j. Kelly NestruckThe Globe and Mail
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will have its Canadian premiere at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton and the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg next season.
Winnipeg-based director Heidi Malazdrewich will direct the winner of the 2015 Tony Award for best play – which was adapted for the stage from Mark Haddon's best-selling novel by the acclaimed British playwright Simon Stephens. It will play Edmonton in September, 2016, before moving to Winnipeg.
On Monday, the Citadel Theatre announced Curious Incident as the centrepiece of its 2016-17 season, the last to be programmed by outgoing artistic director Bob Baker – who revealed in January that he will be stepping down after 17 seasons in charge of Alberta's largest theatre company.
Baker's final main stage season is mostly comprised of Canadian productions of Broadway musicals or plays. After Curious Incident, Million Dollar Quartet, a musical "inspired by the true story of an impromptu jam session with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins," will be directed by Ted Dykstra in October.
In January, 2017, Hope and Hell Theatre Company's production of Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer prize-winning drama, will visit Edmonton. Robert Ross Parker is the director on the production – which will be first presented by David Mirvish in Toronto in April of this year.
The Gershwin jukebox musical Crazy for You will be staged at the Citadel in March by a yet-unnamed director, while Peter and the Starcatcher – a Peter Pan prequel of sorts that has recently been a hit for Vancouver's Arts Club and the Shaw Festival – will be directed by artistic associate James MacDonald (considered to be a major contender to replace Baker as artistic director) in April.
Rounding out the main stage season is a new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility by Tom Wood – who has adapted six other classics for the Citadel during Baker's tenure. Baker, Wood's husband, will direct the Jane Austen adaptation, which will feature participants of the Citadel/Banff Centre Professional Theatre Program.
Original Canadian works will come to the Citadel in 2016-17 in the form of two "add-on shows" to the season. Bittergirl: The Musical – a recent hit at the Charlottetown Festival written by Annabel Fitzsimmons, Alison Lawrence and Mary Francis Moore – will play in the Club throughout October. Fortune Falls, a new work from the acclaimed Catalyst Theatre, will be presented in January.
Tom Wood's adaptation of A Christmas Carol will also return for a 17th season at the Citadel over the holidays. For more information, visit citadeltheatre.com.
Follow me on Twitter: @nestruck
J. Kelly Nestruck