Stage Door News
Stage Door News
– Canadian Stage is proud to present the North American and English language premiere of the award-winning German drama Liv Stein, a meditation on art, obsession, and fiction. Written by Georgian playwright Nino Haratischwili, translated from German by Birgit Schreyer Duarte, and directed by Canadian Stage Artistic and General Director Matthew Jocelyn (This, Harper Regan), Canadian Stage is thrilled to announce Leslie Hope, returning to the stage after over a decade on screen (Suits, NCIS, 24) in the title role, alongside Geraint Wyn Davies (Stratford Festival). Liv Stein is on stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre, January 24 – February 12.
“This play was a real discovery,” says Matthew Jocelyn. “Nino Haratischwili is a relatively young writer at the beginning of her career who has penned an extremely mature and sophisticated script. In addition to exploring themes of obsessiveness in art and the mutability of identity, Liv Stein is a unique and unexpected examination of the relationship between truth and happiness. If something makes us happy, does it have to be true? In a moment when our fundamental relationship to truth is being challenged, this work provokes the audience to consider the shades of grey in what we think of as black and white.”
A suspensefully crafted psychological labyrinth set in the world of classical music, Liv Stein earned Haratischwili the Heidelberger Stückemarkt (Germany) Author’s Prize in 2008 and was heralded as a “timeless play” that “takes on life at its fullest, joyfully and fearlessly” by the jury.
The play follows the life of celebrated concert pianist Liv Stein, for whom music – most specifically Rachmaninov's piano concertos- is all that matters. When her son Henri dies, however, she gives it all up - the piano, her career, her marriage, herself. But the visit of a promising young student claiming to have been Henri’s lover at boarding school, forces Liv to face past demons she is trying to forget. A mysterious pact is made between the two women that seems to reawaken Liv's will to live.
Leslie Hope, playing Liv Stein, is a Canadian actor originally from Nova Scotia, now best known for her roles in American film and television, including roles on 24, Suits, and NCIS, and in feature films by celebrated directors including John Cassavetes, Oliver Stone, and Guillermo Del Toro. Hope also ran a theatre company herself for ten years, called The Wilton Project.
Hope is joined on stage by Stratford Festival veteran Geraint Wyn Davies in a rare Toronto stage appearance as Liv’s ex-husband Emil. Nicola Correia-Damude, Caroline Gillis, and talented newcomers Marc-Andre Blanchard and Sheila Ingabire-Isaro round off the formidable cast.
Set and Costume Designer Debra Hanson (“Orphan Black”, “Schitt’s Creek”), Lighting Designer Michael Walton and Sound Designer Lyon Smith join director Jocelyn.
Liv Stein will be on stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front St. E), from January 24 – February 12 (Previews: January 24 & 25). Performances run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Fridays at 7:00 p.m., and matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Tickets from $39 to $99 are available online, by phone at 416.368.3110, or in person at the Berkeley Street box office. For details visit www.canadianstage.com.
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About Liv Stein
On stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre, January 24 – February 12
A Canadian Stage Production
Presented with the support of the Goethe Institut (Toronto)
Photo: Leslie Hope.
2016-12-20
Toronto: Canadian Stage presents the North American premiere of "Liv Stein" starring Leslie Hope