Stage Door News
Stage Door News
After a limited engagement in 2015, Canadian Stage is delighted to present an extended Toronto run of Who Killed Spalding Gray?, the latest solo piece written and performed by acclaimed Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor (The Best Brothers) and produced by reWork Productions. Directed by Daniel Brooks with dramaturgy by Iris Turcott, Who Killed Spalding Gray? will be on stage at the Berkeley St. Theatre from November 30 to December 11.
On the weekend of January 11, 2004, celebrated American monologist Spalding Gray ended his life by jumping off the Staten Island Ferry in New York. That same weekend, on the other side of the country, Daniel MacIvor was spending three days in California in a series of sessions with a man who had offered to save his life. Linking these two real stories is a wholly original fiction derived from the obsessions of Gray and the inventions of MacIvor about a man named Howard who had forgotten how to live.
A pioneer of confessional storytelling, actor/writer Spalding Gray (1941-2004) transformed his travels, manias and personal traumas into a series of lauded monologues including Swimming to Cambodia (adapted into film by Jonathan Demme) and Monster in a Box – performed by Gray with only a simple table, glass of water and notebook on stage.
Who Killed Spalding Gray? reunites MacIvor with longtime collaborator, Siminovitch Award-winning director Daniel Brooks. The latest in a collaborative body of work that spans over 25 years, Spalding Gray joins the ranks of such signature Brooks-directed MacIvor monologues that include House, Here Lies Henry, Monster and This is What Happens Next. Part homage, part invention and part autobiography, MacIvor’s newest solo turn gives audiences the opportunity to experience the charismatic performer at his most personal, grappling with questions surrounding truth, fiction and self-forgiveness.
The presentation of Who Killed Spalding Gray? will be dedicated to the memory of the late Canadian dramaturge Iris Turcott, who passed away in September 2016. The former Canadian Stage dramaturge-in-residence championed several generations of the country's foremost playwrights, from Daniel MacIvor to Tomson Highway and Judith Thompson. Who Killed Spalding Gray? was among Turcott’s final dramaturgical projects.
“Iris' trajectory as a dramaturge of new Canadian work was inextricably connected to Canadian Stage's new play development for more than a decade, and her legacy for this company and to Canadian theatre has remained strong and deeply impactful. We join our community of peers in remembering and celebrating Iris,” said Matthew Jocelyn, Canadian Stage Artistic & General Director.
To read Daniel MacIvor’s In Memoriam tribute, click here.
Who Killed Spalding Gray? will be on stage at the Berkeley Street Downstairs Theatre (26 Berkeley St.) from November 30 to December 11. Performances run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8 pm, Friday at 7 pm, with a 1pm matinee on Wednesday, December 7 and Sunday, December 11. Tickets from $39 to $69 are available online, by phone at 416.368.3110, or in person at the Berkeley Street box office. For details visit www.canadianstage.com/online/spalding
Photo: Daniel MacIvor. ©2016 Guntar Kravis.
2016-11-08
Toronto: Canadian Stage presents "Who Killed Spalding Gray?" November 30-December 11