Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Taking Care of Baby, by Tony award winning playwright Dennis Kelly, is making its Canadian premiere at the Storefront Theatre this January. Director Birgit Schreyer Duarte (Hamlet, 2016 Shakespeare in High Park director; King Lear, Mary Stuart, Stratford Festival assistant director; The Test, Canadian Stage translator) has assembled an all star cast including Caroline Gillis (Soulpepper Theatre's Happy Place and Marat/Sade, romantic comedy feature Portrait of a Serial Monogamist) , Craig Lauzon (Royal Canadian Air Farce, King Lear (NAC), Dylan Trowbridge (Mary Stuart (Stratford Festival); Dirty Dancing (London's West End); 5 Seasons at The Shaw Festival; Tribes and Julius Caesar (Canadian Stage), Astrid Van Wieren (Dora award winning for This Wide Night, Come From Away (La Jolla/Seattle Rep), Les Belles Soeurs The Musical (Segal), Miranda Calderon (Hulu’s 1 1/22/63, BBC America’s Copper, Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna (BAM and Luminato) and Richard Clarkin (Heart of Robin Hood, Lion King, Death of a Salesman (Mirvish); Festen, Speaking In Tongues (Company Theatre), Goon, Goon II: Last of the Enforcers.)
Kelly’s play focuses on Donna McAuliffe (Calderon), a young mother accused of murdering her two infant children. Donna’s defense at trial hangs on the credibility of LKS, a newly minted psychological disorder wherein new mothers, afflicted by an overload of empathy toward all suffering in the world, lash out at the thing that caused the new found empathy their babies. The play is presented as verbatim documentary theatre, with dialogue taken word for word from interviews and correspondence with the various people surrounding Donna’s case. Thing is, Donna McAuliffe never existed.
Called “slippery and unsettling” by The Guardian, director Schreyer Duarte’s upcoming production examines the nature of reality and truth in the style of a fake documentary. It asks audiences to determine innocence or guilt, truth from lies,
amidst the haze of personal opinion and media spin on this sensational and horrific case as noted by The New York Times, “there is no such thing as a truly true story.” Taking Care of Baby was lauded by critics in London and New York where it enjoyed sold out runs and rave reviews. This thrilling psychological hedge maze promises to be the intelligent apres holiday tonic audiences crave.
Taking Care of Baby
January 29th February 14th, Wed Sat @ 8:00 PM & Sun @ 2 PM
The Storefront Theatre, 955 Bloor Street West
$20.00 $25.00, Advance tickets available @ www.thestorefronttheatre.com
Illustration: from Safe Baby Handling Tips by David and Kelly Sopp, Running Press, 2005.
2016-01-06
Toronto: The Storefront Arts Initiative presents "Taking Care of Baby" January 29-February 14