Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Mamet's plays are all about men. Right? Not this April. Two Indie theatre companies are shaking up our expectations about the ballsy purveyor of rapid-fire intellectually-fierce modern classics. And the producing teams for each play includes a veritable Who's Who of Toronto's best female performers:
Jet Girls' GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS - Mamet's powerhouse 1984 Pulitzer Prize Winner - features an extraordinary ensemble of female performers in a fresh take on one of the great modern classics. Directed by Gemini-nominated actor and award-winning director Anita la Selva, the production stars Elizabeth Saunders as ‘Levine’, Julie Brar as ‘Williamson’, Francoise Balthazar as ‘Moss’, Laurel Paetz as ‘Aaronow’, Marianne Sawchuk as ‘Roma’, while Red Sandcastle Artistic Director Rosemary Doyle plays ‘Lingk', and Robinne Fanfair plays ‘Baylen’.
Headstrong's BOSTON MARRIAGE - a quick witted comedy about a discreetly euphemised Victorian same-sex pairing - features international award-winning stage and screen actor Catherine McNally and Dora-Nominated Deborah Drakeford, directed by Shaw and Straford Festival Alum Kelli Fox.
Besides stellar casting, the plays have something else in common: "Just as Mamet's petty hoods mask their fear under a barrage of profanity, so the genteel American classes camouflaged their sexual and financial rapacity under sculpted literary language" (Michael Billington).
Co-Producers and co-founders Julie Brar and Marianne Sawchuk of the newly formed Jet Girls Productions have a mandate to bring more diversity in all its forms to stage and screen. In choosing Mamet's GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS they had a strong desire to push the envelope in how women are perceived and the types of roles they can take on.
Mamet's Women Take Over Toronto Theatre
in Two ALL STAR productions this April
Jet Girls recasts GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
with a powerhouse all-female cast,
while Headstrong Collective presents BOSTON MARRIAGE
(Mamet's one and only all-female script).
Jet Girls' GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS plays April 15 - 26, 2015 at the Red Sandcastle Theatre. Tickets are available via 416-845-9411, www.redsandcastletheatre.com, or at the door.
Headstrong's BOSTON MARRIAGE plays April 7-26, 2015, at the Campbell House Museum. Tickets are available via 416-597-0227 ext.2, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1265567
Photo: Poster Jet Girls’ Glengarry Glen Ross. ©2015.
2015-03-24
Toronto: Women take over Mamet this April in "Boston Marriage" and an all-female "Glengarry Glen Ross"