Jane Austen’s Emma

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich… has everything she wants in life. She doesn’t need a husband for herself, but she loves to have fun playing matchmaker for other people. Her long-time friend and mentor, Mr. Knightley, tells her to stop meddling—she tells him to back off. She’s an adult now and will follow her own judgement. Too bad Emma misjudges so many things—who the Reverend Mr. Elton is really in love with, what game Frank Churchill is actually playing, or just how vulgar and illiterate the farmer Robert Martin really is. Still, Emma can count on the absolute loyalty of her little friend and protege, Harriet Smith—until Harriet aspires to a match that Emma could never approve.

“Let there be no more marriages in Highbury!” says Emma’s father. He believes that change is bad for everyone’s health… but young people still fall in love and young lovers are sure to find each other in this lively rendering of Jane Austen’s classic satire on love and self-deception. With a charming, (mostly) young cast, an upbeat tempo and a more contemporary design, this production is fun for the whole family.

We’ll Always Have Port Stanley

A fun and thought-provoking romantic comedy about staying true to your spouse in troubled times—or not.

Great Expectations

Great Expectations tells the story of young Pip, who longs to be a gentleman but is destined to become a blacksmith. Through his encounters with various wonderfully eccentric characters—including Magwich, the convict; Miss Havisham, an heiress who was jilted at the altar; Mr Jaggers, lawyer to the criminal classes; and many more—Pip does rise above his station, only to lose everything again. But he perseveres in the pursuit of his dreams, and finally succeeds in creating his own happy ending.

This entertaining and inspirational story will appeal to audience members of all ages and backgrounds, and provide a fitting tribute to the world’s most beloved author, Charles Dickens, on the occasion of his bicentenary, February 7, 1812.

Half-price tickets for February 5 matinee.

Homegrown

A Toronto lawyer/writer meets a prisoner accused of “homegrown terrorism” in 2008. She continues to visit him over the next year and a half, and becomes obsessed with separating fact from hype in the face of the uncertainty, delays and secrecy in his case. A true story.

Theatre companies across Canada are hosting simultaneous staged readings of the play in support of the SummerWorks festival, which included Homegrown in its program last year.

Press release

Tea with Tommy

Ever since her retarded boy Tommy died, Mrs Wainwright has been acting strange, talking to Tommy and serving him tea laced with a mysterious :medicine” that’s just for him…. A historical drama set in London in 1855, Tea with Tommy chronicles the tragic self-destruction of a young couple following the birth of their handicapped child.

Sisters

Fed up with her sister’s prissy house rules, Rosemary wants to move out but Vivian needs her monthly rent cheque. Meanwhile Rosemary’s granddaughter Ashleigh has broken up with her boyfriend and needs a place to crash — but Vivian owns the house and she says no. Furious, Rosemary is determined to leave until Ashleigh comes up with a better solution — but everything changes again when Rosemary makes a surprising disclosure.