, subterfuge and murder make this fast-moving thriller a dark and disturbing roller coaster of bluff and double bluff. “…an intricate, interesting and enigmatic story… plenty of intrigue and suspense…” ~ British Theatre Guide

The Best Man (Nov 24 – Dec 3, 2016)

By | | ,
Comments Off on The Best Man (Nov 24 – Dec 3, 2016)

The Best Man by Gore Vidal

William Russell, the former U.S. Secretary of State, is a wit and scholar with high liberal principles, beloved of the eggheads and suspected by practical politicians. Joseph Cantwell is a ruthless and hard-driving young man, a dirty fighter who lets no scruples stand in the way of his ambitions, and Arthur Hockstader is an ex-President, who loves politics for their own sake, admires a rough-and-tumble battler more than a chivalrous one, and is determined to have the final say in the selection of his party’s candidate. Cantwell has got hold of papers indicating that his rival once suffered from a mental crackup, which he is all set to use. Then his scrupulous antagonist comes across some incriminating evidence about Cantwell… “Well-crafted and witty with surprises, reversals, pungent character sketches, satire, worldly wisdom and juicy roles for all concerned.” ~ New York Magazine

Entertaining Angels (Sept 29 – Oct 8, 2016)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Entertaining Angels (Sept 29 – Oct 8, 2016)

Entertaining Angels by Richard Everett
From September 29 to October 8, 2016

A North American premiere!

As a vicar’s wife in an English country parish, Grace has spent a lifetime on her best behaviour. Now, after the death of her husband Bardolph, she can enjoy the new-found freedom of being able to say and do exactly what she wants. But the return of her eccentric missionary sister, Ruth, together with some disturbing revelations, forces Grace to confront the truth of her marriage. Set in a lush vicarage garden, the play is filled with sharp-edged comedy and probing wit. “A very English comedy with some real emotion… scratch the surface and you’ll find interesting undercurrents rippling the water… Adultery, miscarriage, divorce and deception interestingly handled all, are just some of the problems that writer Richard Everett beds down among well-received jokes… This is a sure-fire hit…” ~ London Evening Standard

You Never Can Tell (May 19-28, 2016)

By | | ,
Comments Off on You Never Can Tell (May 19-28, 2016)

An Irish Comedy by George Bernard Shaw.

The comedy You Never Can Tell was George Bernard Shaw’s 1896 answer to The Importance of Being Earnest. As the play opens, Mrs. Clandon and her children, Dolly, Phillip and Gloria, have just returned to England 18 years after their departure. The children have no idea who their father is and, through a comedy of errors, end up inviting him to a family lunch. At the same time, a dentist named Valentine has fallen in love with the eldest daughter, Gloria, who considers herself a modern woman and claims to have no interest in love or marriage. Will Valentine succeed in changing her mind? Throughout the play, the wise and friendly waiter, Walter (most commonly referred to by the characters as “William,” because Dolly thinks he resembles Shakespeare), dispenses his wisdom with the titular phrase “You Never Can Tell.” The New York Dramatic Mirror thought the comedy “So full of whimsical turns . . . It is brainy champagne.” We hope you will think so too!

Leading Ladies (March 17-26, 2016)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Leading Ladies (March 17-26, 2016)

By Ken Ludwig.

In this uproarious comedy two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing “Scenes from Shakespeare” on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that a local old lady plans to leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, Jack and Leo resolve to pass themselves off as her relatives and get the cash. Complications ensue when they find out that the relatives aren’t nephews but nieces! Romantic entanglements abound, especially when Leo falls head-over-petticoat in love with the old lady’s vivacious niece, Meg, who’s engaged to the local minister, who is anything but vivacious! Meg knows that there’s a wide world out there, but it’s not until she meets “Maxine and Stephanie” that she finally gets a taste of it. “Leading Ladies is consistently funny − indeed, increasingly hilarious as it progresses.” ~ Houston Chronicle.

The Deadly Game (January 21-30, 2016)

By | | ,
Comments Off on The Deadly Game (January 21-30, 2016)

Adapted by James Yaffe from the novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

Three retired lawyers in a remote village in the Swiss Alps amuse themselves by going through the legal ceremony of prosecuting strangers who drop in. One evening, a stranded American travelling salesman is their guest, having run his car into a snowdrift during a fierce blizzard. Although the men’s ‘deadly game’ seems foolish to him, he agrees to participate to humour his hosts. Since he has never been guilty of a crime in his life, he is unable to suggest anything they can try him for. After some amiable social conversation, the retired prosecutor discovers a plausible case and accuses the salesman of having murdered his boss. At first, this appears to be a wild improvisation, but the playwright gradually makes something real out of phantoms… “… genuinely engrossing … the tension builds with the slow, steady, intricate movement of a courtroom drama” wrote Leah D. Frank of The New York Times. Be sure not to miss this cat and mouse thriller!

The Dover Road (November 26 – December 5, 2015)

By | | ,
Comments Off on The Dover Road (November 26 – December 5, 2015)

By A. A. Milne.

Leonard and Anne are eloping along the lovers’ road to Dover, intending to embark for Calais and go to Paris, Leonard having abandoned his wife Eustasia in order to do so. Unfortunately, their car breaks down and they seek refuge in ‘a sort of hotel’ nearby, which turns out to be a residence, owned by a rich and somewhat eccentric gentleman, Mr. Latimer. It seems that Latimer intends to keep the couple prisoner for a week so that they can see if a marriage between them will work. The next day, Anne begins to notice things about Leonard that she ignored before. Unknown to them, however, another couple in the house are about to leave after seven days — Leonard’s wife Eustasia and her runaway lover Nicholas… When this comedy was last seen in Toronto in 2007, Mark Andrew Lawrence described it as “…a little gem of a play… this charming relic from Broadway’s golden age.”

Gaslight (October 1-10, 2015)

By | | ,
Comments Off on Gaslight (October 1-10, 2015)

By Patrick Hamilton. Adapted by David Jacklin.

The season opens with Patrick Hamilton’s famous nail-biting Victorian thriller Gaslight. Hailed by the critic of The New Yorker Magazine as “a masterpiece of suspense,” Gaslight is set in fog-bound London in 1880 in the home of Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. It is late afternoon, a time which Hamilton notes as being the time “before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea.” As the play opens Bella is clearly on edge, and the stern reproaches from her overbearing husband make matters worse. What most perturbs Bella is Jack’s unexplained absences from the house: he will not tell her where he is going, and this increases her anxiety. As the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that Jack is intent on convincing Bella that she is going insane. Why is he doing this, and will he succeed?