Improv

2010/2011 Season

October 22 to 30, 2010

Preview October 21

CHIMERA

Produced with special arrangement with Playwrights Guild of Canada

By Wendy Lill

Directed by Peter Blacklock

This Canadian play centres on a struggling journalist,  Roy Ruggles, who targets his childhood friend, Clare McGuire, the Minister of Justice. Lill says the play sprang from her experience as one of 301 MPs who passed the law in 2004 on human reproductive technologies. “It was an important piece of legislation around issues that are so complicated that I know there were many of us who felt we didn’t really have a grasp on them as much as we should.” Chimera, is the kind of issue-oriented drama Lill is known for.  The rookie cabinet minister struggles to defend her government’s  bill against attacks from right-wing opposition MP George Fanning, who has discovered that a scientist is implanting human stem cells in monkeys for  autism research. Stirring the pot is the play’s troubled narrator, Roy Ruggles, a muckraking reporter with a Down syndrome brother.

All shows start at 8pm (doors open at 7:00pm)

except Sunday Oct 24 matinee which starts at 1:30pm.

No show Monday

December 9-12 and 16-19, 2010

(Matinees December 11, 12, 18, 19)

THE GOLDEN BIRD

Written by James Bowlby

Directed by Virginia Verma

A pantomime has to have a prince played by a girl and a crazy woman, the dame played by a man. There needs to be music and wonderful characters. Well, The Golden Bird has it all. The famous story of the theft of the golden apples, the golden horse, golden bird – well it’s a golden show.  How does the king deal with his loss, how does Widow Twankey cope with her son leaving to find the bird, why won’t the royal children listen to the fox?  Lots of questions to be answered in this wonderful Christmas romp.

Tickets for sale at the door - adults $10, students $5.  This production is not part of our season ticket package.

February 25 to March 5, 2011

Preview February 24

WRONG FOR EACH OTHER

Produced with special arrangement with Gary Goddard Agency

by Norm Foster

Directed by Kim MacMillan

A chance meeting in a restaurant, after four years apart, sends a couple flashing back through the highs and lows of their courtship and marriage. This well crafted play is an hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking look at the rollercoaster ride of a relationship. Along with the hilarity are moments of serious drama as the foibles of these two ordinary people are lovingly exposed. We can’t help but see parts of ourselves in this couple.

All shows start at 8pm (doors open at 7:00pm)

except Sunday February 27 matinee which starts at 1:30pm.

No show Monday

May 6-14, 2011

Preview May 5

HEARTBREAK HOUSE

Produced with special arrangement with Samuel French

By George Bernard Shaw

Directed by James Bowlby

Wonderful characters and dialogue only Shaw could create, HEARTBREAK HOUSE is Shaw at his best. The reaction is often, “I didn’t know Shaw could be so funny!”  Eccentric 88-year-old Captain Shotover declares the business of an Englishman is navigation. Greeting  World War I with an air of inevitability, Shotover recognizes the need for men to govern themselves carefully. He sighs at the "foolish lives of romance and sentiment" being pursued by his family.  The characters are presented as one thing before peeling away layers to reveal them as something else. A visitor, Ellie Dunn at first seems guileless and proper, only later displaying her considerable wiles. She's willing to marry millionaire Boss Mangan  because he saved her father, Mazzini from poverty. Shotover's daughter Hesione Hushabye is determined to stop Ellie from a joyless marriage. She guesses the girl has deeper feelings for another man only to discover it's her own ladykiller husband, Hector.

All shows start at 8pm (doors open at 7:00pm)

except Sunday May 8 matinee which starts at 1:30pm.

No show Monday