In a courageous physical performance with a completely original text and score sung  a cappella, Amy Nostbakken tells the story of a brilliant young artist from Toronto given the opportunity of a lifetime: a solo exhibit at London’s Tate Modern Art Gallery. Nathalie has everything to live for: good looks, talent, a loving family, amazing scholarships and a career just waiting to take off. But just as she is rising to the heights of her potential, she begins to spiral down into the depths of depression. Through swanky gallery parties and grim pub toilets, ex-boyfriends and meddling aunts, mauled dogs and crashed cyclists, her descent into madness unfolds.  The Big Smoke is a stunning experience that walks the fine line between sanity and psychosis.

 

Theatre Ad Infinitum Canada, in association with  Why Not Theatre presents  The Big Smoke winner of the Argus Angel Award at the 2011 Brighton Festival Fringe. Nostbakken was also nominated for Best Female Performer in the Latest Awards, Brighton. The production premiered to rave reviews at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, leading to a national tour of Britain in spring/summer 2011 that included stops in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford and Leeds.  

 

The Big Smoke is a co-devised piece directed by  Nir Paldi, with music and performance by  Amy Nostbakken.  

 

Tickets are available via www.factorytheatre.ca, by email atboxoffice@factorytheatre.ca, by phone at 416-504-9971, or at the door.

 

More info can be found at www.theatreadinfinitum.com

Ecce Homo Theatre in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents
OF A MONSTROUS CHILD: A GAGA MUSICAL
May 14 - 26, 2013

written and directed by Alistair Newton
starring Bruce Dow as Leigh Bowery and Kimberly Persona as Lady Gaga
with Tyson James and Chy Ryan Spain
production designer Matt Jackson

Performance legend Leigh Bowery hosts an irreverent musical cabaret devoted to of one of our most enigmatic and polarizing pop stars, Lady Gaga. Featuring a collection of the art world's greatest icons, this "dance floor dialectic" celebrates the place where high culture hooks up with low art.

Set in a decrepit rehearsal hall, down and out writer/director Billy Palmer (writer/director of the musical fiasco Apocalypse Wow!) attempts to keep his musical adaptation of Top Gun from crashing and burning, despite a quarrelling cast, a sketchy ex-Navy Seal producer, and surprise budgetary restrictions.

 

Top Gun! The Musical is the most successful show in the history of the Toronto Fringe, received Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding New Musical and Outstanding Performance, received a Canadian Comedy Award nomination for the Pretty Funny Comedic Play category, and has been well received in cities across North America.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents
ARIGATO, TOKYO
March 16 - April 14, 2013

by Daniel MacIvor
directed by Brendan Healy
starring Michael Dufays, Cara Gee, Tyson James and David Storch

One of our country's most distinct and celebrated writers pens a darkly poetic love letter to love itself. From the underground nightclubs of Tokyo to the hallowed stages of Noh Theatre, a visiting Canadian author is pulled into a world of obsession, sex, and longing. The award-winning creative team behind Blasted and The Maids brings to life this thoughtful meditation on the many meanings of love and our place in it.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents
THE 34TH RHUBARB FESTIVAL
RAW. RADICAL. PERFORMANCE.
February 20 - March 3, 2013

Festival Director Laura Nanni

For two weeks, hundreds of local and international artists transform Buddies into a hotbed of creativity and experimentation, sharing new ideas in contemporary theatre, performance art, dance, and music with adventure-loving audiences.

An award-winning hit on Broadway.  Marjorie Taub is engulfed in a mid-life crisis.  Her children are grown, her beloved therapist died recently and her aged mother grates on her nerves.  She is barely able to rouse herself from her sofa.  Her spirits suddenly soar when a fascinating and incredibly worldly friend from her childhood appears on her doorstep.  But is Lee, the saviour who infuses Marjorie with life, too good to be true?  A sophisticated comedy that promises wall-to-wall laughs.

Company, centres on Robert, a single man unable to commit to a steady relationship, the married couples who are his best friends, and his three on-again, off-again girlfriends. Set in the early 1970s, upper-middle class Manhattan and told through a series of vignettes, each character and scene is linked to the celebration of Bobby's 35th birthday.

First on Theatre 20's inaugural season roster is the Toronto premiere of Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare , by Winnipeg playwright Joseph Aragon. Theatre 20 Founding Artist and internationally renowned performer Colm Wilkinson directs this delightfully dark true story of the 1829 West Port murders in Edinburgh.

A wickedly entertaining musical spectacle and award-winning fringe festival hit, the show recounts the historical case of two 19th century Irish serial killers who go into business selling corpses to medical anatomy schools. Reminiscent of Sweeney Todd, this raucous, eerie tale of deceit, murder and mayhem is told in memorable song, macabre humour, and compelling lyrics.

Canadian playwright Joseph Aragon is considered a composer with uncommon talent, and this morbidly entertaining show has been lauded as a "tour de force: smart, dark and daring" (Winnipeg Free Press).

Theatre 20 will workshop the show in April-May and the full production will run at the Panasonic beginning Oct. 16, 2012.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents
OBAABERIMA
September 15 - October 7, 2012

created and performed by Tawiah M'carthy
directed by Evalyn Parry
live music by Kobena Aquaa-Harrison

Imprisoned in Canada for committing a violent crime, a young man from Ghana tells his cellmates a story on the eve of his release. Although there is great risk in sharing his tale, he must tell it to be truly free. Through storytelling, dance, and live music, Obaaberima chronicles a young African-Canadian's journey across continents, genders, races, and sexualities.