The year in theatre: first and showdowns

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Looking back at 2009 in Canadian theatre, the R word looms large. Yes, that one. Shh … Don't say it aloud and jinx the recovery.

The freaky economy trickled down and, well, trickled all over theatre companies big and small. Ontario's Stratford Shakespeare Festival caught its first deficit in 15 years and had to put 30 performances on hold (most of which were later reinstated) while smaller independent companies without access to federal stimulus funds simply cancelled shows, period.

In British Columbia, meanwhile, the provincial government took its deficits out on artists, slashing funding and leading to talk of a West Coast "arts-pocalypse."

Given all that, then, I'm surprised to find myself so upbeat about Canadian theatre as the year comes to a close. There are years where it's hard to muster genuine excitement for a single new Canadian script. This year, I have many favourites (see sidebar). Let's put the financials - and the flops - behind us, and look at the good theatrical news of 2009.

BRITISH COLUMBIA'S BOOM

Ironically, given provincial cuts there, this was the year B.C. theatre artists crossed the Rockies and convinced the rest of Canada that their province is the rockingest. Such vibrant independent companies as Theatre Replacement, Radix and the Electric Company were showcased at the National Arts Centre's B.C. Scene festival, and at Montreal's Festival TransAmériques, while Vancouver Playhouse artistic director Max Reimer's repatriated production of The Drowsy Chaperone toured to Edmonton's Citadel Theatre and the NAC.

My top theatre experience of the year was Theatre Replacement's visit to Central Canada with Bioboxes . The show invited one audience member at a time to enter intimate theatres, each the size of a photo booth, where solo performers presented ingenious short documentary plays about the immigrant experience. Outside the box, brilliantly designed by Kofu Yamamoto, and ultimately unforgettable.

TORONTO TRIUMPHS

Soulpepper had an excellent season with Joe Orton's Loot ; Miklos Laszlo's Parfumerie ; David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross ; and a moving revival of John Gray's 1978 musical, Billy Bishop Goes to War , with Eric Peterson back in the pilot's seat.

Most of the city's theatres are looking healthy, but Factory Theatre stands out, with a 40th-anniversary season that opened with two hot new plays: Brad Fraser's twisted family comedy, True Love Lies , already a hit in Manchester; and the English-language premiere of Michel Marc Bouchard's The Madonna Painter .

Mirvish Productions brought Steppenwolf's award-covered production of August: Osage County from Chicago, and plucked My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding from the Toronto Fringe and made it into a held-over hit.

Meanwhile, Canadian Stage Company finally got a new "artistic and general director": little-known expat Matthew Jocelyn, who returned from France and promptly embarked on a cross-country listening tour. We wait with bated breath for him to now, you know, speak a bit.

REGIME CHANGES AND AWARD-WINNERS

George Pothitos moved from the Sudbury Theatre Centre to Halifax's Neptune Theatre. Award-winning director Brendan Healy took over Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times, to indie cheers. Local gal Vanessa Porteous, well-known for her work with the quirky Old Trout Puppet Workshop, was announced as the new leader of Calgary's venerable Alberta Theatre Projects.

Another Calgarian who knows a thing or 20 about puppets, Ronnie Burkett, snatched the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize for designers, and shared $25,000 with his protégé (and Feist tour buddy) Clea Minaker.

QUEBEC SUPERSTAR SHOWDOWN

Who's bigger now: Robert Lepage or Wajdi Mouawad? Lepage's year was packed with power. The Blue Dragon , a visually impressive examination of China's rise and the West's decline, kicked it off. At Toronto's Luminato festival, Lipsynch , his reworked 91/2-hour soap opera about the human voice, wowed. As a finish, he made a long-awaited return to the Canadian Opera Company, filling the orchestra pit with water for his puppet-filled production of Stravinsky's The Nightingale & Other Short Fables .

Meanwhile, playwright-director-performer Mouawad took over France's Festival d'Avignon as associate artist and was awarded the Grand Prix du Théâtre by the Académie française. Back in Ottawa, he increased attendance at the NAC's French Theatre, where he is artistic director, by 28 per cent and included foreign-language performances in the mix, notably an exciting visit by German director Thomas Ostermeier's Hedda Gabler .

ABORIGINAL ORIGINALS

Two first plays by first-nations playwrights got showered with awards this year. Agokwe , a tale of "gay love on the rez," swept up six of Toronto's Dora Awards, including two for writer-performer Waawaate Fobister, while Kevin Loring's sensitive examination of the aftermath of the residential-school system, Where the Blood Mixes , picked up a Vancouver Jessie for best new script, and then snagged the Governor-General's Literary Award for Drama. At the NAC, meanwhile, George Ryga's seminal Canadian play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe , returned for a 40th-anniversary production - the first time the play has been directed by a first-nations member, Yvette Nolan.

THE FESTIVALS

At Stratford, artistic director Des McAnuff's first solo season saw attendance down, but buzz up. Gary Griffin's powerful production of West Side Story and McAnuff's fun revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum were ultimately box-office hits, while Martha Henry's sensitive Three Sisters and a revival of George F. Walker's Zastrozzi by Broadway-bound director Jennifer Tarver were triumphs.

Brian Bedford's drag performance as Lady Bracknell in his own production of The Importance of Being Earnest had many fans; The Wall Street Journal just named it one of the best of the year. Since this is a good-news article, we won't dwell on the disappointing Shakespeare, except to once again laud the histrionic hat trick by Geraint Wyn Davies as King Duncan, Julius Caesar and a superbly sweet Bottom - the latter being the best piece of acting I saw all year.

Over at Jackie Maxwell's Shaw Festival, the play selection was uninspired - the mounting of all 10 of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 plays was unprecedented, and now we know why. Reasons for celebration: Deborah Hay's perfect comic turn in Born Yesterday , which brought agents up from New York, and the opening of a small new Studio Theatre with John Osborne's The Entertainer .

Finally, we should pause to remember three festival giants lost this year: Shaw associate director Neil Munro; Stratford founding member Douglas Campbell; and, last not but not least, Shaw's and Stratford's Goldie Semple, who was still making us laugh uproariously at the Shaw into the fall.