Coal Mine Theatre Kicks off Season Six with KNIVES IN HENS

COAL MINE THEATRE kicks off its powerhouse Season Six with a tremendous modern Scottish classic. A slight departure from its regular programming, the world-renowned KNIVES IN HENS by David Harrower takes the audience on a sensual journey into the world of a young woman grappling to find her freedom and power through language. Directed by Dora-Nominated Leora Morris, the show features a phenomenal cast of COAL MINE THEATRE's Co-Chief Engineer Diana Bentley and, both making their Coal Mine debuts, multi-award-winning Canadian actors Jim Mezon and Jonathon Young. Presented at COAL MINE THEATRE, September 22 - October 13, 2019 (Opening night September 25).

KNIVES IN HENS is a complex fable of awakening consciousness, set in a rural community in a pre-industrial era. We meet a character simply known as Young Woman, bound to a village ploughman called Pony William. Like everyone else in this God-fearing village she has learned to both hate and fear the local miller. But upon meeting, she finds him a source of empowerment and emotional release--and thus is enabled to escape her husband and her long-repressed identity and truth.

KNIVES IN HENS premiered at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in June 1995 and is widely acknowledged as a modern Scottish classic. It has played in over 30 countries and won the Theater Heute Best Foreign Play, Critics Award, in 1998.

David Harrower (Playwright) is one of Scotland's most well-known, modern playwrights. Select writing credits include Kill the Old, Torture their Young (1998), Presence (2001), Dark Earth (2003), and Blackbird (2005). KNIVES IN HENS (1995) was Harrower's first play and an instant classic, becoming one of the most performed Scottish plays of all time. Harrower is the recipient of several awards including the Pearson Award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award.

DIANA BENTLEY (Young Woman) is an Actor, Producer, Writer and the Co-Chief Engineer of COAL MINE THEATRE. She has previously been seen on the Coal Mine stage in Bull, Instructions..., and Category E. She is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre, and has appeared in numerous TV shows and movies, including recurring roles in Frontier on Netflix and Channel Zero on Showcase and the upcoming Hudson & Rex. Her film roles include Were Still Together (2017), An American Dream (2016), and The Other Half (2016).

Jim Mezon (Pony William) is an Actor and Director who has worked on stages across Canada, best known for his 33 years at the Shaw Festival. In addition to his extensive resume built there, he has also worked at the Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Theatre Calgary, and Tarragon Theatre. Acting credits include The Full Light of Day (Electric Company Theatre), The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (Shaw Festival), Hedda Gabler (Shaw Festival), Red (Canadian Stage), and Sherlock Holmes(Shaw Festival).

JONATHON YOUNG (Gilbert Horn) is a Director, Playwright, Actor, and Co-Founder of Electric Company Theatre. With the Electric Company he was a collaborator on some of the most vital Canadian work in recent memory, such as Betroffenheit, No Exit, and Studies in Motion. He has also been seen in This(Canadian Stage), All But Gone. A Beckett Rhapsody (Necessary Angel Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (Vancouver Playhouse), and The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary). Select TV credits include Sanctuary (SYFY), Eureka (SYFY), and Stargate Atlantis (MGM).

LEORA MORRIS (Director) is a Canadian director, dramaturg, and creator living and working primarily in the USA. Recent credits include: The Philosopher's Wife by Susanna Fournier for which she received a Dora nomination for Best Director, Orphans (Coal Mine Theatre), He Left Quietly(2014 Summerworks Best Production), Ride the Cyclone, Crossing Delancey, Winnie-the-Pooh, Hey Willy See the Pyramids, Dancing Granny (Alliance Theatre), Labour of Love (North American Premiere - Olney Theatre Center), as well as workshops and readings at The Public Theater, Tisch School of the Arts, Florida Studio Theatre, and O'Neill Theatre Centre. Leora received her MFA in Directing at Yale School of Drama, where she served as co-artistic director for Yale Cabaret's 48th season and was co-awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize in Directing. Leora was the 2016-2017 Yale Directing Fellow at the Tony-Award winning Alliance Theatre where she is now a Resident Artist. In 2012, Leora was honored with Toronto's Ken MacDougall Award for Emerging Directors.

The critically acclaimed and award-winning Coal Mine Theatre, Toronto's Off-Off Broadview Theatre, was founded by Chief Engineers Diana Bentley and Ted Dykstra. Entering its sixth season, Coal Mine is dedicated to presenting superbly written, richly thoughtful, and fearlessly challenging plays that are produced, directed, and acted at the highest possible level. With only 80 seats a night, COAL MINE THEATRE is inspired by the intimacy and excitement of the Off-Off-Broadway experience.

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