The great-granddaughter of a celebrated medium, Alice "has been seeing a lot of her dead English professor lately," according to Tarragon, the resident Toronto theatre devoted to new and new-to-Toronto works. "It will take a cottageful of guests, a winter storm, Harry Houdini, William James, and the Ramones to help her exorcise him."

Martha Burns plays Alice in a company that also includes David Jansen, Brooke Johnson, Daniel Kash, Nancy Palk, Brenda Robins. Eda Holmes directs on the Tarragon Mainspace.

John Thompson designs set and costumes, Andrea Lundy designs lighting and Ben Grossman designs sound. Kate Macdonnell is the stage manager.

Performances play April 19-May 29. Opening is April 26.

" Alice's Affair takes place in a snowbound cottage after the funeral of a revered professor of creative writing," according to production notes. "All of the characters find themselves on the verge of a choice: to give up one's youthful ideals or to reinvent oneself. However capable they are, they find themselves longing for love, for meaningful work, for escape and for permission to be, in David Copperfield's words, 'The hero of one's own life.'" Susan Coyne, also a respected Canadian actress, is a founding member of Soulpepper Theatre. With renowned Hungarian director Laszlo Marton, she adapted Platonov, an early work of Chekhov’s, which received its world premiere with Soulpepper Theatre in 1999. She adapted another Chekhov play, Three Sisters , for the 2003 Shaw Festival. Her critically acclaimed memoir, "Kingfisher Days," was published by Random House in the fall of 2001. Adapted for the stage, the play premiered at Tarragon in 2003 to enthusiastic critical and audience response. Coyne is co-creator and co-writer of Slings & Arrows with Kids in the Hall alumnus Mark McKinney and Second City alumnus Bob Martin. She has been a playwright-in-residence at Tarragon since 2002.

For information, call (416) 531-1827 or visit www.tarragontheatre.com.