Panych directs his own work, at the CanStage Bluma stage. The comedy is about Kemp, "a self professed neurotic who keeps a solitary, hilarious vigil with his dumbstruck Auntie."

Carver won a Tony Award for playing Molina in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Henry is the respected Canadian actress who has played the Stratford and Shaw festivals and served as artistic director at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

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The new season also includes a new Berkeley/Upstairs series created by CanStage. The 150-seat space has been active as a rental room in the past, but CanStage will program it in 2004-05, installing a world premiere.

The CanStage season currently includes the Canadian premiere of the topical hell-set dinner-party fantasy, Omnium Gatherum, by Theresa Rebeck and Alexandra Gersten Vassilaros, to Nov. 23 at the CanStage Berkeley/Downstairs space. David Storch directs a cast that features Fiona Reid. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Carol Shields adapted Unless for the stage with her daughter, Sara Cassidy. It plays the Bluma Feb. 21-March 19, 2005. Nicola Cavendish stars in the staging directed by Roy Surette.

In the world premiere, "Reta inhabits a world where 'goodness' is a word around her daughter's neck. Reta's uber-normal family accepts an impossible mission – to rescue their homeless daughter from the streets."

Shields is known for "Thirteen Hands," "The Stone Diaries" and "Larry's Party."

At CanStage's Berkeley/Upstairs, the season offers the world premiere of Gina Wilkinson's My Mother's Feet, March 7-April 5, 2005, directed by Micheline Chevrier. In it, "Dan's psyche is haunted by his mother's toxic love. An unrelenting tale of betrayal, the possibility of forgiveness and a pair of prosthetic feet."

For subscription and ticket information, call the CanStage customer service centre at (416) 368-3110 or visit www.canstage.com.