Stage Door News

Toronto: Théâtre français de Toronto presents “Solistice d’hiver” by Roland Schimmelpfennig February 1-12

Thursday, January 20, 2022

TfT is pleased to welcome you back to our theatre!

This morning, Premier Doug Ford, along with Health Minister Christine Elliott and Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, announced the lifting of restrictions on theatres and cultural institutions.

TfT is therefore delighted to be able to present, from February 4 to 12, SOLSTICE D'HIVER (WINTER SOLSTICE) by German author Roland Schimmelpfennig, one of the most performed playwrights on the contemporary European stage. This production created in collaboration with Le Groupe de la Veillée will mark the first TfT production to be performed at the Berkeley Street Theatre since February 2020.

The capacity will be reduced to 50% according to the health measures in place. You can already buy your tickets online at theatrefrancais.com.

This production created in collaboration with Le Groupe de la Veillée will mark the first TfT production to be performed at the Berkeley Street Theatre since February 2020.

After four years of artistic dialogue, director Joël Beddows, TfT’s previous Artistic Director, and Carmen Jolin, La Veillée’s co-General Manager, wanted to bring to life their project of building bridges between Canada’s two cultural capitals, Toronto and Montreal, with this contemporary masterpiece.

The Play: It’s Christmas Eve. A bourgeois apartment. Inside, Bettina is annoyed: her mother has invited a stranger she met on the train. An odd music aficionado with impeccable manners from a bygone era who proves to be both fascinating and astonishing, yet arouses suspicions, visions and panic.

Published in 2007, before the emergence of today’s known right-wing leaders, Solstice d’hiver lays bare the imminent dangers of the rise of extremism.

This caustic comedy is a biting critique of a Western World preoccupied more with its comforts than with ensuring its survival. The obliviousness of its characters reflects a society that has allowed itself to be seduced by a numbing status quo.

The work captivates by its form and its content. The writing borrows from film with its recurring leaps in time. It is precisely this dizzying narrative structure, as well as the themes it carries, that inspired Joël Beddows to stage this script, which lies at the intersection of theatre, essay, novel and cinema. “This project allows me to channel my own rage against present political apathy or the absence of nuanced political thought,” he explains.

At the time of writing, the health crisis had forced Théâtre Prospero to cancel the first two weeks of its Montreal run, which were scheduled to take place between January 11 and 22 inclusive. However, TfT and La Veillée are still hopeful that the performances from January 25 to 29 will be maintained.

This series of performances, first in Montreal then in Toronto, reflects the wish of both TfT and Groupe de la Veillée to develop and stimulate exchanges as well as promote talent onto the national stage. The team of performers and designers brings together artists from both cities.


SOLSTICE D’HIVER

Translation - Camille Luscher and Claire Stavaux | Direction - Joël Beddows | Dramaturgy - Joël Beddows and William Durbau | With Catherine De Léan, Benoît Mauffette, Louise Naubert, Gregory Hlady and Marcelo Arroyo | Set Design and Props - Cédric Delorme-Bouchard | Lights - Chantal Labonté | Costumes - Béatriz Arevalo | Sound Design - Nicolas Di Gaetano | Projections - Guillaume Saindon | Assistant to the Director - Alexandra Ghezzi.

IN TORONTO / FEBRUARY 4 TO 12, 2022

Friday February 4 at 7:00 p.m.

Saturdays, February 5 and 12 at 3:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 6 at 1:00 pm

Wednesday, February 9, Thursday, February 10, and Friday, February 11 at 8:00

For tickets visit theatrefrancais.com.

Photo: Catherine De Léan. © 2021 TfT.