Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO (November 28, 2012) Rehearsals started this week for Tarragon Theatre's world premiere of This is War, written by acclaimed Tarragon playwright-in-residence Hannah Moscovitch and directed by Artistic Director Richard Rose. This is War opens January 3 and runs to February 3, 2013 in Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space (with previews from December 28). Tickets range from $27-$53 (inclusive of HST) and are available by calling the box office at 416.531.1827 or by visiting www.tarragontheatre.com.
It is 2008. Canadian Forces are holding Panjwaii, the most volatile region of Afghanistan, with very little support from NATO-ISAF. Captain Stephen Hughes is always looking for the next threat, knowing it can come at any time from any direction.. Four different perspectives emerge as three soldiers and a medic are interviewed by an unseen journalist about a critical event.
Lisa Berry (CanStage/Obsidian Theatre's Intimate Apparel, Shaw Festival's The Crucible) as Master Corporal Tanya Young, Ari Cohen (Tarragon's The Little Years, Soulpepper's Death of a Salesman-Dora nomination) as Captain Stephen Hughes, Sergio Di Zio (Tarragon's Scorched, Leo; CTV's Flashpoint) as medic Sergeant Chris Anders and Ian Lake (Stratford Festival's Elektra, Cymbeline and more) as Private Jonny Henderson star in this fictionalized version of a real incident taken from the pages of the controversial Afghanistan conflict and Canada's role in it.
Hannah Moscovitch is the country's most produced young playwright. She explains that, through her work for CBC's hit radio drama Afghanada, she became "interested in the fact that journalists and war reportage tended to represent killing, in war, as either heroism or atrocity. Soldiers, on the other hand, spoke about killing as an adrenalized split-second decision. And that blind instinctive second in which killing did or did not occur was, it seemed to me, the essence of war."
Moscovitch has risen to national prominence in the last few years. She has won multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards and been nominated for the Governor General's Award and the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, among others. Tarragon previously mounted her plays East of Berlin and The Children's Republic, and will present a mini-festival of her work beginning in February with Little One, Other People's Children and In This World. Other plays include The Huron Bride and The Russian Play. She has been produced across Canada including Factory Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Great Canadian Theatre Company and at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, among others and is currently writing plays for some of North America's most exciting established and experimental theatre companies including the Stratford Festival and the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.
Originally commissioned by the Banff Centre for its 75th anniversary celebration where it was workshopped in 2008, This is War tours to Winnipeg's Prairie Theatre Exchange for a production in association with Tarragon from February 20-March 10.
Tarragon Theatre presents the world premiere of
This is War
Written by Hannah Moscovitch
Directed by Richard Rose
Starring Lisa Berry, Ari Cohen, Sergio Di Zio, Ian Lake
Set and Costume Designer: Camellia Koo
Lighting Designer: Rebecca Picherack
Composer and Sound Designer: Thomas Ryder Payne
Stage Manager: Nicola Benidickson
Opens January 3 and runs to February 3, 2013 (Previews from December 28)
Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto, M5R 1X3
Tuesday-Saturday at 8pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30pm from December 30 on.
Tickets range from $27-$53 (including discounts for students, seniors and groups)
AND a Pay-What-You-Can 2:30pm matinee on Saturday, January 26
- $13 Rush Tickets available at the door for Fridays (on sale at 6pm) & Sundays (on sale at 1pm) -
Photo: Ian Lake. ©2012 Cylla von Tiedemann.
2012-11-28
Toronto: Tarragon Theatre presents the world premiere of “This Is War” by Hannah Moscovitch