Soulpepper Will Put Work of Canadian Poet Dennis Lee on Stage in 2009; Season Announced | Playbill

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News Soulpepper Will Put Work of Canadian Poet Dennis Lee on Stage in 2009; Season Announced Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company will offer 11 titles in its 2009 season, including ten new stagings and a return engagement of the Dora Award-winning Under Milk Wood, starring Kenneth Welsh, artistic director Albert Schultz announced Sept. 16.

Expect a mix of Canadian authors and international playwrights.

The work of 1967 Governor General's Award-winning poet Dennis Lee will be brought to life (with music) in Civil Elegies Dec. 3-24, 2009. The piece, created by Mike Ross and Lorenzo Savoini, with original music by Ross, "speaks to the heart of what Canada was, is and could be."

New adaptations of Antigone and Parfumerie are also on the slate, as is a new "Mercer" play by David French, plus works by Orton, Mamet, Stoppard, Albee, Odets and Molnar.

Here's the Soulpepper season at a glance:

  • Travesties by Tom Stoppard (Feb. 12-March 21, 2009): "Soulpepper favorite Tom Stoppard writes about art, war and revolution in this exercise of wits that imagines a meeting between James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and Tristan Tzara in Zurich during World War I."
  • Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet (April 2–May 9, 2009): "In a scorching examination of Reagan-era America, a group of real estate salesmen try to lie, cheat and steal their way to the top, clawing over anyone who crosses their path in David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning script."
  • Loot by Joe Orton (June 5–Aug. 1, 2009): "In this classic farce, when the stash from a bank robbery is hidden in a coffin, the pair of thieves must scramble to hide the body from the bumbling police inspector who is hot on their heels."
  • Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets (June 6-July 31, 2009): "Written with unflinching honesty, Clifford Odets' finest play offers a glimpse into three generations of a Jewish family struggling to survive in Depression-era New York."
  • Of the Fields, Lately by David French (June 25–July 30, 2009): "In David French's emotionally charged sequel to Leaving Home, young Ben Mercer returns home for a funeral after being gone for two years, to confront the family he left behind."
  • Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (Aug. 10–29, 2009): "Hailed by [critics], Kenneth Welsh returns in the tour-de-force performance that played to an entirely sold-out run in June 2008."
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (Aug. 29-Oct. 24, 2009): "A late night of drinking for George and Martha erupts in a game of 'get the guests' in Edward Albee's savage and hilarious masterpiece."
  • The Guardsman by Ferenc Molnar, translated by Frank Marcus (Aug. 31-Oct. 24, 2009): "In this timeless comedy by Hungarian master Ferenc Molnar (The Play's the Thing), when an actor suspects his actress wife of infidelity he disguises himself as a Russian Guardsman and sets out to woo her back."
  • Antigone by Sophocles, in a new adaptation by Evan Webber with Chris Abraham (Sept. 10–Oct. 17, 2009): "Set against a country torn apart by war, Oedipus' daughter Antigone stands alone against the state to defend the honor of her slain brother in this contemporary reworking of Sophocles' classic tragedy."
  • Parfumerie by Miklós László, adapted by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins (Nov. 26-Dec. 24, 2009): "One of the world's most beloved stories, this play has inspired three movies ('Shop Around the Corner,' 'The Good Old Summertime' and 'You've Got Mail') and one musical (She Loves Me). Two clerks in a Budapest perfume shop can't stand each other, but unknowingly exchange love letters at night as anonymous penpals in this romantic comedy that will warm up your winter." For more information call the Young Centre for the Performing Arts box office at (416) 866-8666 or visit soulpepper.ca.

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    Soulpepper Theatre Company "is an artist-founded, classical repertory theatre company with a three-tiered mandate: to present the world’s greatest stories in vital Canadian interpretations; to provide classical training to a new generation of theatre artists; and to provide access and mentorship programs for young people using theatre as the vehicle."

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