Canadian Stage announces 2014-15 season

Newly commissioned Canadian work and acclaimed productions from around the world will form Canadian Stage’s 2014-15 season.

While the company will continue to showcase a broad variety of genres, including theatre, dance, circus and music, the programme also features several multimedia and interdisciplinary performances.

Opening the season in October 2014 at the Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto is the Belgian production Kiss and Cry. A blend of film and theatre, it tells the story of two lovers through a filmed live close-up of the actors’ hands.

Later in the year, Helen Lawrence will unite theatre, visual art, live-action filming and computer-generated simulations of historical sites. The production centres on Vancouver’s emergence from World War II, and is a co-production between Canadian Stage, Arts Club Theatre Company and The Banff Centre. Following dates in Canada, the production will also tour to Munich and Edinburgh.

Several productions also make a return to Canadian Stage, including Robert Lepage’s highly acclaimed Needles and Opium. Inspired by the lives of Miles Davis and Jean Cocteau, the production had a sold-out run in 2013.

Elsewhere on the programme is Le Cirque Invisible, a circus spectacle created by Victoria Chaplin (daughter of Charlie Chaplin) and Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée; What Makes a Man, a theatrical portrait of French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour; and a three-week festival, Spotlight South Africa, featuring five productions highlighting the best of performing arts from the country.

Artistic and general director of Canadian Stage, Matthew Jocelyn, said: ‘A new season presents a new opportunity to explore, discover, experience, and reflect. 2014-15 offers a spectrum of emotional journeys that truly elasticises the idea of what theatre is in today’s urban world.’

Photo: Marc Labrèche in Needles and Opium © Nicola-Frank Vachon