Pulitzer winner, comedy farce hitting stage at Royal MTC

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This article was published 09/02/2024 (805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre has announced its 2024-2025 season slate, with the province’s largest theatre company slated to produce six shows on its John Hirsch Mainstage and four at the Tom Hendry Warehouse.

There’s a Pulitzer winner about theatrical obscenity charges, an adaptation of a literary classic about women who march to the beat of their own drums, a Broadway slice of life set in an all-American diner, a pair of murder-mystery comedies, and three productions written by Manitoban artists on the schedule.

The production numbers keep pace with the RMTC’s current season, implying confidence on the part of artistic director Kelly Thornton that the organization has found a winning formula as it continues to climb its way back to pre-pandemic figures in terms of subscriber base and single-ticket sales.

“I didn’t want to cut or disrupt,” says Thornton, now in her fourth year as artistic director, programming her third season following a pandemic-interrupted 2019-2020 year.

“Across the country, some companies have cut runs by a week, scaled back the size of their playbills. I said, ‘We need a longer runway. We need to grow our way out of this. We can’t shrink.’”

As the 2023-2024 season reaches its midway point, Thornton ran through the upcoming season with the Free Press.

John Hirsch Mainstage

The Play That Goes Wrong
Oct. 17 to Nov. 9

Just like this current season, the next RMTC calendar year will kick off with a murder-mystery farce directed by Dennis Garnhum, the former artistic director of the Grand Theatre in London, Ont., who was at the helm of the popular run of Clue.

Thornton has been interested in bringing the production — written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, who acted in the original runs in London and on Broadway — to Winnipeg since she moved here to take the job in 2019.

She calls it a “broad, farcical comedy” with an “endlessly ridiculous script” built around an amateur theatre troupe mounting a murder-mystery. A triple co-production between Edmonton’s Citadel and Theatre Calgary, the show began auditions Wednesday, with three actors to be cast from each market. When the show arrives in Winnipeg it will already have enjoyed runs in Edmonton and Calgary. What could go wrong?

 

Little Women
Nov. 21 to Dec. 14

Are you a Jo? A Meg? A Beth? An Amy? A little bit of each? If you haven’t already considered that question, this adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s unforgettable novels will help you figure it out.

The second Mainstage show of the season, Little Women will be directed by Katie German — most recently seen wearing a habit in the RMTC production of The Sound of Music — in her RMTC directing debut. (She played Marmie in a middle-school production, Thornton says).

Like The Sound of Music, Little Women is a beloved legacy title with an enormous built-in fan base, occupying arguably the RMTC’s most significant spot in its lineup: as the anchor for its holiday season.

 

Waitress
Jan. 9 to Feb. 1, 2025

First a movie, then a Tony-winning Broadway smash featuring the music and lyrics of Grammy winner Sara Bareilles, Waitress is set in and around Joe’s Pie Diner, where a server named Jenna puts everything she has into her pie-making career.

Thornton always considers a season lineup to be like developing a menu, and with Waitress — set to be directed by Ann Hodges (Yaga) — she’s decided to put dessert right in the middle.

 

Indecent
Feb. 13 to March 8

From Pulitzer winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), Indecent is an epic story of theatre and risk, obscenity and forbidden love, says Thornton, who will direct.

Telling the story of the scandalous English-language debut of Polish-Jewish playwright Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance on Broadway, Indecent is a different production about a play gone wrong: when two actors of the same sex kiss for the first time on an American stage, the authorities pour in.

“I love everything about it,” says Thornton, who directed this season’s run of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

 

Casey and Diana
March 20 to April 12, 2025

Set in 1991 at the height and in the heart of the AIDS crisis, this Canadian production follows the residents of Toronto’s Casey House as they await a historic visit from Princess Diana.

Written by Dora and Tom Hendry award-winning theatre artist Nick Green, the show wowed Thornton when it made its debut at the 2023 Stratford Festival. “I was blown away,” she says. “It’s one of the most extraordinary plays I’ve ever seen.”

The production also convinced Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre to select the play as the season opener for its 2024 season, and with original director Andrew Kushnir attached to direct the RMTC run, this co-production with Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius will hopefully live up to the expected hype.

 

ELEVATE: Manaaji ‘ idiwin
April 24 to May 17, 2025

Produced in-house at RMTC through its Pimootayowin Creators Circle, here’s the pitch for this absurd comedy from busy writer David McLeod of Pine Creek First Nation.

“A white guy and an Indigenous guy get into an elevator and they have to find their way out,” says Thornton. In McLeod’s hands, expect surprises and a not-so-straight story arc.

The last show to make its way to the Mainstage through Pimootayowin was Rosanna Deerchild’s The Secret to Good Tea — now gaining interest for future runs across Canada.

 

Tom Hendry Warehouse

The Recipe
Nov. 7-23

Adapted from his Gutenthal series titles such as The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, Murder in Gutenthal and The Second Coming of Yeeat Schpanst, humorist Armin Wiebe’s The Recipe mines the peculiarities and intricacies of Prairie Mennonite experience for comedy and empathy in a mix described by Thornton as “a Prairie Gothic coming-of-age.”

A co-production with Theatre Projects Manitoba, who partnered with RMTC for the first time this season on playwright David Yee and director Suzie Martin’s among men, this show will be directed by former TPM artistic director Ardith Boxall.

 

Mix Tapes from My Mom
Jan. 30 to Feb. 15, 2025

Recently seen stealing scenes as Don Kirshner in Beautiful, Cory Wojcik’s relationship with RMTC continues to flourish. This week, he takes Mix Tapes From My Mom — a show he originated at the 2019 Winnipeg Fringe Festival — on the road as part of the company’s regional tour.

Before that run begins, Wojcik already has plans for next winter. Backed by a live band, Wojcik will tell the story of the craziest, most emotional day of his life, shuttling back and forth between two hospitals for very different reasons.

“I saw that fringe production and I always knew it would be a great show to take across the province,” says Thornton. “I really believed it needed to touch down and do a Winnipeg run, and I know he’s going to burn up the stage at the Warehouse.”

Keep that in mind, fringers. You never know who’s in the audience.

 

King James
March 6-22, 2025

Ray Strachan is no stranger to local audiences, playing key roles on every stage in Winnipeg for years in productions such as Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s The Whipping Boy, Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Feast and Rainbow Stage’s The Wizard of Oz. Next, he stars as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., alongside Cherissa Richards in the RMTC’s Mainstage production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop (Feb. 14 to March 9).

But next year, Strachan will slide into the director’s seat for this story of basketball, season tickets, friendship and Cleveland Cavaliers fandom from Pulitzer winner Rajiv Joseph (Benghal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo).

Timed to coincide with what might be NBA all-time scoring leader LeBron James’ final season, this Warehouse production could make for a hardwood success story.

 

Murder for Two
April 3-19, 2025

A two-hander with the actors playing 12 parts, and the piano, this murder-mystery-musical will give the 2024-2025 season a frenzied coda to match the opening notes struck by The Play That Goes Wrong.

Chase Winnicky, another RMTC regular who has appeared in Into the Woods and Beautiful, as well as the MTYP production of Narnia, is attached to direct, making his RMTC directing debut.

Before the run at the Warehouse, the show will hit the road on a regional tour of smaller towns and cities across Manitoba from Feb. 20 to March 19, 2025.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com