Award-winning director ahdri zhina mandiela returns with her acclaimed interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“Dream worth celebrating…[ahdri zhina mandiela] directs with lightness and a sure sense of comedy. Shakespeare’s tangled tale of four lovers who wander into an enchanted wood near Athens becomes a spicy, hip story of love delayed, misdirected and restored.”
-Robert Crew, The Toronto Star
“Director ahdri zhina mandiela delivers a refreshingly diverse cast in a production that brings a bit of urban attitude to Shakespeare’s enchanted forest.”
-Jon Kaplan, Now Magazine
“mandiela’s greatest success is allowing the cast to take risks with the text, urban or otherwise – the gamble pays off, from Titania’s fairies as a would-be girl group to the hysterically funny hip-hop performance of Pyramus and Thisby.”
-Meghan Harrison, Eye Weekly
“The audience laughed riotously over the slapstick antics, even bursting out in enthusiastic applause at the end of the scenes. This production will certainly have wide appeal”
-Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail
“CanStage’s Dream is quite kid-friendly and a lot of fun to look at”
-Meghan Harrison, Eye Weekly
Toronto, ON (May 6, 2007) -The Canadian Stage Company welcomes back two-time Dora Award-winning director ahdri zhina mandiela and her popular interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her colourful, hip-hop twist on the Bard’s tangled tale of mischievous fairies and mismatched lovers who wander through an enchanted forest-meets-industrial-wasteland is part of the 26th annual CanStage TD Dream in High Park.
CanStage TD Dream in High Park is the oldest annual outdoor theatre event in Canada. An estimated 1.3 million people have enjoyed the tradition since its inception in 1983.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the best-loved Shakespearean comedies of all time and the very first play ever produced at CanStage TD Dream in High Park. A hip, urban interpretation featuring a multi-racial cast and colourful hip-hop influenced costumes and rhythms was produced last summer in tribute to the 25th anniversary of the CanStage TD Dream in High Park. The production makes a comeback this summer as it proved to be popular with reviewers and theatre-goers, so much so, that audiences were beyond capacity and patrons had to be turned away during the final weeks of performance.
Joining the cast this season are Xuan Fraser as Oberon/Theseus (Canadian Stage’s Much Ado About Nothing), Cara Ricketts as Titania/Hippolyta (Judas Iscariot), Monica Dottor as Hermia (Canadian Stage’s The Overcoat), Rebecca Northan as Egeus/Starveling (The Second City, This Hour has 22 Minutes), and Ijeoma Emesowum and Laura Burns as fairies. Returning cast includes Maev Beaty (Canadian Stage’s Palace of the End) as Helena, Matthew Brown (CTV’s Instant Star) as Snout, Antonio
M. Cayonne as Lysander, Emberly Doherty as Snug, Steven Gallagher (Showtime’s Queer as Folk) as Quince, Richard Harte as Demetrius, Colin Heath (Canadian Stage’s The Overcoat) as Robin Goodfellow/Puck, Matthew Kabwe as Bottom, Andrew Kushnir (CBC’s This is Wonderland) as Flute and Jajube Mandiela (CTV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation) as Fairy.
The creative team includes set & costume designer Julia Tribe, lighting designer Steve Lucas, sound designer Nicholas Murray, stage manager Marinda De Beer and assistant stage manager Andrea Schurman.
| DATE: | August 2008 |
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| TIME: | 8 p.m. Gate opens at 6 p.m. |
| LOCATION: | High Park at Bloor St. W. and High Park Ave. Near High Park subway station. Enter from Bloor St. and follow the road to Grenadier Café. Continue east along the path opposite the parking lot and follow the signs.
The group will meet at the ticket booth of High Park subway station at 6PM and walk to the stage together. The walk takes about 20 minutes! |
| TICKETS: | PWYC. Suggested minimum donation $10 – $30. Children 14 and under free thanks to TD! |
| INFO: | |
RAIN POLICY: Cancellations based on weather conditions at 8 p.m. If the show is cancelled, tickets are valid for free admittance on another, drier night. Refunds not offered as tickets are issued as anonymous cash donations.
DOGS AND SMOKING ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THE DREAM SITE
