Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO (October 13, 2015) Artistic Director Ken Gass is pleased to announce the Toronto premiere of Colleen Murphy’s Armstrong’s War, the second production in Canadian Rep Theatre’s 2015 Season, following the success of Florence Gibson MacDonald’s How Do I Love Thee? in February. With rehearsals now underway, Armstrong’s War previews at The Citadel (Parliament & Dundas) on November 11, opens on November 18 and runs to December 6, 2015.
Directed by Ken Gass, this emotionally powerful two-hander stars Paolo Santalucia (The Dybbuk; Of Human Bondage -Soulpepper) as Corporal Michael Armstrong and Alex McCulloch, making her professional debut as Halley Armstrong.
Armstrong’s War involves an encounter between Halley, an over-achieving 12-year-old Pathfinder (Girl Guides) eager to get Community Service badge, and Michael, a dispirited 21-year old soldier recovering in an Ottawa Rehab Hospital following a harrowing tour of duty in Afghanistan. When Halley tries to read to Michael, he shuts her down but she persists, and although it is Stephen Crane’s masterpiece, The Red Badge of Courage, that brings them onto the same emotional battlefield, it is Michael’s own shocking story – one that throws Halley’s cherished beliefs about life and hope into question – that starts their war.
Director Ken Gass says, “Colleen Murphy is a playwright I have admired greatly for many years—her ability to take a simple premise and through detailed, carefully constructed scenes, reveal a complex and gripping social reality forcefully impacting on characters’ lives. Armstrong’s War is, of course, a timely play, but above all, one that deals with the universal human experience in face of adversity, and, as such, is a rich and wonderful recent addition to the Canadian canon.”
Governor General Award-winning playwright, Colleen Murphy (The December Man [L’Homme de décembre]) notes, “The play touches on many themes – imagination versus experience, fiction versus reality, hope versus hopelessness, honour between soldiers and the ethics of mercy killing. War provides tremendous drama because it exists inside the thin membrane between life and death, and life and death are at the core of dramatic theatre.
Whether we agree or disagree with our government sending soldiers into combat, young men and women go off to fight and they return wounded or changed, or they do not return at all. In the face of that, I wanted to create two young people who had suffered terrible losses but who remain passionate about living their lives.”
Armstrong’s War premiered at the Arts Club in Vancouver in December, 2013 and has also been produced at The Finborough Theatre in London, England; Theatre Network in Edmonton and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre Warehouse in Winnipeg.
The Canadian Rep Theatre production is designed by Marian Wihak, with costume design by Jung-Hye Kim, lighting design by Rebecca Picherack and original music & sound design by Wayne Kelso. The stage manager is Peter Sherk.
Canadian Rep Theatre presents the Toronto premiere of
Armstrong’s War
By Colleen Murphy Directed by Ken Gass
Starring Paolo Santalucia and Alex McCulloch
Set design by Marian Wihak; Costume design by Jung-Hye Kim
Lighting design by Rebecca Picherack; Original music and sound design by Wayne Kelso
THE CITADEL, 304 Parliament Street (at Dundas)
Previews November 11 – November 17
OPENS – November 18; Runs until December 6/2015
Performance Times: Tues - Sat 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
General admission is $30 Tuesday-Friday; Saturdays $35; Previews $20.
Sunday matinees are Pay-What-You-Can
Discounts for Seniors, Students & Artsworkers, as well as Groups
Tickets are available on the Arts Box Office website at https://www.artsboxoffice.ca or through link at www.canadianrep.ca or by phone at (416) 504-7529
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Select cast credits include:
Paolo Santalucia (Corporal Michael Armstrong) - The Dybbuk, Idiot's Delight, Of Human Bondage, Great Expectations, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Royal Comedians, The Crucible, Dirt (Soulpepper) Romeo and Juliet (Hart House Theatre) Twelfth Night (Canopy Theatre) Dog Sees God, The Selkie Wife, Mr. Marmalade (Fly By Night Theatre) After Juliet (YPT). He won a Dora Award for Outstanding Ensemble for his work in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Alex McCulloch (Halley Armstrong) - Alex McCulloch is currently graduating from the performance stream at the Drama Centre, where she has already proved herself an extraordinary young talent, co-starring in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and in Judith Thompson’s Perfect Pie. Armstrong’s War will be her first full-fledged professional role.
Colleen Murphy is an award-winning playwright, librettist, and filmmaker based in Toronto. Her play Pig Girl won the 2014 Carol Bolt Award. The December Man (L’homme de décembre) won the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, the CAA/Carol Bolt Award, and the Enbridge Playwrights Award. Other plays include The Goodnight Bird, Beating Heart Cadaver (nominated for a 1999 Governor General’s Literary Award) and The Piper. Her distinct films have played in film festivals around the world. Colleen is currently the Lee Playwright-in-Residence at the University of Alberta and has been Guest Playwright at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton since 2010. She has served as Playwright in Residence for Finborough Theatre in London, UK, Factory Theatre and Necessary Angel Theatre in Toronto, as well as a Writer in Residence at the University of Guelph, McMaster University, Wilfred Laurier University and the University of Regina.
Canadian Rep Theatre’s inaugural 2014 season included Wajdi Mouawad’s Pacamambo; Judith Thompson’s Watching Glory Die; and George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor, the latter a co-production with Mirvish Productions. The Canadian Rep Theatre 2015 Season opened with Florence Gibson MacDonald’s How Do I Love Thee? in February. Our next production will be a major revival of George F. Walker’s Nothing Sacred, directed by Ken Gass, venue and dates to be confirmed in 2016.
Tickets are available on the Canadian Rep Theatre website at http://canadianrep.ca/
or by calling the Arts Box Office at (416) 504-7529.
2015-10-13
Toronto: Canadian Rep Theatre presents the Toronto premiere of "Armstrong's War" November 11-December 6