Artistic Director Tim Carroll and the Shaw Festival proudly announce the 60th anniversary season.

“We have a lot to celebrate as we look forward to our diamond anniversary season. In what might be our most ambitious programme ever, we intend to show off the range of experiences available at The Shaw,” revealed Artistic Director Tim Carroll. “In our theatres we have a mixture of classics, Festival favourites and new voices; in our gardens there will be so much going on you won’t believe it. I hope everyone will come and join the party!”

FESTIVAL THEATRE

DAMN YANKEES
Words and Music by RICHARD ADLER and JERRY ROSS
Book by GEORGE ABBOTT and DOUGLASS WALLOP
Based on the novel by Douglass Wallop
“The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant”Directed by Brian Hill
Previews April 23 ⬥ Available for review beginning May 19 ⬥ Closes October 9
Joe Boyd, an out of shape middle-aged man, makes a deal with the smooth-talking Mr. Applegate to save his beloved Washington Senators. The price: his soul. Now known as Joe Hardy, a young baseball phenom, he helps his favourite team beat the powerhouse New York Yankees. But when payment is due, can he outwit the Devil and save his soul? A twist on the Faustian legend wrapped up in a devilishly clever, romantic musical comedy.  Age Recommendation: 12+

DAMN YANKEES is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
www.mtishows.com

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
By Oscar WildeDirected by Tim Carroll
Previews May 18 ⬥ Available for review beginning June 16 ⬥ Closes October 9
Subtitled A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, Oscar Wilde’s last and greatest masterpiece aims all his incredible wit and knack of observation into skewering Victorian attitudes and social structure. A play in three acts, this satire mingling truth, comedy with sarcastic and blistering banter was last seen at the Festival in 2004.  Age Recommendation: 12+

 

THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA
By Bernard ShawDirected by Diana Donnelly
Previews July 16 ⬥ Available for review beginning August 18 ⬥ Closes October 8
Last seen at the Festival in 2010, Bernard Shaw’s exploration of medical ethics continues to be relevant and timely. Pondering the moral questions concerning life and death: If one patient can only live at the cost of another’s life, who lives and who dies? What is the value of a human life? Queries which still have urgency are brought to thrilling life in this tragicomic tour de force.  Age Recommendation: 12+

 

ROYAL GEORGE THEATRE

CYRANO DE BERGERAC
By Edmond Rostand
Translated and adapted for the stage by Kate HennigDirected by Chris Abraham
Previews March 20 ⬥ Available for review beginning March 26 ⬥ Closes May 8
Swashbuckling 17th century swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac returns to The Shaw stage after its audience-pleasing run in 2019. Exceptionally accomplished and confident, he can do anything – well, except tell Roxane, the woman he loves, how he feels. Knowing words are the way to Roxane’s heart, but impeded by self-consciousness about his unusually large nose, Cyrano ghost-writes love letters to her for an inarticulate, love-struck cadet. Will there ever come a time when he will reveal himself to her? An eloquent and poignant tale for anyone who has ever loved from afar.  Age Recommendation: 12+

 

GASLIGHT
By Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson
Based on the play Angel Street
 by Patrick HamiltonDirected by Kelli Fox
Previews May 4 ⬥ Available for review beginning May 19 ⬥ Closes October 9

Bella Manningham thinks she’s losing her mind. In the evenings, she hears strange sounds and the gas lights dim for no apparent reason. Is she losing her grip on reason, or is it being loosened for her? Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 gripping thriller, that coined the word now used to describe an insidious form of mental abuse, has been reimagined in a new adaptation by The Shaw’s own Patty Jamieson.  Age Recommendation: 14+

CHITRA
By Rabindranath TagoreDirected by Kimberley Rampersad
LUNCHTIME ONE-ACT
Previews June 11 ⬥ Available for review beginning June 19 ⬥ Closes October 8A warrior princess and a warrior hero in love. It sounds simple enough, but things are more complicated in Rabindranath Tagore’s one-act play based on a tale from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Chitra, a warrior princess raised as a boy, begs the gods for perfect beauty so she can win the affections of Arjuna. An enchanting poem of false appearance and true love, Chitra returns in 2022 as the season’s lunchtime production.  Age Recommendation: 11+

 

JUST TO GET MARRIED
By Cicely HamiltonDirected by Severn Thompson
Previews July 26 ⬥ Available for review beginning August 18 ⬥ Closes October 16
Georgiana is 29 in 1910, so the burning question faced by a poor, but clever woman is: when will she get married? She knows the only way a woman can gain any financial stability and independence is to get hitched, but when a suitable man proposes, will her conscience allow her to go through with it? Written by actress, journalist, playwright and suffragette Cicely Hamilton, this grown-up comedy is a classic ripe for rediscovery.
Age Recommendation: 12+ 

 

JACKIE MAXWELL STUDIO THEATRE
The Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre is sponsored by Paradigm Capital Inc.

THIS IS HOW WE GOT HERE
Written and directed by Keith Barker
Produced by Native Earth Performing Arts
Presented by the Shaw Festival
Previews February 9 ⬥ Available for review beginning February 11 ⬥ Closes February 19
Meet Lucille, Paul, Liset and Jim. Best friends, sisters, spouses – stumbling in the dark one year after a tragic loss. They struggle to find each other again, when a mysterious fox shows up with a curious gift. Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, This Is How We Got Here is a complex and hopeful story of letting go.   Age Recommendation: 14+

TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD
By Bernard ShawDirected by Sanjay Talwar
Previews May 12 ⬥ Available for review beginning May 26 ⬥ Closes October 8
Bernard Shaw takes aim at some of his favourite targets – doctors, preachers, the military and the aristocracy in this fantastical comedy featuring a talking microbe. Last seen at the Festival in 2006, Shaw’s ‘Political Extravaganza’, foreshadows the insanity that was about to engulf the world after the end of WWI. With a cavalier disregard for the unities of time and place, the play embarks on a journey into the heart of outdated public and private prejudices and errors.  Age Recommendation: 12+

EVERYBODY
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Directed by László Bérczes
Previews June 8 ⬥ Available for review beginning June 17 ⬥ Closes October 8

A provocative modern riff on the 15th century medieval morality playEveryman by the author of An Octoroon. Everybody (played by one of five actors selected by lottery at the start of each performance) journeys towards life’s greatest mystery and confronts the enviable truth – Death comes to Everybody. A Canadian premiere.   Age Recommendation: 12+

 

August Wilson’s
GEM OF THE OCEANDirected by Philip Akin
Previews August 5 ⬥ Available for review beginning August 19 ⬥ Closes October 9
Can redemption be gained for crimes of the past and a sense of purpose renewed? Aunt Ester, the 285-year-old “washer of souls” and fiery matriarch at the centre of Wilson’s poetic, mystical masterpiece, has an answer. When a young man drowning in guilt comes to her door, she sends him on an epic quest to find the mythical City of Bones. His spiritual journey through history takes place against a backdrop of very real events in 1904 Pittsburgh.  Age Recommendation: 14+
“August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.  www.concordtheatricals.com

 

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