THEATrePUBLIC: Canadian Theatre

Message from Kenneth Brown, Artistic Director

Welcome to THEATrePUBLIC’s website, browsers.

What a summer we have in store for our generous-hearted supporters.  We’ve been working hard to make sure that those of you with a taste for the bizarre can gorge yourselves on Grimm made Grimmer. We’ve scoured through the famous book of fairy tales and have chosen several of the nastiest, juiciest, weirdest images and stories.  The darker corners of the German mind exposed.  No, let’s face it… celebrated!  Grimmer Than Grimmer Than Grimm opens at the Winnipeg Fringe, and travels to Edmonton.  Featuring the rubber-faced madman Jon Paterson,  the extremely talented Scott Walters (we’ve rescued him from Toronto, land of the Big Musical), the beautiful-but-naughty Candice Fiorentino, and that tall drink of water (and new RIBBITrePUB-LICAN) Tyler Girard. We promise to tickle you in all the wrong places.

Speaking of Jon Paterson, he and Julie Funk team up to bring a very early work by Ken Brown onto the stage.  Written in 1983, Sparks is Ken’s eccentric and thoughtful take on the genre of romantic comedy.  An exuberant (if irresponsible) poet falls for a wistful waitress in a last-chance diner. Sparks are struck from this unlikely duo, and the result is an hour of will-they, wont-they foreplay in an ineffable theatrical language that Brown has made his own.  Tyler Girard makes a cameo appearance as the jilted lover. This play is about more than girl-meets-boy.  Although set in the late 70’s, it’s about men, women, Canadian identity, and the fear of commitment that has become the subtext of modern releationships.

THEATrePUBLIC goes public once again with a collective creation. Developed from actor research and improv, we take begin with a theme (as we did in WATER), and take it in whatever theatrical direction it goes. Bound to be one of this year’s Fringe sleepers, You Bet Your Life—The Gambling Show opens at this year’s Edmonton Fringe at La Cité Francophone. And while we’re on the subject, THEATrePUBLIC has once again taken over La Cité for the duration of this year’s Edmonton Fringe.  We have invited several shows to share the beautiful l’unithéatre space at La Cité.  Watch for Jon Lachlan’s Stewart’s new show, Grimmer Than Grimmer Than Grimm, The Gambling Show, and Spiral Dive, Episode Three.

Which brings us to the culmination of the Spiral Dive trilogy. Spitfire pilot Jack Harding faces his toughest challenges yet as he faces insane dangers in the air, and insane obsessions on the ground.  As the war comes to an end, the meaning of victory becomes more and more obscured for Flight Lieutenant Harding, and he struggles to keep his sanity as his personal losses mount.

An incredibly talented cast features Blake William Turner as Jack Harding.  Bryan D. Webb, Caley Suliak, and Jeremy Baumung people the world around Harding with beautifully fleshed-out characters you become instantly attached to.

Spiral Dive, Episode Two was nominated for a further FOUR Sterling Awards this spring--bringing the Sterling nomination total to eight.  Caley was justly nominated for her portrayal of characters as divers as the French Canadian pilot Gautier and the tortured lover who constantly challenges Jack’s ignorance about European realpolitik.   Last summer’s production of Episode One drew raves from press in Ottawa and Toronto, and won Best Drama award at the Ottawa Fringe. Episode Two opened to a chorus of praise in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton.  (please see “reviews” in this website)  We were very proud when Liz Nicholls of the Edmonton Journal called Spiral Dive  “a Canadian classic in the making.”

This year, actor/writer Jeremy Baumung (Homeless, Dead Man Talking) joins Blake William Turner, Caley Suliak, and Bryan Webb in the telling of this unique and stunning war drama.
Once again, writer Kenneth Brown directs.  For those who don’t know what Spiral Dive is… it’s a war story, a love story, a story about innocence destroyed and honour salvaged.  It’s an anti-war drama and a paean to Canadian courage. Above all, it’s completely gripping theatre, told with simple, ingenious theatrical means by superbly talented and utterly committed actors.