Colorado

“Thank you all for loving me, so, so much. I love you all, so, so much!” So ends the victory speech of 17-year old Tracey Ackhart upon her coronation as Miss Late Teen Colorado. The “loving,” alas, soon ends. A day before the national pageant in Virginia Beach, Tracey disappears, hurling the rest of her family, whose lives until then had revolved around her, into disarray. The ties of family begin to fray, flashbacks uncover mystery, and startling discoveries and revelations hurtle the entire family towards an emotional abyss. Darker memories emerge, nervous breakdowns erupt, the cause of Tracey’s disappearance is uncovered, and a catharsis, of sorts, is reached. Colorado is a sharp, dark comedy tinged with tragedy and sadness. It aims for the gut. Simultaneously satirical, witty, tender and unsettling, this is a play about disappointment American style, the dreams of a family, and the traps set to keep those dreams far, far away.

Tuna Fish Eulogy

Warning: Deals with youth suicide and abuse issues.

Proceeds from these performances Atlohsa Family Healing Services, a non-profit organization that provides community members with Indigenous-led programming and services that offer holistic healing, education, shelter and support.

No Exit

In this one act Existentialist play the damned souls of a man and two women are condemned to hell where they are to remain together for eternity, except this supposed “hell” is nothing like they expected.

The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza

Once on the path to becoming the leader of 1600s Amsterdam’s small Jewish community, free-spirited Baruch de Spinoza has since left his religious studies in favour of fraternizing with non-Jews about his new loves: mathematics, philosophy, and a Dutch girl, Clara.  When Spinoza’s best friend betrays Spinoza’s sacrilegious communications with Christians to the Dutch magistrate, Spinoza is dragged into a makeshift courtroom for the interrogation of his life; every aspect of his being—his family, friendships, relationships, letters, thoughts and philosophies—is put on trial in judging whether Spinoza is an atheist and must therefore be excommunicated from his home and from his people.  In an attempt to appease his Christian overlords, Rabbi Mortera, Spinoza’s former mentor, attempts to dismantle Spinoza’s ideas and bring his star pupil back into the fold; however, fueled by his love of wisdom and his unwavering belief in freedom of expression, Spinoza lithely dodges and parries each ideological offensive he encounters with irreverence, humour and wit, painting his interrogators into a corner with irrefutable logic.  Faced with an enraged Dutch magistrate and flowering doubts of his own, Rabbi Mortera must make a decision that will seal the fate of his community, himself, and the son he never had.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged-Revised stars only five Shakespeare Enthusiasts who set out to achieve a feat they thought impossible: to perform in a single night, every single play written by William Shakespeare in comically shortened or merged form. The show lovingly parodies Shakespeare’s work while still teaching people about the Bard’s incredible writing and life. This show is suitable for children and adults, and Shakespeare lovers and haters alike, there is something for everyone in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged-Revised.

Purple Sex

Purple Sex is an all ages submissions-based production of original poetry, personal accounts, and spoken words performed and created by Western students in a safe space. Purple Sex is both a shared experience and a performance and is centred on notions of sex and sexuality. Purple Sex also reveals how the sexual experience of individuals intersect with concepts of gender, race, class, oppression, liberation, love, courage, strength, and resilience. Purple Sex is a celebration of self, of community, and of art. It fosters an atmosphere of inclusivity and acts as a catalyst from which new considerations of identity and sexuality can be explored.

Ubu Rex

Held in AHB 2R23.

Antigone

A contemporary take on Sophocles’ illustrious Greek tragedy of the same name. The play asks one question: where do moral and legal law intersect, and which is better to obey? Antigone is the story of a young woman who rebels against her government and its ruler to give her dead brother a proper burial, putting her life on the line to honour his desecrated corpse. Antigone was written in 1944 to inspire resistance to radical fascism, however its politically charged action holds incredible relevance in the twenty-first century. This take on the tragedy rehashes the age-old conflict of duty between one’s government and one’s self, thrusting the timeless characters into an age of heightened political tension and opposition. Our cast and crew humbly invite you to the melding of past and present, audience and performance, history and time, and the Western and London theatre communities.

The Refugee Hotel

A story told as a memory, The Refugee Hotel is grounded in autobiographical details from playwright Carmen Aguirre’s own experience of having once arrived as a refugee in Canada. It is February 1974, months after the onset of the Pinochet regime, and eight newly arrived Chilean refugees await resettlement in a Vancouver hotel. These refugees are survivors of political oppression who undergo a process of reinstating identity as they navigate their newfound realities. In forging community with one another, old and new relationships are interrogated, however these explorations are punctuated by infiltrating nightmares of their recent pasts.

The Refugee Hotel is a dark comedy that takes an uncompromising look at exile, torture, guilt, and betrayal, and is ultimately about love and its power to heal.

Perfect Pie

A devastatingly beautiful play, Perfect Pie tells the story of two old friends, Patsy McAnn and Marie Begg, who are briefly reunited after nearly thirty-five years of estrangement. Over the course of two acts set on and around Patsy’s family farm in Marmora, Ontario, Perfect Pie explores the deep bonds of childhood friendships; how they shape our lives, our character, and how they hold up under the stresses of trauma and the passing of time.

A View from the Roof

When a successful business man, Mulgrave, hires two actors to improvise the story of his life, he expects their story to be shaped by the prompts and guidelines he gives them. He intends for their story to form a biography befitting a man as successful as himself. Despite his best efforts, the story that begins to unravel is much more real than the one Mulgrave would prefer to tell—this unravelling story happens to be the truth.

Tickets: $15 adults, $12 students; available online and at The ARTS Project box office, 519-642-2767.

Scorched

Scorched tells a story that begins at an end. A woman has died after years of complete silence, leaving her will in the form of a task she wants her twin children, Janine and Simon, to complete. Haunted by their mother’s silence and her final wishes left only on paper, the twins embark on journeys that bring them to a country tarnished by war, violence, and hatred. As they encounter people from their mother’s past, her journey through a world engulfed by civil war is revealed, and the twins’ journey into their mother’s silence leads them to the most horrific revelation of all.

Tickets: $15, $12 with student ID; available at Western Connections and The ARTS Project box office, 519-642-2767.

Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe

Nightfall follows Poe through his descent into madness through four of his most chilling tales: The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-tale Heart.

Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door; available at InfoSource.

Departures and Arrivals

The concept is simple: we are watching an indeterminate length of time in a typical airport public area. Through the course of the play, we see snippets of the lives of the passengers and crews who pass through. The tone varies from melodrama to touching reality, comic to passionate, surprisingly outspoken to sly innuendo.

Tickets: $5 in advance, $7 at the door; available from Info Source, cast members and the Arts and Humanities Student Council office (UC 112F).