Factory Theatre Announces 2015-16 Season

Factory Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino has invited five outstanding directors and champions of Canadian theatre to engage Toronto audiences with new, bold interpretations of six classic Canadian plays, stripped down to their most striking elements. Text, actors, audience - these are the fundamental building blocks for each production that will showcase the directors' visions for these Canadian classics, which should and must be experienced again.

Factory is proud to present THE NAKED SEASON 2015-2016:

AGE OF AROUSAL written by Linda Griffiths, directed by Jennifer Brewin

BANANA BOYS written by Leon Aureus, adapted from the novel by Terry Woo, directed by Nina Lee Aquino

BOMBAY BLACK written by Anosh Irani, directed by Peter Hinton

SALT-WATER MOON written by David French, directed by Ravi Jain

A LINE IN THE SAND written by Guillermo Verdecchia & Marcus Youssef, directed by Nigel Shawn Williams

THE CRACKWALKER written and directed by Judith Thompson

"Factory's Naked Season will be a series of pure theatrical encounters between the audience, the actor, the text, and the empty space that we all temporarily share," explains Nina Lee Aquino, Factory Artistic Director. "This is our chance to honour our artistic history while examining what these works mean to us now, and ultimately ask, what makes a classic, classic?" Factory's NAKED SEASON of raw and gritty Canadian plays will begin to answer that question with an experience unlike anything seen in Toronto before; an experience that will both delight and unsettle audiences. Naked can be so much more than clothed.

Linda Griffith's lush genre-busting portrayal of feminine virtue versus feminism at the time of Victorian Suffrage continues to speak to the struggle of equality for women in the 21st century. First produced and published in 2007, and winner of the Betty Mitchell Award (Calgary Theatre awards) for Outstanding New Play, Jennifer Brewin (Artistic Director Theatre Columbus/Common Boots) tackles the late great feminist playwright's sexy, liberating and intelligent AGE OF AROUSAL. Nina Lee Aquino revisits the seminal Asian-Canadian work BANANA BOYS, by Leon Aureus and adapted from the novel by Terry Woo, in a powerful new production that examines the deep challenges of being torn between culture, identity and feeling out of place in the world. In this wickedly funny play, five young men drawn together by the death of their friend explore the nature of growing up male and Asian in Canada.

Erotic and mysterious, Anoshi Irani's multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning and Governor General's Award-nominated BOMBAY BLACK, set in present-day India, is a powerful story of vengeance, betrayal, and seduction. Peter Hinton helms this contemporary love story between a blind man and an exotic dancer, in an apartment by the sea. One of Canada's most prolific playwrights, David French's SALT-WATER MOON was the third of five plays about the Mercer family of Newfoundland. Director Ravi Jain re-imagines this beloved Canadian classic about love, loss and reconciliation through an intercultural lens.

Nigel Shawn Williams directs A LINE IN THE SAND, the Chalmers Award-winning play set against the backdrop of Operation Desert Shield and first produced in 1995. The gripping story of an unlikely friendship between a Canadian soldier and a Palestinian teenager, written by Guillermo Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef, confronts Canadian peace-keeping myths and alleged brutal acts committed in a nation's name.

Renowned Canadian playwright Judith Thompson directs the play that launched her career 35 years ago, THE CRACKWALKER. The play is a disturbing and graphic exploration of discarded classes in Canada - people who live at the margins and are doomed to suffer a life of abuse and exploitation.

The NAKED SEASON Play Passes Now Available! Passes can be purchased online at www.factorytheatre.ca, by phone at 416.504.9971, or in person at Factory's Box Office. Prices range from $99 for a 3-Play Pass to $180 for the full 6-Play Pass.

Single tickets on sale beginning September 8, 2015. The Factory Theatre also announced today that new this season, all single tickets will be priced $35.

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