Diana Donnelly

The contemporary Canadian comedy Sexy Laundry, by acclaimed playwright Michele Rimi, is playing at the Granville Island Stage now. Learn more about the show here!

Bernard Shaw's brilliant dark comedy The Doctor's Dilemma, the first of the final trio of main season shows, begins previews July 16 at the Festival Theatre. On July 27, Cicely Hamilton's funny and prophetic Just to Get Married begins previews at the Royal George Theatre, while August Wilson's haunting Gem of the Ocean begins previews on August 5 at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre. 

Artistic Director Tim Carroll has announced casting and creative teams for the Shaw Festival’s 60th anniversary season.

The Shaw Festival announced the 60th anniversary season. Get the full list of shows and dates here. “We have a lot to celebrate as we look forward to our diamond anniversary season. In what might be our most ambitious programme ever, we intend to show off the range of experiences available at The Shaw,” revealed Artistic Director Tim Carroll.

The Grand Theatre has announced its 2020/2021 Season. Running from September 2020 to May 2021, it is a season that includes a grand re-opening of refreshed and updated lobby spaces, performances in ten venues that span both our city and the country, partnerships with Neptune Theatre and Shaw Festival, and the return of a record-breaking, made-in-London production. It will be a season of what Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum describes as a?oea highly-eclectic journey to unexpected and unexplored territory. The Grand will be in ten different venues across the country. You will see us in places you would never expecta?"from a circus tent, to a coffee shop, from intimate studio theatres, to the largest national stagesa?"it is a season of bold and exciting theatre that we are proud to present.a??

Lucius is an exuberant, charismatic serial killer who claims to have found God while incarcerated. His exact religious philosophy is unclear - he preaches justice but cannot account for his own atrocities.  Angel was arrested for shooting the leader of a dangerous religious cult. He doesn't think he's done anything wrong, but he lacks Lucius'  energy and confidence; whereas Lucius can convince himself - and others - that God loves all sinners, Angel is plagued by doubts, first in the competence of his attorney, and, eventually, in himself.

Nightwood Theatre opens their landmark 40th Season with the Groundswell Festival of New Works, from September 23-28, 2019, at the Ernest Balmer Studio in The Distillery District.

How does an author title a play? Well, there should be something descriptive, enticing or informative to engage the audience from the outset.The Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake has gone out of a limb and programmed a virtually unknown play that is rarely, if ever produced. Oh, and the title is simply SEX. And it's author is no other than the infamous Mae West! But did West really write plays? She most certainly did and did so for her own star turns. Written in 1926, unable to advertise using the title, and later raided after running for a year, SEX was almost forgotten. Happily, this highly polished and entertaining production now running through October turns out to be the sleeper of the season.

Just shy of a century after her sold out Broadway run was branded an 'obscene, indecent, immoral and impure drama' by a New York grand jury, Mae West's Sex gets a rousing production at the Shaw Festival. Directed by Peter Hinton-Davis, this powerful melodrama begins in Montreal's red light district of the 1920s, then shifts locations to Trinidad and New York City. Overflowing with trademark Mae West one-liners, and with its frank sexuality heightened by Hinton-Davis's gender-bent casting, Sex begins previews at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre on June 21st.

Diana Donnelly directs this season's Lunchtime One-Act, The Russian Play - a tale that pays homage to the bleak realism and humour of the great Russian playwrights. Written by award-winning Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, this satirical Siberian love story begins previews Saturday at The Shaw's Royal George Theatre.

Centaur Theatre presents the Quebec premiere of Kate Hennig's historical drama, THE LAST WIFE, from February 12 to March 3, 2019. This imagined contemporized examination of Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr, chronicles Kate as she negotiates the halls of power through the bedroom and the dinner table. The Last Wife was a hit when it opened at the Stratford Festival in 2015, and subsequently led Hennig to write The Virgin Trial and Mother's Daughter, thereby creating the Queenmaker Trilogy. This production is directed by Centaur Theatre's Artistic and Executive Director, Eda Holmes, with native Montrealer, Diana Donnelly, reuniting with her former Shaw Festival collaborator to play Katherine.

Artistic Director Tim Carroll and the Shaw Festival proudly announce the 2019 Festival season playbill.

Centaur Theatre proudly announces an exciting season of hit plays, ancillary initiatives, and special celebratory events to mark its golden anniversary. From its 1968 birth in the heart of the city, Centaur has grown to become a beacon for outstanding professional English-language theatre that speaks to the universal spirit while reflecting the Canadian, and especially the Montreal perspective. This is the first season programmed by Centaur's Artistic and Executive Director, Eda Holmes, and the stellar line-up reaffirms Centaur's standing as THE urban English-language theatre in Quebec.

I'll start by saying that LEAR was one of the most powerful theatrical experiences I've ever had. Led by a cast of Shakespeare professionals, with vast Stratford Festival experience, Groundling Theatre's production is a polished, compelling piece of theatre. Dropping 'King' from the title, LEAR explores the play with a female in power - entrapping us with the familiarity of a female monarch. Every aspect of Graham Abbey's production, designed by Peter Hartwell, serves a contemporary emphasis, seducing a modern audience to deeply feel and deeply connect with the humanity that can often feel very distant in Shakespearean drama.

Graham Abbey, Groundling Theatre Company's founder and artistic director, today announced the theatre company's next production is William Shakespeare's LEAR, starring Seana McKenna in the title role.

Pushing the limits of the Shaw Festival's mission, an edgy slave story from a different era is being presented in The Royal George Theatre. By the looks of it, Shaw's usual audiences are in for an eye opener. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (aka BJJ) has taken us on his own personal journey of frustrated playwright who takes the advice of his psychologist and writes a play as an homage to an obscure playwright Dion Boucicault. Boucicault's 1859 played entitled 'The Octoroon' has been transformed by BJJ into 'An Octoroon.' In doing so, BJJ creates a prologue of his own invention describing his personal journey in producing the original work, where no white actors would take on a the roles of evil white plantation and slave owners. 'The Octoroon' tells the story of a plantation that is on the brink of being sold, the original owner's sexual relations with a slave that produces an octoroon ( one who possesses 1/8 Negro blood), the threat of new found love, misogyny and the overall treatment of slaves.

The Shaw's production of An Octoroon is perhaps the funniest, and certainly the most subversive, theatre experience this season. Riffing off of Dion Boucicault's melodrama The Octoroon, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Obie Award-winning play is his sardonic, radical response to present and past attitudes of race. Directed by Peter Hinton, An Octoroon makes its Canadian premiere at the Royal George Theatre, beginning previews July 16.

The Shaw's production of An Octoroon is perhaps the funniest, and certainly the most subversive, theatre experience this season. Riffing off of Dion Boucicault's melodrama The Octoroon, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Obie Award-winning play is his sardonic, radical response to present and past attitudes of race. Directed by Peter Hinton, An Octoroon makes its Canadian premiere at the Royal George Theatre, beginning previews July 16.

Krista Jackson, former Shaw Festival intern director and Zone 41 Theatre's artistic director, returns to direct Brian Friel's award-winning masterpiece Dancing at Lughnasa. Beginning previews on May 14 at the Royal George Theatre, this production features a quintet of fiercely talented Shaw Festival ensemble members - Fiona Byrne, Diana Donnelly, Claire Jullien, Sarena Parmar (in her Festival debut) and Tara Rosling - as the formidable Mundy sisters.

The Shaw Festival proudly announces casting for Artistic Director Tim Carroll's first season. The Shaw's 2017 ensemble is a mix of new faces and Festival favourites - each actor ready to entertain and excite audiences in this season's 11 productions.