2018-19 Season: Myths and Mortals In this year's DalTheatre season, we explore the many ways in which ancient stories can illuminate our own lives and experiences. Together these plays ask us whether the mythic tales of the past can help us to describe ourselves today.
All evening shows at 7:30 pm. Matinees Saturday at 2:00 pm. Tickets available by September 4 from the Dalhousie Arts Centre Box Office, 902.494.3820.
THE SECRET IN THE WINGS
By Mary Zimmerman, Directed by Samantha Wilson
October 9-13, David Mack. Murray Studio
In this contemporary play about the telling of old stories, the tales are Grimm, gory, and gruesome. A child is left at home with a frightening babysitter. The parents do not sense the danger. Through the weaving together of lesser-known fairy tales, Mary Zimmerman spins cautionary stories, taking the child and the audience on a theatrical journey into the dangerous territory of childhood, where fantasy and nightmares are often tangled together in dreams.
DANTE'S PURGATORIO
Translated and adapted by Patrick Baliani, Directed by Margot Dionne
November 27 - December 1, Sir James Dunn Theatre
Dante's epic Divine Comedy is the journey of a human soul in allegorical form. The middle section, Purgatorio, is an ascent up Mount Purgatory, rather than a descent into the hell of the Inferno. Its atmosphere is sweet and hopeful, as is the suffering of those whose souls strive against their worst selves towards liberty and union with the divine. Patrick Baliani's new adaptation lends his own imaginings to Dante's poem, infusing love and exuberant humour into every twist and turn.
DON JUAN COMES BACK FROM THE WAR
By Ödön von Horváth, Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Jure Gantar
February 5-9, David Mack. Murray Studio
What happens when mythic figures of the past are plunged into a modern world? The legend of Don Juan, the incurable yet charming womanizer, has been told and retold, but rarely in as radical a manner as in Ödön von Horváth's 1936 play. Positioned in the economic and moral crisis of Europe after the Great War, Don Juan is a broken man, a traumatized soldier in search of true love rather than passing pleasure. Though his world is populated exclusively by women, his goal remains elusive.
AN EVENING OF MOLIÈRE ONE-ACTS
Translated by Justin Blum, Directed by Gabrielle Houle
March 26-30, Sir James Dunn Theatre
For centuries, the characters of the Italian commedia dell'arte explored the failings and the ideals of humanity in comic form. Molière's witty one-act plays arrange those archetypes into configurations that lampoon the attitudes of his time. In these new English translations of The Precious Maidens Ridiculed (1659) and The Forced Marriage (1664), personal ambitions, societal ideals, wicked deception, and blissful ignorance are the lot of the humorous and touching characters. In this energetic production, you will share their hopes and desires which still have much in common with our own.
