Soulpepper Theatre announces lineup for upcoming 2024 Season

With 11 productions and 4 concerts the 2024 Soulpepper Theatre season will feature 2 world premieres, 4 Canadian premieres, and 3 important revivals

TORONTO, October 12, 2023 – Soulpepper Theatre Company has just unveiled their 2024 Season, and it’s their largest and most ambitious since 2018 with 11 productions and 4 concerts.  The season will feature 2 world premieres, 4 Canadian premieres, and 3 important revivals.

The season kicks off with the pairing of the Stratford Festival production of Casey and Diana by Nick Green, a potent Toronto story making its local premiere after its sold-out run at the 2023 Stratford Festival, and the World Premiere of De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail by Gregory Prest, Mike Ross, and Sarah Wilson, a musical fantasy based on Oscar Wilde’s love letter to Lord Alfred Douglas.  Up next are two extraordinary re-imaginings of familiar texts, Chekhov’s Three Sisters by Inua Ellams reimagined in 1960s Nigeria, and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House adapted by Tanika Gupta set in Colonial India. Rounding out Act 1 of the season are the multi Dora Award-winning First Métis Man of Odesa by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova, a brand new Soulpepper Concert inspired by the sounds of Laurel Canyon, and the return of a virtuosic one-man presentation of Hamlet (solo), adapted and performed by Raoul Bhaneja.
 

Launching Act 2 is a revival of Artistic Director Weyni Mengesha’s smash-hit A Streetcar Named Desire followed by the Canadian premiere presentation of Haley McGee’s Age is a Feeling, winner of the prestigious Fringe First Award at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and more beloved Soulpepper Concerts.  The Her Words Festival will return in 2024, featuring newly commissioned works by female creators, followed by holiday programming for the whole family and concerts from the Slaight Music Residents.

“We couldn’t be more proud to announce our 2024 season, an ambitious season filled with powerful works that express our values and reflect the artistic excellence that audiences expect from Soulpepper. A mixture of exciting new works by celebrated Canadian writers and reimagined classics by acclaimed international creators, we feel that each play speaks to something that will resonate with Toronto audiences. These are plays about our past that can help us look at the moment we’re in and plays written about today, that help us see the world from a variety of perspectives. We hope you’ll join us on the journey.” said Weyni Mengesha, Artistic Director.
 

Special thanks to Soulpepper’s Major Sponsor and Community Access Partner,Scotia Wealth Management, and to the Slaight Family for helping bring these productions to life. 
 

All programming details can be found at www.soulpepper.ca.
 

Single tickets for Act I Soulpepper presentations are available for sale today at www.soulpepper.ca. Subscription packages will be available until November 26, 2023.

ACT I PRESENTATIONS: JANUARY-MAY 2024

CASEY AND DIANA
By Nick Green

Originally Produced by The Stratford Festival

Directed by Andrew Kushnir

Toronto’s Casey House was Canada’s first-free standing AIDS hospice, providing care and comfort to clients diagnosed with and dying of AIDS. In 1991, as this devastating epidemic was reaching its peak, Casey House received a historic visit from Diana, Princess of Wales. Making its Toronto premiere after a sold-out run at the 2023 Stratford Festival, Casey and Dianaby Nick Green and directed by Andrew Kushnir is a gripping play that vividly captures a historic moment in time between caregivers, advocates, a princess, and people dying of AIDS. A moment that helped reshape the course of the AIDS pandemic by providing hope, challenging stigmas, and uniting a community.

Toronto Premiere

Casey and Diana runs from January 23 – February 11, 2024.   

DE PROFUNDIS: OSCAR WILDE IN JAIL
Adapted By Gregory Prest

Original Music By Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson

Directed by Gregory Prest

The greatest love letter ever written.

From Soulpepper favourites Gregory Prest, Mike Ross, and Sarah Wilson, De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail is a musical fantasy based on the letter Oscar Wilde wrote while incarcerated for two years at Reading Gaol, to his love Lord Alfred Douglas. The letter was written a page a day over a period of three months, collected at the end of each day, and handed over to Wilde on his release from prison. 

World Premiere 

De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail runs from February 1 – 18, 2024.

THREE SISTERS
By Inua Ellams

Directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu

A Co-production with Obsidian Theatre

In the tumultuous backdrop of Owerri in 1967, as the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War looms ominously, three siblings; Lolo, Nne Chukwu, and Udo, grapple with the profound loss of their father. The nation has been thrust into turmoil by two military coups, with foreign involvement fueling the chaos. As the conflict gradually engulfs their rural village, the sisters yearn to return to Lagos, their cherished former home.

Canadian Premiere

Three Sisters runs from February 29 – March 24, 2024.  

LADIES OF THE CANYON – A Soulpepper Concert

By Hailey Gillis and Raha Javanfar

“…You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

Laurel Canyon is a wooded neighbourhood in the Hollywood Hills. In the ‘60s and ‘70s it was a respite from the bustle of Los Angeles and cultural hotbed that brought together Joni Mitchell, Steven Stills, Jackson Browne, Mamma Cass Elliot and many more. An ensemble of Soulpepper multi-instrumentalists, led by Hailey Gillis and Raha Javanfar, follow the story of Joni’s move to the Canyon and the artists she encountered there. We’ll hear the rise and struggles of a musical moment through the music of the Canyon.

Ladies of the Canyon runs from March 13 – March 24, 2024.

A DOLL’S HOUSE

By Henrik Ibsen, Adapted by Tanika Gupta

Directed by Miriam Fernandes

Niru is a young Bengali woman married to Tom, an English colonial bureaucrat.

Tom loves Niru, exoticising her as a frivolous plaything to be admired and kept; but Niru has a long-kept secret, and just as she thinks she is almost free of it, it threatens to bring her life crashing down around her.

Tanika Gupta re-imagines Ibsen’s classic play of gender politics through the lens of British colonialism, offering a bold, female perspective exploring themes of ownership and race.

Canadian Premiere

A Doll’s House runs from April 18 – May 12, 2024.

FIRST MÉTIS MAN OF ODESA

Written and performed by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova

Directed by Lianna Makuch

A Punctuate! Theatre Production

A love story in the face of a pandemic and an invasion.

Matt and Masha’s love spans continents, but distance can’t tame their passionate connection. After meeting on a theatre research trip in Kyiv, a Canadian Playwright and a Ukrainian artist spark up a romance that takes them from the beaches of the Black Sea to the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, through the onset of a global pandemic and the eruption of a brutal war, plus many moments of joy through it all including marriage and the birth of their son.

Winner of three Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Work, and Outstanding Direction. Based on actual events, this captivating real-life love story is set against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

First Métis Man of Odesa runs from May 8 – 19, 2024.

HAMLET (solo)

By William Shakespeare

Performed by Raoul Bhaneja

Directed by Robert Ross Parker

A Hope and Hell Theatre Co. Production 

Hamlet (solo) combines the ancient art of storytelling and the modern “one-person show,” a thrilling evening with focuses on the three most essential elements of theatre: The Actor, The Text and The Audience.

This production is best described as “bare bones” in its presentation with Bhaneja playing seventeen parts in a two-hour version using only Shakespeare’s text.

This critically acclaimed production has been enjoyed by audiences as diverse as the people of Inuvik, a community north of the Arctic Circle and the next generation of Britain’s young actors at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. An exceptional and rare experience for both the novice and Shakespeare enthusiast!

Hamlet (solo) runs from May 23 – 25, 2024.

ACT II PRESENTATIONS: JUNE-NOVEMBER 2024 

AGE IS A FEELING

Created and Performed by Haley McGee

Directed by Mitchell Cushman

A Soho Theatre and Haley McGee production 

Inspired by hospices, mystics and trips to the cemetery, Age is a Feelingwrestles with our endless chances to change course while we’re alive. A covert rallying cry against cynicism and regret. A call to seize our time. This never-the-same-twice show from the brilliant performer-creator of The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale is a gripping story about how our relationship with mortality shapes the way we live.

Charting the seminal moments, rites of passage and turning points in an adult life – your life – from the day you turn 25 through to your death, Age is a Feelingcelebrates the glorious and melancholy unknowability of human life.

Canadian Premiere

Coming June 2024

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Weyni Mengesha

Back by popular demand, this award-winnings 2019 production returns to the Soulpepper stage. 

As Blanche’s fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister for solace – but her downward spiral brings her face to face with a brutal, unforgiving reality. Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece is a raging portrayal of what it means to be an outsider, in a society where we’re all desperate to belong. 

Pulitzer Prize for Drama 

Coming June-July 2024

THE BIG EASY – a Soulpepper Concert

Created by Beau Dixon

New Orleans has been the musical heartbeat of America from Congo Square to the Flood. The Soulpepper music team brings the sounds of joy, resilience, and innovation from The Big Easy up to the Big Smoke, exploring the city that gave birth to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Dr. John and Jazz itself.

Coming August 2024

BILLIE, SARAH, AND ELLA: REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN IN JAZZ – a Soulpepper Concert

Created by Divine Brown

It was the birth of the modern era, and Jazz was the soundtrack for change. This Soulpepper Concert remount explores the stories of the women that transformed the music industry and gave Jazz its social purpose – Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald. Soulpepper Slaight Music Associate Divine Brown pays tribute to the heroes – known and unknown – that inspired a movement.

Coming November 2024

ACT I Subscription packages available until November 26 :

True Tales: Three New Canadian Creations – Buy Casey and Diana, De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail, and First Metis Man of Odesa and get 25% off.

Reimagined Classics – Buy Three Sisters, A Doll’s House, and Hamlet (solo) and get 25% off

BUY MORE SAVE MORE

Buy all 6 mainstage productions and get 40% off 

Buy any 3 mainstage productions and get 25% off 

Subscription packages exclude Ladies of the Canyon

Other articles from totimes.ca – otttimes.ca – mtltimes.ca