Talk Is Free Theatre Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak announced today that the company will add a performance to their run in April in response to demand for their production of Cock.

The play, which TIFT first produced in Barrie in early 2024, enjoyed a sold-out run in Toronto in January at its unconventional, intimate venue inside the Artists Play Studio within the Carlaw Industrial Centre. The run, scheduled for April 5-20, will now include a performance on Sunday, April 13, at 8:30 p.m.

Talk is Free Theatre brought Cock and two Canadian plays, For Both Resting and Breeding by Adam Meisner and Tales of an Urban Indian by Darrell Dennis to Kyoto, Japan, in February. Tales will play in Toronto May 20 - June 1.

“It was such an enlightening experience, performing Cock in Japan and meeting some of the audience afterwards,” says Michael Torontow, who plays the role of M. “I think it taught us more about how universal this story can be, and I look forward to us playing in Toronto with this new perspective on the play and its characters.”

The hit comedy by British playwright Mike Bartlett is about John, a gay man, who has been in a relationship with his partner for seven years. But when he meets and falls in love with a woman, he is forced to contemplate the boundaries of his identity and decide what he really wants for his future. Cock stars Jakob Ehman as John, Michael Torontow as M, Tess Benger as W and Kevin Bundy as F. It is directed by Dylan Trowbridge with assistance from Nolan Moberly, stage managed by Jeff Soucy, and production managed by Jeff Braunstein. The production design is by Kathleen Black; Moberly also designs the sound.

Talk is Free Theatre is a Barrie-based company that maintains a distinguished presence in Toronto, with recent appearances including David Hirson’s La Bête, a site-specific For Both Resting and Breeding, and the Dora-winning Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. No strangers to provocative and challenging works, TIFT’s Barrie season includes a site-specific Blackbird by David Harrower–the story of young woman meeting a middle-aged man fifteen years after their affair, when she was twelve – from March 20 - 29, 2025.

COCK

By Mike Bartlett

Directed by Dylan Trowbridge

Running April 5-20, 2025

Artists Play Studio

Carlaw Industrial Complex

388 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto

Tickets: $48+HST; $24+HST for artists/students (ID must be shown at box office) are available for select performances.

Visit www.tift.ca.