Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Theatre Gargantua’s landmark production Raging Dreams: into the visceral, returns to the Harbourfront Centre Theatre May 5 & 6 for a special showing as part of the company’s 25th Anniversary Season. The work premiered originally in 1996 at the company’s former home of St. Stephens-in-the fields. This Toronto favourite transports audiences into a dream-like world of haunting melodies and striking images created by a cast of airborne performers.
What the critics have said about Raging Dreams: into the visceral:
"Spectacular…performed largely in mid-air, it is filled with visual beauty." Globe & Mail
"compelling theatre … theatre of the best sort. … Gargantua never ceases to push the boundaries of our imaginations. And beyond those boundaries, it is clear, Gargantua has envisaged a whole new world and called it theatre." The Toronto Sun
Described as a meditation on violence, the work uses live instrumentation, an original vocal score and text by Jacquie Thomas and spoken word poet Meryn Cadell to conjure a subconscious scarred by the impact of societal violence.
This signature Theatre Gargantua production has been remounted in Toronto and Montreal and has toured extensively, including headlining the Portland International Performance Festival in Oregon, and was adapted to film by celebrated director Valeria Buhagiar.
This 25th Anniversary production features two of the original cast members, Michael Spence and Michelle Polak, as well as performances by new company members Abraham Asto, Teiya Kasahara, Darcy Gerhart and Nic Rhind. Special guest musician, Donald Quan, also returns to the work, having performed in the original production.
Theatre Gargantua’s 25th Anniversary Season also includes the anticipated premiere of Reflector this November at Theatre Passe Muraille, the premiere of concert-theatre hybrid Lost Ones or Come/Ready See Me at MT Space's international IMPACT festival, and has already featured a tour of Trace to the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary.
Theatre Gargantua was founded in 1992 by Artistic Director Jacquie P.A. Thomas, with an ensemble of artists dedicated to the development of contemporary Canadian theatre. It has become one of Canada’s leading multi-disciplinary theatre companies creating engaging productions that explore socially probing subjects using daring physicality, striking designs, rich vocal layers and the innovative use of emerging technologies. The company’s body of original work includes The Sacrifice Zone, IMPRINTS, e-DENTITY (which went on to be produced at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto), fIBBER, (nod), Phantom Limb and THE EXIT ROOM.
Theatre Gargantua
Presents Raging Dreams: into the visceral
Conceived & Directed by Jacquie PA Thomas
Original Text by Meryn Cadell & Jacquie PA Thomas
Set & Lighting by Michael Spence, Costumes by Erica Buss, from original design by Ottilie Mason
Performed by Abraham Asto, Darcy Gerhart, Teiya Kasahara, Michelle Polak, Nic Rhind, Michael Spence
Special Guest Musician Donald Quan
Stage Manager Erika Morey, Production Manager Laird Macdonald, Produced by Yolanda Ferrato
Two performances only Friday May 5 & Saturday May 6 at 8pm
Harbourfront Centre Theatre, 231 Queen’s Quay West
Tickets: $28 ($23 students, seniors and arts workers)
Tickets: 416.973.4000 press 1, OR online at harbourfrontcentre.com
Photo by Michael Cooper.
2017-04-10
Toronto: Theatre Gargantua presents "Raging Dreams: into the visceral" May 5 & 6