Stage Door News
Stage Door News
For his outgoing production as Canadian Stage Artistic & General Director, Matthew Jocelyn will direct Simon Stephens’ Broadway acclaimed romantic comedy-drama Heisenberg, starring Carly Street and David Schurmann. The Canadian premiere of Heisenberg is onstage at the Berkeley Street Downstairs Theatre in an intimate in-the-round seating experience from November 28-December 17.
Amidst the bustle of a crowded train station, Georgie, a middle-aged woman, spots Alex, a much older man, and plants a kiss on his neck. This chance encounter will propel the two strangers on a fascinating and life-changing course. Peeling away the many layers and infinite variables of everyday relationships with quiet poeticism and offbeat humour, Heisenberg brings to poignant theatrical life the uncertain and often comical sparring match that is human connection.
Heisenberg was first performed off-Broadway in 2016 at the Manhattan Theatre Club in a sold-out run starring Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt. Hailed as “Quirky, lovely, funny, powerful…as stripped down as theatre can get” by The Associated Press, the critically lauded production later enjoyed a successful Broadway transfer on the heels of another project penned by Simon Stephens: the Tony and Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – currently onstage in Toronto with Mirvish Productions.
Called “an uncannily subtle dramatist” (New York Times), and “one of the best young British playwrights around” (The Guardian), Stephens is the prolific English author of such sharply-original dramas as Punk Rock, Three Kingdoms, and Harper Regan – produced by Canadian Stage in 2014 in a production starring Molly Parker and also directed by Jocelyn.
“I am delighted to reunite with the work of Simon Stephens for my outgoing production with Canadian Stage. He is a poet with an unparalleled capacity to tell the very large through the very small,” said Jocelyn. “With profound human understanding and theatrical daring, Stephens uses the uncertainty principle as a subtle canvas to explore the unpredictability of relationships, and the most intimate aspects of our lives. Heisenberg is a perfectly chiselled jewel of a play.”
“I am equally delighted to be making this final artistic gesture at the Berkeley Street Theatre – our core creative home – in the company of two tremendous actors that are close to my heart,” he continued. “It is a very special moment for me.”
In a nod to his last production at the Berkeley Street Theatre, 2013’s THIS – which stripped the historic theatre down to its original state - Jocelyn will once again re-configure the space to create an in-the-round staging, with audiences sitting on all four sides of the performers. The intimate production will bring together Carly Street, known to Toronto audiences for her Dora Award-winning turn in Canadian Stage’s Venus in Fur - and recently seen on Broadway alongside Clive Owen in Roundabout Theatre’s Old Times - with veteran Shaw Festival actor David Schurmann (upcoming: King Charles III, Studio 180). Teresa Przybylski (set and costume design) and Steve Lucas (lighting) complete the creative team.
Heisenberg will be on stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre, from November 28 – December 7 (Previews: Nov 28 & 29, Media night: Thursday, Nov 30 – 8:00pm). Performances run Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Fridays at 7:00pm, with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays, and on Wednesday, Dec 6 & 13 at 1:00pm. 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.
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2017-11-07
Toronto: Canadian Stage presents Simon Stephens's "Heisenberg" November 28-December 17