Congratulations to Adam Donner!
He and lucky guest will be going to see tomorrow nights production of The Madonna Painter. Hurray-
For your chance to win a free pair of tickets to some of Toronto’s great theatre, check back on Mondays for contest details. The Madonna Painter, written by Michel Marc Bouchard and translated by Linda Gaboriau, will be running Tuesday to Saturday at 8:00 pm at the Factory Theatre. Tickets are $15- $35, with available discounts for seniors, students, and groups. For more information on tickets visit the Factory Theatre, and for more about this great play read excerpts from the press release below.
Toronto, ON – Thursday, October 22, 2009 – The World Premiere of the English translation of THE MADONNA PAINTER, written by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau, and directed by Eda Holmes plays at Factory Theatre November 14 – December 13, 2009. This poetic and timely parable by one of Canada’s major playwrights is the second offering by Artistic Director Ken Gass in Factory’s 40th Anniversary season. “We’re thrilled to include this recent work by one of Quebec’s most celebrated playwrights as part of our season, and, most particularly, to offer this play, with its huge imaginative reach and contemporary resonance.” (http://www.factorytheatre.ca/madonna.htm)
Created and staged as a reading in 2002, THE MADONNA PAINTER premiered in Italian in Florence, Italy in 2003, and in French in 2004 in Montreal. Bouchard’s story of a community under threat by the Spanish Flu epidemic is remarkably topical with the current global fears of an H1N1 pandemic. THE MADONNA PAINTER is set in 1918 Lac St. Jean, Québec, and a priest commissions an Italian painter to create a fresco dedicated to the Virgin Mary in order to protect his parish from the Spanish Flu epidemic, with consequences both comic and cataclysmic. The show stars Marc Bendavid (Manitoba Theatre Centre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), Juan Chioran (Three Sisters, Stratford; Canadian Stage, Citadel), Nicola Correia-Damude (Shaw Festival; Stratford Festival; CTV’s Degrassi, The Next Generation), Brian Dooley (Canadian Stage, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary), Miranda Edwards (‘da Kink in my Hair, Mirvish; Toronto the Good, Factory), Shannon Taylor (4th Line Theatre, Stratford Festival) and Jenny Young (Shaw Festival, Harold Green Jewish Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company).
Director Eda Holmes (Factory Theatre, Shaw Festival, Tarragon) has assembled her creative team for THE MADONNA PAINTER and it includes Set & Costume Designer Sue LePage (Factory Theatre, Shaw Festival, Soulpepper, Calgary Opera, NAC), Lighting Designer Beth Kates (Music For Contortionist, Tarragon/Shaw Festival), Composer & Sound Designer Reza Jacobs, Stage Manager Marinda de Beer (Soulpepper, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Canadian Stage) and Apprentice Stage Manager Neha Ross. Cory O’Brien is the Assistant Director and he will be making blog entries throughout the rehearsal process to provide behind- the-scenes comments about the creation of this show at http://factorytheatre-themadonnapainter.blogspot.com/.
“THE MADONNA PAINTER examines the role of art in society,” says director Eda Holmes. “As a society we worship beauty as a means of protecting ourselves from the degradation of aging and death. We want art to be beautiful in order to support that worship. But this play examines the irresistible need that art has to tell the truth about society rather than to support the illusion that we wish were the truth. As an artist, what I find so compelling about this play is the power of Michel-Marc Bouchard’s poetry to reveal human nature to be just as beautiful as it is terrifying.”
Michel Marc Bouchard has written more than 25 plays, including The Coronation of Voyage, Lilies and The Orphan Muses. His works have been translated into many languages and are regularly performed around the world. He has received many awards abroad and in Canada, notably the Dora Mavor Moore Award, Chalmers Award, National Arts Centre Award, Betty Mitchell Award and the Prix du Journal de Montréal. His movie Les Feluettes (Lilies) and television adaptations of his plays, such as L’ histoire de l’oie (The Tale of Teeka), have garnered critical acclaim. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada
(http://www.agencegoodwin.com/en/bouchard-mm.html).
THE MADONNA PAINTER previews November 14 – 18, opens November 19 and closes December 13, 2009. The opening night event sponsor is Bureau du Québec. THE MADONNA
PAINTER runs Tuesday – Saturday, 8 p.m., and on Sunday at 2 p.m. (with the exception of the Sunday, November 15, 7 p.m. preview) in the Factory Mainspace Theatre. Single tickets run $15 – $35 (discounts for previews, seniors, students or theatre artists as well as groups of 10 or more) and may be purchased online at www.factorytheatre.ca 24 hours a day, or by calling (416) 504-9971 or by visiting the Factory Theatre Box Office in person Tuesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. – 7 p.m., at 125 Bathurst Street (at Adelaide Street), Toronto. In addition, 3–play subscriptions, Pay-What-You-Can Sunday and a limited number of $10 RUSH tickets (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday) are also available.
Factory’s 2009/2010 season continues in the new year with the World Premiere of George F. Walker’s And So It Goes (January 30 – February 28), the World Premiere of ahdri zhina mandiela’s who knew grannie: a dub aria (March 13 – April 4) produced by Obsidian Theatre Company in association with Factory Theatre, and Walker’s Featuring Loretta (May 1 – June 6). Where the Blood Mixes, by Kevin Loring, recently announced as a finalist for the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards, plays April 7 – 18, headlining Factory’s annual Performance Spring/CrossCurrents Festival, April 6 – 25.
Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON M5V 2R2
Ph: (416) 504-4473 x224; Fax: (416) 504-4060