This fall Canadian Stage is thrilled to welcome one of the most loved and celebrated artists in the country back to the Bluma Appel Stage, as multi-award-winning novelist, playwright, and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald returns to the play that ignited her extraordinary career, starring in her comedy GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA, GOOD MORNING JULIET on stage November 6th to 22nd at the Bluma Appel Theatre.

Twenty-five years after she last played Constance Ledbelly at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Ann-Marie MacDonald returns to the role in this new Canadian Stage production of her beloved comedy. As then, she is directed now by her longtime creative and life partner Alisa Palmer. MacDonald will be joined on stage by Praneet Akilla (Robin Hood and Romeo & Juliet/Canadian Stage), Jessica B. Hill (Dangerous Liaisons and Sense and Sensibility/Stratford), and Caroline Toal (Twelfth Night/Canadian Stage, Anne of Green Gables/Stratford).

“This is an extraordinary moment for Canadian Stage and for Toronto theatre lovers,” comments Canadian Stage Artistic Director Brendan Healy. “Ann-Marie MacDonald is an icon in this country and beyond for a reason. She is a brilliant and sharp-witted writer and one of the most masterful, charming, and hilarious performers this country has ever produced. To have Ann-Marie herself stepping back into the role that changed the trajectory of her career almost 40 years ago is an unmissable opportunity.”

Since Macdonald first wrote the play, GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET) has become one of the most successful Canadian plays ever written in English, having enjoyed well over 100 productions across Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan, and winning the 1989 Chalmer’s Award for Best New Play and the 1990 Governor General’s Award for Drama. The comedy centers on Ledbelly, an overlooked academic working on her thesis, who tumbles headlong into Shakespeare’s worlds in the wake of a distressing revelation about her supervising professor. As Constance falls through the looking glass right into Othello and Romeo and Juliet, she discovers that the heroines (and even Constance herself) may be capable of far more than anyone imagined. At once wildly funny and moving, this Canadian classic unleashes Desdemona and Juliet as fierce forces of their own destiny and reminds us that sometimes the bravest act is claiming your own story.

A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, since beginning her career over 40 years ago, Ann-Marie MacDonald has emerged as one of Canada’s essential voices – as a novelist, playwright, actor and broadcast host. Her work has been honoured with numerous awards, including the Chalmers, the Governor General’s, Gemini, Dora Mavor Moore, John Drainie, the Gascon-Thomas, the Canadian Authors Association, the Canadian Booksellers Association, the Commonwealth Prize, and, together with Alisa Palmer, the Canadian Stage Artistic Achievement Prize. In addition to Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning, Juliet), her writing for the stage includes the plays Belle Moral: A Natural History, and Hamlet-911; the libretto for the chamber opera Nigredo Hotel, and book and lyrics for Anything That Moves; her novels are Fall On Your Knees, The Way the Crow Flies, Adult Onset and Fayne. In additions to her other many accolades, in 2019 MacDonald was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and earlier this year she joined the Giller Prize Writers’ Circle; a newly formed advisory panel composed of an exceptional group of award-winning Canadian writers, playwrights, journalists, documentarians and historians.

Joining Alisa Palmer on the creative team for the Toronto production are set and costume designer Judith Bowen, lighting designer Jason Hand, sound designer John Gzowski, intimacy director Anisa Tejpar, and fight Director David Chinchilla.

GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET) runs November 6th to 22nd at the Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front St W.). Performances take place Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. Tickets are available beginning at $50 at www.canadianstage.com.